I met Charlie back when I was fighting, in the days before Rick had corrupted me too much. One of Charlie’s cousins was just starting out as a fighter and I gave him some tips. Charlie and I had hung out together but, as I’d become Rick’s muscle, the friendship had become more and more strained. He’d told me a thousand times to get out...and then, suddenly, it was too late. I killed Travere and quit fighting. When the rumors went around about a guy dying, most of the cops hadn’t known where to start looking...but Charlie did. He came to me, having figured out pretty much the whole thing, and demanded I testify against Rick.
I managed to make a deal with him: he’d keep quiet about what he knew and, in return, I’d talk his cousin out of fighting. His cousin was following in my footsteps, maybe six months away from becoming Rick’s next attack dog. I persuaded him to quit the scene and get a legit job instead, and Charlie and I agreed things were square. But the other part of the deal was that I’d stay the hell away from fighting. Something I was only too happy to comply with...until Sylvie came along.
Now, I was going to have to tell Charlie the truth. Except, him being him, I barely needed to. He’d known something was up as soon as he’d seen me in the diner.
“You’re in deep with Rick again, aren’t you?” he said as soon as he heard my voice.
I looked through to the living room, where Sylvie was staring at the TV. I could tell she wasn’t really seeing it. “Charlie, I need to find someone.”
“We had a deal, big guy. You said you’d stay away from that piece of shit. Or find some way to bring him down.”
Fat chance of that.Rick was too smart to be caught red-handed and we both knew it. But I’d sworn, after Travere, that I’d try. “I swear, if there’s ever a way, you can put the cuffs on him personally. But right now, I need your help.”
“Have you got any idea how much trouble I could get in, givingyou information?Especiallyif whoever the fuck you’re looking for winds up dead?”
“This isn’t about me. It’s about Sylvie. There’s a big guy, name of Lowell. Just got out a few weeks ago. Assault and...rape.” My voice shredded on the last word.
Immediately, Charlie’s tone changed. “He did something to Sylvie?”
“He’s going to.”
I heard a flurry of keystrokes. “Got him.” Charlie paused. “Aedan, let me get him picked up. Got my buddy Ryan out there in a car tonight and it’s not far from his beat. He’denjoytaking down a scumbag like this, especially if he resists.”
That was tempting, but Rick and his sleazy lawyer might get Lowell off the hook. Besides, I wasn’t in the mood for justice. I was in the mood for good old-fashioned revenge. “I’ll owe you one, Charlie. Please, just give me an address.”
46
AEDAN
Lowell was stayingin a motel while he was on parole—the sort with chicken wire over the windows. I figured that the place probably saw enough trouble that someone might actually be watching the security cameras in the parking lot.
So, when he pulled up, I forced myself to wait. Charlie had given me his license plate so I knew I had the right guy. I tailed him to the door of his motel room, palms itching with the need to hit him. I waited until he’d opened the lock...and then I shoulder-charged him into the room.
I kicked the door shut and then it was just us, alone, with no one to interfere. No one to save him. I stripped off my jacket. I didn’t want to get blood on it.
He was studying me carefully. A fighter can recognize another fighter. Meanwhile, I was getting the measure of him. Smaller than me, but not by much. A good amount of muscle, but probably faster than me. A dangerous combination.
I didn’t give a shit.
He figured it out pretty quickly. “You’re with the girl,” he said. “The one who’s training her. You fucking her? What’s she like? Nice and tight?”
I knew he was trying to goad me into making a mistake and I didn’t care. I ran at him, raining punches at his midsection. He grabbed hold of me, swinging me around and into a table. A lamp smashed on the floor and we were plunged into darkness.
I staggered, off balance. He’d been living here for weeks—he knew the room a lot better than I did. Before I could find him again in the shadows, he was on me, kicking my feet out from under me. I went down hard against the table and it crumpled under me like matchwood. His fist caught me across the face once, twice. I tasted blood.
“She’s a hot little piece,” he grunted. “All that time inside, I was thinking about girls just like her.” He jumped up and, before I could get to my feet, his foot lashed out and caught me in the jaw. Pain exploded in my head, white-hot and all-consuming. The room span.
“Don’t worry,” he told me. “I’m not gonna hit her too hard. I don’t want her passed out while I’m bangin’ her. I want her to be able to moan my name.”
I came up off the floor and slammed into him like a force of nature, bearing him down to the floor. I heard his arm break as he landed, by which point I was pounding on his face. He hit me a couple of times in the ribs, but it barely even registered. Three good punches and he dropped his arms. Four, and he went limp.
I sat there, straddling his chest. He was looking up at me through swollen eyelids, not giving in but not taunting, either. Wondering if I was going to finish the job and kill him.
I wanted to. For the first time in my life, I really wanted to. And for the first time, I really understood the difference between someone like me and a real killer.
She wouldn’t want me to. I knew that.
I stood up. Lowell turned his head and spat out a tooth. He clutched at his broken arm. “You’re fucked,” he managed to croak. “Both of you. You’ve brought down hell on yourselves. Have you any idea what Rick’s going to do now?”
