Bain groaned, his temper flaring. No one insulted Scarlett. This was supposed to be enlightening for her, not make her feel like trash. When he heard her sobbing, he lost it, punching her ex in the mouth.
“You wish you had a woman like her.” Another punch to ensure he kept his fat mouth shut. “But you fucked up, and now she’s mine.”
When he heard several car doors slam shut, he peered out the window.
Fuck me!
Boss and three of his men were coming up the walkway. Bain had to protect Scarlett. If he had to he’d end the four of them, but it would guarantee a life of running, constantly looking over his shoulder.
Killian shoved open the door. The Irish prick was one of Boss’s newest acquisitions. He was cutthroat and heartless, not the type of man Bain wanted coming after Scarlett. His sadistic smile faded when he saw Scarlett standing against the wall in the foyer. It was rumored Killian never accepted contracts on women.
“Well, well, well. Look at this,” said Boss as he strolled in with two other hitmen. “I warned you to clean up your shit, Bain. Did I not warn you?”
“I have ev
erything under control.” Now that the Lisa knew Scarlett was alive and well, there weren’t any loose ends. The original witness wasn’t a problem because she belonged to Bain now.
“Obviously not if I’ve wasted my morning doing clean up when I had plans to hit the gym. That doesn’t put me in a good mood,” said Boss.
One of the hitmen took a step toward Scarlett, and Bain instinctively drew the gun from his back, aiming it at the man’s face. “Don’t even fucking breathe on her,” he warned.
“Interesting,” said Boss. “I remember Viper telling me they’d fucked you up beyond the point of no return when you were a kid. Now, look at this. Ready to kill poor Carlos for a piece of pussy.” He shrugged and strolled around the room, a gun swinging in his hand.
“What’s going on?” asked Michael.
All attention diverted to him after he spoke. “And who the hell is this little fuck? I don’t have any guy on my loose-end list, just the two women. Well, one woman,” said Boss, scratching his forehead with the muzzle of his gun. “Are you trying to make this more difficult for me on purpose, Bain?”
“Leave Lisa alone!” Scarlett said. She was terrified, but brave when it came to helping others. He liked that about her.
“Was that her name? I’d forgotten already,” said Boss. “Well, I’ve cleaned up that epic disaster since you couldn’t, and now we’re here.”
“You killed her?” Scarlett asked. She started crying uncontrollably, but Bain couldn’t take his eyes off Boss or his men just yet. Dogs barked in the distance, the hum of a lawnmower drowning out Scarlet’s sobs. It was a regular morning for the neighborhood.
Boss ignored her. “Care to finish this up, Bain? Despite your unrefined methods, I can still see your value. I won’t be cutting you loose just yet.”
Bain moved his outstretched arm, shifting to point the handgun at Michael. It wasn’t a hard decision considering he’d wanted that fucker dead the moment Bain knew of his existence. As long as he was alive, that deep-seated fear would live on in Scarlett. Those memories and secrets needed to be terminated permanently. When he’d escaped his captors as a teen, murdering them all didn’t erase the nightmares, but it helped.
Bain pulled the trigger.
Chapter Eight
Michael fell in a heap with blood spattering the wall. Scarlett didn’t feel anything for the evil bastard now that he was dead. He had taken so much from her and made her feel more pain than anyone ever had. Michael was part of the reason why she would have gladly found peace in her own death.
Lisa was her problem. Her best friend was dead. No, she couldn’t be dead. Scarlett wouldn’t believe it. Lisa was a sweet woman. She stared at the man who seemed to be the leader, the one doing most of the talking and not a lot of listening.
“Now, why do you have a problem with doing that to this one right here?” The man yelled as he pointed from Michael’s body to her.
“Boss, I told you to back out of it, and I mean it.” Bain grabbed her hand, and he had a gun raised at the men. She held onto Bain, and wondered, not for the first time, why she felt safe with him. He might be a murderer, but her ex had been so much worse to her.
Michael hurt me so badly that he killed my baby.
He was a monster.
She held in her sob, refusing to let her painful memories distract Bain. He didn’t know. No one knew how Michael had thrown her downstairs, and repeatedly kicked her in the stomach and back until she miscarried on the floor. He wouldn’t take her to the hospital for the longest time, and when he did Scarlett was forced to lie about the violence. She had to see the painful evidence of what she had lost.
Had it made her a little mad in the head? She didn’t know.
Boss sighed, and then he began to pace. He took four steps one way and four steps the other. For someone who paced he was rather precise in how he dealt with his steps. She felt crazy for being hypnotized by the way someone walked.