I smiled, tasting the blood on my teeth and relishing in it. “You were a dead man the minute youlookedat her.” He adjusted his wrists uncomfortably behind him and his fingers were turning colors from the tightness of the restraints. That’s when I caught the glint of something shiny on his left hand. If I wasn’t already seeing red… “You still wear the ring…”
He met my eyes, and I couldn’t tell if it was because he needed to say it, or if it was some sad attempt at trying toconvince me to let him live. “I loved her.” Those three words filled me with a fucking rage I couldn’t describe to anyone if I tried. My fists flew, and his head rocked back and forth until the chair fell back against the edge of the desk. I leaned over him and wondered if he thought telling me this shit would have saved his life. Does his sorry life even mean anything to him anymore? He heaved, spitting blood and I watched him, the handles of my blades slipping with the blood coating my palms. “She never loved me, Malek. Never.”
“Trust me, mate. Iknow.”
“I never wanted this. I didn’t…I didn’t want thislife. I didn’t want it forher. There was no way out of it…for any…for any of us. She tolerated me, but she…” He tried in all ways to catch his breath, but not once did he look up at me. “She was a good one. I just…wanted to keep her safe. They pressured us for a bairn. That was…that was the month she killed herself, Malek. I didn’t…”
I set my jaw and closed my eyes. All I could see was her face. Her smile. My little sapphire. Her long golden hair and her blue eyes. Couldn’t even remember the last time I was able to look into them before I saw her in a white casket with a shitty makeup job that barely covered the bruising around her misshaped neck. A neck I once trailed my lips over, breathing every promise I never got to keep. My rage took over.
I shoved his head back against the chair, forcing him to look at me and leaning into his face. “You might not have wanted this life, Braughton…but tough luck.I do.” I held his chin, hooking my blade into the side of his mouth and pulling through the muscle…slowly. His screaming gurgled with the blood filling up the space and he fought like hell to spit it past my working hand while I started on the opposite side. He’ll be dying with a Highland Smile this evening. And I’ll be sleeping peacefully with a smile of my own. “Tell me…when you put your tiny dick whereit didn’t belong, did you think of me?” I snapped his jaw shut and covered his mouth, forcing him to swallow his own blood while I leaned in closer. “Did you taste my cock when you kissed her, you fuckin’swine?”
The asshole shook violently, pissing himself and growling while I painstakingly carved her name into his forehead. It felt like a good time to say all the things I never got to say to her…so I said my goodbyes while I slowly and brutally mutilated the face of the man that took her from me.
“I never asked for anything, Shavonn. I never wanted anything. I had you, and it sated me. Nobody will ever know the kind of love I had for you, lass. I wish there would come a day when I could feel that way again, but I don’t deserve that. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I wasn’t the man you needed me to be when it counted. Forgive me, darlin’. I’ll spend the rest of my pathetic life payin’ for that mistake. Sending you this as a token of my love. Watch him burn in Hell and be at peace, my girl.Slán…”
I let go of Braughton’s mouth, blood pouring between my fingers as I grabbed a fistful of his cropped blonde hair. Truthfully? They would have made a beautiful child. But all parties involved knew that shit would never happen, and Shavonn made it a point to solidify that notion, hanging herself right above the bed she was forced to share with this piece ofoffal.
“I’m…I’m sorry…”
I bared my teeth and pointed the tip of my knife at his left eye.
“I’m not.”
The next five minutes was nothing but exhausted, hoarse screaming that I knew would live rent-free in my head for the rest of my life. It was music to my fucking ears. I popped one eye out…then the other. And then I dragged the edge of that blade across his thick neck until I was baptized in his fuckingblood. Before he gave up the fight for that last breath, I plunged my fist up into that gaping hole and gripped his tongue, pulling it down through the bottom of his chin to replace the nice blue necktie he wore to this house. I eased myself off and righted his chair, stepping back to admire the way he looked until his heart thrummed his last beat…and then it was eerie silence.
My spiraling train of thought was interrupted by the sound of Conor’s footsteps as he came into my peripheral. I’d made it a point to keep an eye out for him and had forgotten all about it in my bloodlust.
“It’s over, mate. Breathe.”
I slowly turned my head, my vision finally blurring back into focus to see strands of my hair dripping red from my assault. The man he laid out was bent backwards over the shattered coffee table and bleeding out on the floor. Nice. We finally met eyes, and mine slowly drifted closed as if I was blindly taking his advice and breathing the first gush of air I’ve had in almost a decade. Itwasover. If there was any chance of healing after this…it could finally start. Conor walked over to Braughton’s chair, flipping a butterfly knife and hacking apart his restraints until he slumped onto the floor. It took me by surprise when he knelt down and sawed the finger off his hand…the gold band still on it, and turned to hand it to me. I nodded and accepted it, pocketing the thing. It’d sit in a jar where I could look at it every day from here on out. A constant reminder that somewhere up there…Shavonn and everything we could have had together…it’s avenged.
I didn’t say anything else as I turned and walked out the door.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been bloody enough to take two showers in one day, and one would think that said shower would be refreshing and clean…but this one will go down in history as the one shower I felt cleaner getting into than I did getting out. It took a long time, and the hot water was nearly gone before it finally ran clear and the last of Braughton’s blood went down the drain. I wanted to be the psycho that wore it like a championship belt for a few days, seasoning myself with revenge.
But at least I still have the finger.
I laid on my bed with one arm behind my head, turning and flipping the severed appendage between my own fingers, like a drummer with a pair of sticks. I felt lighter…like a tremendous weight had just rid itself from my body. Maybe I should make a necklace out of it. Or grind the bone down and have a new handle made for my favorite knife? Or—
“Malek…”Three heavy knocks sounded at my door, and I raised my eyes to it like I had some kind of x-ray vision.“Your dad needs you. Can I come in?”It’s Conor. And it sounds like something’s wrong. What that might be, I have not the slightest clue. I got up and answered the door, only opening it wide enough to stick my head through it.
“What.”
“Your dad needs you. The cute little lassie he’s got cleanin’ the mess clued him in about the finger and he wants you to come down there. I’m sorry, mate. I didn’t think it would be an issue. That thought didn’t even cross my mind.”
“It shouldn’tbean issue.” We stared at each other, brows knotted and both of us trying to figure out what to say, until I finally sighed, slammed the door in his face and slipped my bare feet into my boots. I didn’t bother tying them and I stuffed the finger into my pocket.
I heard Pop talking right before I stepped through the doorway and almost did a double take…for twoverydifferent reasons. One, the room I walked into did not look like the room I’d left a few hours ago. And two?
Two…
There’s no fucking way…
I thought maybe all the flying emotion had clouded my mind and I justthought…I saw Shavonn standing next to my father. But another glance and a few blinks later…
I swallowed and faced him, trying and failing to put off that I wasn’t affected by her.
“You rang?”
