Carter heard the guys yell “No!” and other expletives, until they realized there were no bullets coming out of the gun. Tessa stood still breathing hard with a look of confusion, Carter just smirked.
“What the fuck, Carter!” Nathan yelled from behind her. She knew he was probably both relieved and pissed off right now, but she couldn’t focus on him yet.
Carter’s jaw clenched, anger filling her as she turned to look at Kyle. “Do you see, Kyle? Do you see how much your damn girlfriend hates me?”
“Carter, honey, you know it’s not like that. I’ve tried to apologize over and over—”
Kyle’s words were cut off when Nathan, Lucca, Mickey, and Dante all screamed Carter’s name simultaneously. Carter didn’t need the warning. She had already been waiting for the bitch. Carter saw Tessa swing the gun straight for her face and she instinctively caught Tessa’s wrist and twisted it until she screamed out in pain and dropped the gun. After that, Carter saw red.
She jumped off the counter with Tessa’s twisted wrist still in her hand. She gripped her long pony tail quickly, wrapped it around her hand and slammed Tessa’s face into the corner of the counter three times. Tessa screamed in pain and blood covered her face. Carter heard Nathan yelling something behind her but she didn’t give a shit anymore. Whether it was wrong or right, she was going to kill Tessa.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Mickey, Lucca and Dante running toward her and Tessa, so she quickly extended her arm over to the cabinet where she had thrown her knife, yanked it loose and jerked Tessa’s head back. Tessa wailed in pain and Carter brought the knife to her throat.
Just when she was about to cut the bitch from ear to ear she felt a big arm wrap around her body and a big hand wrap around her wrist. The hand applied a painful squeeze to her wrist until she clenched her teeth hard as pain shot through her arm and she released the knife. Carter let Tessa’s hair go and her hand shot to her wrist, and she rubbed her sore spot. She felt the big hands grip her waist. She was jerked away from Tessa, lifted off her feet, and carried out of the kitchen.
“Get that damn girl off the floor and handle her!” she heard Nathan yell. She looked at the hands on her waist and realized they were his and they were headed up the stairs.
Fuck! She thought. I just lost it.I was about to murder Tessa in Kyle’s kitchen.
Carter looked at her hands and Tessa’s blood covered them, she looked at her dress and saw spots of blood and swallowed hard.
Shit! I killed her.
11
One Long Ass Day, Part 3: Catch Me
Nathan entered his and Carter’s room with her in his arms. She was staring at the blood that covered her hands. Nathan knew that she was panicking and he understood why. It had most likely been a long time since she had lost her temper the way she did with Tessa, and the last time she lost her temper to that magnitude was after the death of her father. Nathan knew that it must be difficult for her to reacquaint with the side of herself that was capable of doing what she was about to do to Tessa in the kitchen. He knew he should have stopped the fight before it got to that point, but honestly, his curiosity had peaked.
Nathan sat Carter on the bed and stood in front of her.
Carter looked up at Nathan with tears in her eyes. “Did I kill her?”
Nathan dropped to his knees in front of her and cupped her face. “No, baby, you didn’t kill her.” Nathan didn’t know if his answer was the truth or a lie. Yes the girl wasn’t dead when Nathan took Carter out of the kitchen, but he wouldn’t tell Carter that allowing Mickey and Lucca to handle her meant that the girl wouldn’t be alive for long. That would just be too much, too soon. Carter was still adjusting. Nathan understood that.
Nathan scooped Carter in his arms and she laid her head on his shoulder while carrying her into the bathroom. He put her on her feet and she stood there and watched him as he unzipped her dress and pulled it down her body. He removed her bra and panties and led her into the shower.
“I failed, Nathan. I was supposed to change, supposed to be better, but I failed,” she whispered sadly.
Nathan wanted to say something to make her feel better but he knew nothing would work when she was in the state she was in now. Personally Nathan didn’t think she needed to change and he hated that she wanted to. He wanted to tell her that changing was probably never going to happen. She’s a hit-man’s daughter. But he couldn’t tell her any of that right now. She needed time.
Once she was in the shower, he reached in, turned the water on, closed the door, and left her to wash Tessa’s blood off of her.
Nathan picked up her blood stained dress and walked out of the bathroom then checked the spot on their bed where to see if there was any blood. He saw two bloody hand prints on the sheets. He gathered the bed spread off of the bed and left the room with the blood stained items in his hands.
Nathan took the items downstairs to the living room. He flipped on the large fire place and set the items down on the floor.
“How is she?” Dante asked, walking in the living room from the kitchen taking off a pair of gloves. He walked over to the fireplace where Nathan was and threw the gloves in.
“She’s in the shower. I just think she needs a moment,” Nathan answered throwing Carter’s dress into the fire, he’d get her more.
“Yeah, I get it.” Dante said, shaking his head. “Was that her first time—”
“No” Nathan answered before Dante could complete the question.
Dante nodded his head. “I didn’t think so. She looked like she knew what she was doing.”
“She’s stuck on changing.” Nathan explained “She knew what she was doing, but she didn’t like that she was doing it.”
Dante gave Nathan a look of understanding. “You of all people know I understand that.”
“Yes, but she isn’t the same as you Tae.” Nathan interjected. “Carter is like me…She can try and fight it, but it’s a losing battle.”
Dante let out a long sigh. “Well, Mickey and Lucca are going to handle everything with the girl, Kyle and I handled everything in the kitchen. I’m pretty positive he feels like shit.”
Nathan frowned. “He should. That girl has been giving Carter shit for months. She has some sort of sick obsession with him. Carter’s better than me, if anyone ever had the fucking balls to talk to me like that I would have blew their head off before the words left their mouth,” Nathan replied.
It was true. Nathan had killed men for much less than what that Tessa’s been doing to Carter. Nathan had heard all the shit that girl was talking and he wanted to fuck her up himself. She was obviously delusional and needed to be put out of her misery.
“I’m surprised it took Carter so long to snap, but when she did,” Dante chuckled, “she moves fast, brother. Seriously, she almost moved too fast for me to see what was happening, she was so close to cutting that girls head off,” Dante said shaking his head and chuckling at the memory.
Nathan smirked and recalled the memory of Carter catching Tessa’s hand and jumping from the counter. She did move fast. Nathan had blinked and when he opened his eyes Tessa was screaming with blood pouring down her face and Carter was reaching for a knife.
Nathan shook his head in disbelief. “She does move quickly, doesn’t she? I didn’t know she was serious about that five second warning until it happened.”
“And her reflexes are incredible,” Dante added.
“And her legs are incredibly fucking sexy.”
Dante and Nathan frowned and looked to see who made the comment. Mickey walked into the living room and Lucca followed behind him rolling his eyes as he closed the front door.
Mickey fell back on the couch and propped up his feet. “Seriously, you need to take her shopping so she can get more of those little dresses, Nathan.” Mickey said with a smirk.
Nathan glared at him. “I’ll keep that in mind, asshole.”
Mickey chuckled. “I’m just being honest. Did you guys see her get up on that counter
? I swear when she stood up I almost fell over, she looked so good in that fucking dress,” Mickey said with a sly smile.
Lucca picked up a couch pillow and hit Mickey hard. “What the fuck?” he said through a laugh.
“Hit him again,” Nathan said from the fireplace and Lucca did, getting the same reaction from Mickey. “Do you have to lust over her all 24 hours of the day? You do realize how dangerous a man I am, don’t you? What if I decided I was no longer okay with the comments you make about the woman that belongs to me, Mikilo?”
Mickey completely ignored Nathan’s words. Nathan rolled his eyes.
“I’ll stop lusting when she stops being so sexy, Nate. And that’s never going to happen, so yes, 24 hours a day, diligently,” Mickey said rubbing his head where Lucca hit it.
Nathan arched an eyebrow and nodded his head. “You’re a very brave man.”
Mickey sat up and looked over at Nathan. “Not brave, Nate. I just know you. And you’ve known me since I was in diapers. You know I’m just being an idiot because I can,” he said with a shrug. “Yes, I say all this shit about how beautiful Carter is, but if I ever hear man say shit like this about your woman, I’d beat his face in with the heel of my shoe. We all would. So don’t sit over there and play the ‘I’m a dangerous man’ card with me, Nate. You and I both know your point of focus is the way I touch her.” He said that last part with a smirk.
Nathan wanted to break his jaw, but the idiot was right. Nathan had known his punk-ass since he was shitting in diapers. Because Nathan knew him so well, it was difficult for him to see him as any type of threat when it came to Carter. Mickey flirted, but Carter usually flirted back. It was empty flirtation, both of them just looking to tease the other. It had kind of just became something he’d expected to see from Carter and Mickey. Most of the time Nathan just found it amusing. For him to be jealous of it just seemed ridiculous to him. It was Mickey for God’s sake. Honestly, as long as Mickey kept his hands to himself and didn’t cross the line Nathan didn’t give a shit if he drooled every time Carter walked into a room. But had it been a man other than his brother saying shit like that about his woman, he’d have cut his tongue out.
“She called you blondie,” Lucca said through a laugh.
Nathan looked up and frowned. “What?” he asked confused.
Lucca chuckled. “She called you blondie. When that chick said she was in love with Kyle, she said she was in love with blondie,” Lucca said laughing and the guys laughed with him.
Nathan chuckled, he had forgotten about that. Carter had said many things during her argument with Tessa. That was actually the reason he didn’t stop the fight long before he did, his curiosity peaked when his beautiful rose began to speak. He knew that was the only time he would be able to see her unafraid with showing every part of who she is. No matter how ugly it got, Nathan wanted to see and know all of Carter, every beautiful, sweet, kind, funny, playful, twisted, sadistic, psychotic part of her. Today he saw a side of Carter she tried to hide from him, today was the first time he actually heard her birth name, today was the day he found out her father’s real name, and today was the first time that Carter had ever mentioned her mother. Nathan found out so much about Carter during that little exchanged and he would be finding out more.
“Carterina Anastacia fucking Stone,” Mickey muttered with a sly smile.
Lucca chuckled. “Little Miss Carterina Anastacia Stone can kick some serious ass.” He sat down on a plush chair in the living room. “Gotta love a woman with a mean streak,” he said with a smirk. “You guys think she’s going to kick Kyle’s ass too?”
The guys laughed.
“Well, if I were him I wouldn’t stick around to find out,” Mickey said through a laugh. “My ass would be on the first plane back to New York, hoping she wouldn’t come and find me.”
“What’s so funny?” Kyle asked as he entered the living room. He was carrying cleaning supplies as well as a few towels stained with the blood he cleaned in the kitchen.
“Nothing,” Mickey said in a sing song tone.
Kyle frowned and walked over to Nathan. “I’ll take care of these, Nate,” he said picking up the bed set that Nathan brought from the bedroom. “You may want to get rid of that t-shirt too, man.” Kyle pointed at the bloody hand print on Nathan’s shirt where Carter had touch his chest.
Nathan looked at his shirt and nodded. “Yeah, I probably should,” he replied standing and taking off his shirt. Nathan tossed it in the large fire and watched it burn.
Kyle cleared his throat. “I probably have no right asking since everything was my fault…”
“She’s fine, Kyle. She was a little worked up, but Carter’s strong. She’ll bounce back. She just needs some time to collect herself,” Nathan interjected.
Kyle let out a long sigh and hung his head. “I feel like shit, Nate. I don’t know what the fuck I was thinking hooking up with Tessa again. Carter told me how crazy she was, but I was just so fucking drunk.” Kyle ran his hands through his hair.
“Kyle, I’m not going to tell you that you shouldn’t feel like shit because you should. What you did to Carter was wrong,” Nathan muttered.
Kyle rolled his eyes. “That’s not what I want, and I know what I did was wrong.”
“Yet, you still brought the girl here where you knew Carter would be?” Nathan looked at Kyle as he spoke.
“I told you I was drunk, Nate. Don’t you go and get pissed at me too.”
“Bullshit, Kyle. You and I both know that you did it on purpose. You may not have been okay with it when you woke up this morning, but last night, with your liquid courage, you wanted to hurt Carter. No matter how irrational, you wanted to hurt her,” Nathan said with a shrug.
Kyle’s jaw clenched, but Nathan continued to speak because he knew this needed to be said. “Kyle, I have been trying to give you the space you need to adjust to the way things are now. I have only been considerate of your feelings because you’re my best friend and I care about you, but you need to snap the fuck out of it.”
Nathan noticed Kyle had been avoiding both him and Carter lately, and he knew the reason why. Kyle was in love with Carter. Nathan couldn’t believe it based on Kyle’s history and coldness toward women, but he knew it was true. He thought the whole thing was completely ironic that both he and Kyle, men who swore they would never fall in love, fell in love with the same woman. Nathan wasn’t completely okay with the way Kyle felt about Carter, but he understood.
Kyle and Carter had developed some sort of sexless relationship that had been going on for a year. Nathan didn’t understand how it remained that way with them being as close as they were, but somehow it did. They cared about each other, and Nathan decided he would just deal with it, but only because it was Kyle. Had it been another man, Nathan would have put a bullet in his head. But Kyle was his brother, his best friend. Kyle wouldn’t try anything with Carter anyway. He knew that if he did, Nathan would kill him, best friend or not.
Kyle took a deep breath and ran his hand through his hair. “Yeah I know that, Nate. You think I like it when Carter’s pissed at me?”
“I know you don’t.”
“Okay then.”
Nathan slapped his friend on the back. “Good. Now you can work on begging and pleading for her forgiveness.” Kyle rolled his eyes, and Nathan smiled.
“Are we okay, Nate? I don’t want anything to change between us because of the shit I’ve been dealing with. I know I’ve been an ass, but I am happy for you, surprised as hell, but happy for you.” Kyle chuckled. “I still can’t believe you have a girlfriend, but I understand. If any woman can turn a crazy ass motherfucker like you into a sappy ass, kissy face, flower buying boyfriend, it’d be Carter.”
Nathan laughed and nodded his head in agreement. “That’s true. Sometimes I don’t even believe it myself, but I love her like crazy even if it makes me a sappy ass, kissy face boyfriend.”
Kyle patted Nathan’s back. “You forgot flower buying,” he added.
“Yeah, look who’s talking. I’ve never seen you treat a woman the way you treat Carter. No wonder you drove that chick insane,” Nathan teased.
“You of all people should understand why I treat Carter the way I do. She demands that shit, no matter who the fuck you are,” Kyle said thinking of how out of character his relationship with Carter is for him.
Nathan smiled and nodded his head. “We’re good, Kyle. We’ve gotten through a lot of shit together, life or death situations, this is a piece of cake.”
“Hey. Hey, you two!”
Nathan and Kyle looked over to Mickey.
“Are you two telling secrets again?” he asked with a smirk.
Nathan and Kyle rolled their eyes, and Mickey feigned disappointment. “You were telling secrets weren’t you? Not cool Kyle and Nathan, not cool at all,” Mickeys said shaking his head feigning disappointment. Lucca and Dante chuckled. “We have to tell you two this constantly, don’t we?” Mickey let out and exaggerated sigh. “Secrets. Secrets guys, you know the rest.”
Dante and Lucca laughed. Both Nathan and Kyle flipped Mickey off, and Mickey rolled his eyes.
“Hey now that you two are done having your weekly Kyle and Nathan girl talk time, there is one thing I want you to yell at her about,” Mickey said looking over at Nathan. “The gun. She should have told us that there was only one bullet in the gun. I seriously thought that she only pulled out the gun because she thought the bitch didn’t have the balls to kill her, but when that chick picked up the gun and started pulling that fucking trigger…” The rest of Mickey’s statement didn’t have to be said out loud.
All of the guys frowned at the memory of that moment.
Nathan was a mixture of relieved that Carter was completely unharmed, and pissed that Carter would give a deranged woman a gun anyway. He had never been more terrified in his life, and thinking about that moment only brought the feeling back, which pissed off Nathan more.
“I’m just saying, Nate. You yell at her or I will. I don’t do well with distress, and she put me through some serious fucking distress,” Mickey said lying back and frowning.
Dangerous Beauty: Part One: Destiny Page 15