Page 43 of Prince of Tides
“Go away, Eric,” I said very,verycalmly.
He hesitated at the flatness of my voice, but it didn’t stop him. His eyes flicked to his four thugs, and he chuckled. “No, I don’t think I will. Not until I get what’s owed to me, at least.”
“Owed to you?” Laurie spat hotly, taking a half-step toward him. “Owed to you? Are you out of your god-damned mind? I don’t owe you shit, asshole.”
“Mmmm, tsk, tsk. Such foul language for a lady. It’s really unbecoming of you,” Eric said, wagging a finger.
“Fuck you,” Laurie fired back. “You deceitful pile of liquid dog shit.”
Eric just shook his head, then looked at me. “You sure you want to take my place?”
I laughed heartily. “I stepped over the bar you set simply by thinking about her as a human being, Eric Wrexton II. It was incredibly easy to not only ‘take your place’ but be a better figure in her life. Thanks for being such an incredible waste of space, I guess.”
Laurie’s ex bristled.
“You and I,” he said, turning his attention back to Laurie, “we were supposed to be married. You owe me money. Money that you took away from me by breaking up with me. That money should have beenmine, and I’m going to get it.”
As he spoke, a deranged gleam filled his face. His eyelids were just a little too wide, his pupils were dilated, and his breathing was slightly heavier—all the telltale signs were there. What I couldn’t figure out waswhyhe was so obsessed with her money.
“I’m not paying you anything,” Laurie said. “So get lost. No, better yet, get a therapist because you’ve clearly lost your mind.”
“I have not!” Eric shouted, lifting a hand.
His goons closed in around us.
“You really,reallydon’t want to do that, boys,” I said, shielding Laurie by pushing her closer to the wall, keeping her at my back. “Trust me on that.”
The leader glanced at Eric, who motioned to keep closing on us.
“You’re going to pay me,” Eric said, staying behind his men. “One way or another. I’m not going to suffer just because you decided you let a different dick fuck your mind up.”
My growl rumbled the pavement and froze all five of them in their tracks.
“Do not speak to her like that ever again,” I warned. “Do I make myself clear?”
Eric glanced nervously at the leader of his thugs. But it wasn’t an encouraging look. I noted the questions in his glance. Eric wasn’t giving an order. He was … seeking one? That made no sense. I filed it away for later. Something strange was going on. But what?
“Let’s just deal with this,” the leader said, taking charge as he reached for his firearm.
“Remember what I told you to do?” I said to Laurie.
“Yes.”
“Go!”
Laurie dropped flat with a shriek. I stalked forward, watching as the leader’s arm slowly drooped back down until the barrel of his pistol was pointed at the ground, his bicep refusing to contract.
“I warned you not to do this,” I growled as the water flowed out of his muscles and those of his men.
“What the fuck is going on?” the leader barked, backing away.
I moved faster than he could follow, grabbing his forearm and twisting it, breaking the radius and ulna with one sharp move. Then I stepped on his foot, crushing the bones there, before spinning and dropping him to the ground unconscious with a carefully placed and restrained elbow to the temple.
It would have been child’s play to kill him. Humans were really rather fragile if I let myself go, but that wasn’t my intent. My intent was to hurt them bad enough that they wouldn’t be threats but not enough to warrant, say, police intervention.
Moving quickly, I disarmed the rest of the men. I broke a few more arms, one jaw, and two ribs on the most athletic of the thugs when he tried to fight me with his other, somewhat working arm.
I casually tossed them into a pile against the wall, ignoring their screams of pain as broken bones were jarred on impact. It took me all of ten seconds to do. Eric hadn’t even had a chance to recover and move.
