Striping Hot

CHAPTERSEVENTEEN

REX

Rex had to cope with socializing on his own for a fair amount of time. He admired how Gianna had dealt with Voren in a way only a woman could. Men weren’t the smartest of creatures when it came to seeing something aesthetically pleasing. It was even worse when those beautiful women had minds as sharp as arrows.

Any man, or woman for that matter, would be done for.

Rex listened to Voren as he went on and on about the dam project. As he listened, he nursed a whiskey, not wanting to get too distracted by the booze flooding his brain. He also didn’t want Voren to know anything was up, so he made sure he saw him taking a few hefty sips.

Rex began to worry about Gianna when she didn’t return for almost an hour. Rex looked at his watch and excused himself to the bathroom. He snuck up some stairs and wandered the manor, heart pulsing in his throat with worry.

What if they had done something to her? He had always admired her confidence, but he wished she would sometimes dial it down a few notches. There wasn’t anything wrong with asking for help or admitting that you couldn't do something.

There was no diverting that woman’s passion, and Christ, he loved her for it. He just hoped that she would still be alive for him to scold.

After going in circles a few times, Rex came upon what looked like a lounge or living room space. It was dark and dank, so he turned on his phone light to not trip over himself. As he did, the spotlight shined on some familiar footwear.

Rex bent over frantically and picked up Gianna’s heels with one finger. They dangled there like Christmas ornaments as his body overflowed with fear.

“Gianna, goddamn it,” he whispered to himself.

He placed the shoes on the floor and began walking forward. His dress shoes tapped against the floor like he was doing a very slow tap dance. The floor looked like it had just been waxed, reflecting a thin sheen as his phone light hovered over it.

Rex arrived at a door and took the knob in his hand. Before opening it, he prayed for the first time in his life, closing his eyes and casting his gaze toward the floor.

“Please,” he said through gritted teeth, “please, for the love of God, don’t be dead, Gianna.”

Rex whipped open the door like he was ripping off a Band-Aid. The sight of Gianna’s still body on the floor flushed his system with an approaching fainting spell. His phone light shined first on her feet, then moved up her body.

Rex tried to get ahold of himself as he dropped to the floor. He breathed deeply as he crawled forward, touching her feet, noticing how cool her skin felt. He moved up her body, shaking violently, then arrived at her delightful, sleeping face.

He took her face in his hands as his throat swelled up with grief. His practical mind forced his hands to move down to her throat and check for a pulse. To say that he was relieved to feel the thud of her heartbeat would be the understatement of the century.

“Fuck!” Rex cried out in delight.

Suddenly, a lightbulb above him flashed on. It washed the room in a siren’s bath of flashing red light, sending Rex backward into the wall. He clutched at his chest as his wide eyes wandered the room in horror.

First, he spotted the reflection of light coming from Gianna’s hand. As he squinted, he realized there was a knife covered in thick wads of blood in her fingers. There were also tiny splatters all over her delicate skin.

Next, his eyes moved slowly to the second body, the room’s bulb exposed. Rex knew immediately who it was before he was able to admit it to himself.

Agrippa lay there, most certainly dead, next to Gianna. A wound in the center of his chest gaped wide like the mouth of a cave, looking like someone had gone wild in a flurry of stabbing motions. He could see the shiny floor through Agrippa’s torso.

Rex slid himself up the wall. He began to calm down, beginning to see the picture someone was attempting to draw in front of him. It was clear to him but also a sad, poor attempt.

Before Rex had time to assess the scene, a few men burst through the door of the room. They took Rex by the arms and dragged him into the lounge, lit up by flaming chandeliers.

Rex called out Gianna’s name reflexively, hoping she wasn’t too far off getting the help her body required. The men threw him onto the floor, and he stayed there on all fours, panting with anxiety.

“There’s no need to get so riled up!”

Voren entered the room with his hideous grin. Rex turned his head to face him, beginning to dig his nails into the flooring.

“Oh, please, don’t do that,” he asked softly. “We just had the floors done.”

Rex jumped to his feet and let out a low growl. A few of the men who were standing nearby took a cautious step back.

“Give me one good reason not to just rip your head from your body right now,” Rex snarled.

“Oh, I’ll give you a few,” Voren replied.

He took a seat at a desk in front of a tall bookshelf. He leaned onto his hands and continued speaking with pep and excitement.

“Most of them are lying on that floor over there,” he said, motioning toward Gianna. “She is mighty delightful, don’t you think? I wouldn’t want to let that one go so fast.”

Voren let out a growl of his own, objectifying Gianna as she lay unconscious behind Rex. Rex wanted to leap onto the desk, grab him by the neck, and remove his spine from his body like a straw from a Coke bottle.

But he remained still, trying to assess his options and success-to-failure ratio.

“Though, I’m not sure if she would look so good in an orange jumpsuit,” Voren said with a cringe. “You two would have conjugal visits to look forward to, at least.”

Rex allowed himself to settle down. Voren was trying to rile him up, which did come easily these days when it came to Gianna. He opened and shut his eyes slowly, letting a playful smirk grow across his lips.

“So, that’s the game plan then?” Rex asked.

Voren looked at him with a wide-eyed indifference.

“Hmm?” he said.

“The plan,” he said. “That’s all you could come up with to get the money out of me. Frame my latest pet with murder?”

There was a long beat of silence between them. A harsh wind shook the widows behind the men, making their stare down all the more intense.

Voren stood from the desk and placed his hands behind his back.

“You think you have me figured out, don’t you?” he inquired.

Rex shrugged.

“I wouldn’t say completely,” Rex replied with a raised eyebrow, “but mostly. There isn’t much else to it, I think.”

Voren showed off some yellow teeth that radiated in the gloom.

“I’ve seen the way you look at her,” Voren began, taking a step toward Rex. “There is way more to her than you are willing to relay.”

Rex could feel his anger rising. He gripped his fingernails into his flesh, hoping it was enough to hold off his monster from being released.

“She is way more than just something to fuck,” Voren said exuberantly. “Though, I imagine that experience would be quite exhilarating.”

“Land the plane, Voren,” Rex said through gritted teeth.

Voren threw his head back and chuckled as he hopped directly in front of Rex. He leaned forward the way a parent leans to talk down to their child. Rex could feel the rivets of sweat blossoming on his forehead.

“I think,” he whispered, “you are in love with her. Beautiful, devastating, life-altering love.”

On the last syllable, Voren made the fatal mistake of flicking Rex’s nose. Everything in front of Rex’s eyes went red. He grabbed Voren’s finger and pulled it into his mouth like it was a kebab. He crunched down onto the bone until it turned to dust.

Voren yelped at the top of his lungs as Rex munched on him. A few of his minions took Rex by the shoulders and threw him back into the wall. The crash brought Rex back into the moment, watching as fountains of blood spewed from Voren’s finger.

“You son of a bitch!” Voren screamed.

Rex smiled as he stood.

“I thought of a second option,” Rex said.

Someone jogged to Voren’s side and began wrapping his finger in a towel. He moaned like a child who had smashed their foot in a car door.

“It’s called going King of the Jungle,” Rex said, beginning to unbutton his shirt. “And fucking murdering all of your asses.”

Voren immediately retreated to the corner of the room as two men in front of him began shifting. One slipped out of its human form like it was a suit, shifting into a gray wolf. The other came into its own as a coyote, a bit slower but just as vicious.

Rex was ravenous and more than willing to give in to the cries of his tiger.

He went onto all fours and let out a spellbinding roar as he shed his human skin, tearing apart the slacks and dress shoes he had been wearing. His claws protruded out like knives attached to his fingers while his sharp fangs hung down from his gums like two beckoning swords.

Rex shook gleefully in his fur, ready to rip out some throats and protect his beloved, no matter the cost.

The wolf went for him first, as he had expected. Rex was attuned to his senses even more in his animal form. He immediately noticed how antsy and ready the wolf was for a fight. It went for his neck, and Rex was able to easily wipe it away. It crashed into the wall behind him and let out a pathetic whimper.

IS THAT ALL YOU’VE GOT?

The coyote was more reluctant but still gave Rex a fair challenge. They both stood on their hind legs and began battling with their front paws, slashing at one another with their razor-like mouths and nails.

Rex got the best of him for a moment as he shifted and caught the coyote's paw with his hand, then used the other hand to thrash the coyote’s entire body to the floor. Rex shifted again as he leapt on top of him and released a wet growl before plummeting his teeth into his thin fur.

It let out a disgusting howl that only made Rex angrier. He thrashed at his neck like he was already dead meat. As the coyote gave in. Rex left him, blood pouring onto the ground like spilled water.

The wolf wasn’t as quick to give up. He came for Rex with more energy and zest, which threw Rex off. His big head charged into Rex’s torso, taking his breath away for a few seconds. The wolf took advantage of this and took Rex’s back leg into his mouth and began gnawing like it was a chicken wing.

Rex roared in pain and tried to remove the leg from the wolf’s grip. It was locked on hard, which forced Rex to pull his leg out of its mouth with sheer force, separating fur and skin from his bones.

Rex retreated from the shifters for a moment to recover. A terrible thought crossed his mind.

If they managed to kill him right then and there, what would they do with Gianna?

Rex thought that they would likely kill her too. The consideration made him want to kill every living thing in sight.

He was tiring himself out, but he needed to keep trying. He needed to try for her. She had taught him that his life meant something, even after the horrible tragedy of the plane crash. He had released himself from the chains of his guilt and wanted to live a thriving life with her by his side.

That was something to fight for, more than anything in the world.

Rex curled his lips over his teeth and began growling at the wolf in front of him. If it meant tearing his body apart to keep her alive, he was going to do it.

An image of her wearing a lovely wedding dress, walking to him down the aisle, flashed through his mind as he charged.