Chapter Thirteen #2
“Daggertooth was pissed ya robbed the train. When I told him you wanted to rob the vault, he said to make sure this time you didn’t slither out from under the boot you earned.
” Hog exposed all his teeth. Two canines, like tusks, were in his underbite.
Callum always wondered if Hog ever got a chance to use his fancy new teeth.
“Well, don’t worry, I’ll make sure Daggertooth gets his.” Callum scowled. Really? This is what caused you to betray me? Daggertooth? He’s not got half the coin I do.
It was disappointing, really. To be betrayed for that spineless scumsucker?
If he’d worked for Mary, Callum would understand.
She didn’t bribe, she just started cutting off digits till the person bled out or did what she wanted.
Yet, he sold his boss out to the one outlaw that Callum could not stand.
Not one bit.
With a grumble, he begrudgingly bit into Hog’s shoulder.
The venom pumping through his body warmed and sprayed out across the wound from the back of his throat.
Hog thrashed, gagging on his own spit. Callum filled the open wound and coated the fool’s flesh in as much of his venom as he could.
Hog seized, eyes rolling back in his head.
The flesh began to peel away from the bone, his toxin causing it to deteriorate quickly.
Callum retracted his teeth and slid back an inch.
The fool dropped into the water, blood mixing with the foam forming in his open mouth.
Callum removed his blades from Hog’s flesh with a squelch. “Grahm, get the hooks.”
“I think he’s dead-dead, boss,” Grahm blurted out.
“I don’t need ya to kill him harder, ya jackass.
Yer gonna drag his corpse out near the wastes.
Unless ya wanna touch him with yer bare hands?
” Callum snarled, but there wasn’t as much punch in it like there normally would be…
he was disappointed. Genuinely disappointed.
Out of everyone he wanted to tussle with in his grand plan for his fake death, Daggertooth Dan wasn’t one of them.
He wanted to get Carter and Mary riled up enough that they’d jump at the chance, Dan would inevitably join because the big baby couldn’t stand to be left out of anything.
But due to Hog and Jed’s betrayal, it would be silly not to use this as bait.
Frame Dan for the murder of two of his guys, justify his attack on Dan’s goods, it would be so easy.
Too easy. Dan’s a fuckwit, damnit, he’s gonna be no fun trickin’ into this!
It was petulant and almost childish to be irate that Dan was going to be the outlaw that got to claim Callum’s leftovers.
Beggars can’t be choosers, I guess. Why did he care who gobbled up the pieces of his kingdom once he was gone? He didn’t even want it!
Dan doesn’t deserve it.
He roared with his own internal fury, “Hurry up!”
“On it!” Grahm skedaddled over himself, his two large hooks and ropes jostling over his shoulder. His muscle hooked Hog’s body, finally still as the grave, and began to drag it through the mud toward the wastes. Thankfully, Grahm didn’t need to be told twice.
“You two, each take a piece of Jed and toss him out near the wastes too. Leave them somewhere Dan’s gonna see.”
“Aye-aye, boss,” Clemmence grimaced as he pressed a button on the side of Callum’s contraption. Jed’s head plopped into the mud. Talisen grabbed a leg and followed the others out toward the edge of the swamp.
“Sending a message, boss?” Rat asked as he stood to Callum’s side.
“Somethin’ like that,” he grunted. A sharp crack filled the air and the two glanced up toward the sky.
Further out, the canopy wasn’t so dense.
They could see slate gray clouds that darkened over their head.
The abyss split as a purple bolt of lightning struck a nearby tree.
Smoke lifted off the branches but the swamp was too damp, the fire was snuffed out before it even took its first breath.
He scowled, pulling away from the onslaught of rain that was coming their way. “Make sure those idiots make it home.”
“You got it, boss…you off to see your warlock?”
His warlock, it brought a quirk to his lips.
Callum glanced back at Rat, the fool smiling up at him.
Eager to please, the kid had ‘please love me’ scribbled all over his forehead.
He was still dirty from the journey back from the Stronghold.
The outlaw stared down at the tiny ruffian and wondered if the kid was born anywhere else but Gloomsdale if things might have been different.
If he might have found employment with someone that would appreciate his water magic rather than utilize it.
He couldn’t imagine the wide-eyed, rambunctious thing as anything other than an ankle biter.
Even when he found Rat underfoot, three years ago, the kid was always a chaotic storm.
No, Callum decided it didn’t matter—because he didn’t care. He was getting out of here, and he wasn’t allowed to think of any of crew as unfortunate. That was for people who wanted to stay. People who cared.
And he most certainly did not.
“Yeah, Neddy was supposed to be showin’ her around. Showin’ her the ropes. Guess I ought to poke my head in, make sure the old witch hasn’t decided to make my girl into stew, huh?”