I frowned. “Do you have a death wish or somethin’?”
“No,” he whimpered.
“Then quit tomorrow morning, James, and you and I won’t have a problem anymore.”
His eyes widened in horror. “How do you know my name?”
“Google is free, dipshit.” I stepped back from the car, giving him space to close his door.
Once pushed the locks down and felt safe within the confines of his car, his courage began to slowly creep back. Evident from the disgusted, but still slightly terrified, look on his mangled face as he rolled his window down an inch.
“You’re a fucking psychopath,” he hissed. “I’ve seen your face. I could go straight to the cops from here and have you thrown in jail in no time.”
“If I was a psychopath, I would’ve removed all of your teeth along with your fingers and then made you choke while I shoved them down your throat... Do you even know how to use this by the way?” I raised his car keys up from behind me, putting emphasis on the small Swiss army knife hanging from the keychain as I turned it over in my hand.
“How did you—”
“You had a knife on you this whole time and you didn’t think to use it?” I unlocked the car with a beep and forced the door open after he failed to hold it shut. “Fuck, you’re thick if you thought I’d let you drive off that easy.”
“Please don’t kill me! I’ll do whatever you want! I swear on my mother’s life. Just please—”
I flipped the blade out and slammed it into his thigh, rendering him speechless as he sucked in a breath like he wanted to scream, but nothing came out. He had gone into shock and was refusing to look down at the knife in his leg as his mouth hung open.
“I know where you live, James,” I crooned, gripping the back of his seat with my other hand. “You go to the cops, and I’ll have your house and family burned to nothing by tomorrow morning. It’ll just take me one phone call from here.”
That was a lie. I would never stoop that low, but the threat worked so I went with it. Plus, I was ready to send his wife screenshots of what I had found online.
“Now take a breath before you pass out,” I added, squeezing his shoulder before I ripped the blade from his leg again.
That made him yell. And then start crying.
“Why are you doing this to me?” he whimpered as bubbles of snot and blood popped from his nostrils.
“You fucked with the wrong person. And now you know what the consequences of doing that are.” I wiped the blade on his shoulder, earning a flinch from him before I folded the knife and tossed the car keys into his lap.
He never asked which person I was referring to, instead choosing to sit completely still as if he expected me to do much worse if he moved. Satisfied by this, I closed his door and made him flinch again.
He cautiously dragged his eyes to me, peering up through the window as his bottom lip continued to tremble.
Just to push him a little further, I flashed him a grin.
Fumbling with his keys, he jammed them into the ignition and hastily started the car. Within seconds of the engine revving to life, he floored it to the parking lot exit and swerved out onto the street. Almost colliding with an oncoming car in the process.
Chapter 48
Lily
The brakes of the bus hissed as it stopped outside the real estate agency. I quickly stepped off with my eyes glued on the glass front doors, looking for any sign of something being off inside as I hastily approached the building.
I had tossed and turned all night, worrying about what Dean was capable of. It made me sick that I was even worried about what might happen to James. But then I felt even worse when I wished that whatever happened to him was equal to what he had done to me. My mind backflipped between each thought, torn between thinking it was karma taking its course (a slightly forced course) or that I should’ve stepped in before Dean left. That I should’ve warned him not to do anything.
But then James would come right back again. It’d never stop.
As I neared the front doors, the scene unfolding inside determined very quickly how soon karma had dealt and played its cards.
I caught the tail end of James’s conversation with Mom when I stepped inside. His back was to me as he spoke, and my eyes dropped to the crutch he was leaning on to take the weight off his left leg. Candice was standing behind the front desk beside Mom, watching James with a look of hidden disgust on her face. When he turned abruptly to see who came through the front door and found me, I understood why.
My steps faltered at the sight of his heavily bandaged nose, framed by swelling and deep purple bruising around his eyes while dried blood crusted his nostrils and lips.
