Page 77 of Steel

I kick the fucking body at my feet in a fit before turning away to help Bryson.

He’s dragging another man out by the arm, and I wince at the awkward angle he’s got it.

Ouch.

Not that it matters. Motherfucker will be dead shortly anyway.

“Who do we have here?” I ask as I reach them.

“No clue. He’s decided he’d rather bite his own tongue off than tell me anything,” Bryson answers.

When I glance down at the guy, he’s got blood pouring from his mouth and his lips are curved into a bloody smile.

“Huh. I wonder if he knows he’s goin’ to die from that?”

The man’s eyes widen, and I laugh. “Oh, shit. Really didn’t fuckin’ know that? Ain’t walkin’ out of here regardless, but you should’ve been a lot smarter before bitin’ off your tongue if dyin’ wasn’t your intention.”

He starts to scoot backward, but Bryson lifts a booted foot and places it on the wound in his abdomen to stop him. The man writhes, letting out a sound I’ve heard so many times in this life that I’m surprised it hasn’t followed me into my sleep yet. His is more off-key without his tongue, but the tune is still the same.

“Wastin’ time here. He’s useless to me, same as the other.”

I lift my gun, but before I can pull the trigger, Bryson is already putting a bullet between his eyes.

He peers over at me. “What next?”

“Now, we get their bodies back in the van, set it on fire, and get the fuck out of here. The guns are clean, so we have nothing to worry about there, and the fire will destroy anything else.”

We work in tandem to get it done as quickly as possible, making sure to create the fire so that it reaches the two areas where the guys were shot so there’s no sign they were ever outside the van. It also takes care of the blood that dripped from my shoulder.

“Shit. Why didn’t you fucking say you were shot, man?” Bryson asks when he sees me holding my shoulder. He turns toward me and pulls my hand away. “Fuck, I can’t see shit. I need to check this out before we leave. Come on. I keep a kit stashed in the bag on my bike. We’ll have to use the flashlight on your phone, so you’ll have to hold it.”

While he grabs his kit, I climb onto my bike and pull my phone from my pocket, turning on the flashlight as he makes his way back to me.

He snaps on gloves, grabs a small pair of scissors, and cuts away the cotton material of my t-shirt so he can see the wound.His head tilts this way and that, then he pokes at it gently, earning him a hiss from me.

“Thankfully, it’s not that bad. You got fucking lucky. Just a deep graze, but it’ll need sutures. You good without anything to numb it?” He chuckles darkly. “Never thought I’d be doing them in the field after murdering someone, but here the fuck I am.”

“Get it done, so we can fuckin’ go. Don’t like bein’ in the open like this with the fire attractin’ attention.”

“Fuck. Shit. Yeah, okay.” He’s fast as he gets the shit ready, and he doesn’t even give me notice before he’s shoving the fucking needle through my goddamn skin. “Figured it’d be better if you weren’t prepared for it.”

A few minutes later, he shoves everything back into the kit and stands. “You’re good. Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

I nod. “Hey, Bryson.” He peers over at me as he climbs onto his bike. “That darkness inside you? I’d make friends with it if I were you. Because the last thing you want is for it to be your enemy. It’ll end up eatin’ away at your soul until it’s the only thing left and you’ll be nothing more than a memory. Embrace it instead of tryin’ to hide it away like it’s something to be ashamed of. Probably wasn’t always who you were, but circumstances created it. Be a magician and weave it to fit who you are now so you can be at your highest potential, wieldin’ it to protect everyone you love.”

We take off into the night, leaving the death and destruction behind us as we continue our journey back home.

In the meantime, as Bryson faces and accepts the darkness that resides inside him, it’s time I come to terms with the feelings that reside in me. Feelings for my Hummingbird. Feelings that I’ve run from for too long. Back then, they didn’t overpower as badly as they do now. It killed me to walk away from her then. Fucking hated doing it, but I felt like I had nochoice. This time, I’m not sure there’s ever going to be a chance of me walking away.

Bailee fucking Sterling is my goddamn divine intervention.

Chapter twenty-one

Heather does her bestto carry on a conversation with me while I wait for Lyric to get her shit together, but I keep it as minimal as possible. She knows I’m mad as fuck, but she also knows I’m not going to do shit about it as long as my daughter is around, so she’s trying to take advantage of that.

Sometimes, I really do think she forgets who the fuck it is she has a kid with. She thinks she’s been able to manipulate me all these years, not realizing the only reason she’s ever gotten away with any of the shit is because of the love I have for my little girl. There’s going to come a time where even that isn’t going to be enough to stop me.

Last night worked out some of the aggression that had been riding me hard since the fallout with Bailee, but it’s only taken this woman trying to get under my skin to almost have it rising back to the surface.

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