“She’s… lying.”
I squeezed his wrists tighter, turning them around in a half circle. It caused him to cry out as it pulled on his already bruised shoulders.
“You know what’s worse than a rapist?” I paused, squeezing my fingers into his neck and feeling his frantic pulse beneath my touch. “A rapist who can’t admit he’s a fucking rapist.”
He gargled on his phlegm as I held him. “She’s dead,” he eventually pushed out, spitting everywhere as he spoke.
“Excuse me?” I asked in disbelief, leaning in.
“Y’all are dead.”
I watched him as he tried to hold his last threads of arrogance and fight together. He’d make a good soldier one day. He didn’t give in easily, that much was clear to see… but he’d never had me as an enemy before.
“Oh, Jacob,” I huffed, laughing before I stepped back, releasing him from my grip altogether. His body sagged against the wall in an instant, and I watched as his knees shook, his head rolled, and his arms struggled to bear the weight he was putting on them as he tried his fucking hardest to stay standing.
He was like a wounded animal, trying to escape the jaws of a wild beast, believing he had a small chance of escaping this the same way he came into it.
My arms folded over my chest as I watched him turn, slam his palms and back against the wall, look up at the sky and try to breathe. His legs were fucked.
Jacob’s eyes eventually fell to mine. One was cut, the skin split straight down from his eyebrow to the top of his cheekbone. He was a man of two faces as he waited for me to strike.
I took a step closer, looking up at him through heavy eyes.
“What did she do wrong?” I asked quietly. “Did she turn you down like everyone else in Babylon?”
“Fuck you,” he spat.
“Did the thought of you pressed against her make her gag, and you took offense to that?”
Jacob huffed, pushing out more blood.
“Had you already been rejected by everyone old enough to suck your dick, you decided to go for the little girls who couldn’t put up much of a fight?”
“She’s not just any little girl.” He snarled. “She’s Sutton’s daughter.”
I took another step closer, all humor draining from my face. “And you hate Sutton because?”
“He’s got into bed with you fucking assholes.” Jacob’s body sagged again before he managed to press his hands against the wall and push himself back up.
By the time I took the final step, I was nose to nose with him again, staring down into his unapologetic eyes and pouring all my darkness on to his naive little face.
“That’s right,” I spat back, pushing my chin forward untilhe could taste my breaths, taste my hatred. “He got into bed with us fucking assholes. And the biggest mistake you could ever have made is to fuck with us, little boy. We protect what’s ours. We protect it to the death. By hurting Sloane, you signed the deal on your own death.”
“You won’t kill me,” he breathed back out, and even though his mouth said the right words, his eyes gave away his uncertainty and his fear.
“No. Probably not.”
“You wouldn’t dare.”
I scoffed and raised a hand to his cheek, dragging two fingers down it before I pushed them under his chin, making a finger gun that was pressing against his airways.
“Dare?” I raised a brow. “There’s nothing Idaren’tdo, Jacob. Am I fearless? No. Everyone has something in life they fear losing. Am I afraid to do what needs to be done when it needs to be done? Hell, boy. Let’s find out shall we?”
I flared my nostrils and glared at him.
“Do you want to know what we do to men like you in prison?” I growled.
Jacob swallowed, the hard lump of his fear pushing against my two fingers.
