Page 58 of Breaking Conviction
Men like Ascot deserved everything they got. They used people up and left them broken in their wake. A simple concussion would never be enough. Wes’s knuckles tingled to beat the pudgy flesh of this monster and unleash his own beast.
Ascot managed to yelp, but the music was so loud in the building, no one outside the small room would hear. These types of rooms were meant to silence the moans coming from inside. Although the confessional’s current groans were being caused by a very different reason.
“Wh-what’s the meaning of this? Who are you?” Ascot’s voice was muffled against the dented wall.
“Let’s do introductions afterward, shall we? I already know who you are, Ascot, and that’s all that matters right now,” Wes answered as he easily applied pressure against Ascot’s neck.
“How did you get past my security?” he screamed and Wes shoved his head into the wall again, cutting off the yell.
“You brought dogs to a building full of pussy. Did you really expect them not to hump everything in sight? Shut the fuck up. Don’t move.”
Wes removed his hand from the man’s wrist and Ascot instantly began to wriggle. Using his knuckle, Wes dug his pointer finger in the man’s exposed temple and got close enough to smell the pungent alcohol on his breath, cloying aftershave, and the acrid scent of urine. Normally, the smell would’ve made him nauseated, but adrenaline flooded through him.
This was an opportunity to alleviate some of the anger that always boiled so silently under the surface. He closed his eyes, trying to rein himself in and remember the objective. When he opened his eyes again, he was focused.
“This right here” —Wes emphasized each word with a tap of his knuckle against Ascot’s temple— “is called the sphenoid bone. It’s one of the most vulnerable points on the human body, yet it protects the most important asset a man has.” Wes applied more pressure. “And all I have to do is strike itjustright… and man’s most dangerous weapon is neutralized.”
“Please, I-I don’t know why you’re here. I have money… whatever he’s paying you, I-I can double it!”
He? Interesting… and fucking infuriating.
“I could give two shits about your money, Ascot.” Wes kept his knuckle depressed into Ascot’s skull and pulled handcuffs from a pocket on his utility belt under his coat. When he slapped Ascot’s left wrist with a cuff, the man tried to push away from the wall, but Wes only huffed out a pleased laugh.
“I was hoping you’d fight back.”
In his next inhale, Wes wrenched Ascot’s arm back, popping the shoulder out of its socket and causing him to howl in pain. On Wes’s exhale, he grabbed Ascot by his thinning hair and bent him forward while simultaneously driving his knee up into his face.
A roaring filled Wes’s ears and his vision tunneled to the blood splatter on his knee. Something in his mind shifted.
“You hurt her! She was good and you hurt her!” His voice sounded odd and tinny to his ears as he got lost in his rage. He drove his knee up into the man’s soft flesh again. And again… and again… and again.
He faintly registered someone yelling through the headset, but Wes ignored the irritating buzz as he threw the man to the wall.
The pressure inside him felt like it was being relieved through a small hole in a helium balloon. The hazy, red fog in his mind dissipated. Breathing hard, Wes stared with mild satisfaction at the unconscious heap on the floor. He stretched his knuckles. It hadn’t been enough. It felt good, though.
The door behind him opened and Wes tensed his fists before he realized Phoenix was slipping in. His teammate cursed and rubbed his hand over his face.
“You crazy-ass motherfucker. You weren’t supposed to kill him,” he muttered with a defeated shake of his head. “You’resmiling, you know that right? Christ, what the fuck’s wrong with you, dude?”
Too much to admit.
Wes grunted at the observation and bent to check Ascot’s neck. Although he knew he hadn’t hit the bastard hard enough to kill him, he’d certainly done some major damage. Soft men are easier to take down. “He’s alive.”
Phoenix shook his head. “Yeah, well, even knocked out he’s probably a thousand pounds of deadweight. You know the rules. You knocked him out, you carry his fat ass. We gotta get outta here, dude. Those asswipes out there are this close to bustin’ their nut in their pants.”
As soon as the words left his mouth, there was a knock on the door. “Mr. Ascot, sir. We need to leave.”
“Shit, dude, okay, we gotta go.” Phoenix whispered loud enough to be heard over the music and bent to help Wes.
“Sitrep?” Hawk used military jargon to ask if everything was alright.
Phoenix growled over the headset while glaring at Wes as he picked up Ascot’s arms. “Our resident Dexter went psycho on the fucker. Knocked an easy target out cold. Devil, we might need your assist—”
The door behind them slammed open and the two burly AIE security guards stormed into the room.
“See!” Phoenix’s yell distracted the guards, slowing them down. “I told you they’re two-pump chumps.”
One of the men growled a second before both attacked. Wes and Phoenix simultaneously dropped Ascot like a sack of potatoes. Normally, they’d do the minimum to just get away from the men, making sure not to hurt anyone too badly. But they were in a public place and needed to get the fuck out of there before they drew too much attention. Instead, Wes and Phoenix got into an offensive stance, ready to attack in order to take the linebackers out quickly and succinctly.
