I take the stall second from the end, while Claws squeezes herself behind some boxes underneath the sinks. I see the glint of her second knife as she slides it into her hand. Her other knife is tucked in my belt, still stained with Daphne’s blood.
We wait.
The silence builds. Blood pounds in my ears. All I can see is Alec’s twisted face as he held Claudia down on the hood of his car.
Voices, laughter. The bathroom door creaks as it swings open. I watch through the crack in the stall door as Yara pulls Alec inside. Her fingers tangle in his hair, and he clamps one beefy hand over her tit, the other frantically tugging at the hem of her dress. This guy thinks it’s his lucky day. The bathroom door swings shut behind them.
We’re alone.
“Come here, baby,” Alec purrs, cradling her body against his. “You know you want this.”
I remember that day in the desert when he threw Claws on the hood of the car. I thought she was Mackenzie then, but even though I hated her for her part in my brother’s death, seeing what he intended to do made me realize I could draw a line across my rage.
This guy tried to make me into a rapist.
He tried to take from Claudia what wasn’t his, and George… sweet, kind George…
For years I’ve been friendly with Alec, playing on the same teams, going to the same parties, listening to his inane stories about being on set for all his bit parts and TV commercials. Alec the actor. Alec the friendly, popular guy everyone loved. And all the while George was alone, carrying the memory of how he hurt her. And all those other women who came forward after we trashed his car. And if I’d known… if I’d fuckingknown…
Tonight’s retribution was a long time coming.
Yara pulls Alec into the stall next to mine. Their bodies slam against the wall. She lets out a loud, fake moan.
As silently as possible, I climb up on the toilet bowl, leaning well back so Alec can’t see me as I peer over the side. He has Yara pinned in a corner, his hands struggling under the tight fabric of her dress. Yara tilts her head up, and her dark eyes meet mine. She smiles.
Showtime.
Claudia slinks like a cat from her hiding spot. She kicks the stall door open, slamming it into Alec’s back. Alec whirls around, his face a picture of surprise. “What the fuck are you—”
His words cut off into a scream as Yara twists his wrist and slams his hand into the tiles, pinning him in place with her body. Alec’s too dumbfounded to react. Claudia seizes her chance – she reaches up and snaps three of his fingers.
Pop pop pop.
The pain takes a moment to register. When it does, Alec thrashes wildly. “What the fuck are you doing, you bitch? Get off me or I’ll call security.”
“Now, now, Alec,” Claudia smiles. “Where’s the fun in that?”
She flicks the knife across his cheek, making a deep cut that weeps blood. Yara’s fingers dig into his wrist as she works to trap his leg with her knees. Alec rolls his shoulder forward and slams Yara into the opposite wall, his good hand going around her neck.
“You two runty girls don’t stand a chance,” he growls. “First, I’m going to choke the life out of your friend here, then I’m going to finally do what I should have finished in the desert. You’re going to get what’s coming to you, Mackenzie Malloy.”
That’s my cue. I lean over the stall, wrapping my tie around my fingers. Alec peers up at me as I come for him. “Marlowe,” he croaks out, his grip loosening on Yara. “These crazy bitches fucking broke my fingers. Get me out—”
I fling the tie around his neck, twisting the ends until he stops fucking talking. Alec claws at the silk, but I have the better angle. I brace my weight against the stall, lifting him off the ground. His eyes bug out and his feet scramble for purchase. One lands in the toilet bowl, splashing water everywhere.
“Gross.” Yara wrings the hem of the dress. “This issilk,and now it smells like a toilet.”
“Don’t kill him,” Claudia reminds me. “Not yet.”
One of the tricks you learn in underground fighting – especially if you’re up against a buddy and you’ve both decided to throw the fight for a bit of extra cash – is how to choke someone out until they lose consciousness. I hold on until I feel Alec go limp in my arms, then I drop his body. Alec slumps, his head banging against the toilet bowl.
I jump down and crowd into the stall, ready to drag him out. Claudia bites her lip as she throws out an arm to hold me back. Her chest heaves as she stares down at him. She draws back her foot and kicks him, again and again and again, her stiletto making a bloody mess of his face.
“How does it feel?” she yells as she pummels him with her fists. “How does it feel when you can’t fight back?”
Alec doesn’t answer.
I let her do her thing until her shoulders sag and she slumps against me. “Yara, get George and Gabriel,” Claudia says, her body trembling as the adrenaline dissipates. “We’re going to Colosseum. I have just the thing for our friend Alec.”
