Page 64 of Love & Vendettas

Terran’s eyes go ice-cold and then blank as they swivel toward me.

“Good, muthafucka. I see you’ve got murder in your eyes. Malik, free him,” I say.

Malik looks uncertainly at me.

“Now,” I demand in a low, dark voice.

Malik releases Terran’s hands, and he instantly lunges for me, swinging with a powerful left.

Stumbling backward, I say, “That’s all you’ve got?”

He swings again with a hard right and catches me in the ribs. That hit is followed by several hits to my gut, my jaw, and my sides.

“Come on, surely you’ve got more than that in you,” I taunt, swiping the blood from my mouth.

Reaching inside my pocket, I grab the brass knuckles and slip them onto my hands. Terran is blinded by rage, and he doesn’t pay attention to what I’m doing.

He hits me harder and harder until I fall. He proceeds to kick me in the side, and when he gets ready to kick me again, I grab his foot, pulling it until he falls on his back. Rocketing up from my position on my back, I straddle him and begin pummeling his face with my brass knuckles.

I’ve allowed him to get his feelings off his chest. Now it’s my turn.

“You came after my family!” I roar. “You came after my woman! The one who bore my seed. What the fuck made you think you’d get away with that shit? Huh?”

Another blow punctuates each word.

I split his eye and jaw open and continue pounding his face as it begins to cave in.

“Z!” Kim shouts through the dark fog that’s taken over my brain. “Z!”

I feel arms pulling at me, but I don’t stop until Ghalen lifts me off Terran. Malik jumps between us as I go for Terran again, who’s struggling to get to his feet.

“Z. You want to make him suffer. You made us promise not to let you kill him but make him suffer,” Malik reminds me as Ghalen pushes me away from Terran and over near the bag.

Nodding, I swipe the blood off my mouth as my chest heaves while I wait for my breathing to regulate.

Kneeling, I pick up the bag and begin to zip it up.

“Should’ve raped her,” Terran manages to croak.

Pausing, I look over my shoulder. “What’d you say?”

“You heard me, nigga. I said I should’ve raped her.”

My fingers grip an instrument at the bottom of the bag. Removing it, I hand the bag to Kim, who comes to stand beside me.

“Leave,” I tell my team.

They don’t question my actions but do as I ask. Walking to where Terran is barely standing, I step close to him.

“You’re making sure that I have no regrets tonight, huh? You’re making sure a muthafucka sleeps good as hell,” I rumble in a low voice.

Just as he swings at me again, I bring my right arm up and swing the knife in a wide arc before I bring it down and slice it into his jugular vein.

“That’s the last time you disrespect my family or me,” I rumble as he grabs his neck and falls to the concrete floor.

I kneel beside him and pat his chest.

“You tried it. Thanks for keeping an old man on his toes, though,” I say.

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