Page 87 of Grim

Locke backed away, bowing mockingly and revealing my target

I cracked my knuckles, taking heavy, lumbering steps toward the fat piece of shit. I extended one claw and sliced down his inner thigh with a loud rip. He screamed straight into my ear, but my wolf didn’t flinch.

We continued to swipe horizontally across his thigh and down the inner part of his leg, down his ankle. Blood poured from the wound, dripping onto the concrete.

I pushed in deeper, feeling the pull of the fat, the muscle, and the sinews of the tissues.

He continued to scream. My brothers and sister, who stood idly talking to each other about the weather, chuckled when I lifted my claw from his ankle.

“Do you want some more, Michelin man?” Locke grabbed his enormous belly from behind and shook it. “I bet Grim can give you a nice tummy tuck. What do you say, Grim? Start fileting him right here?” He poked the mayor’s belly button through his torn shirt.

“No, no, wait!” Sizzle ran forward with a black marker and drew two dots on his stomach.

Sizzle squished his belly together to make his belly button look like a mouth. “Look at me! I’m gonna be the joker now! Wanna see my scars!?” He giggled and drew lines on either side of the belly button. “Here, cut here and then I can really make his belly talk!”

Locke and Sizzle slapped the stomach, the echoes of the whacks ringing in my ears.

“No! Please don’t!” The mayor screamed.

“You gonna talk then?” Locke asked seriously. “Because Grim can continue with the body renovations?”

“But I wanna see his belly talk!” Sizzle whined.

Even Beretta’s laughter filled the room, but Switch was vomiting in the corner, the poor soul. He always had a weak stomach.

I gripped the mayor’s neck, my claws brushing around the folds of fat. “Where did you get the dust? How do you know about fantasy creatures?”

He gulped, barely. The tightness of my hold caused him to turn colors.

“I found a letter on my desk. They had photos of me cheating on my wife. I was running for my third term. The author said they wanted to meet to discuss payment to keep quiet. I had to go!”

“Ah, you were blackmailed?” Locke asked.

“In the beginning–” he choked out. “I met a man in a black mask at the docks in an abandoned warehouse. But it didn’t look abandoned once I got inside. It was fully lit up, like a club. He had me sit down, offered me some drinks and told me he wanted men and women delivered to him each month. He didn’t care how old or young, male or female, but he preferred young women.”

“You, you worthless piece of shit, said yes, didn’t you?” Locke growled.

“I had to! If I didn’t run for mayor again, the debt collectors would be breathing down my back!”

“And they would have found out about you embezzling taxpayers’ dollars,” Switch mentioned. He wiped the vomit from his lips. “You would have been audited if you were taken out of office too soon.”

“Right,” the mayor nodded. “I had to stay at least one more year until I could pay it off. He offered to do that if I just continued to help him. He introduced me to other sins, however.” The mayor turned away, for once feeling ashamed.

“What did you waste the money on?” Locke asked.

The mayor paled. He swallowed audibly, shaking his head.

“I can give you a guess.” Switch’s voice grew angry.

My grip tightened around the mayor’s neck, his face turning a deep shade of red.

“Grim, wait, we need more,” Locke panicked. “Not yet. Calm yourself. Do this for the other women, do this for them. We gotta find them!”

I let go briefly. “Hurry it up,” I snarled.

Because I was going to end his life, as well as every other man in the room.

The mayor panted. “I took them from the battered women’s shelters within a hundred mile radius. Told them I would put them up somewhere safe. They were people who wouldn’t be missed.”

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