“Fuck you! You won’t take her without a fight.”
A fight is what I’m ready for but judging by our positions we won’t be getting near her unless they have their focus on something else. Or someone else. Stepping out from behind the tires, I hold my gun in the air.
“Let her go. I don’t know what you want with her but let her go now!”
“She’s my daughter! That’s what I want with her!” The asshole yells.
“She ain’t yours anymore! You gave up that right when you burned holes into her flesh,” I growl. The man, Mitch, comes strolling out from the garage, his gun trained on me. Good. That’s where I wanted it.
“You claimed her?”
“Goddamn right I did. She’s mine, man. You know the rules, yeah?” He doesn’t or he wouldn’t have put his hands on her in the first place. The closer I get the more I can see the resemblance. She looks a lot like her dad. Too bad I’m going to murder him with my hands.
“She’s a club princess!”
“No, she’s not. She’s my goddamn queen and you just fucked up by takin’ her the way you did. You wanna talk about somethin’, this isn’t the way, man.”
“You don’t know shit. I’ve been lookin’ for her for years. Imagine my surprise when she happens to fall into my goddamn lap,” he says pissing me off further.
“She ain’t yours!” I aim my gun and pull the trigger before he has a chance to react. The kid with Cheryl releases her and she falls to the ground when Mitch pulls the trigger. The bullet grazes my leg but I ignore the sting and advance on them. The guys behind me move in now too.
“You fucked up now, old man.” The words leave my throat as a threat. Our guys move in along with Viking’s crew to clear the area. I watch Viking drag Mitch into the building while I cut the zip ties from Cheryl’s wrists and pull the blindfold off her face.
“He’s my brother.”
“Which one?”
“The one that had me. He said he was. He has to be, Demon. He looks like me.”
“We’ll deal with that shit later. Let’s handle your dad now,” I tell her. She nods her head, before I drag her body into mine, kissing her roughly. Claiming all that’s mine. I don’t give a fuck how long I’ve known her. She’s mine now and fuck all the rest.
“Let’s go,” I grab her hand in mine and drag her toward the warehouse, stepping around the first asshole that someone killed.
Once inside, the remainder of his guys - which is only five - are on their knees with guns to the back of their heads. Viking has Mitch, Viking sporting an angry glare on his face. I see his old lady off to the side and send Cheryl in that direction. She’s reluctant at first but finally gives up and walks over. The girl wraps her arms around Cheryl and holds onto her tightly. I’ll need to thank her later but for now I’m going to rip this fucker’s throat out.
“You piece of shit. I know what you did,” I growl pulling out a cigarette of my own out and lighting it up. “Pull those cuts and get his shirt off.” My demand is followed. The guys move to rip their fake ass cuts off and toss them to the ground. Viking tears the shirt from Mitch’s body and throws it over with his cut. I step up to him, leaning down so we’re eye level.
“You burnt her. Put holes in her flesh. You touched her, let men touch her. How the hell could you do that to your own daughter?” I don’t know why I need an answer to this shit. I know he’s sick just like the motherfuckers who did that shit to me. They are nothing.
Taking a long drag from my cigarette I blow smoke in his face before bringing the glowing orange tip to his chest. I watch as he screams and the hole forms. I smirk at the smell of burnt flesh before moving to do it again and again until he’s covered in marks the way she is. Flicking my cigarette to the side, I pull my knife free and press it to his throat.
“Any last words, asshole?”
He grins up at me before he opens his mouth. “She was mine first.”
Grabbing his tongue, I slice through it before stabbing the knife into his chest repeatedly. He falls almost immediately. I relish the downfall of this fucker. Only then do I motion to the others to dispatch justice. Each one goes down the line shooting the assholes in the head, save one. It’s him that bothers me.
“You took my girl,” I tell her brother.
“He…he made me. He said he wouldn’t hurt her.”
His tone and his words ring true in my ears. Why do I believe this kid? I don’t want to, but I do. Maybe because he reminds me of myself when I was younger. I believed whatever anyone told me.
“What do you think, Viking? Let him live or send him to hell with his dad?”
“Please! I didn’t know.”
“Demon, no!” Cheryl cries. I shake my head and turn toward her, motioning for her to come to me. She does without hesitation and wraps her arms around my waist.
“If I let him live and he knew, I’d be betrayin’ you, darlin’.”
“I didn’t know,” her brother sobs out.
“I believe him. He reminds me of me when I was younger, Demon. He’s just scared,” she says.
Her words hit me in the chest harder than I thought possible. I wasn’t ready to hear how similar me and her are. How alike our pasts were, but if she truly believes her brother, I will let him walk away. Raising my gun, I press the barrel against his forehead and give him a warning.
“You come anywhere near her again, I’ll kill you. Get your shit together. This isn’t the life you want, kid.”
He nods his head, his eyes cutting to his sister’s for a brief second before he turns and takes off running. I watch him go, praying he doesn’t come back to haunt us later.
“I’ll get this mess cleaned up,” Viking says.
“Thanks, brother. We’ll get a ride back to Georgia.”
Chapter Fifteen
My hair is pulled up on the top of my head, soft curls trailing around my face. My bright red lipstick is a contrast to my pale skin. I stare at myself in the mirror and wonder how I became this. The girls I’d envy on the posters of my dad’s garage. They were beautiful and full of life. Tattoos covering their perfectly porcelain skin. I have the tattoos but the perfection was taken away from me at an early age. My father made sure I didn’t look perfectly beautiful anymore. The downfall to my adulthood are those scars. The ones I can’t shove into a box in the back of my mind. I mindlessly let my fingers run over my stomach, over each one of the ten that I can count. A shiver runs down my spine when Demon walks into the room.
“They don’t mean shit. You know that, right?” His eyes aren’t on mine, they’re on my hand.
“They mean more than you know.”
“No, they don’t. You’re lettin’ them have power that you shouldn’t give them. Fuck what he did, Kitten. He was a sick piece of shit who got what he deserved in the end. No one is ever gonna hurt you that way again. No one.” The finality in his words sends my heart soaring, but what sends it even higher is what he has in his hand. He smirks when my eyes linger on it. Holding it out to me, I walk over and carefully take it.