Page 6 of Unhinged Little Angel

“Not close enough.” He doesn’t bother to hide the growl this time, not now that he thinks he has me.

The drug dealer leaning against the flickering streetlight on the corner won’t even look this way if I scream, and none of the cars driving by will bother to stop. On this side of Wildcliff, people mind their own business, for better or worse. He’s about to find out why that’s just as bad for him as it is for me.

I gasp quietly and pretend to put up a token struggle as he shoves me towards the mouth of the alley.

“Don’t you know how dangerous it is around here for sweet little pieces of ass like you?” he whispers right into my ear, his hot breath just as rancid as the rest of him.

I swallow down the bile in my throat and focus on the churning pit of rage in my gut. I never know whether I should be glad that it’s so easy to find a target or if I should add it to my list of reasons this city deserves to be burned to the ground along with everyone inside of it. But as I tighten my fist, feeling the weight of the metal wrapped around my fingers and the adrenaline rushing eagerly through my veins, I settle on grateful. At least this gives me purpose. Every disgusting pervert I leave bleeding is a good deed done for this city. They should build me a fucking statue at this rate.

He pushes me towards the nearest wall in the shadows of the alley, and I pretend to trip, using the move to stumble forward a few steps, catching him completely off guard as I spin on him. The hard metal around my knuckles connects with his jaw before he even realizes what’s happening, and my hood falls back. I don’t know how well he can see the hatred in my eyes or the light stubble on my jaw giving me away as a grown man rather than a pre-teen, but as his head snaps to the side, I’m sure he at least knows he made a big fucking mistake.

I haul my fist back again while he’s still stumbling and deliver another hard blow. Unlike at the club, there’s nothing holding me back. It’s too dark for him to ever identify me, and he deserves every ounce of my rage. Every fleshy hit is righteous, every pained grunt that falls from his lips is a prayer for my deliverance. He tries to fight back at first, but I already have the upper hand, my knee pressed down on his chest to pin him to the ground as I batter his face, thinking about all of the weak, terrified, vulnerable people he’s pulled into alleys before who had no way of fighting back.

“Does it make you feel strong to hurt kids, you sick fuck?” I hiss between clenched teeth. “Not so strong now, are you?”

My chest is heaving and the muscles in my arms ache from the exertion. He’s barely moving now, his chest still rising and falling weakly, his breaths wheezing out through his broken nose.

“Think about me the next time you want to hurt someone. You never know where I’ll be hiding, and I promise you that I only give gentle warnings like this one once.” I spit on his bloodied face, wipe my hands off on his crumpled shirt, then get to my feet.

A flash of light at the mouth of the alley makes me wince, but it’s gone just as quickly. Probably headlights from a car. I stuff my hands back into my pockets and glare down at him for another second before I turn and walk away. The beast inside of me is finally soothed and sleep is calling to me.

SALVATORE

“Looked like you pissed off yourAngiolettoearlier,” Alessio says with a slight slur and a chuckle, slumping in the seat next to me while our driver dutifully looks ahead, navigating the nearly empty pre-dawn streets of Wildcliff and ignoring our conversation.

A flare of heat fills my gut at the memory of Dante getting in my face earlier, seething like the brat he is, practically daring me to push back and prove to him that I’m the same kind of monster he thinks everyone else is. He barely looked at me when he finally brought our drinks and never lingered the rest of the night. I could see it in the set of his shoulders and the repressed rage in his eyes that he wasn’t satisfied with how the altercation ended though. I just don’t know if it was yelling at me or only getting to break the other asshole’s nose that left him wound so tight.

I can’t decide which part of Alessio’s drunken taunting to address, but I settle on murmuring, “He’s not mine.”

Alessio chuckles again and shakes his head, and irritation claws its way into my chest.

“You’re the one who couldn’t stop staring at him while he danced tonight,” I remind him, carefully keeping a handle on the urge to press my thumbs into my close friend’s eyeballs until it’s impossible for him to ever defile my angel with his filthy, lecherous gaze again.

“Yeah, but that was only to piss you off.” He shrugs and loosens his tie, flashing me a shit-eating grin.

“You know I could shoot you, right?” I say blandly, and the driver’s eyes flicker to the rearview mirror for a fraction of a second before he remembers to mind his own business and returns them to the road.

“But you won’t.” He’s got the kind of confidence that makes me want to at least pistol whip him a little so he remembers I’m capable of violence. But he’s right, I won’t. “Why don’t you ask him out already? Flash your platinum card around a little, take him to a fancy restaurant, promise to take him away from a life where he has to let strangers grope him, and make him a kept man like we all know you want to.”

Maybe I should rethink my stance on pistol whipping him. It’s not like it would leave any permanent damage, it would just shut his stupid, drunk mouth.

“He’s like a dog that’s been kicked too many times, all teeth and claws. If I tell him I want to take him out, he’ll probably think I’m telling him I’m going to kill him.”

Alessio cackles. “You scared he’ll break your hand if you ask him on a date?”

“No,Stronzo, I want to show him he can trust me before I make a move. Things like this take time.”

The car slows to a stop in front of Alessio’s building and he sits up, reaching for the door handle.

“If you say so,Coglione.” He ruffles my hair like the pain in the ass that he is and then hops out of the car and disappears inside the building.

I settle back into my seat as the car pulls away from the curb again, Alessio’s words echoing in my head. I know I’m right on this one though. If I rush things with Dante, he’ll just fight harder. I’ve never seen anyone with their guard up so high. He doesn’t just have walls up; he has an electric fence around the wall and a goddamn moat filled with crocodiles on the other side. But he’s not counting on the amount of patience I have.

“Change of plans. Drop me here.”

The driver glances back at me through the mirror and nods.

“Yes, sir,” he murmurs, pulling up to the curb so I can get out. “Do you want me to wait?”

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