Dirty Dealers

“Maybe that’s it.” I shake my head. “All I know is he changed. He doesn’t want me, and I need you to help me fix it.”

“What the fuck do you expect me to do?”

“Well…” My heart is lodged in my throat, but I push through the pain. “I thought maybe… maybe you could coach me. Tell me what to do to get him back.”

“I don’t know what you’re thinking—”

“You’re a man…” I lower my voice and step to where I feel his body heat radiating. Reaching out, I slide my hand up the front of his shirt. He flinches, but doesn’t pull away. I keep going. “You’re powerful like he is.” Another step closer, and my face is at his shoulder.

“I’m more powerful than fucking Logan Hunt.” Blix’s voice has grown thick, and I’m betting everything on that one time he told me I was beautiful.

“Then it should be easy for you,” I whisper, allowing my lips to touch the side of his jaw light as a feather. “Teach me.”

Everything stills. The air is razor sharp, and I’m holding my breath. The rhythmic tapping of rain begins on the roof above, and my hand starts to move. I slide my palm down the front of his shirt to his belt, over the buckle to the distinct bulge I feel in his jeans. God, give me the strength to go through with this.

I slide my hand up and down the bulge once… twice… and I hear his breathing change. Closing my eyes, I move my hand from his dick to my waistband, ready to close my fingers over the handle of the dagger.

I’m there, I’m clutching the handle, I see it happening…

Then the world tilts.

Blix pushes me back and spins me around, jerking my back against his chest and holding me by the throat. I try to scream, but he’s crushing my larynx, forcing my head against his shoulder in the process.

“Did you think I wouldn’t have you watched?” His other hand rips my shirt up and jerks the punch dagger from its holster. “You fucked Logan Hunt like a cheap whore… And now you’re trying to fuck with me.”

He pushes the razor-sharp tip against my neck, right at the base of my jaw.

“No!” I scream, but I can’t move. He’s got me by the throat with the point of my blade cutting into my skin.

“Tonight I watched you myself,” he hisses in my ear, little drops of spittle landing on my cheek. “I watched him finger-fuck you on that motorcycle. I watched him slam you against the wall like the lying little slut you are. He followed you indoors where I’m sure you sucked him off.”

My entire body is shaking, and tears are coating my face. “You’re wrong,” I gasp, flailing for anything to get the upper hand again. “He followed me inside, and he told me it was over!”

His grip on my throat grows tighter and he uses it to jerk my head back against his shoulder, punctuating each word. “Stop. Fucking. Lying!”

A cough rips through me. My eyes heat and my nose starts to run. “I’m not lying,” I gasp. Oh, God, I’ve got to kill him…

“You’re not lying?” He mocks me. “Then what the fuck were you planning to do with the knife?” He jams the tip of the blade further into my skin.

“Ow!” I cry as it pierces my skin. Hot blood runs down my neck, and a violent shudder moves through my torso. “You told me to carry it for self defense!”

“Bull. Shit.” With a violent push he throws me to the ground.

My hands flail as I grasp thin air, trying to protect my head from smashing into the concrete. The rest of me hits the floor, and a sharp rock or piece of wood, I can’t tell which, jams painfully into my hip.

“Oh, god,” I cry, curling into a ball on the filthy marble.

Blix crosses the space to where I’m lying. I don’t have time to block him before pain explodes through my torso. He kicks me so hard an Oof! flies from my body. I hear the sound of another kick coming just in time to roll, absorbing the force of the blow.

He takes a step back, and I clutch tighter, waiting for what’s to come, wondering how long I’ll hold up before he kills me. Blix seems to be wondering this as well.

“What shall I do with you, little bat?” His tone is morphing, turning cruel.

I’ve heard it so many times, I can still see how his eyes are changing. All humanity is leaving his body, and what’s coming next will make me wish I was never born.

A hissing noise comes from the area around his waist, and my arms are jerked back, causing me to yelp. Both my hands are in his vice grip and cold rope is looped and tightened around my wrists… tighter, cutting painfully into my skin.

“You’re something of a special case.” He finishes and shoves me back against the hard floor. I bend my knees and draw them up against my stomach, ducking my head. “What would a blind girl find most terrifying? You’re clearly not afraid of the dark… or of losing your sight.”