Page 47 of The Last Time You Break Me

I turned around just in time to see the boat pull into the dock and I could hear the faint sound of a mumbled appreciation from one of the men standing on the shoreline. “About damn time. Daisy is waiting for her man to return ripe and ready,” he remarked and it sent shivers down my spine with how slimy it felt.

I crept closer, moving around the edge of the bush, and stepped over the rocky gravel underfoot with Reggie right behind me. I bent low and withdrew the glass beer bottle I had filled with gasoline, stuffed with a gas-soaked rag that I had stashed here earlier, and held it to my chest as I moved further around to the side and closer to where my brothers hid.

My pretty little Molotov cocktail.

“Who are you kidding, Nev. You have never been a man. The only reason that chick is with you, isn’t because of the size of your dick but the size of your bank account.”

“Fuck you man, it’s daddy she screams when I make her come!” the man retorted in defense.

“Not in praise, mate. In a curse to the father that fucked her up so badly she settled on you.” The other man chuckled as I snuck the lighter out of the back pocket of my pants.

There were four men in that van, all bulked with muscle so that they could load the cargo with ease. I watched them all like a hawk flying overhead.

I saw Dalton poke his head up from the other side of the ridge where he waited and when he saw what was in my hand, hebunched up his nose and smiled like a fool. You knew the smile, the one that looked all heartfelt and sweet like you were shy with some kind of embarrassment and also shocked, great minds think alike. It wasn’t until he pulled up his own beer bottle that I realized why.

I huffed a laugh and rolled my eyes at him. When the first man lifted his foot to get a foothold on the ledge beside him in order to reach into the boat and grab a crate from one of the crew, I lit the rag and threw it in their direction. It shattered against the ground and sent a ball of fire billowing high into the air. The dark and golden tones of the flames danced and writhed like the colors of an eternal star and my insides flipped at the beauty of it. Then men screamed, one fell into the water as he sent both his arms into the air, flailing as his pant leg caught fire. Guns were drawn and bullets were fired, all by idiotic men who had no idea what they were firing at.

“Is it common practice for men to unload their weapon before they have identified a target?” I asked, genuinely curious.

“No, but didn’t I say they’d show us their throats? This is it, love. You ready?” Reggie asked in restrained excitement.

“Born ready.”

“Let’s get this show on the road,” Dalton cheered as he stepped from his hiding spot and the gunfire died down, the cunts finally out of bullets.

One of the men hurried to reload, but Dallas sent an ax flying toward his head. I knew guns were common practice in the mafia, but when we could, we loved to get a little creative. A family that desired the gore as much as the elation that came with the kill, was one that enjoyed the creative kill, side by side. The axe embedded within the man’s skull, but he never died straight away. Instead, time stood still and sound died away as his eyes widened like saucers, bugged out from his skull as they bulged over the socket. He brought tentative hands to his head,feeling for what had impaled him before he weakly pulled it free, and when he did, he pulled half of his frontal lobe with it. He fell forward, hitting the ground instantly, falling onto the ax as it split apart his chest. Dallas pranced over to him with a pep in his step and kicked him in the side that sent him onto his back.

Retrieving his ax, he smirked and uttered, “I believe this is mine.”

I chuckled, then watched as the fire spread, the gas leaking all over the ground forcing it to spiral out of control. One of the men from the van became engulfed, his entire body burned bright like star fire embers as his whole physique turned a blinding shade of red as he cried out from the pain and I stared longingly at him in curiosity. He moved around, dancing in circles as he tried to find an escape from the raging inferno that had consumed him.

His screams grew louder and I grew more curious as I stepped toward him, gun raised as I fired a bullet over the edge of the dock and took out the bastard trying to climb free from the waters. My skin heated as the flames licked against me and I tilted my head as I peered through the fire and saw eyes that had melted, pleading with me for an out.

“Lara!” my father called, and it snapped my attention back into the now, my warped need to see beyond the veil of life faded as I turned my back on him, pleased with the sounds of his cries while we took out those who betrayed us. It almost felt like a theme song, a Wyelli anthem and I smirked at the thought. “Head in the game!” he ordered as he sparred back and forth with one of the men from the van that was four times his size.

My father was calm and collected, he knew the right places to strike in order to bring your opponent down. They were the exact same spots that he taught me. When you strike, you go in ruthless for the kill. He barely broke a sweat as he toyed with his prey and watched them drain all of their energy in this oneman fight before my father struck out. Hand open, palm up, he thrusted his fist forward, right into the man’s nose and shattered every piece of brittle bone and cartilage that he sent straight into the man’s brain, bringing him down to his knees. As he fell, his head hung heavy and my dad gripped him by the hair, pulled back his head, then dragged his knife across his throat, leaving him there in the debris of churned gravel and rubbled soil.

Someone from behind rushed me as huge arms wrapped around me in a tight bear hug. I was lifted from my feet and smashed down into the brutal and unforgiving ground. I was so enthralled at the wrathful beauty of my family, so lost to the chaos and the destruction, I lost sense of my surroundings. I tried to cover my face, but my arms were pinned at my sides while this huge man pinned me down. I felt the blood vessels as they burst under my skin, the bruising swelled around the shapes of his knees and I could feel the pain of his weight radiate through me.

I gasped as my back arched, the pain welcomed as I shivered at the agony while a torrent of punches rained down on my face. Bones crunched and churned and I laughed like a maniac as blood seeped from the cut around my eyes. My mouth filled with the metallic taste and I waited until that spark of elation hit—until the adrenaline coursed through my veins like a superpower and recharged the energy that sat idle within my veins. I rolled the upper half of my body in a half circle as my shoulders brushed against the firm ground.

I chuckled to myself.

Right before I reared back, opened my mouth, lurched forward and sank my teeth into the cunt’s face. I bit down with everything that I had, my teeth ached at the pressure I was forcing upon them but I bit down until I cut through the layer of flesh that separated his skin from his bone and then I pulled back, dragging it with me.

He screamed, the sound was harrowing enough to make somebody’s stomach sink. But not mine. I laid there as I blinked through the blood welled within my eyes and stared up at his nose that now looked like a circumcised dick and smirked as I flashed him my bloody teeth. The brute fell backward while he cradled his face in extreme pain and dropped his head into his hands, trying to stave away the searing burn of agony that made my heart dance in victory.

“Lara!” Reggie bellowed while he wrapped a chain around the neck of one of the men who stood sentinel. The man’s face burst with varied colors of red and purple as the veins slithered from beneath his skin and protruded like thick snakes from under the flesh.

I swiped my face with the back of my arm and a thick layer of cherry-red blood stared back at me like a silken sheen from the contrast of my black leather. I looked up and smirked back at him while I steadied my breathing and stumbled to my knees.

“You fucking bitch, cunt!” the man shrieked, as he tried to peer at me as he cupped his hands around his face.

“A bitch? One hundred percent. A cunt? I definitely have. Was that supposed to be an insult?” I queried as I stalked closer to him, knife spun between my fingers as I made a show of how I could wield it.

“Didn’t your mama ever teach you to never hit a woman?” Blood trailed down my temple and when it reached my lips, I licked it up, my breath hard and broken.

“I don’t see any woman here,” he spluttered back.

---