Page 18 of Encounter

One of his friends stopped aiming at Larissa—instead, he pointed toward the back entrance with the mouth of his gun. Moving slowly and observing all of them, trying to figure out which one to take first, I started walking toward it.

I already knew Jack couldn’t fight for shit. The two of his friends were bigger, but not as big as me, so I was most likely going to be able to overpower them. The three of them all had guns, though, so I had to take care of those first. Even if I was to get stabbed by that little bastard, it was enough risk to take for removing the guns from the equation.

Everyone stood in silence as we passed through the room. Galen and Karin were on the way, so I made sure to lock eyes with him as I passed.

“Don’t worry,” I murmured, trying to make it seem like I aimed my words at everyone and not just him. He looked scared to death,dammit. “I’ll be back,” I added quickly when the guy behind me rushed me. Breath shallow and shaky, Galen stared at me, but eventually managed to nod lightly before Jack opened the heavy back door and I followed him.

Forget about him now.

Time seemed to have slowed as I narrowed my perception, forcing my brain to acknowledge nothing but the situation I was in, and how to get out of it.

Jack continued walking toward the open space of the nearly empty back lot. I sensed another person next to me through my peripheral vision. The energy started to pick up as they prepared for the fight, but their mistake was the assurance they felt about who was going to win.

I slowed down my step enough for the guy to pass me. When Jack ahead of us turned to him—with that stupid grin on his face as they joked about killing me—I honed in on the conversation of the two behind me. They weren’t paying attention.

It was all jokes to them.A big mistake.

Taking in a deep breath, I stopped and when the two were just within reach, I turned.

The first one was easy. The blow into the center of his throat with the side of my flexed hand was unexpected and lethal. He yelped, and as his body tried to scramble to register what happened, I grabbed the gun that slipped his grip. The other only managed to find me with a wide stare when I already aimed it at his head. I shot before he could lift his arm.

Turning on my heel, I jumped back, knowing the two at the front would have enough time to react. The first one was about to go down—coughing and gasping—when I grabbed him around the neck and pulled him up, using him as a shield.

The man next to Jack opened his mouth, wanting to shout something as he aimed his gun at me. He shouldn’t have hesitated. His friend was already dead.

I shot again and barely heard the shout Jack let out over the ringing in my ears. The man stumbled a few steps and fell on his back, dropping the gun next to him.

This is way too fucking easy.

Jack trembled like a little bitch, looking around in a panic. He started lifting his arms up, probably ready to beg a ‘brown fuck’ like me to spare him, but I wasn’t interested in shooting him. No, I was going to give him the same personal treatment he intended for me.

With a disgusted scoff, I released my grip on the neck of his comrade. His body fell, still twitching, but no longer gasping for air.No one’s coming back from that.

Giving Jack my best Kubrick stare, I dropped my hand and walked slowly toward him, enjoying the look of sheer panic on his face.

Heknewhe was no match for me with that little knife, so his bulging eyes went right for the gun not far from him, next to the pool of his friend’s blood. He tried to dash for it, but he had no chance. Putting all of my force into it, I flung the gun against his head.

Bullseye.

Shouting, Jack fell to the ground, holding his face. By the time he came back to his senses, I was already above him. Clicking my tongue, I stepped on his hand with my boot as he tried to make a move for the gun again. He looked close to pissing himself as he whimpered on the ground.

“Would you look at that... Not even your friends can help you keep your white pride intact, huh?” I teased him with a grin, even if I was actually raging inside.

I was ready to kill him in a thousand different ways, one worse than the other. Coming in like that—the nerve of him topay me backfor teaching the abusive fuck a lesson, threatening people, stopping me as I was going to have some good time... He just about did it all.

People are probably watching. I need to control myself.

While Jack cowered with his head down, I glanced over my shoulder. As expected, the two back windows were filled with onlookers, watching like this was some rodeo. I quickly found Galen—pale and covering his mouth with his hand.

He probably shouldn’t have seen something like this.

I didn’t know why I felt so heavy, even considering sparing that dumb motherfucker at my feet. Then, Galen’s eyes widened, and his finger shot in my direction.

With a grunt, I dodged Jack’s knife, but he caught me on the arm. I grabbed his wrist, making the cracking of his bone accompanied by his screams and the clacking of the knife hitting the concrete.

“I’ve had enough of you,” I groaned through clenched teeth, twisting his arm until it dislocated. I wasn’t going to let him have another shot—ever again—so I started punching, kneeling above him. I slapped his hand away as he tried to protect himself and kept hitting until my knuckles were sore, and sticky with blood.

All I could hear was the beating of my heart. I should’ve gone and killed him the first time I noticed Karin‘s bruises.Fucking lowlife.

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