“Perhaps find a different way,” I agree. “Or hire dock workers who aren’t so loose-lipped when there’s a drink in them.”
“Aye.” Damian shakes his head. “Unbelievable. This whole thing has just been shit after more shit.”
“Indeed.” Brushing away his concern, I stand and adjust my shirt. “I’d like to see Harris now.”
“You’re taking him with you?”
“No. That won’t be necessary.”
Damian nods knowingly. “Alright, I’ll have someone take you. And…” He stands quickly. “We’re good, right?”
My stomach tightens faintly. “I got involved as a favor to you, Damian, because of how well we knew each other before I was voted into the Suit. You repaid me with demands, pressure, and attempts on the lives of those I hold dear. You need to get a firmer hand on your organization because next time, I won’t be so forgiving.”
“So… there can be a next time?” His expression lights up faintly and I roll my eyes.
“Goodbye, Damian.”
“Goodbye, Bradley.”
As promised, one of his men takes me through the estate toward where they house prisoners and as I walk, I debate my end in all of this. Anyone else would have met a harsher fate for even daring to threaten the Suit and many know how close Frank came to death at the hands of the Irish. Is it our past together when I was so young that stays my hand or the fact that without all of this, I never would have met Zira?
Her influence on me is clearly subtle, but I’m not angry about it.
Knowing she’s at the Empire State waiting for me to return adds a bounce to my steps and a playful lift in my heart. Never did I think I would be the man with a woman to come home to, but suddenly, it’s my life. And yet the greatest challenge is admitting to her just how much she means to me.
I almost did when I rescued her, but she fainted in my arms before I got the chance to say it all and those words remain locked just beneath my throat, begging for release.
Rejection doesn’t scare me, but a future without Zira does.
The guard leads me into a small, dark room where Harris sits in the middle. His head lolls forward against his bare chest that’s covered in an array of small cuts and longer lacerations. Blood streaks down his body and splatters the floor around him, and his hands are nailed to the armrests. His swollen fingers are all absent their nails. Seems Damian didn’t stop even after he learned what he needed.
“Take your time,” the guard says as he ducks out of the room.
The sound of his voice draws Harris’s head up from his chest and he glances around, then settles on me with a glare. His eye socket is completely swollen, robbing him of vision in one eye, and his jaw hangs awkwardly but doesn’t appear to be broken. The beating I gave him after dragging him off Zira was less than he deserved, and the urge rises once more now that we’re face to face.
“You don’t know who I am, do you?” I say while walking forward.
“Some cunt,” Harris drools. “You f-fucked up my face.”
“And you hurt Zira. Cracked her cheekbone. Dislodged a tooth. Bruised her vocal cords. But don’t worry. She’ll heal.”
“That bitch?” he slurs, following me around the room with his one good eye. “What she pay you? Dick sucking? Such a fucking slut, that one, but if you think she’s good, just fuck any other hole and you’ll see she’s nothing special.”
The insult should just roll off me, given everything that’s happened, but I just can’t let it go. He’s a twisted, desperate man who can’t even reach for an apology after everything he’s done. His hatred for Zira runs deep, but from everything I’ve learned, I know the source.
She got away. She showed she was better than him, and he can’t stand it.
Near the table at the back, I pick up a length of twine and walk back to Harris while he cranes around to try and see me.
“So?” Harris croaks. “I’ll suck your dick if it gets me outta here. Better than her as well. The others didn’t believe me when I said she was the mastermind, but you, you were there with her, weren’t you?”
“Is that the only place you remember me from?” Walking around to face him, I stop an inch from his knees and lean forward. “Nowhere else?”
Harris frowns and his eye darts back and forth over my face. Just as his lips part, likely with words of confusion, something finally clicks behind his eye and he gapes at me. “Shit. You’re the brick house fucker from the jewelry store.”
“I am,” I reply softly, winding the twine around each of my fists. “And you’ve insulted her for the last time.”
I surge forward, lifting my leg and slamming my knee into Harris’ chest. He and the chair topple backward to the ground,and I land on top of him with my knee still pressed to his chest. He grunts and yelps but it cuts off abruptly as I rapidly loop the twine around his throat and pull it tightly.
