“Stay right where you are,” I said and hung up the phone. Rowan’s words ringing through my head.
I thought about what Scrappy would do in the same situation. Rowan was right. He’d never be okay with clipping an eighteen-year-old kid. Not even if that kid had cut my throat.
I went back to the bathroom and dragged Li’L Frisco out to the center of the hotel room. I then cut him free from the chair and removed the tape from his mouth.
“Sit on the bed, keep your mouth shut, and listen to me carefully,” I said. “I wanted to make you pay for what you did to my brother more than anything else in this world, and I had no reason not to. Now I have two.”
“You’re letting me go free?”
“Nothing’s free,” I replied. “In fact, the Kings no longer own you, I do.”
“What do you mean?”
“Meaning, you’re gonna leave town tonight,” I said, pulling out my money roll and peeling off five hundred bucks. “Get on the first bus out of here and don’t stop until there’s at least three states between us. When you get to wherever you’re going, call me and I’ll wire you some more money.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I’m giving you money to get the hell out of town and away from the Kings. Once you find a place to make a life, you’ll have one week to find a job. I’m gonna check on you twice a month and if you haven’t made something better out of your life, I’ll find you and rescind this offer. Do you understand what I’m saying, now, Benjamin?”
“Yes. I understand.”
“Good, now get dressed and get the hell outta here.”
I gave him fifty-fifty odds of getting his shit together, but right now, I didn’t care. I needed to get back to Rowan as soon as possible. All that mattered now was my family. Not my pain or even my grief, and least of all vengeance disguised as justice.
Rowan
“Why are youdoing this?” I rasped. I was tied to the side of the tub, unable to move.
“Because I can,” Gary said with a crooked sneer.
“But you shouldn’t be able to walk.”
“Your man missed,” he taunted.
Only it wasn’t Gary who said it.
It was Stanley.
“You’re supposed to be dead,” I whispered.
Stanley chuckled, a sinister sound filled with hate. “Didn’t you know? I can never die. I will always find you.”
I opened my mouth, letting out a blood-curdling scream, hoping to god Scooby would hear me.
“Fuck, baby.” Scooby sat up beside me, wrapping his arms tight around my waist as I forced myself awake. “It’s just a dream.”
I fell back against him and twisted in his arms. “It was so real.”
“Come here,” he said, pulling me down over his chest, kissing me gently.
My heart started to calm, but Lord was barking in his crate in the living room, so I pushed up against Scooby. “Let me show Lord I’m okay.”
“I’ll get him.” He threw the covers off his body. “But he’s gonna see you’re okay, then I’m gonna let him out to piss, then he’s goin’ right back in his crate. No gettin’ in bed with us.”
“Crew—”
Scooby had come home after his meeting with Li’L Frisco and told me the entire story. I’d been so proud of him, but it had also scared me to the point of another panic attack that Lord had ended up in our bed for the next two nights, mostly because he couldn’t settle in his crate knowing I was still anxious.