Page 183 of The Fire We Make

With a smile, she plunged the knife into the meat of his upper thigh.

He let out a blood curdling scream, his body folding forward as blood soaked the front of his jeans. Joy yanked the knife out and wiped it on his pants leg. He tried to crawl away but Joy stood, keeping him in place with her foot on his groin.

“Can you hand me the torch, babe?” Joy asked, over her shoulder. She maintained eye contact with Cleve as she spoke.

The distinct scent of urine filled the air as Ace placed the butane torch in Joy’s outstretched hand.

Ace pulled up a chair, sitting back and watching with a wide smile and hard dick as Joy cut open Cleve’s jeans and fired up the torch, cauterizing the stab wound.

He smiled, watching her thrive in all of her wickedness, all of her darkness. Not because she received an order or was working for love and acceptance that should’ve been given freely, but because she wanted to.

Cleve’s screams and the smell of burning flesh filled the air.

Ace chuckled darkly.

This was what he wanted to see. This version of her that didn’t hold back or hide.

Joy repeated the action several times over, giving him stab wounds and cauterizing them in each place she still held permanent markings of the abuse he facilitated.

Only when she ran out of scars to emulate and she’d already brought him back from unconsciousness twice did she end it with a bullet to his head.

She stood over Cleve’s body, her chest heaving and her face warm with blood that didn’t belong to her. Her chest felt light and her mind felt clear.

“How do you feel baby?” Ace asked, taking the torch from her hand and pushing errant pieces of hair behind her ear.

“Good,” Joy grinned, her voice breathy like she’d taken a hit of something. “Very good.”

Ace chuckled. “Good.”

He looked around the room, covered in blood with Cleve lying in a puddle at the center of it. “What about the body?” Ace asked. “You need me to call my men?”

Joy considered it for a moment before an idea popped into her head. “You have your lighter on you?” she asked.

“Always,” Ace grinned. He didn't know where this was going but the evil look in her eye told him he knew he’d be down.

Joy went into one of the supply closets and emerged with a jug of gas and a towel.

“Oh shit,” Ace mumbled, his dick painfully hard as he watched her pour gas all over the office then drench the towel in it.

They backed up to the door, then she stood in front of Ace and held the towel out to him. “Could you do the honors?” she asked, looking up at him sweetly.

“Yes ma’am.” Ace flicked the lighter open, watching the flame emerge, then held it to the tip of the dangling towel that immediately ignited.

Joy smiled and tossed the towel in the middle of the room sending the body and paperwork up in flames.

By the time Joy and Ace made it back across the street to their car, smoke filled the night sky and half of the building was consumed by flames.

They passed a blunt between themselves as they watched it all burn.

Ace wasn’t interested though, his eyes never left Joy.

Joy turned to him, their gaze catching. “Thank you for being down with my shit,” she said softly.

“You don’t have to thank me for anything. If you wanna burn all this shit down, I keep my lighter on me baby. I’m down with whatever.”

Joy giggled, taking a pull from the blunt as she turned back to the building. He saw the flames engulfing the warehouse reflected in her eyes. He saw the flames that now engulfed his heart reflected in her eyes.

Illuminated by the golden light of the fire, he thought she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. The most beautiful, dark soul he’d ever met. He didn’t know how he’d walked through life without her before but he knew that he never wanted to again.