Chapter Twenty-Nine
R ebel stumbled when someone shoved him from behind. The ankle cuffs with a chain between them were making his steps slow and sluggish.
Thankfully, Jimmy had allowed him to get dressed. But that had only been after the man had looked his fill.
Rebel didn’t give a fuck if the freak looked. But he would kill or be killed if Jimmy tried to touch him.
Jimmy seemed to sense his thoughts and had stayed back before ordering his right-hand man, Dennis, to give him a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt. Both way too big for him, but they covered him and that was all that mattered at that moment.
“Where’s Angel?” Rebel asked Dennis.
“Just keep fucking walking.” Dennis pushed the side of his rifle against his back and sent Rebel stumbling again.
“I am, asshole, but I can’t go that fast with these fucking things on so take a fucking chill pill, you douchebag.”
Dennis lifted his rifle and Rebel ducked.
“Dennis.” Jimmy’s voice stopped the man in his tracks.
A muscle ticked in Dennis’ jaw, but the man immediately stepped back and lowered his gun.
Jimmy gestured for him to move forward toward an open door and Rebel shuffled closer, noticing a dining room with food on the table.
Rebel hurried inside, expecting Angel to be at the table, but other than a few guards, the place was empty.
“Where is she?”
“Sit down and eat and I’ll tell you.”
Jimmy pulled out a chair and Rebel glared. He wasn’t fucking budging until he saw Angel.
“Sit down or I’ll fuck her on this table.”
Rebel remembered Angel telling him that Jimmy had fucked her at the pool one afternoon when she talked back to him. He knew Jimmy wasn’t above doing that here. Shuffling closer, he sank into the chair.
Jimmy leaned down and the man’s words ruffled his hair. A shudder of revolution swept through him.
“Very good, now eat.”
“There’s no fork.”
“Eat with your hands.” Jimmy sat at the head of the table.
Rebel picked up a piece of steak and ate it.
He had to keep his strength up in order to get his revenge.
The food reminded him of eating with Crow and a knot grew in his throat. He had trouble swallowing until he chugged some water from a paper cup.
Crow had been the only one in his life who had tried to offer him a better way of living.
And what had he done? He’d lost his temper. Of course, the words Crow had spoken, There is no us, had stung like a motherfucker, but Rebel now realized what Crow had tried to do.
The man had tried to give him his freedom.
The freedom to choose.
It just sucked that he had to realize it now that Crow was dead.
Dennis entered the room with a man whose hands were cuffed behind his back. He shoved the man to his knees.
“I’m sorry, Jimmy, I’m so sorry.”
“You gave my location to someone who invaded my home.”
Rebel ate two more pieces of steak and then started on a bun.
“He…he…was going to kill me.”
“Was he?” Jimmy asked conversationally, then lifted a gun Rebel hadn’t seen from the table.
Man, oh man, he was fucking slipping if he missed the weapon lying out in the open.
“Please, Jimmy. I got two kids.”
“Who will be better without their drugged-out father.”
Instead of ending the man’s life at that very moment, Jimmy caressed the gun on the guy’s face, then trailed the barrel down his neck before pointing it at the man’s junk.
“Please, please.”
Jimmy slanted a glance his way and Rebel smirked.
What the fuck was he trying to do? Intimidate him by killing someone? The idea was laughable. Rebel didn’t give a shit about the guy begging for his life.
What he did care about was the man’s two kids. Perhaps Jimmy was right. The kids would be better off without their drug-using parent.
Snick.
The silencer went off with a quiet poof. The bullet entered from beneath the man’s chin.
“Clean that up,” Jimmy told one of the guards and calmly placed the gun back on the table.
Rebel ate another couple of pieces of steak. When Jimmy stared at him, Rebel snorted.
“There are consequences to every action.”
“You got that right,” Rebel shot the words back.
Oh, Jimmy didn’t like that one fucking bit. The man’s fists squeezed on top of the table.
Well, fucking blow me , Rebel thought and sneered before selecting another bun.
This one he slathered with butter and honey.
“You know, Jimmy, you’ve got to start seeing the big picture.”
“And what’s that?” The man scowled at him.
“There’s going to be a moment… A second really, now that I think about it, when you won’t be on point.”
“And?”
“That’s when I’ll gut you.”
Jimmy’s fist slammed to the table.
Rebel didn’t jump, but the two guards at the door did.
“Take him back to his room.”
The two men lifted him, one under each arm, and forced him to his feet.
“Time’s running out, Jimmy,” Rebel called back with a wave of his hand.
The guards shoved him out of the dining room and he stumbled again, catching the wall for balance.
Rebel made sure his laughter floated back through the door.
He hoped the fucker choked on his dinner.