Rock Chick Reawakening (Rock Chick 0.5)(51)

“Yeah, because I could.”

“So you’re telling me you thought she bested you and your dick is so small, you couldn’t bear that blow so you needed to show her who had the power?”

“Why do you do all the shit you do to wear your fancy suit and have your men at your back?” the man countered. “Don’t stand there thinkin’ you’re better than me when you got me on my knees and you got a gun in your hand I know you’re gonna use. Because for that reason right there, you aren’t better than me, *.”

“That’s an interesting, but erroneous, comparison.”

“Whatever,” the guy muttered.

“I’ve never raped a woman.”

“Oh, good. You’re a saint,” he bit back.

“I’ve never ordered a woman to be raped.”

“Whatever, motherf*cker, just end this.”

“The games I play, every player knows the score.”

“Jesus, put you in a suit, you’re a superhero.”

“The point I’m trying to make is, she was an innocent woman walking through a parking lot not having any idea someone was going to commit a violent act using her body to do it. And what I’m trying to understand is how you could be that someone who’d commit that violent act using an innocent woman to do it.”

“I mighta got my bell rung pretty f*ckin’ good by those two f*ckin’ *s, but I’m not missin’ your point.”

Simply out of curiosity, Marcus asked, “Have you done this before?”

“Never taken it all the way.” He suddenly sneered at Marcus, showing him a set of bloody teeth, of which three were missing in a way Marcus knew they’d only been recently lost. “Your girl was my first.” The sneer faded and a different kind of ugliness replaced it as he shook his head. “But no bitch disrespects me. No bitch. I had my way of communicatin’ that, and I don’t give a f*ck I’m on my knees, I got no regrets. A bitch has it comin’, that’s just the way. You’re too weak to get that, not my problem.”

At that, Marcus heard from behind him Brady pull in a hiss of breath through his teeth.

This was not because the man on his knees had insulted Marcus.

Or, not entirely.

It was because Brady had three younger sisters and two shit-for-brains parents that got their asses incarcerated, one three weeks after the other, leaving an eighteen-at-the-time Brady the only one who could look after those girls like Marcus’s sister had done, or let them hit the system.

He’d decided to look after his sisters.

Fortunately, he’d found Marcus not long after and Marcus helped him do that.

Nevertheless, for obvious reasons, Brady, like Marcus, wasn’t a big fan of any man thinking it’s just the way if “a bitch has it comin’.”

Down low, Marcus swung a hand slightly out and he felt the heat of Brady’s anger at his back subside.

He’d taught Brady the lesson about rage too.

Marcus focused again on the man.

“She was going to get her lip gloss.”

“Do I care?”

“Her laugh sounds like bells.”

“Again, asswipe, do I care?”

Again, Marcus studied him and he did it for a good length of time.

Closely.

“No,” Marcus finally said, speaking quietly. “You don’t. You don’t care. And that’s it. That’s why you could do what you did. Because you don’t care. I was right. You’re nothing but an animal.”

“You think I’m gonna beg for mercy, I’m not, f*ckwad. Again, don’t give a f*ck she’s convinced you different. That gash don’t matter. Most gash don’t matter. But her? She’s a f*cking stripper!”

The gunshot echoed loud through the room.

The man slumped to his back.

Marcus turned, Brady came to his side, and Marcus handed him the gun.

“You’ll coordinate things with Dom?” he asked.

Brady nodded.

Marcus took that in.

Then he walked out of the warehouse.





Sitting in the back of his car, Ronald driving, the phone held to his ear, Marcus heard it ring three times before Smithie answered with, “It’s after four in the f*ckin’ morning.”

“It’s done.”

There was silence then, “What’s done?”

“Daisy’s safe.”

More silence before a muttered, “That Nightingale guy.”

Marcus said nothing.

“This does not make me happy,” Smithie announced.

Marcus felt his neck get tight. “How can this not make you happy?”

“’Cause, brother, whatever got done got done without me gettin’ my licks in.”

Marcus let out a breath. “You’re not that man.”

“Maybe you don’t know me too good.”

“I know you, Smithie, and you’re not that man. But I am.”

“Fuck,” Smithie bit out, his way of conceding the point.

“She’s safe. It’s done. We can all move on.”

Abruptly, Smithie asked, “You love her?”

Without hesitation, Marcus answered, “Yes.”