Page 58 of Handsome Devil
My whole world turned red.
I tore off toward them, ramming into his side with my shoulder, angling myself in a way that ensured I cracked a couple of ribs. He exploded with profanities, his accent unmistakably Irish, stumbling down the pavement.
Gia tripped backward while I straightened him by the collar, jamming him against the car. I could hear the driver insidespeaking frantically on the phone, begging for instructions. The muscle man in front of me was middle-aged and pasty. No doubt a simple soldier.
I seized his left arm and twisted it until the sound of bone snapping echoed between the buildings, then grabbed the car’s door and smashed it into the injured area, handcuffing him with one arm trapped by the door.
He folded in two, delirious with pain. I kneed his chin, and his head snapped up. Blood gushed from his mouth.
I wanted only one thing more than breaking his spine in two. And that thing was for Gia’s clit to rub my nose as I ate her out, which was why I refrained from killing him right in front of her stunned eyes.
“Who sent you?” I grabbed him by the hair, tilting his purple, battered face to me. I already knew, but I wanted the admission.
If this beef was out in the open, Tiernan Callaghan wouldn’t be the only one doing the chasing.
The man pressed his lips together defiantly, chin trembling and dribbling blood.
I opened the door that clasped his arm, gaining momentum and slamming it again over boneless, torn flesh. He let out a piercing scream that landed nowhere.
“Let’s try again.” I tugged his hair roughly, ripping a few patches from his scalp. “Next time you don’t answer, I’ll amputate your limb clean from the rest of your useless body. Who sent you?”
“Thiernan Callaghan!” He spat blood, falling to his knees, his arm still wedged between the car and the door. By the way he was slurring, I could tell he’d likely bitten off a part of his tongue. “Feck, who elth?” he lisped.
I wasn’t going to kill him. Tiernan was going to do it anyway for snitching. Instead, I used him as pigeon post.
“Tell Tiernan next time he comes for my wife, I’ll dismember every single person he ever cared about and send him their organs at random to piece together as a puzzle. Would you like that in writing?”
“N-no.” He writhed, trying to squirm away from the pain. “Goddamn your thoul to hell. Let me go!”
I opened the door again, shoved him in, and kicked it shut. I banged the roof. “Send word to your boss.Now.”
The car careened forward, leaving skid marks in its wake.
A soft whimper sounded behind me. I swiveled in its direction, finding Gia pressing her knuckles to her mouth. She trembled, her eyes wide and haunted.
I noticed for the first time that she was bleeding. He must’ve caught her cheek and split it open when he struggled to shove her into the car.
I instinctively put my thumb to the injured spot to assess the bruise. She sucked in a breath and recoiled.
It was a shallow cut. Barely even a scratch. That realization did nothing to calm down my hammering pulse.
Two, six, two.
Two, six, two.
Two, six, two.
They fucking hurt my wife.My wife. Nobody touched what was mine.
“Are you hurt anywhere else?” I asked tersely.
She shook her head, hands flying to my shoulders. I caught her waist, steadying her. She was hysterical, the waves of adrenaline still crashing through her.
“H-h-he,” she started but didn’t finish the sentence. Her fists crashed into my chest, a sob ripping from the depth of her lungs. I’d never seen her cry before.
“I know.” I pulled her by the back of her head to my chest, engulfing her with my entire body.
I wanted to protect her and kill her in the same breath. I’d never met a woman so insolent, so independent, so completely unmanageable, and fuck my life, but it made me want her even more. She was categorically unattainable, even after I put a goddamn ring on it.
