Page 121 of The Bad Wedding Date

Me? I didn’t have time to waste. I had a woman to get back to.

Beside the fucker taking a nap sat the second guy. He’d been the weaker of the two. I’d recognised it the moment I’d walked into the room and seen them with their already bust-up faces looking up at me. This guy, with his light red hair and beard, didn’t have the ability to stop his nostrils from flaring and his chin from trembling when I stared at him, and I’d known he’d be the one to break before I’d even laid a finger on the other guy.

Now, the redhead glared up at me again, his chest heaving and the left side of his face a swollen mess.

Rubbing my hand over the knuckles of my right, I stood there, feet apart, looking deep into his eyes. The muscles in my jaw twitched at his recent confession.

“You’re sure that’s who hired you?” I asked, my voice quiet. Threatening.

The guy swallowed. “Yes.”

“Do you have any idea what I’ll do to you if I find out you’re lying?”

“I have an idea.”

I cast Ray a glance, waiting for his verdict. He offered me a nod—a sign he believed the coward to be telling the truth.

Dropping to my haunches in front of him, I gave him his first chance to stare down at me since I’d walked in here. “Tell me… how many women has he paid you to intimidate for him before Charlotte?”

The guy blinked, a scowl forming. “She was the first.”

Without looking away, I reached up to grab his kneecap, using a special technique I’d learnt over the years to stick my fingers beneath the bone and twist it without using any strength.

He shrieked out in agony, his throaty cry making his bound arms tug at the chair and almost tip himself over.

I released his kneecap, not moving as he sank back into his seat, a tear of pain falling down his pale cheek as he closed his eyes and caught his breath.

“Try again,” I said.

He threw his head back and sucked in a sharp breath before he let his chin fall down to his chest, and he opened his bloodshot eyes to look at me again.

When he didn’t speak, I let my hand hover over his kneecap, not saying a word.

“Please… don’t,” he croaked.

“Try. Again.”

“I swear to you, that’s the first time we’ve ever taken a job from him.” When I motioned to twist his kneecap again, he managed to flinch and pull himself back, making me pause. “No, wait, wait! I’m not lying. I swear on my own life, I’m not.”

One glance at Ray, followed by another nod from him, told me the guy was, in fact, telling the truth, but there was something missing.

Resting my hand on his kneecap, I pushed down on it, knowing it may not have been as painful as the first trick, but it would feel tender as fuck now, and that showed in the way the guy pressed his lips together and groaned behind them in quiet pain.

“Let me rephrase the question for you. How many women have you been paid to intimidate in your line of work byanyman?”

He held my gaze, his silence saying everything I needed to know.

The bastard made a living from scaring women. No doubt from hurting them, too.

He was a snivelling wreck of a man when faced with someone bigger than him, but he was more than comfortable making a woman crumble beneath his hands.

It was time to let him know how it felt to be the prey for a change.

When Ray stepped forward, his footsteps controlled until he came to stand beside me, I rose back to my feet and looked down at the two fuckers who’d dared to mess with the woman I’d do anything to protect.

I’d make sure they never hurt anyone ever again.

And once I’d done what I had to do to them… I was going straight after the fucker who’d hired them to make him pay, too.

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