Grievous (Scarlet Scars #2)(27)

No, she’s faded out. Gone.

I could barely sit through a minute of it. It turned my fucking stomach, and that’s saying something, because I’ve watched men be slaughtered before without flinching.

What do you say to that? It’ll be okay? Chin up, buttercup, at least you’re alive? Fuck that. Words don’t mean shit, they won’t erase what’s on that DVD, so I just stand here, working on my puzzle, pouring myself into it.

“Boss?”

I look to the doorway. Seven stands there, clutching my phone, waving it toward me.

“The guys are on their way over,” he says. “Just wanted to give you the head’s up.”

“I appreciate it,” I say, looking back away. “Any luck on that address yet?”

“Still working on it,” he says.

I nod, picking up a puzzle piece, trying it a few more places. Silence again takes over the room when Seven walks away.

“Did they watch it?” Scarlet’s words are quiet as she breaks her silence. “The guys... did they see?”

I snap a piece into place before grabbing another. “I didn’t let them watch it. I stopped it when I realized what it was.”

“But they saw.”

“They saw.”

She’s quiet for another moment before asking, “Did you watch it?”

“I didn’t pop some fucking popcorn and make a night of it, if that’s what you’re asking. I saw enough to know that it’s not something I care to ever watch happen to you.”

“Thank you,” she whispers.

I turn, looking at her with disbelief. She sounds genuinely grateful, sure, but there’s something else in her tone, a dejected note. I don’t like it. That’s not the woman I’ve come to know.

“You’re thanking me,” I point out, “for not making a movie night out of your borderline snuff film. You realize that, right? You’re thanking me for not getting off watching you be fucking violated.”

“I’m thanking you for being a decent human being.”

“I wouldn’t go that far, Scarlet.”

“I would,” she says. “Think what you want about yourself, Lorenzo, but there’s decency in you.”

I scoff, turning back to my puzzle. “I ought to shoot you for saying that shit.”

“But you won’t.”

“I won’t,” I agree, “because I assured Jameson tonight wouldn’t lead to murder.”

“How decent of you.”

Shaking my head, I try my puzzle piece in a few places, forcing it where it doesn’t belong, nearly ripping half the puzzle apart as I yank it back off. Frustrated, I throw it down, watching as it bounces onto the floor, and run my hands down my face, pulling my glasses off and tossing them onto the table, too. “I like you more when you don’t talk.”

She laughs. “I bet you say that to all the girls.”

“I do,” I say, turning toward her as I lace my hands together on top of my head, surprised she can be laughing right now, with the night she’s had. “But most of them I don’t even like when they’re quiet. You, I can tolerate.”

“You can tolerate me.”

“Yes.”

“Well, for the record, I can tolerate you, too, Lorenzo,” she says, staring at the laptop screen. “Most guys I know would’ve watched it.”

“I’ve told you before... you surround yourself with the wrong people.”

“Yeah, I’m trying to get better about that,” she says. “I think I might’ve found a few decent ones.”

I glare at her but don’t respond, hearing noise echo through the house as others arrive. I walk out of the library, leaving Scarlet to whatever she’s doing, and meet the guys in the living room. They’re riled up. That’s what I like most about them, why they’ve survived so long in my company... they’re just as fucked up as me. Money, sure, they love it, they want it, but the excitement and adrenaline is priceless. They’d take the chance of a thrill over the promise of a dollar in a heartbeat.

Well, with the exception of Seven, maybe. He’s got a wife and kids, remember? He’s much more cautious than the others.

“Gentlemen,” I say, greeting them as they settle in and secure bottles of rum, noticing right away that somebody is missing. “Where’s Three?”

“Ran off to see some woman,” Five says. “Said he had to take care of something quick.”

“Yeah, his dick,” Four says with a laugh.

Shaking my head, I sit down on the couch and turn on some music before retrieving a joint from the tin in my pocket. I light it, inhaling deeply, holding it in my lungs, before passing it over to Five as he sits down beside me.

“Always letting pussy get the best of him,” I say. “Will he ever learn?”

“Not likely,” Five says, taking a hit of the joint before passing it back. “If getting chained up in a basement wasn’t enough to stop him from fucking around with those women, nothing short of a bullet to the brain is going to teach him that lesson.”

I laugh dryly, taking a deep drag, exhaling slowly as I say, “I could arrange that.”

Five casts me a look. He knows I’m dead serious, but he laughs, regardless. “You could.”