“Bravest thing I’ve ever…seen,” Garrett says. “Fought like a banshee.”
She touches his face and sobs. “You, on the other hand, need to learn when to lie down.”
Garrett closes his eyes. “Think I learned that, now.”
Wraith steps over. “Greer and Butcher are only ten minutes behind us.”
I cup Isla’s cheeks. “I need you to go outside with Wraith. We’ll be right out behind you.”
She hiccups as she tries to rein in her tears. “Okay.”
I lift Isla off the ground and hand her to him. “Take her outside, please, brother.”
He glances at Paltrow. I know Wraith wants to stay for what’s next. But he nods. “I’ll take Taco with me, and we can lead Greer in.”
I nod. “You,” I say to Garrett, “stay down. This won’t take long.”
“He threatened to take…Isla. Told her…if she let him touch her…he’d let up on me.”
Just when I think today can’t get any worse. “Did he rape her?”
Garrett smiles. I see the blood over his teeth. “She head butted him.” He twists to look over at where Atom and Grudge have Paltrow subdued. “The broken nose…is all Isla.”
I go to move toward Paltrow, but Garrett grips my hand and tugs me closer to him. “She thought about…letting him…to save me.”
“Fuck. Can’t imagine what an impossible decision that must have been for her.”
“The only person who ever…loved me that much…is you.”
I smile at what he’s telling me. That he sees how much the two of us love him. Words escape me for the billionth time today. Until I refocus.
“I’m going to kill him, now. Anything I should know before I do?”
Garrett nods. “He said a woman out of Florida told him where to find you. And I told him I was going to force feed him his own dick…and make him fuck my knife.”
“Then, that’s what I’ll make him do.”
I drop a soft kiss on Garrett’s forehead, stand, brush the dust off my jeans, and walk over to Paltrow, who heard every word I just said.
“Just shoot me,” he says.
“You know, there’s an irony that you’re shaking as badly as Isla was. And because I’m anxious to get to them, and not you, I’ll make this quick.” I reach for the belt buckle of his jeans. “But not that quick.”
It’s a team effort to hold him still and yank his jeans around his ankles.
“Must be terror shrinkage,” Atom says. “Look at the size of that tiny thing.”
Smoke leans back against the mine wall. “Not like he’s ever gonna use it again. Kiddy fiddler like this should have had it chopped off years ago.”
“Please,” Paltrow yells. I see fear there, close to what I saw in Isla’s eyes. And, somehow, balance returns to the universe.
I huff. “If you’re a praying man, I’d start now. Because you don’t have long left.”
My knife is terrifyingly sharp. Garrett prides himself on how sharp he gets all our blades. It moves through skin like it’s butter.
The guttural scream from Paltrow reverberates through the mine tunnel. Even though this is one dick I don’t want to touch, I grab it, and Atom forces Paltrow’s mouth open so I can shove it in there.
It’s bloody and slippery, and Paltrow gags against it.
