see, twisting his shoulder in the process and dislocating the joint. He puts the wire cutters around the base of his pointer finger, his trigger finger, and grins wickedly.
“This is going to be framed in my fucking office,” he says before pressing down on the wire cutters and tearing the finger free. The guy screams, a loud ear-shattering wail as his finger is cut off.
Bile rises in my throat but I hold it down, unable to look away from the monsters before me. Blood spurts from the shooter’s hand, mixing with the blood of his fellow Wolf on the ground as the finger splashes down into the puddle at his knees.
What is this? Is this really Nic? The guy I thought I was in love with? This is a monster, not a fucking hero. I’ve always known he was capable, but never in my wildest dreams did I think he’d ever be pushed to these limits.
Without warning, his knife slams down over the guy’s chest and I’m instantly reminded of the way the silver dagger protruded from both my father’s and Charles’ chest. The guy attempts to double over with the pain and as the momentum pulls him forward, Nic grabs the top of his hair and tears his head back before slicing his knife across his neck in the same way he’d done with the first guy.
Tears stream down my face and I don’t know why. These guys deserve death. It’s just the way things are in this world, especially if you make a move like this against the Black Widows, and killing their leader is as bad as it gets. Maybe the tears are for Nic knowing damn well that the old Nic is gone. He won’t come back from this and now that I've witnessed it, I'll never be able to look at him the same. He’s not even hesitating, just going straight in for the kill without even thinking about it. How dark does one’s soul have to be to do something so wicked?
The shooter’s body falls heavily to the ground, his blood mixing with the first as Nic disregards them as though they’re not even there.
He steps up behind the last guy and just as he had done earlier, cleans off his blade, but instead of doing it over his shoulder, he swipes the knife across his cheek, leaving a red smear for the world to see. It’s as though it’s some sort of badge—a message.
“I guess you’re the lucky one,” Nic tells him as he violently shakes, the fear of death rattling him. “You’re going to run home and tell your boss exactly what happened here. Tell him how we took their pathetic lives, tell him how my knife sliced across their throats, tell him there’s a new fucking boss in town, and tell him that I’m coming for him. You took our leader tonight and we won’t stop until we have yours. NOW RUN.”
He scrambles to his feet and takes off like a fucking rocket, but Nic isn’t about to let him get off that easily. The guy gets through the roller door when Nic’s gun rings out loud and clear. The bullet pierces the guy's shoulder, exactly where Eli had been hit. He falls to the ground with a pained groan and we all watch as his desperation has him stumbling back to his feet and running through the pain.
I can’t help but look back at Nic with the two bodies lying at his feet and as he stands as the king in his castle, fear sinks into me. I tear out of Sebastian’s hold and without looking back, I run out through the roller door and dive toward Colton’s Ferrari, hoping to God that I never see them again.
Chapter 27
Tears stream down my face as I push the Ferrari to its limits.
How could he do that? What kind of monster is he? That wasn’t the Nic that I’ve come to know and love. He's a stranger. The kind of man that nightmares are made of and Kai, Eli, and Sebastian just stood back and watched him do it as though what he was doing was okay, as though he’d done it a million times before.
Has he? Is this the kind of man I allowed into my heart, the kind of man I allowed in my bed?
The Nic that I knew would have had me removed before handling his shit. He would have protected me, but it’s as though he didn’t even