Page 48 of The Auction
Then an explosion of sound happened and I knew it was the back door slamming open against the wall.
Uh, oh, I thought. Tank was in for it now.
Instantly, he was pulled away from me. Screaming almost as loud as I was.
Because I was free of his groping hands, I was able to slide back further on the kitchen table until I was sitting up.
Jokingly, I’d called Creed’s dark eyes sharklike, but now I could see the similarity. You know how a shark’s eyes do that thing where they roll back? Like they’re protecting their eyeballs right before they go in for the kill?
That’s what Creed looked like now. Like he’d left humanity behind and was only focused on the kill.
He had his fist in Tank’s hair, and the way Tank was screaming, it sounded like Creed was ripping it out at the roots. With a casual jerk of his leg, he hit the back of Tank’s knee so Tank was on the kitchen floor.
Creed let go of Tank’s hair to snatch the drunk’s wrist and pull it back so far up his back…
“Ahhh!”
Yeah, the dude’s shoulder was now officially separated.
Creed squeezed on that separated shoulder with one hand while he looked at Tank’s body as if deciding where to inflict the most pain next.
“Don’t kill him,” I said. “We don’t need that kind of trouble. And he needs to drive away from here tonight.”
Creed looked up, blinked a few times, then focused in on me.
“He hurt you?”
“Nah,” I said, my hand covering up what was probably the swollen left side of my face. “But if he fucking made me burn those pork chops, then you can kill him.”
I got up to turn the heat off the stove, and then, as casually as I could, walked over to the freezer to fetch a frozen bag of peas for my cheek.
“The fuck, man?” Tank groaned. “I was just having some fun and the bitch hit me.”
“I wish I had,” I said, leaning against the closed refrigerator.
I knew I sounded tough. Like la-di-da, who doesn’t handle almost getting raped with such casualness?
Inside, I was shaking like a leaf. If Tank had waited another minute, two minutes, Creed might not have heard me screaming.
“What did I tell you would happen if you touched her?”
“You’re not seeing what we could have here, brother,” Tank panted. “A fucking life, some pussy on the side. What is your problem?”
Creed bent over him and wrapped his massive armunder the dude’s neck. I could see his muscles squeezing and watched as Tank’s face got redder and redder.
“My first problem is that you’re not my brother,” Creed said. He released his arm and Tank fell face forward onto the kitchen floor.
“So, you did kill him?”
Creed shook his head. “He’s not dead.”
He bent down and maneuvered Tank’s body until he had him draped over his shoulder in a fireman’s grip. He didn’t even break a sweat doing it.
“Get his shit and then get in your truck and follow me.”
“Where are we going to dump him?” I asked.
“Away.”
