Page 33 of Bitter Desire
“He tried to grab Honey,” I said, throwing the man at Taylor’s feet and gesturing at him with the bloody knife in my hand. “I want to know why.”
The man groaned and rolled onto his back, eyes opening to look up at us. Taylor kicked him before he could speak. “He saidwhy did you grab the girl?”
“Fuck! You didn’t even give me time to answer.”
Taylor kicked him again and I heard ribs crack. “I did that time, now answer the goddamn question.”
“You’re going to kill me, aren't you?” The man asked, eyes darting between us from where he lay.
Taylor smiled and shook his head. “No.” That seemed to shock the man and he spluttered trying to sit up, but Taylor kicked him again and the man howled in pain. “But we are going to fuck your shit up so everyone knows not to fuck with what’s Lawson Sokolov’s, because apparently you all forgot your fucking manners!”
“I don’t know who hired me!” The man cried out, hands going to his stomach trying to stop the bleeding Taylor’s kicks had only egged on.
“Bullshit,” I said and pointed at him with the knife. “You heard about Pinocchio, right? I’m going to cut your fucking nose off if you lie to me again.”
His eyes got big and he shook his head. “I swear I don’t. It was a woman on the phone. She said–she said I needed to grab the girl from the stage.”
“What else did she say?”
“That she was going to pay me twenty thousand to do it. Cash. I just had to leave the girl tied up a mile from here on the side of the road. There would be a duffle bag at the mile 5 marker, but that I only had twenty minutes to do it, or the deal was off. That was it.”
“How much longer till your time’s up?” I asked. Right on cue an alarm began to go off on the man’s phone. I could hear it in his pocket, and I nodded at it. “Turn that fucking thing off and throw it in the woods. That an alarm?”
“Yeah, I set a timer for when I had five minutes left,” he said, sliding the alarm off his phone before he chucked it behind him into the night.
“I’ll go now,” Taylor said, but I shook my head at him.
“Too risky to go alone, and I can’t leave Honey. She’s inside,” I said, jerking my head back at the door. I looked back at the man. “What else? And I swear to god, we both know I’ll kill you if you’re lying.”
“That’s it! I swear. I got the tip through some guy, Jose, he’s a sketchy dude but he knows shit and it sounded easy, so I took it. Fuck,” he shook his head, bloody hands coming up to comb through his sweaty hair, a mix of blood and sweat on his face. I made a face at the pathetic look in his eyes. “Don’t fucking kill me. I fucked up. I know that, but don’t-”
“Bring him here,” I told Taylor. “What’s your name, you idiot? I want first and last. What’s Jose’s last name?”
“Patrick Nowak, and I don’t know what his last name is. He’s just Jose. None of us know. Tall skinny guy with dark hair and a ponytail. Lots of tatts,” he breathed, eyes bugging out when Taylor approached him. “Please, I didn’t know, I didn’t!” He tried to dodge Taylor but there was no getting away from the man, and he reached down and pulled the man up. He started trying to get away and thrashed around, but I moved quickly because Honey was still inside. She was scared and alone and I had to get back to her. We had to get out of here and back to the city as fast as we could. Luck was on the idiot’s side tonight, seeing as this had to be quick and clean.
I wouldn’t get to take my time. Not with this man.
“Hand,” I said, and Taylor brought the man’s hand up. “You got some nice hands here, Patrick Nowak.”
“Oh fuck, what are you-”
I brought the knife down and sliced through his pinky finger. He opened his mouth to scream, the start of it making it out his mouth before I backhanded him, cutting the sound off. “Shut the fuck up,” I growled, leaning into his face. “This is a lesson, do you get me? I’m not killing you, but you don’t go after what’s mine and that woman ismine. She is under my protection, and next time I’ll kill anyone who breaks it.” I grabbed his face, fingers digging into his cheeks and squeezed hard, staring into his eyes. “Do you fucking understand, or do I need to take another finger?”
He shook his head. “I understand.”
“Good.” I let go of him, wiped the knife off on his shirt and then nodded at Taylor to kick him back down. I gestured towards the woods. “Now get the fuck out of here.”
“But my car is-” he began, cradling his hand to his chest and I took a step towards him.
“Are you fucking stupid or just sick of having thumbs? Start running or I’m going to bury you in pieces out here.”
He moved then, feet backpedaling and tripping over himself until he was sprinting off and into the darkness. Taylor and I were quiet for a second before I looked over at him.
“You heard that name before?”
Taylor shook his head. “Never. I’ll check into it though. Sounds Polish.”
“It is. I know some people who might be able to tell me all about Patrick and this Jose he was talking about. I want to know everything we can find out.”
