Page 27 of Running on Empty

The hunt.

It was only once I got in the car, twisting the key in the ignition and then idling out the driveway that I allowed myself to grin.

“Are you going to tell me what we’re doing?” Stevie asked me, no fear in her eyes. She was the only one who ever looked at me that way, that was something she didn’t understand. My ‘friends’, my family, even my own brothers couldn’t look at me without at least a little fear.

“I promised you blood and going forward you’ll find I’ll never break a promise to you, ever.” I let my foot push down on the accelerator, the rumble of the engine feeling like a suitable soundtrack to the mayhem that raged inside me. “I know where that fuck Jonesy lives and this morning we’re going to teach him a lesson.”

Chapter17

I watched the streets whizz by, the harsh circles of illumination from the streetlights bleaching parts of the streetscape gold. When I looked over at Ronan, his body was loose and relaxed as he leaned back in his car seat, his arm straight as he steered with one hand. And a smile on his face that made me wonder if I’d ever really known him. Ronan’s reckless. Ronan’s careless. I’d heard that over and over. Never: Ronan’s homicidal. I frowned slightly at myself, wondering if I should have some kind of instinctive response to him. Fear, maybe a fight or flight reaction? But it didn’t come. That jagged smile of his? I wanted to wear something just like it and I had the feeling that Ronan was going to make sure I did.

He pulled the car up outside a darkened house. It wasn’t dawn yet, but it soon would be. Ronan winked at me, then got out of the car, closing the door with care before walking around to open mine. When I got out he was there, his body almost pressed into mine as his mouth went to my ear.

“Jonesy is inside,” he whispered. When he felt me stiffen he tightened his grip on my arm. “He’s the first cab off the rank. This goes however you want it to go, love. I am your knife.”

So it was up to me to wield him, that went unspoken. But I nodded, still seeing that fucker watching the video clip of me, hearing the click of the lock as he let those pricks in… I stared over at the house, the place where Jonesy thought he was safe, and I nodded.

Because right now I wanted to turn the motherfucking tables.

These men thought they could just do what they liked with me. The Spencer pack had seen me on Howlr and plucked me from the masses of girls on the app, thinking they could use me. As far as they were concerned, drugging me was fine. Fucking me high on something I didn’t decide to take was fine. Leaving me dropped like a discarded doll on the floor was fine and so was ringing my phone, sending me clips of their abuse, walking into my workplace like they owned the place. I looked across at Ronan as we walked towards the house, saw his eyes on me and I knew he understood.

Some men bring their lovers roses, some give them pearls. Well mine brought me the one thing I really wanted and needed.

Power.

He walked around the house until we stood in front of a bedroom window, his fingers finding the grooves of the fly screen and pulling it free with barely a sound. No security screens for Jonesy. He slept the sleep of a man, blissfully unaware of the predatory world outside.

A world that was just about to collide with his.

Ronan moved with catlike grace, landing inside the arsehole’s bedroom then turning to me, arms out to grab me. I paused, staring past him at the darkened lump on the bed beyond, seeing that leer on Jonesy’s face as he watched me get— My hands slapped down in Ronan’s, not bothering to be quiet and he grinned.

So, by the time I landed on my ex-boss’ carpet, Jonesy snorted, snuffled, coming out of sleep. And that was just fine by me. Ronan moved like a blur, with a kind of well-practised ease that I longed to possess, jumping on the bed, his arm around Jonesy’s neck, choking off the gurgle the man made, his eyes wide and shining in the dark and then I stepped forward.

“Stee—vie?”

“Hello, Jonesy,” I said, something lifting off my shoulders as I watched him claw at Ronan’s arm and fail to get free. Let him be powerless. Let him know what it felt like. His face grew more and more purple by the minute, something that had my eyes narrowing. “Ronan, you’re going to need to back off… Ronan?”

Jonesy let out a noisy gasp, sucking in breaths, before trying to scramble away. Ronan tsk-ed and grabbed a handful of the man’s thinning hair, using it to stop him and jerk him back down onto the bed.

“My knife roll is on the bed,” Ronan said in a too calm voice. “Grab one for me and toss it over.”

It occurred to me that someone as proficient as Ronan wouldn’t let his knife roll fall out of his bag, but I picked it up, unrolling it, and that’s when Jonesy started to babble.

“No… No, no, look, love—”

I paused where I was, my head jerking up and that’s when my boss saw the wolf peering out of me.

“Don’t call me that.” Men used pet names all the time. I drowned in loves, sweethearts, babes and honeys, right before the patronising pricks at the pub said something disgusting. “You don’t get to call me that.”

“Right, right…” His hands went up to ward me off and that’s when I realised again the gift that Ronan had given me.

As I pulled a knife free of the roll, I was treated to the sharp stink of urine. Ronan jerked back, making a sound of disgust, wadding the man’s quilt around him to stop getting stained by it. Jonesy was literally pissing himself with fear of me and that made me smile.

“No, Stevie! For fuck’s sake, it was just a fucking video and they—”

My boss’ babbling excuses were cut short as I stabbed the knife into the bedding between his legs, close enough to that pathetic scrap of flesh he was so proud of for him to scream, the sound high and girlish.

“Beautiful, I knew you’d be a natural at this,” Ronan said, the dark angel on my shoulder. He shook his head slowly before grabbing Jonesy’s jaw and tilting it backwards to reveal his neck beard. “This pathetic little boy is all yours to do with what you will. If you pass me the knife, I’ll…”

---