have flipped the geezer off, told him to go fuck his mother, or if I was feeling especially, well, me, maybe just go ahead and pull my dick out or something. But that was then, and this is now. And now, things are different. Things have changed.
“Blow his fuckin’ head off, Barnesy!”
I glance over at Jay and narrow my eyes.
“Mfmmmgg.”
Barnes frowns. “The fuck did you just say?”
I repeat myself. “Mfmmmgg.”
He grins. “Well shit, is reason finally getting through that fuckin’ head of yours?”
I shrug, and Barnes beckons Jay over. “Talk to him!” he barks. “Make this stupid fucker see reason.”
Jay flicks his cigarette away and strolls over until he’s standing right over me. Barnes pulls the gun out of my mouth, and I gasp. I clear my throat and spit on the ground as Jay leans down over me. With those beady little eyes and that stubby little nose, the cunt always looks like a right pig to me.
“Well what is it, douchebag,” he grunts. “You gonna tell us what we want to hear?”
I nod, looking at the ground, and he chuckles a wheezing laugh. “Speak, dipshit.”
I mumble something, and he scowls.
“The fuck was that? Speak English, fuckhead!”
“He speaks English, dude.”
Jay whips his head around and glares at the other blokes from their crew. “I know he speaks English, retard! I meant American English!” He turns back to glare at me. “Well?”
I mumble again, drooling slightly as I look at the ground.
Jay leans down closer, right over m, and I smile.
“Alright you dumb English motherfucker. Tell us what we want to hear, or we’re gonna—”
I thrust my head up, hard, catching Jay right in the nose. Blood sprays all over the place as he screams. I slam my forehead forwards, headbutting him right in the fucking balls, and the little piggy goes down hard, screaming and clutching his nuts.
I just start laughing my ass off, but Barnes roars, grabbing me by the throat. And suddenly, metal fills my mouth. I choke on the gun, suddenly unable to breath as I look up into the enraged face of the man who I stole from.
And the thing is? I’d steal her from him, and anyone else, a million times out of a million times, even if every fucking scenario ended with me here on my knees in an empty warehouse with a gun in my mouth.
“Last. Fucking. Chance.” Barnes hisses through clenched teeth, glaring at me. “We both know the only reason I haven’t blown your goddamn head off is because of the money Basher’s promised me. But my patience is thinning, dumbass, and I’m done with deals. Tell you what, you’re fucked either way, but if you give me this brother too, then I won’t put a bullet in Delphine’s pretty little head. But first I’m gonna make her watch me slice you up.”
As if on cue, there’s a screamed swear. My blood chills, and every muscle in my body clenches. I whip my head around, and I roar as I lunge to my feet. But Barnes and a few of his mates shove me back down, and a blade goes to my throat.
The van has been parked behind the rest of his guys since I came to. But I never imagined she was here too, inside of it. She screams again as the door slides open, two of Barnes’s guys hauling her out, dressed in a bathrobe.
Our eyes lock, my smoky blues on her pretty green ones, and I don’t blink.
“Her,” Barnes growls. “Look at her, that stupid fucking slut. Because that look of horror and disgust in her eyes when I carve your fucking face up first is gonna be the last thing you see.” The knife leaves my throat, and his gun levels against my forehead, right between the eyes.
“No more games, fuckhead,” Barnes hisses. The gun pushes to my head, and time goes still. I look at her, she looks right back at me, and I see forever and eternity in her eyes. I can feel the ways she moves under my hands, taste her sweet lips on mine, and hear her whispered words and lover’s prayers in my ears.
I see everything that’s happened, and everything that might have been. I see every choice made—every wrong turn, every right one, and every corner I never even looked around.
But it doesn’t matter. Every road and every choice leads back to her anyways.
“I’m counting to three,” Barnes says quietly.
I don’t blink
“One.”
Her face tightens, but she doesn’t scream. She doesn’t