And she isn’t here.
The Viper is unleashed in him. His face is dark, thunderous with anger, his suit is stripped off, and his dice move rapidly through his fingers as he shakes with the need to do something. Anything. I know, ’cause I feel it too. Garrett is the same, storming around the warehouse on his phone, no doubt searching for anything, anyone we can use.
“Please,” he whimpers, shaking with fear, sweat pouring down him. “I know nothing, I’m just a delivery—” I snap his neck and stand as Ryder frowns at me, but he knows better than to try and stop me. Especially with her on the line, my little bird.
Just the thought of her has me turning and grabbing the closest man. I roar into his face, screaming into it. He screams back, trying to get away, but it’s no use. I need blood. I need pain.
Now.
Everything’s a blur, but when I come to, I’m heaving and my body is shaking with adrenaline. I lift my hands and notice they are covered in blood, as are my arms. I can feel it dripping down my face, and at my feet is the mauled corpse of the man. He’s a bloody mess.
I glare at the others, and they scream, one even pisses himself, the smell filling the air as I prowl closer. “D, enough,” Ryder snarls.
I scowl at him, but he narrows his eyes. Garrett steps closer to me, watching in case he needs to restrain me. It wouldn’t be the first time he tried. Until my little bird came, I did my own thing. Only doing as ordered when it suited me.
But then she wrapped me around her little finger. One smile, one punch, and I was hers. Her animal. Her killer.
“Diesel!” he roars, and I slink away, not far though.
“Anyone?” Someone shifts, and Ryder sighs, aiming again, and the man screams.
“Wait, wait! I know something!” he begs.
Ryder pauses, stepping closer and pressing the gun to his head while I laugh. “Tell us, better tell us.” I grin.
“They have taken one of your safe houses, that’s where they are keeping her, that’s all I know, I swear. I overheard it!” he sobs.
Garrett snarls and punches a cement support, which must hurt. “Fuck, we have loads of them, which fucking one?”
“We need to find Daphne and ask her.”
Garrett turns and, without a word, shoots all the men as he converges on me. “How is she alive?” He towers above me, but I’ve never feared him.
“I don’t know.” I shrug, I really don’t. “I played with her for a bit before I burned her in a building. She was tied down.”
“Fuck,” he snaps. “She’s helping them, we need to get her.”
“Roxy first, she’s all that matters,” Ryder reminds us, and we all look at him. “We need to know which safe house, call everyone in. Find it.”
Kenzo doesn’t speak, just turns away and stomps to the car waiting for us. I look at the bodies. “We should send a message,” I murmur.
Ryder nods. “Do it. I want this city turning on them. Let them know anyone who’s helping them is now our enemy and will die like the rats they are. Hunt the bastards down, make it rain.”
I grin then. “Are you letting me loose?”
He stares at me as he holsters his gun. “Go fucking wild. Make them come to our door, begging for forgiveness, while I find the safe house. Garrett, go with him, you need to release some tension. I will warn the police to stay out of our way,” he orders, before looking at the car Kenzo went into. “I’ll find the house with Kenzo, we will have it before dawn. Be ready to move.”
I glance at Garrett then, and even he looks worried. “D—” He starts.
“You heard him.” I laugh. “Let’s play.”
“Oh fuck,” he mumbles. “This should be good.”
For you, Little Bird, I’m coming for you.
Chapter Forty-Six
GARRETT
I watch D play with the man. My own hands are caked in blood, and the pain of my knuckles breaking has long since passed. Ryder gave us permission, and we didn’t need to be told twice.
I let it all out—the aggression, the hatred. All my emotions pour into the city like a disease, leaving bodies behind. They should have never challenged us…and taking Roxy? Dumb fucking move.
We might have let them off easy before. Now? Now they will die with our names on their lips.
I shy away from thinking about her, because when I do, I can’t control what happens, and right now, this guy is D’s, but the idea of her in pain…of her scared… alone, fills me with such fury, I have to kill something, anything.
We promised to protect her always.
And look what happened. I will never forgive myself for it, or for the fact it was my own fucking fault. If I wasn’t so consumed by my hatred for Daphne and the shock of seeing her alive, I might have noticed her using me to get my phone, to lure my girl, but I didn’t until it was too late, and now this. I am to blame.
She came for me.
And now I will come for her, always. I will save her, and then I will damn her, making her mine forever. If there’s one thing I’ve learned since I found out she was gone, it’s that I can’t live without her. Not anymore.
She worked her way under my armour, under my ruined skin to the fighter, the warped killer beneath, and she loved him and made him love her. She is my reason to breathe now, to fight my demons every goddamn day. D laughs, bringing me back from my morose thoughts.
The man is crawling with tears pouring from his eyes. His legs are broken in millions of places, dragging uselessly behind him. The blood trail he’s leaving almost makes me laugh. He pulls himself away while D laughs harder, holding the hammer he used to break his legs in his hand.
“Where is she?” he screams, and then brings the hammer down on his back. I watch, letting him get it all out. He dies shrieking in pain with no information for us. So we move on to the next one.
But before we can, I get a call back from Cherry. She owed Roxy, and she mentioned Triad members before, so I told her to put in some work. “What?” I answer, snarling.
“They’re dead, all three men that come here. They didn’t know much, but they mentioned something about the men you assigned to trail the ex—they’re dead.” Fuck, that’s why we can’t get a hold of them, and it leaves us with another dead end.
“Thanks, Cherry, want me to send clean up?” I inquire, trying to play nice.
“No, we got this, you just get her back,” she demands, as she hangs up.
We jump on our bikes and speed away, pushing it as we wind dangerously through traffic. I need that adrenaline, that high, and the wind to carry me away for just a moment, but when we end up outside the next building, a convenience store, it’s all back.
I have to get it out before it twists me and there is no coming back. Yanking off my helmet, I swing my leg over and look at D. “This one is mine,” I growl.
He nods but follows me in, and I head straight up to the counter. The man there glances up from his newspaper, and his face pales when he spots me. He stumbles away as D starts wrecking the shop behind me, throwing shit everywhere, getting his own feelings out.
“Oh God!” He grabs a bat from under the counter and tries to strike me. I catch it mid-air and wrench it from his hands, snapping it over my knee before grabbing him by the collar of his shirt and dragging him over the counter. He screams and jerks as I throw him onto the floor. He starts to scramble to his feet, so I bring my boot down on his back, grinding him to the ground, but it’s not enough.
It will never be enough until she’s back in my arms.
“You know why we’re here,” I growl.
“Oh God, please, please, no, I worked for them years ago—”
I snort. “Once a hitter, always a hitter.” I stomp on his back before picking him up, holding him effortlessly in the air. He strikes out with a knife he got from somewhere, and I frown down at the small weapon sticking from my side before glaring up at him.
His anger drains away as I smile. I smash my fist into his face repeatedly before throwing him onto the counter and continuing the assault. I can’t stop. All that anger pours from me, my knuckles cracking as his face splits open, and it’s still not enough.
My demon calls for more until a noise draws my attention. Jerking my head up, my chest heaving, I meet the eyes of the man hiding in the back room. We stare at each other for a moment before the owner tries to grab the knife in my side again.
I go back to pummelling in his face as he tries to block, tries to fight back, but I’m too strong for him.
I’m beating the shit out of him as D laughs. “Oh, they have Mars, I love Mars ice cream,” he calls, and when I look over, he’s sitting on the freezer, munching on an ice cream.
Just then, when I’m not looking, the man breaks free from the back room and runs past me. “D, stop him,” I snarl.