Page 110 of His Pretty Little Duet

Clay

Steadily,I stalk towards the garden shed, eyes focused ahead, while in my peripherals Lee is being hauled across the lawn by Vinny and two of my soldiers.

She'll be okay.

She's fast asleep.

She's safe.

It isn’t enough. I want—dammit—I need my eyes on her at all times. Need my hands close. My Glock drawn. I need the world to stop turning, to freeze so I can give her every inch of attention. Every inch of me.

I need to fix this.

I can't fix this.

Can't kill the ghosts in her mind.

Holding it all in, a thunderous volatility stirring, I enter the garden shed. Flicking the light on as the laboured sounds of the fucker being dragged through the doors carry on behind me, I don't speak. I watch as he is strapped to a chair in the centre of the space.

"You okay, Boss?" One of my soldiers asks, but I don't answer, just stare at Vinny as he begins to beat the fucker Leeto a pulp. I don't respond when the first tooth fractures or when they all start to splinter and litter the dusty ground. While the brutal scene takes place, I'm thinking about her sprinting into the pool, sinking to the concrete base, giving up. After all her fighting, after clawing through life to survive, for a moment, she was willingly drowning.

"Boss?"

A harsh cry drags me back to the vision of violence in front of me. "Enough," I order, but it's too late as Lee is already a bludgeoned mass. I don't care. I'm not thinking straight.

I was too late to stop her.

Too busy.

Vinny halts with his fist in the air before moving out of my way. I step forward and clasp my hands. "Hello, Lee. That was a very fatal thing you did today, my boy."

When he opens his mouth, blood instantly flows from the hole.Fuck.He rips a word across his bloody tongue. "Please."

"It smarts, doesn't it? You get used to it. I don't know if you know this about me, but I used to box a lot when I was in boarding school." I drag a chair over the pavers until I'm close to him. "There was this large caged area behind the theatre for all the props and whatnot. And we would have underground fights Saturday nights when there was only a skeleton staff on. Mondays, we were black and blue." I reach forward and grab his jaw, pulling a guttural moan from him. I inspect his bloodied, gummy mouth, wanting to ram my fist down there and rip his tongue out, wanting to beat him to death myself.

Needing to move.

My body turns to steel against the fight inside me. Exhaling roughly, I drop his jaw, lean back, and lift my ankle to rest it on my knee, but my foot jolts back and forth—a tic festering inside me—my restraint not reaching far enough with the sight of mysweet girl, my little deer, in so much pain. "Who gave you the SD card?"

He whimpers, his mouth moving like he wants to speak but jerking pathetically at the pain. I notice the large muscle within, bitten and swollen, filling the space.

I shoot Vinny a quick glance; he should know fucking better than to beat him within an inch of his life. "Where is Dustin staying?"

His head drops forward, and he gurgles the words as a thick stream of blood pours from his mouth. "Please."

Fucking please.

Restless, I lean forward, onto my knees, getting closer. "He's in the District." I assume, feeling this information in my very gut. "I know he is. Just give me the hotel, the address, the people safe-housing him, and I'll makeallthis pain go away."

"J-Jimmy,"he chokes out, a flowing crimson waterfall gushing from his open mouth. I clench my jaw at the sound of Jimmy's name. At the sound of my phantom. A dark cloud that covers all.

"Jimmy is dead, my boy. What are you talking about?"

His voice is already halfway to hell when he murmurs, "Watched the girl."

My body stiffens as something I've missed opens me up, allowing the ghosts of inadequacy to fill me. Right under my nose. Treachery seeps into my muscles. My Butcher head roars within my well-mannered façade. Of course. Always four steps ahead of me, even in death, old boy.

I worked beside Jimmy for the past decade, his chosen heir, and I still don't know all his hands. All his influence.I'mthe damn fool. "Who is watching her now? Who gave you the SD card?"

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