Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 55750 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 279(@200wpm)___ 223(@250wpm)___ 186(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55750 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 279(@200wpm)___ 223(@250wpm)___ 186(@300wpm)
He gasps, staring at me wide-eyed as blood pisses from his mouth.
“Call her fat again,” I snarl. “Call her a bitch again! Do it!”
He raises his hands, leaning against the wall, all the fight draining from him.
“What’s wrong?” Bam, bam, bam. I hammer him in the gut three times, each one harder than the last, causing the motherfucker to keel over. “Not as fun being a bully when it’s someone bigger than you? Not as fun when I can fight back?”
On the fourth hit, I’m sure I feel his rib crack. He lets out a pathetic sob and slinks to the floor, curling up into the fetal position. I pull my boot back, fully ready to kick him in the mouth and relieve him of the rest of his teeth, but then Bella yells. Or maybe she’s been yelling this whole time, and I can only hear her now. “Matt!”
I look up to see her staring at me from the doorway. Her mouth is open in shock. Her eyes gleam with judgment and resentment. She looks at me like I’m not even the same species—like I’m a monster. I was right. I can never have an ordinary woman. It doesn’t matter if Bella’s the only person I’ve ever even given a slight damn about.
As she walks toward the door, my suspicions are confirmed when she hurries out of my way when I walk toward her. Even worse, she raises her hands as though she thinks I’m going to hit her.
I jog across the street, climb onto my bike, start the engine, and surge away, adrenaline pounding through me. Bella and her friend can find their own way home now. It’s not like that motherfucker is going to give them any problems.
As I storm away and the anger slowly fades, practical questions erupt in my mind. Was I caught on camera beating his ass? Were there any witnesses? I can handle these problems, of course, but it’s another complication we don’t need right now.
Hell, when I heard him call her that sick name, something just snapped in me. There isn’t a world where I hear somebody talk to Bella like that, and I stand there and don’t do a goddamn thing.
Back in the club, I stare down at the sink as the water swirls the color of blood. I wash my hands, my knuckles pulsing and stinging as I rub soap over the fresh cuts.
Elio walks in, frowning at me in the mirror’s reflection. “Dead or alive?”
“Alive,” I grunt.
“Witnesses?”
“One for sure,” I tell him. “Sofia’s violin tutor. I’m not sure about anybody else. Plenty of people saw me drag him somewhere more private, though.”
“Hmm,” Elio sighs. “We don’t need this.”
“I know.”
“Why, then?”
A dry laugh escapes me—surreal. It’s like the whole world is suddenly a joke. “Because he called her a fat bitch.”
“Plenty of douches out there hurling names at people.”
“Yep.” I splash cold water on my face, conscious of the adrenaline still surging. “How’d it go with the detective work?”
“We’re still hammering.”
“Good.”
Elio tilts his head at me. “Are we going to discuss this?”
“Discuss what?” I grunt.
“Come on, bro. Don’t make me say it. You’ve been in your feelings lately.”
“In my feelings,” I repeat. “You sound like a teenager.”
“Call me anything you want,” he grunts. “The fact is, something’s different.”
“The Gallos are back. We thought they were gone. Isn’t that enough?”
“Is that all it is, though?” he asks thoughtfully.
“It’s enough,” I growl.
He approaches me slowly, his demeanor shifting. “I know we need to stay tough in this life. We can’t let ourselves get soft. We can’t let the men or another Family see us as weak. But when it’s just you and me, we can talk. You understand that, right?”
I wipe the last bits of blood from my hand and then walk over to the dryer.
“Is something going on with the violin tutor?”
I think about the texting and that she sent me a different video from the one she put online. Just the thought of it threatens to wake up impulses in me better left hidden, but with Elio, it isn’t easy. He’s spent so damn long learning to read me.
“Not really,” I mutter. “We’ve texted and talked about music. That’s it, but when that bastard threw those sick words at her, it was like I blacked out, just for a few seconds. When I ‘woke up,’ I’d already dragged him into the apartment building. I swear, E, I was ready to kill him. To execute him for calling her fat. For calling her a bitch.”
“This girl you met a few days ago?”
I shrug. “Yeah.”
“So something is going on.”
“Not yet.”
“Yet?”
I grind my teeth. The surprise in my brother’s voice is enough to remind me just how strange this is, completely out of the ordinary for me.
“I don’t know,” I say after a pause. “Maybe if I were a different man, I’d ask her on a date, but it’s impossible.”