Page 104 of Love Lies Bleeding

I look at Eddie and he smirks before I grip Kendrick’s jaw in a brutal hold that has him fighting to pull away. “Do we look like men who need your money, Kendrick?”

“Nooo.”

“No, we do not. So tell me, why would I spare you your sorry life when all you’ve done is cause misery and pain to everyone who knows you?”

“Lorelei. You can take her as payment. She’s a good lay and doesn’t mind being passed around.”

How has this man been allowed to live and breathe the same air as normal people? “You really are a disgusting excuse for a human being, aren’t you, Kendrick? Willing to do anything to save your own skin now that the game’s not so fun.”

“Please, Jake, we were friends. I love you and you left me for Hunter, and then that pink-haired slut.”

A growl rips from my throat as I punch him in the face. “Don’t you fucking dare. I’ll slit your throat and let you bleed out like the animal you are.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Save it. There’s nothing you can do to stop me from ending you. I would’ve walked away and left you alive after Harvard but you went after her mom, and then you went after my girl. The woman I love, and that means you get to die.”

Kendrick is a weak man. He’s always hidden behind his family and his money but he’s pathetic and it shames me that I ever spent any time with him at all.

“You’re a stain on society, Kendrick, and the world will be better off with you not in it.”

I produce a small pocket knife from my pocket which Hank gave me for my nineteenth birthday, when he took me and Hunter camping.

“Lorelei is pregnant. I’m gonna be a father, Jake.”

I cock my head, wanting to understand how he could think it’s okay to offer Lorelei up to me as a way to keep him alive and then a second later tell me she’s having his baby. Both are abhorrent to me, but then I’ll never understand a man like him because he isn’t really a man, he’s a leech on humanity.

“Then I’m doing that kid the biggest favor of its life by ending you.”

Done talking and wanting nothing more than to get back to my girl, I lift my arm and stab him in the heart, twisting the knife as he cries out in pain and making sure I’m the last thing he sees as the life drains from his eyes.

I yank the knife from his chest and Eddie hands me a clean rag. I wipe the blade and let the relief wash over me knowing that Kendrick is gone, and my Cherry Blossom is safe.

“Strip and put your clothes in the dumpster over there. The rag, too. I’ll torch the lot and make sure there’s no evidence we were ever here.”

I follow Eddie’s directions, trusting him despite knowing even less than I thought I did. He does the same with his own clothes and then throws gasoline over the top before he throws a match on the lot. Chucking a bundle of clothes at me, he starts to dress in sweats and a grey hoodie and I do the same, wondering again how he’s really involved and why. He might love Cherry like he says, but this is a whole other level of protection.

“Who the fuck are you?”

Eddie chuckles. “Now, wouldn’t you like to know.”

“Yes, I fucking would. Which is why I asked.”

“Let’s just say I wasn’t always Eddie Crowe, and leave it that, hey, amico.”

A dawning realization that perhaps Eddie has closer ties to the Mancini family than I could fathom hits me, and I decide I don’t want any more answers.

“Fair enough.” I hold out my hand and Eddie takes it. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Just take care of her. She’s a good girl.”

Still holding his hand, I pull him closer. “I will, and for the record, I don’t care who you are, who you have ties with, if you ever put your hands on her again, I’ll cut them off with a rusty blade.”

Eddie chuckles and squeezes my hand to the point of pain before he lets go and I turn and leave. It’s time to get back to my girl and start the rest of my life.

Epilogue One: Cherry

I wake when Jake tries to slide his arm out from under my warm body so he can shower and get ready for the day.

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