46. CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
“Stop!” her voice screeches just in front of me. Whoever she is. Kai clearly knows her though, because as soon as they spoke, he bolted.
Ignoring the server trying to take our order, I stood and watched her chase after him to the door. Then, without so much as an apology, I was hot on her tail. She was worried then—weaving in and out of people and calling Kai’s name like her life depended on finding him.
She made it all the way to the end of the High Street before circling back around. I don’t know what made her turn down this alley, but it’s clear she found what she’s looking for. The only problem is I don’t see Kai.
“Josh! Stop!” she screams at the top of her lungs at the man half hidden beside a dumpster.
Josh?
Josh!
He doesn’t acknowledge the woman who obviously knows him, which sickens me further, and I’m behind him before he can even finish drawing back his fist.
Villainous eyes snap to where I’m holding his elbow and he bares his teeth, not even bothering to ease up on the hold he has on Kai.
My Kai. Not his. No one gets to put their hands on him but me.
Taller. Bigger than both of us. I use his arrogance to my advantage. And when he spits, “Who the fuck are you?” at me, I grab his wrist and wrench it back until I feel his elbow crack free from its socket in the palm of my hand.
He cries out in agony and spins to take a swing at me with his non-dominant hand, but I’m used to being underestimated. And fuck him for thinking he can ruin my pretty face. Only one man has the right to do that, and it sure as hell isn’t this cunt.
Ducking free of his fist, I pop up and slam my elbow against the left side of his jaw. Following through, I wait for him to straighten enough to reverse and swing my elbow back against the other side.
Dazed and confused, he stumbles forward—his good hand still scrunched into a fist like he has the cognizance to even know up from down.
“Are you alright?” I reach out to Kai and he jumps into my arms. He isn’t bleeding, but his eyes are red and his jacket is filthy.
“Watch out!” the woman shrieks again, and I push Kai back against the wall out of the way.
Josh throws another wayward punch and struggles to gain his footing.
“Just stop it, Josh. Please!”
“No!” I snap back at her. “Let him keep coming. I’m having far too good of a time.”
Trying to walk as tall as he can, I step to meet him and finish the trifecta by slamming his bottom jaw up against his top. His teeth collide with a loud crunch, his eyes lose focus, and my elbow is done for the night. But I stay homed in on every staggering movement my opponent makes as his right forearm hangs loosely by his side.
“Please stop!”
“Don’t think I will, sweetheart. Whoever the fuck you are.”
“Why are you doing this? We don’t even know you!”
“Because if you fuck with mine, I fuck with you. And Josh here knows all about that.”
“Kai. What’s going on?”
“Mind your business, Millie.”
“Millie?” I repeat, looking back at her terrified and confused expression. And—for Josh—this is the worst thing I could have done. “You were there! How the fuck do you not know what’s going on?”
More dumbfounded than before, she looks away from me. “Seriously, Kai. Is this all about the night at the park? You got beat up, so what? Don’t you think it’s time to move on?”
“The fuck did you say?” I roar at her, the rage inside me beyond boiling point. I’m out for blood, preferably his, but I can still rip this bitch to shreds with my tongue.
“You fuck him, don’t you?”
My head slowly turns back to Josh, who’s attempting to look down his nose at me.
“You fuck him, don’t you?” he asks again. Though it isn’t a question.
“No. I don’t.” I lower my hands and calmly move towards him. The closer I get, the more snide the words feel in my mouth. “I’m not like you.”
“What did you say?” Millie cries out.
“So you’re just a faggot lover, then?”
With a scoff, I wet my lips. “Nah. Cause that’d mean I like you.”
“I’m not a faggot!” he barks.
“You do fuck men, though.”
“Josh..? What?” Millie is beside me, panting. Rubbernecking between Kai, Josh, and myself.
“Fuck off, Millie.”
“Don’t speak to me like that, Josh!” she yells, creeping behind me towards Kai. “Now tell me what he’s talking about, or they will.”
“Fuck you, whore.” He spits at her feet.
I think I’m ready to see that blood now.
With him still focused on Millie, I kick Josh in the diaphragm. Just like Alma had done to me, but ten times harder. Doubling over, he coughs, and I hook my fist into his nose.
His legs give way and he falls to his knees—blood instantly pooling in the snow.
I stalk behind him and kick him face first onto the slushy, muddy pavement.
“Are you gonna tell her, or are you gonna leave it up to me?”
There’s a splutter, maybe even an attempt at an insult, but it just sounds like dogshit.
He tries to push himself up with his good arm, but I stomp him back down.
“You’ve got ten seconds before I start telling her how much more experience you have fucking guys than I do.”
She’s more pale than a ghost, and I almost feel sorry for the girl.
I feel Josh squirm beneath my foot. His head turns to the side and I lean down to hear him mutter, “Faggot.”
With a laugh, I stand and twist my heel. “So, Millie. Do you have thoughts about why he’s so infatuated with calling me a faggot?”
“He’s not gay. If that’s what you’re trying to say.”
“And yet.” I hold my hand out to my side in feigned contemplation. “He does fuck guys.”
“I do not!”
“Oh? Oops, sorry.” I grin like a maniac and raise my foot from between his shoulders to crack it against his ribs. “That could be my mistake. It may not be plural. But I know of one for sure.”
Millie seeks out Kai’s arm to cling to. “Make him stop, please.”
“No.” Kai doesn’t even look at her. He hasn’t looked at anyone but me since I arrived.
“What?”
“I said no.” He pushes her away.
Hysterical, with no one willing to calm her down, Millie’s arms start flying with exaggerated motion. “Will someone please just tell me what the fuck is going on?! Josh, why did you have Kai against the wall? And you—” Both her hands point directly at me. “Josh has never slept with another man.”
“You’re right again there.” I nod. “At the time, he wasn’t a man. And it wasn’t a fair fight, either.”
“Enough of this cryptic bullshit!”
I look back at Kai. His eyes are still on mine, his back flat against the back of the building. He doesn’t say ‘no’. He doesn’t even shake his head. He’s terrified. But even behind the terror, I can see what he needs me to do.
Pivoting on my back leg, I twist and drive my heel against Josh’s hand.
He cries out, but that only makes me do it again, harder.
Millie’s screaming at my side, but every new cry just propels me to stomp down harder into Josh’s hand.
She screams.
I stomp.
Again.
And again.
I feel bones crack through the soles of my shoes.
“You’re gonna break it!”
“Really?” I roll my eyes at Millie. “What could he ever have done to deserve that?”
Her jaw drops, and she looks at Kai’s hands and his broken bone tattoos. “Y-your hands were in casts for weeks.”
“The penny finally dropping for ya, Millie? But you always knew Josh had broken his hands, didn’t you?”
“I… I didn’t know for sure.”
“Oh, okay.” I shrug like an idiot—mocking her. “You wanna know what I do know for sure?”
Watching where I step, I kick Josh’s legs apart. Moving between them, I put my right foot high on the back of his thigh and lean my weight forward on it.
“Now. Listen carefully, ‘cause this one’s a real thinker.” I wave my finger at her. “You see, Josh here thought that if he and the other boys fucked Kai, then Kai wouldn’t wanna fuck you. Because…?” My hand rises beside my face and I gaze upward like I’m deep in contemplation. “I guess… Josh thought it would make Kai gay? I dunno.” I wave my hand at her. “You might have to get him to explain it to you later.”
With tears pouring down her face, Millie tries once more to seek comfort from Kai, but he slides further along the wall.
“Ain’t the truth fun?” I chuckle and start laying into Josh with everything I have. Right between his legs. I don’t care where exactly I hit, and to be honest, the more places I lay my foot into, the better.
He tries to roll into a ball, but there’s nothing that can deter me. Not when the man I love is right beside me and the main cause of his misery is mine to destroy.
Every time I connect with Josh, he grunts. I assume it’s the body’s natural response because at this point he couldn’t get up if he tried. His face is bloody, his vomit is mixing with the snow, and his dislocated arm looks ready to tear off at any second. And yet, I still don’t feel sorry for him.
I hate him more with every kick—with every attempt he makes to move—because it forces me to think of how helpless Kai had been. And he had four people to contend with.
I’m the god of retribution at this point. Powered by vengeance because this mother fucker took it upon himself to ruin Kai’s already fragile existence and then thought he could come back for more.
Not on my watch.
And that means never again.
“You’re gonna kill him,” Millie whimpers.
I stop, put my hands in my pockets, and look up at the sky. “Do you not think that’s a fair punishment?”
She falls to her knees. “I don’t know.”
Squatting at Josh’s side, I lift the sides of his jacket until I find his phone. Tossing it to the ground beside him, I stomp on that too, and shrug. “You don’t seem to know much at all, Millie.”
“That’s not fair.”
“What is fair?” I ask calmly, like a goddamn psychopath. And after what I’ve just done, maybe I am one.
“Move!” I firmly nudge Josh with the soul of my shoe. “Get over there.” I jerk my head towards Millie.
“You’re insane.”
“You could be right.” I hold my hand out to Kai, and he scampers to pick up my Burberry scarf before clinging to my side. “Perhaps I got so tightly wound up being the nice guy I just snapped.” I kick Josh again until he starts dragging himself beside the dumpster. “But it’s probably because I don’t like seeing rapists walk around with their balls still intact.”
“What am I supposed to do now?” After everything, she’s still looking to Kai for help.
He squeezes my hand, then seeks out my middle and forefingers and grips them in his fist. There’s a rooted vibration running through him and he’s visibly looking down his nose at Millie—eyes downturned, tongue rolling around inside his mouth, his nostrils flaring and retracting with each heavy breath.
“Look at me.” I grab him by the back of the neck with both hands and tilt his head down. “Don’t worry about her… It’s just me and you. We’re all that matters. You’re all that matters.”
Kai reaches up and holds onto my wrists.
“It’s okay. I’ll never let him hurt you again.”
His eyes blink, and a steady flow of tears rolls down his cheeks. “I’m sorry.”
I swipe my thumps and collect his tears. “What the hell for?”
“For this.”
I almost laugh. “I’m not worried about this. The only thing I worry about is you.”
“But what about everything back home? Your family? Couldn’t you lose everything? There’s no way I’m worth all that.”
You sneaky son-of-a-bitch.
A brazen grin forces my lips to curl. “What do you know about my family, Kai?”
His head bows in my hands.
“Kai… Do you have something to tell me?”
He looks at me but doesn’t raise his head, and his tears start pouring out so fast they run over my thumbs. “I’m not worth it. I’ve never been worth it. There’s nothing about me worth losing—”
“The only thing I don’t wanna lose is you.”
His chin falls further forward and his shoulders start to shake.
“I said I’d kill for you, Kai, and I meant it. The only reason that cunt is still alive is because of Millie. And if you can’t tell from that, that I’m in love with you. You’re more of a daft prick than I give you credit for.”
He wraps his arms around my neck and cries into my shoulder. “I love you too. But I don’t belong in your world. Not with all this shit. Not looking like this. Not being as filthy as I am.”
“Excuse me?”
How dare he think this is a time to wallow—a time to collect the rubble and start building the wall back up around him. Fuck that. This is a time for celebration.
One hand pushes him back as the other grips his cheeks and holds his face firm. “What have I told you about that word?”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
“For god’s sake, Kai. Shut the fuck up!”
His eyes shoot open and even Millie jumps at the boom of my voice.
“You don’t get to feel sorry for yourself right now.”
His bottom lip trembles, and his tongue pushes against my fingers on the insides of his cheeks.
“And there’s only one person you ever need to be scared of.”
I slide my thumb—still damp from his tears—between his lips.
“Do you understand what I’m saying to you, Kai?”
His eyes flutter closed, and he nods his head.
“I wanna hear you, Babe.”
“Yes, Jesse,” he mumbles around my thumb.
“Good boy.” I leave him with an empty mouth and a slack jaw desperate to be filled, and point towards the alley that leads back to the High Street. “Now get your ass back to that fucking van.”
Kai wipes his eyes with his jacket sleeve and starts moving.
“You’re seriously just gonna leave me here with him?”
“You better believe I am.” I saunter over to Millie and rest my hands above my knees. “And you don’t know my name. There are no camera’s back here either, it being a safe mountain town and all.”
Again she tries to look at Kai and I finally lose it with her.
“You live with your decisions, Millie! The choice is yours. Help him, or don’t. But know that if you do, you’ll have to live with helping the man you know raped your best friend… And… if you look at Kai one more fucking time, I’ll use all the power I have to ruin you, too.”
She tries to hold it in but erupts with another histrionic outburst.
I hang my head and groan. It’s cold, but I have no more shits to give, because—in all sincerity—I am sick of being the nice guy. I’ve got a broken man who needs me, and being his protector isn’t a nice job. Or an easy one, for that matter, but it’s the only one I care about. It’s the only one I need. And come hell or high water, I will make the rest of his life a happy one.
“You coming?”
My balls tighten at the sound of Kai’s voice. And fuck my family, my lineage, my future title, and all the money that comes with it for making me believe for one second that I could ever live without him.
“Sure am, Babe.” I look Millie dead in the eye as I answer him. “Oh, and you—ya worthless gobshite—“ I give Josh a final kiss goodbye with the tread of my shoes. “The reason I don’t fuck Kai, is because he fucks me. Live with that, motherfucker.”