Luckily, the place was slow when I arrived, so I got right in. The nurse was quick and efficient, getting me in record time. Which meant I had another hour before Eli and Finn would be expecting me.
Had it not been for that blinding glare I wouldn’t have noticed.
Sharply turning my head to avoid the sun’s stinging gaze. Watching in time as some jacked-up guy dressed in all black grabbed at a person running out of the store.
I smirk. This was the pick me up I needed today. Maybe they’d get arrested or tackled on the spot. I was about to bear witness to live-action karma for trying to steal.
The expression melted off my face like gum sitting on the pavement in the middle of summer. It wasn’t some random person. That figure, her shape—Rory.
Straight dark brown hair is pushed away from her eyes. The guy’s soon-to-be broken hands, forcefully yanks her back. Feet kicking up under her.
Sonof—a—bitch!
My foot was on the gas in the next second, whipping across the lanes. Traffic going in the other direction. Horns blared. Fingers were thrown. People cursed.
I didn’t care.
The wheels of my car come to a skidding stop. Taking up multiple spots as I throw my door open. Wedging my car into the parking spots on the opposite side of the road.
This guy had a death wish.
My teeth felt two seconds away from grinding into dust. Charging in their direction. A growl rips from my chest when I hear her scream in surprise at the force, he used to pull her back.
All I see is red. My vision a blind fury of rage.
Unemphatically, I rip his hands away. Blueish purple bruises already forming where he’d grabbed her upper arm.
This guy was going to hurt. He needed to feel pain, tobleed. But for now, discomfort would suffice. I needed answers.
My blood felt like lava inside my veins. A sick twisted feeling of satisfaction coming over me when he hollers. Bending his fingers back enough to dislocate them but not enough to snap them in two.
I still needed him to talk, and he wouldn’t be able to do that very well if he passed out on me from shock.
His eyes bulge out of his sockets. A cold sweat taking over. Pushing a little farther. Letting go when I hear the crack of his bone snapping. He opens his mouth to say something, but I round my fist, slamming it into his oily, blotchy, shining face before he gets the chance.
Fatty doesn’t get to ask the questions.
His nose swallowed under the weight of my fist. Only after I hear the crunch of bone-shattering, blood-gushing pain do I feel any remote sense of satisfaction.
twenty-three
Rory
“What-in-the-hell-do you think you’re doing?” Cole enunciates in a menacingly calm voice.
A chill runs down my spine, it being more intimidating than if he’d shouted. The softness the exact opposite of his rigid exterior. The uneven heaves in his chest being the only sign that he was human.
Had Cole brought Madison here?The thought snapping in my head like a rubber band.
Why did that sear me more than the security’s grip on my arm? Or where it had been. Currently, he’s a whimpering blob on the ground.
Had Cole been sitting in the parking lot the whole time? His car was still running and the distinct smell of rubber burning hangs in the air. My brain slow, trying to play catch-up.
The guy groaned in pain. Cole hunched over his lifeless body.
“Answer me.” Voice low, lethal.
He gives him about a point five second ratio of opportunity to answer. Grabbing him by the shoulders, Cole slams him into the brick storefront wall. Arm cutting across his throat.