Hoisting him over my shoulders, I slam him into the tree. “Rope,” I announce as if I can conjure its appearance with mere words, before I reach for the one on my belt.
The black fibers are strong enough to keep a wild bull securely tied. I pause, and images of his earlier erratic behavior come to mind. “You better triple up,” I murmur, tying Mikah to the trunk of the tree.
Whistling, I make my first lap, ignoring the dead woman yards away from me. My focus is solely on my little fox and the excitement she’ll feel when she noticesmy catch.
Grinning, I puff out my chest, proud that even though she may have won in points, I’m the real winner here because I get to capture the true prize—her.
It’s on the second lap that something glints in the darkness, and my attention once again lands on the naked woman slumped and trussed up with barbed wire.
My smile multiplies, growing at least four times as wide when the idea hits me. I stride over to where her lifeless body lies mangled from Mikah’s relentless assault.
Ignoring her, I snip the metal-wired fence with my fencing pliers. Once freed, the woman’s body slumps to the ground with a thud. I check for a sign of life and find none before I whirl around and finish wrapping a late present.
I wind the wire around his body, and a smug satisfaction makes me puff out my chest when I see Mikah’s blood escaping his body. It makes me wish I had more time. The ways I could prolong his death for months, maybe even years. I want him to regret his existence, but even more, regret the fucking day he took my sister’s life.
My heart ceases in my chest at the reminder of my sister’s violent end. A memory I work hard to smother, keeping beneath the surface just enough to pretend she’s off on a culinary tour of some exotic place with no cell service.
But I know we’re on borrowed time, and I don’t want him to wake before I tie him up. We don’t have time for a fight, and I guarantee I’ll kill him if it comes to that.
Sighing, I punch him, in rapid succession, square in the face
“You deserve worse than this,” I hiss as I slap his cheeks before, “Now, wake the fuck up.”
Mikah mumbles out a pained grunt as he slowly opens his eyes, disorientation swirling in his gaze.
I don’t wait for him to regain his faculties before I swing again. “You sick fucks have serious mommy issues,” I state, smacking the side of his face.
Mikah doesn’t fight to free himself. He takes every blow with this resigned acceptance.
I’m gearing up to swing again when he shouts, “Promise me you’ll keep her safe.”
Pausing, I wait for him to say whoheris. We both know, but does he have the courage to say it? Only time will tell.
Amused when he doesn’t say anything else, I arch a brow. “Keep who safe?”
The once melancholic man surges forward, as if I had insulted him, ignoring the sharp metal burrowing into his skin. All semblance of his offering to lay his life at my feet crumbles when his bloodshot eyes meet mine. “Don’t play dumb, Oshiro,” Mikah snarls. “The only fucking reason you and your family haven’t joined your cunt sister is that I know you can keephersafe.”
My teeth nearly shatter with the tight set of my jaw.
You can’t kill him yet, Brax. Your little fox isn’t here to join in the festivities.
“It’s best you watch your tone and never mention my family again, or your life won’t end until I’ve peeled the skin from your flesh,” I growl.
Readying to strike, I rear my arm back when the rustling of fallen leaves sounds off to the left.
My ears perk up. She’s not hiding, she intended to take him head-on. Not willing to share my time with her with this idiot, I finally strike, clocking him in his left temple. Mikah’s head snaps to his right before he stills. “That should keep you from interrupting my time with my little fox.”
Another few minutes pass when my comms beep with a gloating Talia on the other end.
Grinning, I lean against the tree trunk and wait for her melodic voice to seduce me.
“You’re about to lose this game, Brax,” she begins. “And I’d say I’m sorry, but that would be one of my biggest lies to date, and I don’t lie outside of work.”
The taunting glee is not lost on me. It actually fuels me. I can’t wait to wrap my hands around her throat as she takes my dick. After our past encounter, I know there’ll be plenty of evidence of what we do to each other.Irrefutable evidence.
“Isthat so, Talia?”
The question lingers long enough for me to spot her in the shadows of the trees.
