Theirs to Protect - Julia Sykes Page 0,5
his limp fingers, punching my other fist into his throat to silence his shout. Moving of its own accord, my hand flipped the knife, directing the blade at my enemy.
His scream strangled in his traumatized vocal cords as the blade sank into his abdomen, parting skin and flesh as easily as butter. Wet heat spilled over my fingers, and an animal snarl rumbled between my bared teeth. “You will not touch my family.”
The man’s tanned cheeks paled, and his eyes rolled with terror. His pleas for mercy remained locked in his spasming throat. He couldn’t scream. He couldn’t say another foul word about my sweet girl.
He couldn’t answer my questions.
Fuck!
I shoved away from him, and his eyes rolled back in his head at the agony of the blade ripping free from his flesh.
Suddenly, the wet heat that coated my hand turned to toxic sludge, burning through my skin to mark me deep inside. Crimson gore glistened on my palm. Blood dripped from my fingertips like dark rubies, mesmerizing and horrific.
Iron bands closed around my chest, squeezing the air from my lungs.
This isn’t me. This isn’t who I am anymore. The desperate lie thundered through my head.
I’d wanted to be a better man. For Ashlyn. For Joseph.
Yes, I would do whatever it took to protect them, but I’d gone too far. I’d lost control.
I couldn’t protect them without answers, without knowing the extent of the threat. But the darkest parts of my soul that I’d buried deep had surged out at the first provocation. I was still a brute, a criminal who could never be good enough for Ashlyn.
I firmed my numb fingers around the knife before it could slip from my grip.
Destroy the evidence. Don’t get caught.
I crouched beside the enemy I’d dispatched and wiped the hilt on his hoodie to erase my fingerprints. My gaze scanned his body, a series of decisions clicking into place without conscious reasoning.
Leave the knife. Taking the weapon with me would create a trail—even if I dumped it somewhere. There couldn’t be any possible link to my movements once I left this alley.
Go through the garage. I could stay out of CCTV range if I ducked into the parking garage to my left. I would exit on the other side and keep to the blind spots until I got halfway down the next block.
I allowed the now-clean knife to slip into the baggy pocket at the front of my enemy’s hoodie seconds before my humanity pulsed through the cold darkness around my heart.
The man’s eyes were closed, his pale face slack. His chest swelled with ragged breaths. Blood pooled on the damp asphalt beneath him, but I knew I hadn’t shredded any essential organs; I’d tortured enough men to know when I’d landed a killing blow.
Swallowing against the acid at the back of my throat, I tugged my sleeve down over my hand and fished the man’s phone from his jeans pocket. Even though the emotionless void that allowed me to maim was beginning to waver, I still possessed the sense to avoid leaving prints.
As long as my shirt provided a barrier between my fingers and the phone, I couldn’t operate the touchscreen. Instead, I maneuvered it beneath his limp hand and applied pressure to the back of his thumb, forcing him to select the icon for an emergency call.
Someone would come and find him before he could bleed out. He wouldn’t die.
I hadn’t killed him.
He’ll survive. He will.
The desperate promise echoed hollowly in my head as I pushed to my feet. I heard the muffled response of an operator through the speaker, asking for someone to report the emergency.
I couldn’t risk having my voice captured on a recording. I nudged the man with my boot, jarring his wound enough to rouse him. The broken groan that left his chest knifed through my own gut, but I turned on my heel and stalked away.
He would manage to communicate with the operator, and he wouldn’t dare report me to the cops. Not if he was a criminal, too. Implicating me would open up a whole line of questioning that he wouldn’t want to answer.
Maybe I’ll take a turn with your pretty slut once we’ve buried you and Russo. My fists curled at my sides as I recalled the bastard’s sick taunt. He didn’t want to see me arrested. He wanted Joseph and me dead. And Ashlyn…
I clenched my jaw almost hard enough to crack my teeth. If I allowed myself to think about his threats