29. Gage
Twenty Nine
Gage
H oratio, Matteo, Nikolas, and Alistair were huddled in a half circle around Gage’s black truck, and he noticed Willow repressed a smile at how easily Alistair fit in with them. She held his hand as they approached the group, and he wondered if it was her near-death experience or Alistair calling him during her time of need that caused her to want the red-haired snake to stay around.
“Were you able to get a hold of Waldo?” Gage asked Alistair, refusing to make eye contact with him.
“Yes, as of right now he believes Willow is dead and you have tracked me down.”
An image of his love being at the bottom of the ocean next to Venice flashed in his mind and he tensed, but Willow squeezed his hand to remind him she was still here. He knew that if Waldo thought she was still alive, he would try to kill her himself. As much as he was impressed that she had been able to kill the new vampire, she was still repairing from yesterday and did not have it in her to take on an older, stronger one. He would do anything to keep her safe, even if it meant pretending that she was dead.
He turned to Nikolas. “Is there a way we can get him back to Florida? It would be easier to lure him back down to our territory where we have backup. There is no way Robby would be willing to leave his family to come up here after three of his men were just killed.”
Alistair continued before Nikolas could respond. “Here is the problem. He is also under the impression that I currently have you tied up in this motel room.”
Gage laughed. “ You have me tied up? As a brand-new vampire? And just how did you explain that so he believed it?”
“I said that you came up here alone, were very distraught at the death of the love of your life, and were making some stupid decisions—such as being drunk—that made it easy to overcome you and tie you up. He did not question it, so I am assuming he thinks you were pretty weak to begin with.”
The last comment caused Gage to lock eyes with him. “I am not weak.”
The bored expression, which seemed to be a permanent feature of Alistair’s, didn’t faulter as Gage’s glare burned into him. “I never said I thought that, but Waldo clearly does. Prove him wrong.”
“Don’t tell me what to do.”
Nikolas rolled his eyes. “What time is Waldo getting here?”
“He said within the hour, so we better set this up quickly,” Alistair responded.
“I am not letting you guys tie me up. That’s the dumbest shit, and this whole plan sounds like it came out of an 80’s action movie.”
Alistair leaned over to Matteo and whispered loud enough that everyone could hear. “Is he always this difficult to work with?”
Matteo smirked. “He’s stubborn, but you get used to it. You basically have to use reverse psychology and get him to believe the idea was his. ”
Gage shifted his sizzling glare to Matteo. “I can hear you.”
“Good. Now stop being a stubborn ass and let me tie you up like a good little boy.” Matteo grabbed a bundle of rope from the back of the truck and slapped it against his palm.
Horatio cackled and headed off with Nikolas to hide their motorcycles in the nearby woods. Willow let go of Gage’s hand and pushed him toward the leering Matteo.
“I changed my mind, if you ever had to make amends I would want to watch you get tied up every night instead.” She smiled.
“You’re not staying around to watch that happen—in fact, I want you to leave now, since Waldo could be on his way here. The compound is not that far away. I’ll have Matteo take you back home. Sammy and Marla are waiting for you.”
“There is no way in hell I’m leaving you after all that happened.”
“Please, I don’t want you to get hurt.” He turned to Matteo. “Promise me you’ll get her out of here and back to safety.”
“You got it, boss.”
Willow crossed her arms. “Excuse me, do I not get a say in this?”
“Not this time.” Gage tried to kiss her, but she dodged him and went over to Matteo and grabbed the rope from him.
“If you’re making me leave, can I at least tie you up?” She asked.
Gage released an exhausted sigh. He was on edge with not knowing how close Waldo was to their motel, and felt that every second standing outside was putting her in more danger. “Fine, but be quick, and make sure it’s not too tight so I can get out of it when he gets here.”
Matteo turned to Alistair as Willow and Gage began walking back to the motel room. “To add on to what we were saying earlier, we can use either reverse psychology or Willow to get him to do what we want.”
“I can still hear you!” Gage shouted over his shoulder before slamming the door shut.
Once the two were alone, Willow wrapped her arms around him and squeezed him tightly. He took a deep breath before returning her embrace and rested his head upon hers, completely melting into her.
“You’re making this very difficult. I would give anything to be the one tying you up,” he said.
“Well, once you’re done with Waldo, I can make sure that happens,” she purred.
She tilted her head up to nip at his lip with her teeth. He placed his hands around her face and deepened the kiss, only to push her away and point to the rope.
“Let’s get this over with so we can get to the good part.”
“Can I hog-tie you?”
“Absolutely not.”
“How about if you lay down on your back and spread your legs, then I’ll wrap the rope around your thighs and tie it around your neck?”
He stared at her, holding back his laugh at the eagerness in her expression. “Just tie me to the damn chair you freak.”
She rolled her eyes and huffed, pulling out the rickety wooden chair from the small desk tucked into the corner of the room. They were both silent as her hands fluttered around him, gliding the rope around his torso to tie a bow in the back with a strand that reached discreetly to his hand. One quick tug and he knew he would be able to free himself. She gave a sad smile at her handiwork and gave him one more passionate kiss.
“Please listen to Matteo and stay safe. I’ll see you in a little bit,” he murmured.
He was not religious, but silently prayed to whatever deity was listening that she would leave in time, and that everything would go smoothly.
He watched her walk to the door, both of them freezing when the handle moved. Alistair’s unintelligible voice could be heard on the other side, with a nervous twinge to it. Before Gage could tell her what to do, she ran around him to the bathroom and quietly locked the door just as Waldo walked in.
“Well holy shit, I’m kind of disappointed. I was prepared to walk into a trap and thought I would get a satisfying fight. I even told my men to stay behind because I wanted a little bit of a challenge tonight. I didn’t believe it when Alistair said he managed to contain you. I barely believed that he was able to kill that stupid girl of yours, but I guess he is full of surprises. I think he might have earned a spot as my second-in-command.”
Rage ran through him as he watched the smirk broaden into a full-blown smile, but he was able to contain it knowing Willow was still in the motel room. He couldn’t risk losing control of the situation.
“He said her blood was as sweet as candy. Tell me, did you used to drink from her while you fucked? Did her pussy taste just as sweet?”
“I’m not talking about her with you ,” Gage hissed through gritted teeth.
“I liked the way she whimpered when I left her alone in that garage with them. My only regret was that I didn’t stay to watch them tear her apart and fuck her corpse after. How much money do you think I could have made selling that snuff film on the dark web? There are some sick people out there who would have absolutely loved to watch my dick spread her asshole open.”
Gage took in a deep breath and released it slowly, counting to ten. Nikolas had always talked about meditating to control his anger, and now seemed about as good of a time as any to try it. He figured out what Waldo was doing and was not going to play his game.
“Stop baiting me. Are you here to kill me or not?”
“Where would the fun be in that? I thought we could have a good old-fashioned brawl out in the parking lot, and whoever loses has to buy the other one dinner.” He chuckled. “Just kidding.”
A sharp pain blossomed from Gage’s right shoulder. It had happened so quickly that he didn’t notice that Waldo had pulled out a small knife and thrown it at him, embedding it into the soft flesh above his armpit.
“I’m not going to kill you right away. I would rather torture you and slowly chop you to pieces to send to Clay in packages. I have a few extra Amazon boxes I could use. Imagine his surprise when he thought the newest tool he ordered came, in but in reality, it’s his beloved son’s ear! Or I could send him your fingers. I heard you were into painting, so it’s only fitting that I take away the tool you need to create your masterpieces.”
“He won’t let you get away with that. He’ll have both my family and the Daytona family coming after you.”
Another knife landed in his left leg and he bit his lip to keep from groaning. Even with his high pain tolerance, the strength behind Waldo’s throw caused the knives to sink deep into his muscles resulting in a painful throbbing.
“Don’t worry about that, I’ve been having my men kill off your cousin’s family in Daytona. Actually, they were able to kill three of them recently. They decapitated them and fed the remains to the dolphins; I heard those creatures have developed a strange taste for flesh.”
A third knife came flying through the air and stuck in his right kneecap. He covered his grunt of pain with a growl. “Goddammit, what is it with you and knives? Enough!”
“Aw, what’s the matter? Are you not having fun? That’s okay, because I’m out of knives anyway.”
Waldo took a few steps forward to retrieve the knives, and Gage took advantage of this opportunity. As he pulled the rope to untie himself, he lunged to grab Waldo around the neck and shoved him backward into the wall. Waldo let out a surprised grunt, but quickly slammed his hand into the knife that was protruding out of Gage’s shoulder, causing it to slide all the way through and out the other side. It fell to the carpeted floor with a thud, and blood began pouring out of the gaping wound.
Gage let him go and bent over to rip the remaining two knives out of his legs, only to quickly stand back up and stab them into Waldo’s own shoulders. The knives only seemed to ignite his fury, and he came toward Gage with an insane glimmer in his eyes.
“Never mind, I’ve decided I’m going to fucking kill you and get this over with.” Waldo snarled.
Waldo lunged toward him like the knives were not even there, and the two locked arms as they both tried to push each other. Gage’s legs gave out and he landed on his knees, the impact causing him to groan silently. He worried that if he was too loud, Willow would try to intervene to help him. He let go of Waldo’s arms to try to push the knives further into him, but Waldo landed a punch to his face before he could.
Gage knew that somehow, he had to get Waldo out of the room and into the parking lot to not only get him further away from Willow, but so that the others could join the fight. He stood up and tried to push him toward the door, only for Waldo to pull a knife out of himself and try to slice him across the face.
“Dammit,” Gaged huffed as he ducked away from the blades.
Waldo continued to slice through the air furiously, causing Gage to take a few steps back to avoid them. This was going the opposite way he wanted, and his frustration was muddling up his logic.
He decided to rush toward Waldo to try to knock him off balance, but instead took the impact of a knife into his shoulder right above where it previously had been. By now his adrenaline had muted his pain, and he pushed through to grab Waldo’s other wrist and bent it back far enough that he dropped the other knife .
Both men had knives sticking out of them as they wrestled each other, Gage pushing Waldo to the front door and Waldo trying his best to push Gage backward. The two continued to push and punch, neither making much movement toward their goals. Waldo finally kicked Gage in the knee that had been stabbed, and he fell to the ground again.
With the thought of Willow scared and hiding in the dark bathroom behind him, he finally let go of the rage he was trying to tame. He used all his strength to grab Waldo around the legs and threw him over his shoulder so that he crashed hard into the wall behind him. Gage spun around and landed on top of him, throwing punch after punch into Waldo’s face. His knuckles started to bleed as Waldo’s teeth ripped his skin, but he didn’t stop.
Waldo was able to find the strength to push Gage off himself enough that he was able to get to his knees and pulled the knife out of his shoulder to throw. Gage ducked and the knife soared over his head and lodged into the bathroom door.
“Well, it seems you’ve been practicing since the last time we fought. Do you remember the sound of those humans as I slaughtered them? It was like music to my ears.” He chuckled. “Venice’s scream as I tore a hole into her throat? Now that was a beautiful melody. I wonder what Willow’s screams sounded like when Alistair tore her apart?”
Gage gave a guttural roar as he came toward Waldo again. This time, the man was prepared for the attack and stopped him from landing another punch. He used his massive, stocky body to push into Gage again. The force was strong enough that Gage flew backwards, crashing into the bathroom door and ripping it off its hinges. He didn’t look for Willow—his only thought was to keep his eyes on Waldo and prevent him from getting into the bathroom any further.
“I’m going to rip your throat out,” Gage yelled as he pushed himself off the ground .
He noticed Waldo’s eyes shift slightly to the left.
“That fucking liar,” Waldo scoffed and braced himself. “You’re still alive!”
A white porcelain soap dish came flying through the air and over Gage’s shoulder, making an impact in the middle of Waldo’s face. A slight surge of pride went through him knowing that she was ready to defend herself, even if her choice of weapon wasn’t the most destructive.
“How does it feel to know that one of your own hates you enough that he’s willing to stab you in the back and join our family?” Willow asked.
“Shame on me, I should have known better than to trust that sniveling little rat. Next time when I need someone killed, I’ll be sure to do it myself.”
Waldo lunged forward, but side-stepped Gage and went straight into the bathroom. Within a second, he had grabbed Willow around the neck and lifted her off the ground, her feet kicking wildly in the air. Waldo’s fangs extended and he was mere inches away from biting into her neck.
Willow’s eyes widened and she stopped her struggle to look at Gage. The look she gave him was one of trust, like she knew he wouldn’t let this happen.
Gage thought the rage and adrenaline had already surged through him earlier, but a new wave tinted with fear flooded his system. He had failed the humans and let them be murdered by Waldo and his friends. He had failed his father and let his family be slaughtered at Gerald’s hands. He had even failed himself by letting Venice into his life.
He would not fail Willow.
It happened in slow motion. He didn’t hear the primal noises that came out of him as he reached his hands out and dug his nails into Waldo’s round head, pulling it back quick and sharp enough that the skin of his neck stretched and began to tear. Gage lifted his bloodied leg and planted his foot at the base of Waldo’s spine, yanking his head from side-to-side, relishing in the sound of his vertebrae cracking. It took all of five seconds, but it felt like an eternity before Waldo’s neck finally snapped and Gage was able to rip his head off in one smooth movement.
Waldo’s headless body stood up for a second before collapsing on top of Willow. She didn’t scream as she patiently waited for him to come back to his senses, drop the dripping head, and move the corpse off her.
They were soaked in blood as he helped her up onto her feet and held her in a tight embrace.