"Okay, Xander. You always take care of me." She nuzzles into my neck, and the erection I had moments ago from Lisa gets harder. I fight to get my thoughts back to safe ground.

Football plays, brains splattered against the ceiling, old wrinkly hands jerking me off.

"What's going on here?

Mel reaches down and pokes my cock with her finger. I let out a gruff breath. She's the only woman who has ever touched me without actually wanting to fuck me. When we were younger, she said she wanted to see what a dick looked like, so I showed her mine. Then she said she wanted to touch it, so I let her. She wasn't expecting me to ejaculate in her palm, but when I was thirteen, there wasn't much I had control over in that department. Since then, she randomly pokes and touches me.

"I was on the phone with Lisa. I can get that girl to do whatever the hell I want her to do." I shrug, and she shakes her head like she's disappointed. Mel and I have never crossed that line, so I gotta get my rocks off somewhere else.

"I can stay in my room if you want to ask her to come over." She offers and stands up.

"Do you want that, Mel?

She looks down and threads her dirty fingers together. "No, I want you, Xander. Can you stay with me?"

"Of course, Rabbit. you know you're my first girl." I say, and she smiles sweetly at me. She walks slowly to her room, and I let the smile I keep specifically reserved for her drop off my face. Someone had the nerve to touch her, and now they're going to wish they never had.

* * *

I wait until Mel is tucked in, safe, warm, and in a deep sleep before I steal off into the middle of the night to catch up with the motherfucker who thought they were going to get away with hurting her.

I look at my phone again, double-checking the location the tracking chip in Mel's phone is giving me. It was installed the minute I bought it for her. Even if it's off, I can still locate it. It's so miniature, no one would even know it was there unless they were looking for it.

Along with telling me the exact location of the phone, if the perp threw the phone away, it would also give me a backtrack of everywhere it stopped, so I could backtrack and find him that way. Either way, He was going to see my face tonight.

I walk up the stairs to a disgusting, run-down building. It still has tenants, but honestly, the building should be condemned.

I knock on the door the signal seems to be coming from. A thin man opens it up. In his hand is Mel's phone. He's making this too easy.

"What do you want?" He snaps at me. His eyes are bloodshot, and I can tell by the way he keeps biting his lips, he's high on something.

"I want your life, motherfucker." With a snarl, I grab hold of his throat to keep him from screaming out. He tries to fight me off, but I pull out my butterfly knife and hook it inside his nose to keep him still. He whimpers and rises on his tiptoes to keep the blade from slicing through the thin skin.

"Is there anyone else here?" I ask, and he shakes his head no.

"If you're lying to me, I'm going to have to torture you slower because it means I'm going to have to kill them first. You don't want that, do you?" I say, moving from one side of the door to the next. I kick the door closed behind me.

He shakes his head no again. I can tell by the foam collecting at the sides of his mouth that he's going to be out of air soon. He continues to shake his head no, and after a second, I let him go but leave my knife shoved up his nostril. He drags in a bunch of air.

"What do you want? I don't have anything. I don't have anything!" He repeats over and over again.

"No, you don't, and you thought it would be okay for you to take things that don't belong to you."

"Are you here about the contract? I was only looking into it. I didn't know she had one out on her. I didn't even accept it!" The man has piqued my interest, talking about this contract.

"What the fuck are you talking about? Start fucking talking right now." I pull the knife through his nostril, and blood starts pouring down the front of his shirt. He opens his mouth to scream, and I hook the blade against his cheek.

"Do it, I fucking dare you, and I swear by the time they find your body, you're going to look more like the joker than anyone in real life." He doesn't close his mouth, but he doesn't scream either.

"The wallet I stole today, that's what you're talking about, right?

I nod my head.

"I ran the two kids' names through the system. Sometimes luck is on my side and I find people wanted by the police or others who pay me a ransom. I put her name in, and someone named Luke Di Cesaro reached out about hiring me to bring her to him. I didn't take it. I'm not a bounty hunter."

Bile bubbles up in my throat. Fucking hell, this piece of shit bastard!

"That's good for you because you'd have to disappoint your new employer if you did. You're not going to be able to do any jobs."