Pennies (Dollar #1)(77)

My hand formed a blade, my fingers tight and long, locked together like a machete. I brought the weapon in a swinging arc right onto the juggler of the man sitting on top of Pimlico.

He toppled sideways, unconscious from the single blow.

Pimlico didn’t move as blood poured down her front, drenching her nakedness. A pair of large scissors fell from the unconscious man’s hand, clattering to the floor.

“What the f*ck!?” Alrik shot to his feet, leaving his girl to bleed all over the carpet. Moving away, he gave me the opportunity to get closer to her.

The man who’d hacked down the bedroom door with a baseball bat lunged at me, swinging the same knife I’d taken from the garage. “You freak! You’re dead meat.”

Normally, I would have fun with such an idiot. I would parry and feint, slowly wearing the assailant down until he begged for the fight to end.

But Pim needed me.

It took one tiny thought.

One second, the man stabbed air, doing his best to gut me. The next, the knife was twisted from his hand into mine and the hilt buried in his stomach.

He screamed as I slashed his insides before yanking out the knife and impaling it in his heart.

His gaze lost focus the moment I tore through the muscle keeping him alive. However, it didn’t stop his body pumping blood and unspooling intestines as he collapsed onto the carpet.

Pimlico scrambled back, her eyes as large as twin moons.

The man was dead. He was no longer worth my time.

Her gaze met mine, wild and agonised. Blood rivered from her mouth.

What had they done to her? What f*cking monster did such a thing?

You’ve done worse.

Yes, I had. I wouldn’t deny it.

But never to a woman.

Never to an innocent woman.

Dropping to my haunches, I pulled her into a sitting position, cradling her against my chest.

I didn’t care about the blood.

All I cared about was making sure she’d survive longer than a few minutes so I could do what I should’ve done at the beginning when this * contacted me.

Kill him.

Screw the contract.

Screw the f*cking money.

He’s dead.

Alrik gaped like a koi carp at his dead friend with his guts coiled on the floor. His other friend remained unconscious beside him. “You bastard!” Shaking his head in denial, he back-stepped into the kitchen.

I let him go.

Most likely he had another gun stashed somewhere. He thought he had power over me with such a useless weapon.

Idiotic *.

Wielding a pistol wouldn’t save him from me. Bullets didn’t stand a chance with the methods of killing I'd been taught.

Discounting him, I pried open Pimlico’s mouth.

Blood made everything slippery and slick.

She winced, tears mixing with her bloody mouth as I forced her to show me what they’d done.

From previous experience, I knew what bled so copiously.

The tongue.

And because I wasn't stupid, I understood why they’d do such a thing. She refused to talk. I’d made suspicions bellow that she spoke to me instead of him.

Why hadn’t she talked to me?

Was this the reason? Because she knew I would leave and did her best to avoid the upcoming brutality?

This was my fault.

I’d done this.

But at least, I’d come back to f*cking fix it.

Pimlico struggled in my arms as I traced the damage to her tongue. I expected to find a severed piece of meat, but I hadn’t been too late.

A huge slice had cut her a third of the way through the muscle.

It would hurt. It would continue bleeding. But she wouldn’t lose the power of speech. And she wouldn’t die…hopefully.

“You’ll be okay.” Picking her up, I laid her on the white couch, taking supreme satisfaction as dark crimson rained over the pristine surfaces. “Stay there. I have to finish a few things.”

Alrik had vanished, but banging came from the pantry as he grabbed whatever he could to make him safe.

I let him. I didn’t chase him to start the war before he was armed.

I wasn’t that type of person.

He wanted a fight.

I'd fight.

However, the * who’d cut Pimlico’s tongue didn’t deserve such respect.

Pim’s eyes locked onto mine as I strode toward the unconscious man and grabbed the scissors from beside him. My thumb smeared the still warm blood from the girl I couldn’t stop thinking about and fisted the bronze handles.

Pim gasped, holding her mouth, doing her best to contain morbid ruby streams.

I shook my head. “Don’t swallow. Just let it flow. I’ve got you. Just a few more minutes, then we’ll leave.”

Leave to go where?

My yacht?

A hospital?

I’d decide when it was time. For now, I had other things on my mind.

She didn’t relax. How could she with such an injury? But her eyes dropped from mine to the shears in my fist.

She didn’t speak, but I heard her question through the arch of her eyebrow and shimmering hate in her gaze.

What are you going to do?

I lowered my jaw, watching her beneath my brow. “I’m going to kill him.”

That was the only warning I gave her. Dropping to my knee, I jammed the heavy blades through the throat of the man who’d hurt the woman I’d steal.