Javier whipped his head around and shoved his gun in Gus’s face, right up under his chin. “You don’t know anything, old man,” he sneered. “You don’t get a chance to interfere in her life, you gave that up. I don’t want to kill you because I know what you are and how much you mean to her, so don’t you fucking piss me off!”
My eyes were drawn to Javier and Gus, wondering what the fuck Javier was talking about, so I barely had time to realize what was going on. Raul now had his gun raised at Javier’s head and Peter was reaching for his own gun, perhaps to protect him. But the movement from Peter was enough to bring Raul’s gun to him. Raul pulled the trigger, blasting Peter in the head. The sound brought out the well-honed reflexes in Javier. He spun around, his arm suddenly around Gus, using him as a shield, his gun drawn.
Raul fired and ended up shooting Gus right in the gut.
I was screaming. Running for them. Javier pulled the trigger and shot Raul before he could fire again, and a bloody Gus slipped through Javier’s arms.
Javier pulled the gun around to me but I was too fast. I was already there. I was already the black beast.
I tackled Javier, my bad shoulder down, not caring about the pain. I dove right into his chest, throwing him back into the concrete wall of the building, his head smashing against it, leaving a bloody smear that was diluted by the rain.
Even with one arm in a sling, I was able to beat the fuck out of him. I punched him over and over again, relishing the feeling of my bleeding knuckles, the blood from his face, the feeling of breaking cartilage.
He tried, several times, to get up, to fight back. He put up a good, dirty fight, my shoulder being his number one target. But I was beyond the pain now. I was something else. I was rage and I was wrath and I was twenty-six years of hell.
I brought out my gun from the sling and held it right against Javier’s temple, spitting in his face one more time, watching the spit mix with blood and rain. “You can’t give me a single fucking reason why I shouldn’t pull the trigger.”
He looked up at me, eyes golden against the mask of blood on his face. He licked his broken and bleeding lips, slowly, sickly, and said, “No. I can’t. So kill me. And let this all be over with.”
I pressed the gun further into his head, the anger shaking me from my bones. “No. This won’t be over because Ellie is still out there. She’s going to Travis’s and there’s a chance she’s not coming back. You better fucking hope that she poisons him and does it well because that’s the only way she’ll get out of there.”
“Camden,” I heard Gus groan from behind me. I kept the gun at Javier’s head and looked at him. He was lying back and holding onto his stomach, blood running from his mouth.
“Stay cool, Gus, I’ll get an ambulance,” I told him.
“You go get Ellie,” he said, barely getting out the words. “I’ll be fine.”
I turned and looked at Javier, hoping I could burn him alive with my eyes. “I’m going to go after Ellie. I’m only letting you live so you can get Gus to the hospital. If he dies, it’s on you. And I’m going to be sure that Ellie knows about it.”
He swallowed hard and for a second I worried that Javier might die before Gus. A strange thing to worry about. I decided to call the ambulance on my way to Travis’s, just to be sure. I couldn’t trust this man for anything, not even to stay alive when I needed him to.
I got to my feet. “Do you understand?”
He nodded, breathing hard, his nostrils flaring.
“On second thought.” I pointed the gun at him and for once he looked like I might pull the trigger. He was actually afraid of me. “I could just kill you now and be done with you and call an ambulance myself.”
I held it there for a few moments, pointed at him with all the fire inside me, before I lowered the gun and walked over to Gus, kneeling down beside him. His face was white, his eyes dull but he was alert and looking at me. I patted him on the arm and gave it a good squeeze.
“You’re going to be fine, Gus.” I pulled the cell phone out of his pocket and eyed Javier who was still lying there, propped up against the wall like a rag doll. I nodded at him. “Tell me where Travis lives, Javier.”
He seemed to grapple with the information, as if he wasn’t going to give it to me and for a second I thought maybe he really would let Ellie go on this suicide mission. But he motioned for me to bring the cell over.
I handed it to him and with a bloody hand he began to enter an address into the GPS. He handed it back to me as the new coordinates began triangulating. A flashing red dot.
“You go in there like this, you’re going to get yourself killed before you even step foot on the property,” he sneered. “You can’t do this alone.”
“You let me worry about me,” I said. I got up, loomed over him. “And if I ever see your face again, I will kill you. You won’t know when it will happen, but it will happen.”
We stared at each other for a few tense seconds, his yellow, poisonous eyes hating every inch of me. I was sure my look was no different.