Page 28 of Depraved

Still crouched, I watched the blood pour from his leg, flesh and tissue hanging out. His leg was mutilated, the muscle destroyed. Yet I felt nothing. All I saw was that boy’s face, the bruises. Just like hers. Her face. Hurt and injured.

I held the bloody knife in my hand, rubbing my fingers up and down my beard. Just the sight of blood soothed me, calmed me, made me think clearer. Man, I was every fucking psychiatrist’s wet dream.

“Please, I won’t hurt him again. I promise.” The kid-beater cried some more, sweat dripping down the side of his face, his body shivering. “I swear to God, man. I won’t touch him again.”

I launched forward and grabbed his face in my hand, squeezing his cheeks. “You’re damn right, you won’t. You will take your scrawny, sorry, little ass and leave town. You will not come near the boy or his mom. And if I so much as catch a whiff of your stinking ass in the neighborhood, I will cut you from nose to navel. You feel me?”

“Yes. Yes. Yes.” He let out a few sobs. “Yes. I promise.”

I let go of his face with a jerk, then motioned for Ink to come closer. “Get him to a hospital. And you make fucking sure he leaves town.”

Ink nodded. “You got it.”

I didn’t stick around. The urge to kill this man was too strong, and if I didn’t leave now, his life would end with my blade stuck in his heart.

Onyx left with me, flanking me as we rode down the streets. This time I was in no hurry, my thoughts a complete mess. Going in, I had every detail planned out.

It was never supposed to be this way. But that was the cruel reality of our world. Nothing ever worked out the way it was supposed to.

Not for us.

Not for me.

CHAPTER TEN

ALYX

To wake up with a pounding headache was nothing new to me. I found it strange when I didn’t wake up with a skull feeling like it was on fire.

I moved and placed my hand on my forehead, cringing. Only when I touched my face, pain radiating from my temple to my nose, did I remember the bruise.

The smashed window.

Blurry faces.

Darkness.

Him.

Panic soared, and I shot up in bed.

“Easy, there, grasshopper.”

Frightened, I was about to leap out of bed when I spotted a woman sitting on a chair in the corner, reading a magazine.

“Who are you?” I clutched the sheets against my chest.

“My name’s Neon.” She turned a page, unfazed.

“Why…why are you here?”

She shrugged. “Granite told me to sit with you while they went on a run. Make sure you’re okay.” She glanced at me from under her lashes. “You okay?”

“Is that a trick question?” I glared at the blue-haired girl with piercings just about everywhere on her face.

She didn’t respond and just turned her attention back to the…Good Housekeeping Magazine?

“What?” she snapped. “They have good recipes in here.” She glared my way, and I realized I must have been frowning at her choice of reading material.