The Butcher of the Bay Part II - J. Bree Page 0,17

rip them all apart, feel their bones snapping beneath my hands and under my boots as I just fucking destroy them all. My hands clench so hard on the steering wheel the leather creaks and protests.

“You need to fucking distract me, kid.”

She scoffs at me. “I’m not the chitchatting sort of girl, Illi, you know that.”

I smirk but there’s no real joy in it. “Fuck, the Bay hasn’t ever produced a chitchatting sort of girl but I need a distraction. Tell me about your last job. Tell me something… bloody. It might fucking help.”

She grimaces. “I just hacked someone's mom up for a job, does that count? He needed her gone, not just dead but like cut into pieces and spread through the Bay where animals could take care of it.”

Fuck.

Seriously?

She nods, again knowing what I’m thinking without me saying a goddamn word. “Yup. I didn’t ask questions about why he needed her dead but… I’d heard enough stories. She was fucking bad. Worse than my mom, worse than most.”

The Bay is notorious for pumping out generation after generation of kids without decent parents and no hope of stopping that vicious cycle. I didn’t know much about the kid’s mom, only that the Jackal took her out with a dirty batch of heroin.

She gives me a side-eye. “Yeah, I know you know about what Matteo did.”

Fuck.

“Giving a shit about this sort of thing is still kinda… new to me, so you’ll have to forgive me for not fucking stopping him.”

The kid nods and looks out the window at nothing. It’s silent again in the car for a second before she murmurs, “I guess I’m the worst sort of person because I’m… glad she’s gone. I could never have done it myself but I’m better off now.”

Better off now, even with D’Ardo playing his games and a whole list of bad shit she’s been forced to do? Fuck, her leg will never be the same.

“That just makes me feel worse. You said you had a plan though, right? I’m going to need to hear all about it once Odie is home safe. I’m doing whatever I need to to get you the fuck out.”

She nods again and shifts back to look out the window. “There’s a plan. It’s already underway, I’m going to be okay.”

That’s the fucking problem.

I want her better than okay. I want her out there in the world fucking thriving and forgetting that this place ever existed. I want her going to some college and meeting some smart guy and them running off somewhere and living happily ever fucking after.

I want her having the life we all should have had before the Bay got its claws into us and warped everything.

“Fuck, new topic. Teach me some French, kid. I’m going to have to learn it sometime, might as well kill some hours now.”

The drive is hell but at least the kid keeps me in good company.

She’s quiet enough but when she comes out with those one-liners of hers… fuck, she’s smart. She sees more of the world than most and it shows as soon as she opens her mouth. She’s right, you know, she’s so much fucking older than the years she has on this fucking planet. Not that it makes what D’Ardo is doing any better. He’s still a sick fuck for wanting her, that’s for fucking sure.

But finally, five hours later, we find the address. A giant fucking fence surrounds the property and I’m about to ram the gate when Lips stops me, jumping out of the front seat and fucking around with the keypad. She’s a fucking tech wizz or something because after about three seconds it swings open.

I see the looks Harbin and Roxas share behind us.

I know they’re impressed by her but I need them to leave her the fuck alone, no dragging her into biker politics and definitely no getting her involved with the Boar and all of his shitty schemes. That old dirty biker is the fucking worst, betrayal in his blood, and I’m not letting any of it touch her.

The kid jumps back in the car and I gun it up the driveway, no interest in being discreet. They’re not expecting company, us being here is enough of a surprise and there isn’t going to be any fucking cavalry.

We pull up outside the building Odie is being kept in and I tear out of the car. Even if they did have serious firepower, I have Kevlar and enough weapons that