“Why did Mr. Parker do that?” January presses. “When did this happen?”
“None of your fucking business,” Doc says flatly. “Go to sleep.”
“Oh,Domenico.” January moves as though to go to Doc and comfort him. My chest aches. Even after everything that’s happened today, all the hurt she’s endured, she’s still so pure. So sweet. It’s a goddamn miracle.
Doc not nearly as impressed. “Get out of that bed and I will break every finger you have, Tits.”
For a second she stares at him and then falls back onto the mattress, unravelling the sheets and pulling them over her head.
I look at Doc. “Was that needed?”
He gets to his feet and throws the Wendy’s bags into the kitchenette trash can. “Enough bullshit, we need to do a sweep of the grounds.”
He heads outside, slamming the door. I hesitate, staring at the white lump that is January. I want to climb into bed beside her and hold her close, promise that she’s safe and everything’s all right. But everything’s not alright. Not yet. Possibly not for a long time. Her Zia’s dead, Parker is hunting her, and Eli, Adriano, Doc and I are far from agreement on what to do about her betrayal. Or her virginity.
Doc pounds on the door. “You coming?”
I start to attention. “Sure.”
Doc’s smoking by the ice machine. He hands me a bag of white disks. “We’ve gotta stay awake and I don’t know about you, but I’m fucked.”
I open the bag. “Speed?”
“Caffeine.”
I take a pill and crunch it between my teeth. “January’s asleep. Or close enough.”
“Good.”
“Why were you being such an asshole to her?”
I expect Doc to deny it or make some snide remark, but his mouth goes thin. “I’m gonna destroy her.”
“What?”
He takes a vicious drag of his cigarette. “I’m going to destroy her for what she did to us.”
I stare at my brother, this man that I unwittingly know better than almost anyone. From the very beginning Doc argued in favor of keeping January alive, be it as our house pet or a stripper. How the fuck has he changed his mind now? “You want to kill—”
Doc’s hand shoots out jabbing me in the chest. “Did I say I want to kill her? I want todestroy her.”
“I don’t—”
“I want her chained in my workshop for the rest of the year. I’m gonna whip her ass and electrocute her tits and shove ice dildos up her twat until she screams.” Doc’s eyes burn over the cherry of his cigarette. “I’ll make her cry until her eyes turn blue. I’ll fuck her until there’s a permeant imprint of my dick inside her. I’m gonna pump so much cum inside her it changes her fucking DNA. I will carve my name into her skin and make her drink my blood and then I willbreed her. She’ll have my bastards one after a-fucking-nother. And then, when she’s given me ten kids and taken a hundred thousand of my loads, then maybe, just maybe, I’llthinkabout forgiving her for running away.”
A rushing sound fills my ears. In the distance I hear cars whirring along the interstate, an owl hooting in a tree.
“O-kay,” I say, stepping back. “I can see you feel…stronglyabout this.”
“It’s what I’m owed.” He points the smouldering end of the cigarette at the motel door. “That girl in chains. Stand in my way I’ll fucking cut you.”
There’s a million things to say but I pick the dumbest one. “You want to get January pregnant?”
He nods grimly. “Tie her to me forever. Show her she can’t get away with making me feel… with fucking betraying me. Betrayingus.”
The caffeine pills pick a bad time to kick in, spiking my heart rate.
“Doc,” I say, trying to sound reasonable. “January’s a scared girl who ran away. You can’t be serious about this Machiavellian shit?”
