Delilah bared her teeth at me in the best sort of feral grin. “Can I kill him now?”
She was in the mood for something violent and I couldn’t say I blamed her. Just like Henley, she had been brought into a world and fight she should never have witnessed. She had been taken and hurt and almost ruined entirely if not for Tanner playing a hero like he always did.
I could understand why Delilah had a darkness in her big gray eyes that flickered with an anger that I would never comprehend.
“If you can get him into the bathroom with you in less than three minutes, then sure.” I let go of her just out of the guy’s eyeline and stepped back. “Make it fast and be safe.” I warned, before turning on my heel and heading into the nearest bathroom and standing guard a few feet from the door.
It was just around the corner, down a single set of squeaky stairs, right before another set that led you to the shitty basement. I hoped it was both empty and had what we had come for. Either option wasn’t fun, considering what went on down there, and I couldn’t decide which one would be worse in the end.
The bathroom stunk like piss and stale beer, the light blue tiles went from floor to ceiling and looked far too sticky for me to want to touch, and there wasn’t a single window or anything nice to look at. Just a couple of stalls, urinal and a set of sinks on the wall that made me shiver. It was fucking grim and desperately needed a candle or something to help burn away the stench of nasty ass men and their filthy habits.
The door banged open before I could ponder which scented candle would do the best job to hide the disgusting odor, and I pulled my gun higher, the silencer on the end more than eager to do its job for whatever piece of shit crawled through the door and had the misfortune of joining me.
“You’re so fucking hot.” A rough voice growled as Delilah entered the room, the giant oaf of a gangster behind her, his eyes on her ass.
She had a nice ass. Not that I looked. I swear.But someone like him had no right to look at her, let alone comment without an ounce of class. Like how hard was it to say something sweet about how pretty Delilah looked when she smiled, how smart she was, or how she had loads of talent? Rather than just sexualizing her and being a fucking dick-faced-little-bitch.
I wanted to cut his tongue out for speaking to her, then his eyes for looking at.
Fuck, I was in trouble.
Reign it in, dickface. She’s not your girl. You can’t do this shit.
“Too hot for you, douchebag.” Lilah replied, as she yanked the twat into the bathroom, kicked out her leg so he collapsed onto the ground, and let the door swing shut behind her with far too big a grin.
The gangster let out an oomph when he fell, but he was by no means injured and hurried to reach for his gun. At least he tried to; he was no match for me booting him in the face, and Delilah hurrying to yank his gun from his side holster. We made a pretty good team so far, if I could say so myself.
“Alright, shithead. Here’s how this is going to go.” He scrambled away from me and backed against the wall, his enormous nose pissing blood as he scowled between the two of us.
“Who the fuck-” He tried to spew bullshit our way but was cut off when Delilah yanked a blade from her thigh garter and slammed it into his shoulder with a smoothness I hadn’t been expecting but found ridiculous fun.
She hadn’t been on a mission before tonight. This was her first time being truly violent on purpose and she was taking to it rather… well.
She pulled her blade out again, twisting it as she did for maximum damage. “Stop whining and answer our questions.” She scoffed as blood sprayed her cheekbones and the ground, seemingly unaffected by it all.
I didn’t know if I should find her violence hot or wonder if she needed psychological help. I mean, I also laughed and enjoyed playing games with my victims, but Iwasn’twell in the head, according to my mother. She had got me tested years ago when she claimed I was a fucking menace to society, and the doctors had claimed I was a tiny bit ADHD. But what the fuck did they know? I was just cool, and they couldn’t handle it. Nobody could aside from my boys.
And Delilah.
Delilah Rose Montana – now that she’d legally joined the Montana family with her new ID. God, even her name was pretty. It was unfair for my concentration levels. They were quickly becoming… less than stellar. And Ineededto concentrate. I needed to concentrate more than I had ever concentrated in my life. This was serious shit. Super serious.
Life or death.
The man wailed and moaned, and I knew we were lucky the club was so loud – lucky the music covered every ounce of his pain and our impatience. Not that I cared about the police presence, nor would any cops get inside the club. We had backup with bigger guns and fingers that were more than trigger happy. But still. It was more convenient when there weren’t a handful of little piggies trying to take on the big bad wolves.
The wolves being the Red Diamonds. Not me. I was more like a piece of the mud the pigs played in sometimes.
“Okay, I’ll try again.” Forcing myself to concentrate, I cocked my gun, pointing it at the gangster sallow face as Delilah wiped her blade on his shirt and slid it back into her garter in a totally not-hot move. “You are going to answer my questions, and if you don’t, you get hurt. But if you do, then you get to live for a bit longer. Do you understand?”
The gangster hesitated, his wild eyes darting between Delilah and me, no doubt trying to find weaknesses and coming up short. There was no empathy or hesitation in the room. Not for this. Not today.
Eventually, he nodded. “What do you want?”
There were a million ways I could have worded my question, but for some reason the idea of speaking her name – saying it in such a place, for the reasons I was – made my throat dry up and my hand shake. Enough so that Delilah noticed and instantly reached into my jean pocket, pulling my phone out with ease. She unlocked it and spun the screen around, showingthe gangster the picture I’d found purely for tonight, as she took over our interrogation without a word about my moment of weakness.
Weakness was my one pet peeve. I couldn’t be weak. Not just because we were on an important mission right now. But because I knew better. My dad had beaten me black and blue my entire life so that I wouldn’t be weak and I was too spiteful to ever show him otherwise, even when he wasn’t in the damn room.
“Seen her?” Delilah asked, voice calm and deadly.
