Page 94 of Promises in the Dark

I raised an eyebrow, intrigued. Dirty bastard had a plan, alright. “And the TXA vial?” I asked, the words punctuated by the sharp inhales of my smoke.

She took a drag herself, eyes flicking over to me like I just kicked a hornet’s nest. “He either changed the labels or swapped the TXA with Heparin,” she replied, exhaling a cloud of smoke that hung in the air like a dark omen.

My grip on the cigarette tightened until the ash crumbled under my fingers.

“How did he know you’d be the one treating Viper?” I asked, smoke billowing from my nostrils.

She shook her head, her frown deepening. “He went out of his way to ensure I was always around Viper. Set the whole thing up."

I could feel my blood turning into liquid lava.

That son of a bitch. That dirty, rotten scumbag. He had put my teammate’s life on the line just to hurther. That crossed every line in the book.

“I swear to fucking God,” I told her straight up, crushing the cigarette between my fingers. “I’m gonna find him, Red. And when I do, I’m gonna tear him apart, limb by fucking limb,” I swore, and I meant every word of it.

After I was done with him, he would be shitting sideways for the rest of his miserable life.

Justice wasn’t going to serve itself on a silver platter. Sometimes, you’ve gotta to grab it by the balls and squeeze until it screams.

I straightened my back, squared my shoulders, and made a promise to myself, to Red, to the universe at large: I wouldn’t back down. Not now, not ever. Because sometimes, being a terrible person was the only fucking way to do what was right.

It was payback time, motherfucker.

Chapter 26

_______________________

“You can’t kill Dylan,” Red whimpered, her eyes going wide like I just told her I was going to summon Lucifer himself to rip her soul out.

She had to go and play the morality card. But I wasn’t listening, not really. All I could hear was the pounding of my own heart, the roar of fury that drowned out her little protests.

“Can’t do it, huh?” I chuckled, the sound bitter and mocking. “Funny thing, Red, is I can do whatever the fuck I want.”

Her response was weak, pitiful even. “That isn’t justice.”

I barked out a laugh. “Neither is letting that bastard walk free.”

She opened her mouth, those soft lips forming words I didn’t give a damn about. “Murder isn’t a solution, Rogue,” she stated between drags.

I scoffed, standing up so fast the bed creaked beneath me. “Oh, it’ll solve plenty. For example, it’ll solve the problem of him ever hurting you again.”

She shook her head, her ruby curls bouncing with each movement, and for a moment, I almost regreted it.

Almost.

“Killing Dylan will just make everything worse,” she said, her voice all fragile like she actually believed that crap.

“Worse?” I growled, my voice low and infused with enough rage to ignite a forest fire. “Worse than what he did to you? To Viper?”

Red stubbed out her cigarette on the bedside table, the ember sizzling against the wood. “What’s worse,” she said, her hands trembling in her lap, “is becoming just like him. A monster.”

I looked at her, really looked at her, and saw the pain etched in every damn line of her face. It tore me up inside, knowing that I was the cause of some of that pain.

I couldn’t back down. Not when I let that sorry excuse for a man lay his hands on her. Not when I stood by and did nothing while she suffered.

“Well, darling, according to you, I’m already a monster,” I sneered, leaning in close enough for her to smell the nicotine on my breath, “so what’s one more sin on my rap sheet?”

Red stood up, her cigarette slipping from her fingers, spiraling downward to the floor like a tiny burning comet. “You think that’s an excuse?!” she snapped, her voice cracking like a whip. “You think just because you’ve done some terrible things in the past, you get a free pass to do whatever the hell you want?!”

---