Page 52 of Bully's Darkness
My hands scramble around his wrist, nails digging in, but he doesn’t loosen his grip. “What my men have planned for you,” he leans in farther, his lips brushing my cheek, “is so much worse than you can imagine.”
He holds me there a moment longer, long enough for the panic to hit, for my lungs to beg for breath, then shoves me back. I stumble into the seat, gasping. My hands instinctively fly to my neck, fingers rubbing where his grip burned hot. My chest heaves as my heart thunders wildly. He watches me like nothing happened, like that sort of interaction should be normal to me. “Bully will suffer,” he says calmly. “And ifyouwant to survive this, you’ll remember exactly who the fuck you’re talking to.”
My throat burns. My lungs scream. But I force myself to breathe slow, to lift my chin. He wants me afraid, wants me crawling, but I’ve lived with Bully. I know what fear feels like, and this isn’t it.
I meet Dagger’s eyes, steady now. “If you really wanted me dead,” I rasp, “you wouldn’t have bothered grabbing my throat. You’d have let your men do it in some alley and left my body as a message.” He says nothing, but I see the flicker of interest in his expression. “You didn’t come here to kill me,” I continue, “butyou were waiting for my call.” I narrow my eyes thoughtfully. “Close by. You knew I was home. You knew I’d left Bully.” He grins, enjoying how I’m putting the pieces together. “You’re following me.” He doesn’t deny it. “You like me.” It’s a risky guess, but again, he doesn’t deny that either, just watches me with intrigue. “And you haven’t sent your men because you can’t trust them around me, which means I’m something to you.”
Without a word, he rises to his feet. “Watch your back, mama.” He heads for the door. “The board’s getting bloody.”
Bully
Silence.
It stretches out, wrapping around my ribs like barbed wire. Every second she's gone, the tighter it pulls. I stare at the space where she stood, chest rising hard, fists clenched. Taz shifts beside me, but I can’t look at him. Can’t look at anyone. I’ve lost her, for real.
This isn’t some fight where she storms off and cools down at Bria’s. Not a night at her sister’s, ignoring my calls.Thisis final. She didn’t cry. She didn’t break. She left.
And she called meLiam.
The sound of my name in her voice like that, it gutted me. Cold. Sharp. Like she’d already buried me.
I drag a hand down my face, sucking in a breath that does nothing to clear the burning behind my eyes. Then I spin, grab the nearest chair, and launch it across the room. It splinters against the wall. Taz flinches but doesn’t say shit.
I stalk across the room, throwing open the cupboard behind the bar and knocking bottles out until I find the one I’m looking for. Half-full whiskey.Expensive.Saved for celebrations or funerals.This feels like the latter.
I twist the cap, take a swig straight from the bottle, and let the fire settle in my gut. It’s not enough.
“She’s got no fuckin’ clue what she’s walking into,” I mutter, pacing again. “Dagger’s out there, Scorpions are watching, and she just handed herself over like a goddamn gift.”
“She’s scared, man,” Taz says quietly. “And you, what you did . . . that video . . .”
I round on him. “Don’t.”
He holds his hands up, but his eyes are steady. “You can’t undo it. You think she’s coming back? After that?”
I shove past him, furious at him, furious at myself. I grab a vodka bottle and throw it across the room. Glass shatters and liquid drips down the wall like blood. “She wasmine,” I growl.
“You want her safe?” he asks. “Then let her go. You send someone after her, she’ll hate you more. You let her breathe, maybe she’ll remember what’s good in you.”
I stare at the mess on the floor. The broken glass. The empty doorway. I shake my head. “She won’t. Not this time.” Then, quieter, I mutter, “Not after what she saw.”
A long silence stretches between us. Taz doesn’t press. He just stands there, letting me drown in it. And I do, because there’s nothing left to hold on to. Except the rage . . . andrevenge.
“We hit back,” I say firmly.
“Wait, Pres, you’re not thinking straight.”
“Everything is pretty fucking clear, Taz. He sent that video to break us apart. A job well done. Now, we hit back.Harder. It’s time for the games to end. I want blood.”
“You should call Jameson,” he mutters. “Run all this by him first.”
“Already have,” I mutter, “and he agrees with me. It’s time we stop dancing around those fuckers and hit back.” I head for church. “Gather everyone. We need a plan.”
I don’t sit. Ipace. Restless. Wound tight like a ticking bomb with no off switch. She’sgone, and Dagger’s out there licking hislips like this is his opening. I slam my fist on the long table. Over my dead fuckin’ body.
My brothers begin to filter in, all taking their seats, and I get straight to the point. “They’ve got a shipment coming in tomorrow,” I say. “It’s heavy with drugs, telling me they plan on supplying over county lines too.” I lay out a map in the centre of the table marked with their planned journey. “They have lorries coming in at Immingham. Two lorries, each listed as carrying car parts. They’ll get off the boat around three p.m. and are expected to sail through border control. From there, they’ll head this way,” I tell them, trailing my finger along the planned route. “They’ll end up at Colwick Industrial Estate around six-ish.”
“Why ain’t they splitting it across the country?” asks Brains.
