Page 98 of Redd

Twisting on my heels, my arms hung by my sides. “So you're the asshole who likes to beat and humiliate woman.” Looking him up and down, I grinned. “I can see why you'd have to do it that way.”

Diablo didn't take kindly to my joke. His lips curved down, eyes ink black and lifeless. “Don't be fucking cute, Redd. I don't like cute. Trust me, you don't want to piss me off.”

Rocking my head back and forth against each shoulder, I thinned my lips. “I'm pretty sure I've already done that.”

He might be used to people just backing off and giving him whatever the hell he wanted. But I wasn't that man.

Val grunted, charging forward like a bull. “You little fucking shit!”

“Val!” Diablo barked, holding out his arm to stop him from going any further. “Not yet. You'll get your chance with him, but we still need him right now. I don't have my jewel, nothing happens to him until I get her back.”

Smiling, Val cracked his neck and took a step backwards. “You just wait, you just fucking wait.”

Furrowing my brows, my chest puffed up as the anger rose and bubbled. My body was hot, fire flowing through my veins. I wasn't giving Bijou back to this man, it didn't matter what he did to me.

I could take the pain, I could take the torture, but I could never take her being back in his hands.

“Fuck you.” Balling my fists, I clenched my teeth. “You'll never get her back.”

“Actually, I'm already working on that.” Flipping two fingers towards the men, the man I didn't know walked off. Diablo lifted a hand to his face, staring at the back of his palm. “You're reputation precedes you, Redd. I expected someone who was more professional, more. . .” Flicking his eyes up and down, his lip curled with disgust. “Clean.” Tucking his hands behind his back, he stood still.

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

“You know word travels, especially in our world.” Winking, he smiled. I wanted to knock his face off his fucking neck, but I stayed still. “You are one of us, does she know that?”

“I'm not one of you, I've never been one of you.”

“Are you sure about that?” Bouncing on his legs, he strolled around the room, picking up papers and looking at them with disinterest. “You're one of us because your hands are bloodied the same as mine. You've stolen, that's your expertise, and you've also killed, a little side effect of the job. It happens, I get that.”

“I've only killed because I was forced to.” Where was he going with this? I didn't like the way he was trying to paint me.

We were nothing alike. I stole to provide for my family, and I killed to protect them. That was way different than getting my jollies off of suffering and power.

Am I really that different? The last job wasn't for someone else, it was for me. . .

The thought stabbed my chest like a serrated blade, gutting me where I stood. Was he right? Were we more alike than I wanted to believe?

I had attempted to leave this business behind more than once, and it sucked me right back in. Not because we needed the money, not because I couldn't get another job doing something else—but because I liked it. I was good at it.

It was all I knew.

“But you've killed.” His smile glowed, gleaming with white fire. “The difference between us though—you come from shit. Your family was shit, your father was shit, and. . .” Holding up his finger, he wagged it in the air. “Your mother was shit.”

“Fuck you.” Spitting at his feet, my stomach coiled. “You know nothing about me.”

“I know enough. Your father was a drunk and your mother was a jobless whore. Did I peg that right?”

Steam blew from my ears, the room tunneled into a faint light, and Diablo's face was the center star. I lost it, I fucking lost control in a blink of an eye. I could take someone talking shit about my father, most of the time they were right. But my mother, she was off limits.

“And now you have my whore. I want the bitch back, Redd. I worked hard to mold her into my little pet. I won't let you just erase my hard work.”

Everything went black.

Flashes lit in my mind, quick blips of motion. Me running and screaming like a fucking soldier as I charged forward with blood in my eyes. I knew I hit him. I could feel his jaw on my knuckles and the sharp edges of his teeth as my fingers slipped over his mouth.

Then nothing.

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