“She never said that. Fuck you. You’re the needledick.”
I laugh, a loud, mocking laugh that visibly infuriates Clive. “She didn’t say anything while I had my dick in her mouth. Maybe it was after, when I fucked her in the ass.”
I’m making shit up now. Baiting him. I need this asshole to make the first move. I don’t have much more time.
“Stupid fucking bitch.” He meets my eyes as if we’re about to agree on something. “She’s shit in bed. Send her out here, and I’ll take her off your hands.”
“I’ve got a better idea,” I tell him. “I did some looking into you. You know, when I wasn’t fucking Violet. And let me tell you, she was very, very good, so I didn’t have a lot of time to dig up dirt on a shithead like you. But I did learn some interesting things about you, Clive.”
I uncross my arms again and hold up my hands. “You can leave right now, and I won’t bother telling you about the deal the rich lady up in Valdosta was offered by the DA. You know the one? Your client whose little fire you helped set with your intentionally faulty electrical wiring. I’m sure you thought the scheme to get a cut of the insurance money would help you win Violet back, but…” I shrug. “I don’t think the district attorney believes you didn’t know that rich husband of hers was asleep in bed when the fire started.”
“You don’t know shit about shit!” he screams, breathing so hard, I can literally see spit flying from his bared teeth again. “I’m just an electrician, man. Sometimes mistakes get made. That’s what insurance is for.”
“Yeah, and sometimes husbands just die in bed when a bedroom closet remodel sends the house up in flames. I get it. But I don’t think Violet’s interested in a guy so stupid he made a wiring error that killed a man.” I lace my fingers together and hold my hands where Clive can see them. “Looks like, no matter what you do, you’re on the losing side there, buddy.”
My voice is mocking and cruel, and I get a zip of pleasure at the momentary lapse in the asshole’s anger. He looks like it’s all hitting him now. How there’s no way out. His little insurance fraud scheme is going to send him to prison. Tack on a bunch of years for the suspicious death of the man in that house that went up in flames, and maybe—maybe—he won’t get manslaughter or murder as an accessory.
No matter how he looks at it, he’s fucked. I can only hope he realizes it and acts soon.
“Send Violet out, or I will fuck you up, man. Send Violet out now.” Clive, out of options, apparently chooses to resort to Plan A—be a douchebag who somehow still thinks he’s getting the girl.
I shake my head. “I’m doing you a favor. You want the last memory she has of you to be like this?” I pause to let that sink in. “You showing up here because you tracked her to a place she feels safe? And, I should add, very, very satisfied?—”
At that, Clive lunges at me, bat swinging. I’ve been ready, waiting, so I duck out of the way. Clive rushes past me, narrowly missing me, and slips on the rough gravel of the unpaved road.
I give him one more chance. “Put the bat down,” I demand. “Or I’m gonna have to hurt you.”
He charges me again, swinging his bat toward my knee. I move just far enough out of the way to avoid being hit, then grab his hands, crushing his wrists together with such force, he drops the bat.
Just then, the door to the compound opens, and Viper yells, “Hey, asshole!”
Clive throws a terrified look behind him while I have his wrists pinned. I release him and throw it as far as I can. Then I grab the front of Clive’s shirt, pull him toward me, and punch him in the face so hard I hear his nose crack.
He falls to the gravel, his nose painting the rocks with blood, and screams like a fucking bitch.
Viper and Phantom stroll from the door toward the scene just as a cop car, its lights off, creeps up the drive. Nobody moves, except that asshole Clive. He literally turns on his hands and knees and tries to crawl toward his bat.
Phantom, Viper, and I stand there, our hands up so the cops can see them. Clive starts screaming like a baby, yelling at the officers for help.
Two cops get out of the car, looking pissed off. They point to Phantom.
“Somebody wanna tell me what’s going on?”
“Not sure what to tell you, Officer. My brothers and I were inside making dinner when our security system went off.” Phantom jerks a thumb toward Clive. “This asshole was in our driveway, waving around that bat. Seems like he wanted to see Shadow’s lady friend, but the lady wasn’t interested in talking to him.”
The second cop walks up to Clive and asks him to stop moving, but the idiot doesn’t. He keeps screaming and crawling toward his bat. The woman cop orders him to stop moving and put his hands where she can see them, but he is in a frenzy, bleeding, crying, crawling.
The next few minutes are a blur as the cops tell us not to move while they subdue Clive. By the time the bat has been bagged for evidence and Clive’s in handcuffs and in the back of the squad car, Phantom and the responding officer are shaking hands.
“You happen to have any security footage that backs up your version of events?” the cop asks. “I’d love to be able to show the DA that at no time was this man threatened by you. That he had no reason to suspect you had a weapon, that he was the aggressor. That kind of thing.”
Phantom nods. “I’ll go download the footage to a drive right now.”
The officer motions toward the car. “Email it to me. I’d like to get this fucker processed so I can get home for dinner. We finally got power, and my wife went shopping today. Sounds like she’s planning on steaks.”
“Will do.” Phantom, Viper, and I stand in the driveway, waiting until the cops pull away. Once we hear the crunch of gravel and the lights from the car disappear onto the road, Phantom claps my hand in a high five. “I wouldn’t have been able to keep my cool as long as you did.”
“Let me through!”
