The Butcher of the Bay Part II - J. Bree Page 0,31

to be about the woman. No, it’ll be the thought of the little le Loup, the one who desperately needed a mother and yet she had a woman too addicted to function.

Roxas swallows another big gulp of the whiskey and continues, “The boys are nearly eleven, too old not to know what the fuck is going on with her. Time to get them the fuck out and deal with that fucking cunt.”

Definitely no love lost there.

“Better him than some crackhead or a fucking gang. Angry boys are the Jackal’s specialty, he likes to recruit them young and reckless. If they’re in the Bay they’re fair game to him, even with their daddy belonging to the Boar. That shit means nothing to the Twelve.” Illi says as he does the last stitch, cutting the thread and then he pours the bottle of iodine over the entire thing. I cringe for Roxas but he barely blinks.

When it’s finally done Illi claps him on the back, dangerously close to the wound but neither of them notice that. Roxas nods at him in thanks and then shoves a shirt back on and then shrugs into his leather vest carefully.

“Thanks, man. I was too far away from the clubhouse and I didn’t want to interrupt Harbin right now. I owe you one.”

Illi moves to the sink and washes his hands, blood coating them so thickly it takes two tries with the soap for the water to run clear again. “No worries. You had my back I’ve got yours. No matter what happens with the Demons.”

Roxas smirks. “We both know it’s heading for war. Only a matter of time.”

War?

That doesn’t sound good.

Chapter Nine

Illi

After Roxas leaves I usher Odie back into the bathroom for a shower. She looks fucking pale and I need her out of the living room for long enough to get the blood and gore that Roxas stomped in everywhere cleaned up.

I know my girl isn’t horrified by it all but I still don’t want that shit around her, not unless it’s blood I’ve spilled for her. Her face when she came out of the bathroom and saw Roxas out here bleeding wasn’t fucking good and I nearly stabbed him just for freaking her out like that.

The asshole knew it too.

Once I’ve cleaned everything, I take out the trash and reset all of the alarms. I’m fucking relieved they worked perfectly and now I just need my girl to have her gun a little closer at all times. The fact she had to duck into our bedroom is precious minutes she’s wasted and if she were here alone that could be the difference.

Fuck, now I don’t ever want to leave her again.

I need to convince her that staying here isn’t the right thing to do. Hearing about the fucked up life her parents gave her made me want to fly the fuck to France right now and get her their hearts now but that’s not the plan.

No.

I need a few hearts closer to home first.

Once I’m back in the apartment I take a second to look around. It looks as though nothing had happened but it also still feels… wrong. It doesn’t feel like the same haven it once was. I bought this place and I made it my own. I paid for everything with blood and terror but it never felt like that to me. Sure my workspace is in the basement, but up here in the apartment was always my own space.

D’Ardo fucking shit all over it for me.

I need to take the space back, just until I can convince Odie that one of those big mansions up on the coast would be better. Fuck, it would be closer to the kid up there while she’s up at that big, old school of hers.

So I take matters into my own hands and by the time my girl gets out of the shower, I’ve set our mattress back up in the living room in front of her favorite window again.

That night is carved into my cold, dead heart.

I get a feeling this one might be too because when my girl steps back out into the living room with me, all I can think is that the end of the world looks better from here. Better now I have her.

“I was trying to escape the bed by coming out here so you’ve just brought the bed to me.” she says, those hips of hers cocking and a fist propping up on the swell as