“You think you can take her from me? You think I’m going to fucking let you have her?”
He struggled against me, but I kept stabbing him again and again, making very sure he would bleed out and die. There was nothing else but the need to destroy him for having the audacity to try to deprive me of the love of my life. No one got to touch her. She was fucking mine.
“You came after the wrong fucking people. I’m your worst fucking nightmare.”
I threw him on the ground and knelt down on his back before shoving the knife between his ribs and piercing his lung. I did the same to the other side. He was wriggling, clawing at the dirt, but I didn’t give a shit. He wheezed as I pressed him harder into the mud. Digging the knife into his other kidney for good measure, I kept him there, knowing he was going to bleed out. His lungs would collapse too.
“Pres,” came Scarlett’s voice.
I looked up, finding her watching us without any sort of judgement.
“He has to die.”
She nodded and pointed to the other man. He was staring at me in absolute horror like he had no idea how vicious and unrelenting I could be. The fool didn’t know the lengths I would go to keep Scarlett from harm. She was mine to protect. Fucking mine.
“I told him to stay the fuck where he was. If he moves, I will chase him down and kill him too.”
There was no way this guy beneath me was surviving what I’d done to him. The man against the tree looked like he was about to piss himself at my words. Well, he better take me the fuck seriously. I wouldn’t hesitate if he tried anything.
“Get off me,” the man below wheezed.
“Shut the fuck up and die quietly, you piece of shit.”
I pushed his face into the mud with a hand to the back of his head. He struggled harder, the mud clearly getting into his mouth and airway as he tried to get me off him. We were silent as the rain continued to batter down on us and the man’s movements grew sluggish. I let him go the moment he stopped, checking his neck. There was no pulse.
I stood and faced the man against the tree. Walking towards him slowly, my bloody knife still clutched in my hand, I saw how pale he looked. Scarlett had her arms wrapped around herself, and she was shivering. Every part of me wanted to go to her, warm my girl up and look after her, but right now, I had to deal with this fuck.
I reached for him and put my knife to his throat, pressing against it, but not hard enough to break the skin.
“Listen here, fuckhead, if you want to walk away with your life, you’re going to do exactly as I say.”
He didn’t respond, but he’d seen me kill his friend. He knew I wasn’t playing around.
“You’re going to take a message to Stuart. I fucking know it was him who hired you, so don’t even try to deny it. You tell him we’re coming. We’re fucking coming for him and he’s not going to walk away with his life. He stole what was ours and hurt her. We don’t take kindly to anyone causing pain to what’s ours. Is that understood?”
He nodded and whimpered.
“Good.” I turned my attention to Scarlett. “Search his pockets for me, little lamb.”
She came over to us and started going through the man’s jeans without hesitation. From his back pocket, she pulled out a wallet. Then she was looking through it. She tugged out his driving licence and showed it to me.
“Now, Terrance, is it? I have another task. You’re going to take care of him for me.” I nodded over to the dead man in the mud. “You’ll get rid of his body and make sure you leave no fucking traces of what happened here.”
The guy swallowed at my words, but I wasn’t fucking done.
“If I find out you didn’t follow through, I will hunt you down and gut you like a fucking pig. I will feed you your fucking guts and choke you to death with them, you hear me? I will do it in front of your family if you have one, then I’ll kill them too.”
The stench of urine hit me a moment later. I smiled at him. I’d clearly scared him half to fucking death. Served him right. He tried to come at me and my woman. I wouldn’t let that stand.
“Do we understand each other?”
“Y-y-yes.”
“Good. Now, you’re going to let me and her leave whilst you deal with him.”
He nodded and I released him. Scarlett gave the wallet to me and I tucked it into my pocket.
“I’m taking this just in case you decide to make the wrong decision, Terrance. There is no fucking place you can hide from me and my friends, so don’t disappoint me.”
I took Scarlett’s hand, giving him one last significant look before I pulled her away from the scene. She didn’t hesitate to run through the forest with me until we made it out onto open ground. The two of us didn’t stop running through the park, both aware of the urgency. We needed to get the fuck away from here as soon as possible. Neither of us spoke. I had blood and mud all over me. This was an absolute fucking nightmare. I swear to fuck if that shit didn’t do as I said, I would lose it on him. There would be no holding me back.
When we reached the car, I got Scarlett inside and turned the engine on, whacking the heating right up to warm her. I didn’t see to her straight away. Something had me wondering how the fuck they’d found out where we’d gone. My first instinct was to check the outside of the car despite the rain. I looked around it and underneath everything. Pausing, I saw something sticking to the underside of the bumper that shouldn’t be there. I reached out and ripped it off the car. They’d fucking stuck a tracker on it. I cursed, threw it on the ground and stamped on it several times until it smashed. Then I got in the car, put my seatbelt on, connected my phone up to the Bluetooth and set off.
“Are you okay?” I asked her, knowing we had to leave immediately.
“I’m just cold.”
Scarlett was curled in on herself on the seat.
“I need to call Drake. They had a fucking tracker on the car, so I’m guessing they might have put them on all the ones we own.”
She nodded. I hit dial on Drake’s number. He answered after the second ring.
“Where the fuck are the two of you? You were meant to be back well over an hour ago.”
“You have to promise me you won’t get mad at Scar for what I’m about to tell you.”
“Prescott.”
“Promise me, Drake.”
“Fine, I promise. Now, what the fuck is going on?”
I sighed, rubbing my face as I navigated the streets of London. Then I explained what happened after we left the club, not leaving out a single thing about what happened with the two men. Drake kept silent the whole time, letting me get it out without interrupting. And when I was done, I could practically feel his anger bleeding through the phone.
“Fuck. For fuck’s sake. Jesus Christ, this is a fucking mess.”
“You’re telling me.”
“Are you on your way back?”