My attention landed on that gun with the shiny pearl handle. I touched my jaw where it still ached and there was a nasty purple bruise. The doc had said it wasn’t broken, but I was lucky. The last time I’d seen the gun, it was in RJ’s driveway, so Van must’ve gone back for it.Does it mean something to him?Why take the risk?The weapon wasn’t directly beside Van, but rather on the floor more toward the end of the bed, as if maybe he’d taken it off and set it there when he and his... whatever Pinky was to him dropped their clothes. The rest of what they’d been wearing was strewn around the room.
Can I get close enough to grab the gun?
Van muttered to Pinky, low words that sounded mean.
Pinky sobbed again, nodding. “Yes, Sir.”
I edged into the room, hoping Van simply wouldn’t notice. I snuck toward the gun, anger boiling in my blood. I’d had a couple of days to get enraged about him shooting RJ, and at this point I was more pissed off about that than my ruined business. Maybe RJ and I would never work out as a couple, but anyone who hurt him was still on my shit list. I was halfway across the wide room when Pinky glanced underneath Van’s arm toward me. He averted his gaze back to Van and didn’t say a word, which firmed up my resolve to help him.
Anyone who loved the man he was with would’ve been shouting already.
He’d been nervous when he’d taken the jewelry from me, and maybe he didn’t want to be committing crimes with Van. Maybe he was stuck somehow. My heart pounded in my ears and I rushed the last few feet. With my head feeling floaty, I snatched the gun off the floor. Van didn’t notice me until I touched the muzzle to the back of his head. I stared over his shoulder at Pinky, who had tears streaming down his face.
“Did Van break your nose?” I asked Pinky, the question burning at the forefront of my mind. It was an old injury at this point, but I’d been wondering about it since I’d realized they worked together.
Pinky stilled and glanced at Van, as if he was scared to say a word.
“You found me.” Van lazily rolled his hips again, and I shoved the gun harder against his head.
“Stop hurting him. Get off him.”
Van snorted. “He asked me to do this.”
Pinky hissed when Van slid back onto his knees. Van gestured at Pinky’s groin, but I refused to look because I didn’t want to violate his privacy. “He likes it. He’s my boyfriend, you idiot.”
“I like it,” Pinky said quietly as Van glared at him. “I love having him fuck me like this.”
“Is this what you wanted to do to me?” I asked, not moving the gun away from Van.
He laughed and turned to sit on his ass on the bed, not bothering to cover Pinky up or let him free from his restraints. “Are you going to shoot me or what?” He rolled his eyes and his gaze was cold when it landed on me again. “Because I’m bored with this.” He gave me a smug smile.
I backed away from him and my hand shook. I took careful aim at his head. It would make everything so much easier if I just shot him now, wouldn’t it? He would’ve killed me. Hell, he tried to kill me, and I only had RJ to thank for standing here right now. I closed my eyes and when I opened them again, he was still giving me that awful smile.
“Where’s the money?” I shoved the gun in his direction. “Tell me.”
“Oh, now you sound like a businessman.” He drifted his hand down his belly and I tried not to look because he was still hard and sitting there like he thought I would want to come over and join him on the bed, but I would rather eat raw sewage. There was a small bandage over his left ear. Right, he’d been shot. A vicious part of me wished the injury had been worse.
My body trembled. I wanted to hurt him for shooting RJ and stealing and making my life hell. I pulled the trigger on the gun and gasped as fire blazed across my temple. I slapped my hand there and blood gushed between my fingers.
Van snorted. “You moron. This is solid concrete construction.” He turned and pointed at a mark on the wall across the room, a black spot marring the white paint. “You caught ricochet. What a dumbass. If you’re going to shoot someone, you need to hit them.” Van chuckled and stood.
Pinky attempted to curl up into a ball but really couldn’t. I backed away from Van as he began to stalk toward me.
Van’s smug expression transformed to something nearly gleeful. “Aw, what’s wrong? You’re fine making money from exploitation. Those diamonds and gems don’t come without a blood price. It’s not so nice when someone does it to you, is it?”
“Don’t pretend you’re noble,” I shouted. “You hurt RJ. You’re the man who tried to murder him—twice.”
“Yeah, I made the attempt more times than that, actually. I wasn’t aiming for him with the elevator—” He shrugged. “—but I did want him dead that first time.”
I backed up until my shoulders hit the wall, then slid into the corner.I’ll shoot him if he gets close enough that I can’t miss.I slid down toward the floor. Pinky had one hand free and he was working on his other restraint. My chest squeezed. How did he do that? He could help me, unless he didn’t want Van dead.
“Aw. You’re too scared to shoot me. That’s almost cute.” Van reached for me.
My hands were sweaty. I needed to pull the trigger, needed to fire the gun.
A loud blast hurt my ears and I flattened against the wall. I glanced at the gun in my hand, confused. I hadn’t fired. Van crumpled, half on me, and I shoved him away, kicking. I didn’t think, instead reacting on some feral impulse to not have him touching me while his cock was out.
Pinky had a gun in his hand, and for a second I was worried he would shoot me, too, but he only dropped it on the mattress and began clawing at the other cuff on his wrist. I scrambled around Van—or maybe his corpse—and rushed over to help him. There was a safety release on the leather cuff, but Pinky wasn’t hitting it just right, and I had to push the tiny lever hard enough that my thumbs ached to get the cuff to unravel. I dragged the blankets up his body, so he wasn’t sitting there naked, and he flashed me a small smile of thanks.
