by Madison Faye
My jaw clenches as I stiffen. “What did you just say?”
He chuckles. “Oh, I know all about your brother, you fuck. If your little friend wasn’t paying me so good, believe me, after I killed your dumb ass, I’d go do the same thing to Asa.”
Rage sizzles through me, my teeth baring in a snarl as Barnes just stands above me chuckling.
“Curious, aren’t you?” he laughs. “Shit, Gauge, it’s all over your damn face. You’ve got no fucking idea who wants your ass so bad, and I’m loving it. Maybe I just won’t tell you and let you figure it out when I hand you over.”
I look at him coolly. “And maybe I’ll just tell you how sweet it is to feel the girl who never gave you the fucking time of day come all over my big cock?”
Blind, red rage billows over Barnes’s face, and he’s on me in the blink of an eye—hitting, kicking, swearing, and hissing like a caged animal as I grunt and try and take the blows.
“Barnes! Barnesy!” his mate Jay suddenly yells.
Barnes takes a breath, stepping back from me and wiping the spittle from his lips.
“Think of the payout, man!” Jay urges. “Think of that money, buddy.”
Barnes take a deep breath, breathing heavily and closing his eyes before he suddenly opens them and smiles at me.
“Fuck it, I think I’m going to enjoy watching you understand how fucked you really are.” He steps over to me, looking down at me with a grin on his face.
“Yeah, he’s a real good old friend of yours, this fucker. Misses you so bad he’s willing to give me five-hundred-thousand for your dumb ass.”
I frown, and I honestly have no fucking clue what he’s talking about—in fact, all I’m thinking about is where the hell Delphine is, when Barnes smiles down at me.
“You do remember your old pal Basher, right? Basher Bronson, from your hood back in East London?”
My jaw ticks.
Fuck.
I want to shrug it off, or smile, or make a joke to enrage Barnes some more. But that name from my past hits me like a right hook I never saw coming, and Barnes sees is straight off. He chuckles, shaking his head and grinning at me.
“Oh, I had an idea that would shut that fucking mouth of yours. Yeah, he found me recently, and my man, he is real happy to see you again. On his way over from England right now, actually.”
My face is grim, but I’m barely listening to Barnes. Because instead, I’m working out how to get the fuck out of here, because I have to. Barnes and his mates are a bunch of muppets, and I can take his little tantrum hits all fucking day. But Basher? Yeah, that’s another story. Basher is a legit player in the London scene now, and his guys are trained killers from war zones and mercenary schools. And his punishment for the day Asa and I fucked him proper and took off is not going to be a temper-tantrum.
Something dark swells and burns inside of me, but I suck in air, forcing myself to stay calm. If Basher gets his hands on me, I’m done. There’s no walking away from that, and if he gets his hands on what I love? On Delphine?
My eyes squeeze shut, rage shattering through me.
I can’t go there, and I can’t spiral. I need to focus on finding the weak link in this chain, and when I open my eyes, I realize the weak link is standing right in front of me.
The weak link here is Barnes.
He’s volatile, and unbalanced, and angry, and if I can make him even angrier, he’ll get sloppier. And sloppy means I can trip him up, and maybe, just maybe, I can figure out a way out of this shit.
“Oy, Barnes,” I say loudly, interrupting whatever shit is pouring out of his wanker mouth about “watching me bleed” or some bullshit tough guy shit like that.
He glares at me, clearly angry at being interrupted in front of his mates.
“What.”
“You know, she told me about your little, uh, problem.”
His eyes harden.
“Watch your mouth, shithead.”
No thanks.
“Oh, yeah, we laughed about that a lot. You know,” I grin and look over at his peanut gallery of buddies. “About how you have a hard time getting such a little dick hard?”
One of his guys snorts, but when Barnes whirls on them with fury in his eyes, they all go quiet.
“Yeah? Well, bitch is making shit up,” he hisses, swallowing. “Stupid bitch.”
I frown, shaking my head. “No, I don’t think so, mate. We had a good laugh about it. She called it ‘your shy little turtle.’”
Barnes’s face goes red, and I can see him start to shake with rage. Good. Let him get mad. Let him hit the boiling point and lose his shit, because when he does, it might just be the one shot I have of getting the drop on him.
…You know, if he doesn’t just fucking kill me first.
“Shut your mouth, Oliver.”
“Now, my question is, has it ever gone up for any bird?” I sigh. “Could just be repression, mate. Maybe if you just admitted that maybe you’d rather be playing for the other team, you’d be a lot happ—”
“Shut up!” he barks, and I grunt as the back of his hand slams across my mouth.
I turn spitting blood and laughing quietly.
“Oh c’mon, Barnes,” I grin. “Is it Jay? You know, I think you two would make a real cute—”
I grunt as his knee slams into my gut, doubling me over. Fuck, this better fucking work.
“Watch your fucking mouth, fuckhead.”
“My mouth, yeah… you know, that reminds me. Do you have any idea where my mouth was with her?”
This is nothing I’d usually do. Talking about Delphine like this is bordering on enraging, even for myself. But there’s a bigger picture here, and that’s what I focus when as I keep on pushing him as hard as I can.
Pushing people? Being that annoying cunt that just won’t shut the fuck up? I’m in my bloody element here. I lock onto that fury in Barnes’s eyes, and I just laser into it, hard. It’s clear to me that this thing with Delphine Barnes isn’t just a power thing, not after that comment about school. This dumb cunt likes her in this fucked up, toxic, unrequited way, and that’s the weak point I focus on.
“Oy, mate, I don’t think that girl has ever come so hard than with me. You know how she—oh, fuck, mate, I’m sorry. Yeah,” I grin widely at him. “Guess you don’t know that look she gets when she really wants it, do you? My bad.”
Barnes sputters, looking like a fucking strawberry he’s so red.
“Yeah, that ain’t true, dipshit! I fucked that girl so—”
“No, you didn’t.” I turn to his mates and shrug. “He didn’t.”
“I did so!”
“Jerking off into a sock and crying her name doesn’t count, mate.”
A few of his guys chuckle, and Barnes starts to spiral. He’s fuming fucking mad, and I know I’m close. He roars and punches me hard, but I just laugh.
“Fuck, mate, it’s gotta suck to wait so long for that girl and still get nothing.” I make a face. “Fuck, you haven’t been waiting, waiting, have you? You know, saving yourself? Just for little ole’ me to come in fuck her sideways?”
Barnes is shaking, his teeth bared like a maniac as he hauls back to hit me again.
“And mate, I have never seen a girl come so hard before. I mean it was like something out of porn, you know? She just kept begging for it and telling me to fuck her harder with my big dick. I swear, that girl has a dirty, dirty mind—”
The next hit comes so hard I see stars. I blink, falling to the ground before suddenly, Barnes’s hand is on my neck. I wince as he yanks me up, and suddenly, I’m choking around the cold metal barrel of a gun.
Well, shit.
Very suddenly, my plan to push Barnes to the breaking point has worked entirely too well.
“Do you want to die?”
The whole mood is different, and I’m not laughing anymore when I look into Barnes’s eyes and see a man with nothing left to lose. Fuck me, I’ve pushed him too hard, and whatever window to react in I was hopi
ng for is gone. Not when I can see pure murder on his face.
“Do you?!” he roars.
I say nothing, and instead, my mind goes blank. Inside, I look away from this, and look into the eyes of the girl I love—the girl I wasn’t even looking for, who hit me like a perfect storm. I don’t know where she is, and if she’s okay, or if I’m even going to be alive in five minutes. But I focus on her in my head.
If I’m going out, she’s the last thing I want to see.
Barnes laughs, like a fucking maniac who’s snapped, as he turns to his mates.
“Is he fuckin’ retarded?”
He turns back to me, snarling.
“Listen, you stupid, stupid little fucker,” he grunts, pushing the gun against the inside of my cheek.
“I know what you’re doing, and it ain’t gonna work,” he whispers in a hiss. “Not with how much money your little pal is going to pay me. You know, it’s not just you he wants, either. It’s this brother of yours. So let’s make a deal, huh? I’m a businessman, you’re a—well, you’re a stupid motherfucker who thinks I give a shit if you fucked that little piece of trailer trash. So let’s make a deal. You give me your brother, I’ll let you go.”
I mutter my best “fuck off” around the gun. The sigh from Barnes tells me he understands anyways.
“No? Tell you what. I heard about this little gang of yours up in the mountains? This—this motorcycle gang?” he snickers, and then frowns at me. “You fuckers think you can muscle in on me? Trying to take my territory and customers?”
I could try and explain to this muppet that the Lost Devils don’t touch drugs and have a less than zero percent interest in anything related to him, but you know… the gun in my mouth and all. Plus, I don’t think Barnes is even interested in listening to reason at this point.
“Give me this brother that this Basher guy wants too, and I’ll say you slipped away. Shit, it might even get me paid twice if I catch your ass again,” he grins “Or give me this crew of yours, let me and my boys roll up there with some firepower and take them out, and you can take off. Fuck, take the bitch with you and consider our debts paid.”
Barnes smiles thinly.
“What do you say, shithead?”
I nod, and he grins.
“Really?”
“Suck a dick,” I mumble around the gun.
The smile fades from his face in a second, and he hisses, making me grunt as he jams the gun hard into my mouth.
“Not smart, asshole,” he mutters. “Not fucking smart. Well tell me this then, he hisses and leans close. The gun presses hard into the side of my fucking cheek, and I grunt.
“Do you want to die?”
The answer, if things were simple, is no. Like I said, a week ago, I might have flipped the geezer off, told him to go fuck his mother, or if I was feeling especially, well, me, maybe just go ahead and pull my dick out or something. But that was then, and this is now. And now, things are different. Things have changed.
“Blow his fuckin’ head off, Barnesy!”
I glance over at Jay and narrow my eyes.
“Mfmmmgg.”
Barnes frowns. “The fuck did you just say?”
I repeat myself. “Mfmmmgg.”
He grins. “Well shit, is reason finally getting through that fuckin’ head of yours?”
I shrug, and Barnes beckons Jay over. “Talk to him!” he barks. “Make this stupid fucker see reason.”
Jay flicks his cigarette away and strolls over until he’s standing right over me. Barnes pulls the gun out of my mouth, and I gasp. I clear my throat and spit on the ground as Jay leans down over me. With those beady little eyes and that stubby little nose, the cunt always looks like a right pig to me.
“Well what is it, douchebag,” he grunts. “You gonna tell us what we want to hear?”
I nod, looking at the ground, and he chuckles a wheezing laugh. “Speak, dipshit.”
I mumble something, and he scowls.
“The fuck was that? Speak English, fuckhead!”
“He speaks English, dude.”
Jay whips his head around and glares at the other blokes from their crew. “I know he speaks English, retard! I meant American English!” He turns back to glare at me. “Well?”
I mumble again, drooling slightly as I look at the ground.
Jay leans down closer, right over m, and I smile.
“Alright you dumb English motherfucker. Tell us what we want to hear, or we’re gonna—”
I thrust my head up, hard, catching Jay right in the nose. Blood sprays all over the place as he screams. I slam my forehead forwards, headbutting him right in the fucking balls, and the little piggy goes down hard, screaming and clutching his nuts.
I just start laughing my ass off, but Barnes roars, grabbing me by the throat. And suddenly, metal fills my mouth. I choke on the gun, suddenly unable to breath as I look up into the enraged face of the man who I stole from.
And the thing is? I’d steal her from him, and anyone else, a million times out of a million times, even if every fucking scenario ended with me here on my knees in an empty warehouse with a gun in my mouth.
“Last. Fucking. Chance.” Barnes hisses through clenched teeth, glaring at me. “We both know the only reason I haven’t blown your goddamn head off is because of the money Basher’s promised me. But my patience is thinning, dumbass, and I’m done with deals. Tell you what, you’re fucked either way, but if you give me this brother too, then I won’t put a bullet in Delphine’s pretty little head. But first I’m gonna make her watch me slice you up.”
As if on cue, there’s a screamed swear. My blood chills, and every muscle in my body clenches. I whip my head around, and I roar as I lunge to my feet. But Barnes and a few of his mates shove me back down, and a blade goes to my throat.
The van has been parked behind the rest of his guys since I came to. But I never imagined she was here too, inside of it. She screams again as the door slides open, two of Barnes’s guys hauling her out, dressed in a bathrobe.
Our eyes lock, my smoky blues on her pretty green ones, and I don’t blink.
“Her,” Barnes growls. “Look at her, that stupid fucking slut. Because that look of horror and disgust in her eyes when I carve your fucking face up first is gonna be the last thing you see.” The knife leaves my throat, and his gun levels against my forehead, right between the eyes.
“No more games, fuckhead,” Barnes hisses. The gun pushes to my head, and time goes still. I look at her, she looks right back at me, and I see forever and eternity in her eyes. I can feel the ways she moves under my hands, taste her sweet lips on mine, and hear her whispered words and lover’s prayers in my ears.
I see everything that’s happened, and everything that might have been. I see every choice made—every wrong turn, every right one, and every corner I never even looked around.
But it doesn’t matter. Every road and every choice leads back to her anyways.
“I’m counting to three,” Barnes says quietly.
I don’t blink
“One.”
Her face tightens, but she doesn’t scream. She doesn’t give them what they want.
“Two.”
My heart slows. My eyes don’t blink.
“Three,” Barnes almost whispers. The gun hammer cocks with a hard, metal click.
“Time to die, Oliver.”
“Oy, cunt.”
Barnes turns. The rest of his guys turn. I turn, and my fucking jaw drops.
Me—or at least, the mirror version of me—smiles at Barnes while he pushes the gun right against Barnes’s forehead.
“Get your fuckin’ hands off my brother.”
He pulls the trigger, and suddenly Barnes’s head is just gone in a mist of red. It takes about a quarter of a second before the reality of what we all just saw hits the crowd, but I’m moving before Barnes’s body even hits the floor.
I slam up, catching another guy in the chin and knocking some teeth out as he goes tumbling back. Th
e mirror version of me whirls, calm as a fucking cucumber as he squeezes off two more rounds, and then two more, dropping four of Barnes’s guys. Jay is screaming like a chicken without a head, and I roar as I rush him and catch him square in the face with the top of my head. His nose crumbles even more, and he screams and falls to the ground.
“Oy!” I roar at the other me. He whirls, and I hiss as the snick of his knife catches a bit of skin on my hands as he slices through my binds. I don’t have time to look at him, or say a word, I just grab Jay’s gun from his jeans and charge, blasting away and dropping two more of them.
One of them goes for Delphine, but she screams and stamps down hard on his foot and elbows him in the face. He tumbles back and gets her knee in his bollocks, and when he lunges back up, my bullet catches him through the throat.
The last of Barnes’s guys start to run off down the length of the old warehouse, but suddenly, there’s the roaring sound of engines. Six bikes come blazing in through a loading dock, and I grin when I see Shepherd, Rowan, Lucy, Bishop, Bastion, and Hush come thundering in, guns out. Barnes’s guys fall to their knees and throw their hands up as the bikes skid to a stop, and my friends round them up, kicking them to the ground.
I don’t even blink or stop though, I just keep running until I catch Delphine in my arms. She sobs into me as I grab her tight, wrapping my arms around her like I’ll never, ever let her go.
“I’m here,” I hiss quietly into her neck. “I’m here, love. And it’s over. It’s all over.”
“Gauge!” Shepherd roars, pulling my attention. I look up, and he nods. “You whole?”
I nod and look down into Delphine’s eyes. “Are you hurt?”
She frowns. “No, I…” her eyes swivel past me, and her face pales. “I—”
“What the fuck am I looking at?” Bastion yells.
I turn to follow all of their confused gazes, and my lips pull back in a grin as I lock eyes with the mirror me who just dropped Barnes.
“Guys, meet Asa.” I grin.
“My twin.”
Chapter Seventeen