SEBASTIAN
“Good morning, Ken Doll!” I said cheerily to Kenna as I made my way into the kitchen. She was sitting at the table, sipping a cup of coffee. Her cheeks got bright red the second Scarlet and I walked in.
“Is Kenna too hard for you to remember, Nose Ring?” she shot back.
I laughed and walked over to make Scarlet her coffee and cereal. She sat down with Kenna and started apologizing for this morning in a quiet voice. Kenna looked a bit uncomfortable but laughed it off anyway.
“You ready to talk about everything we learned while we were gone?” Tristan asked as he and Elliot made their way into the kitchen.
“We’re going to do this in front of the girl?” Elliot asked in his usual grumpy voice. Blow jobs could only keep a guy happy for so long, it seemed.
“Why couldn’t we?” Scarlet asked.
“Because we don’t know if we can trust her.”
After the girls had gone upstairs last night, Elliot had confronted us about how we could bring a stranger into the house without consulting him first. Tristan quickly bowed out and let me take the brunt of his anger by blaming it all on me, but he could’ve said no. I might have listened.
“I had her fully vetted, El,” I groaned, sitting Scar’s sugary cereal and disgustingly black coffee in front of her. I picked her up and sat down, placing her on my lap. Kenna watched us out of the corner of her eye. I could tell she was skeptical of our relationship with Scarlet, but she’d come around. Or she wouldn’t. I didn’t really care.
“Excuse me?” Kenna asked.
“Yeah,” I said, running my fingers through Scarlet’s still-wet hair. “Like I would bring you here, risking the safety of the woman I love, without having multiple background checks run on you?” I saw Scarlet’s neck go bright red, and I was sad I couldn’t see the color stain her face with embarrassment from this angle. “You were followed for a week as well. You were completely oblivious. You should really work on that, by the way. Take better stock of your surroundings.”
Scarlet turned around and whacked me on the side of the head. I just gave her a smirk and watched that cute little blush brighten her cheeks.
“Whatever. I don’t like it,” Elliot said, sitting down at the table next to us. “But I’m not going to argue because I’ll just be outnumbered anyway.” Well, maybe a blow job could keep a guy compliant after all.
“We spoke to a few of the guys that have been watching your family,” Tristan started, and he sat down with us as well. “They’ve seen this guy hanging around a lot,” he said, turning his phone towards Scarlet. “Know him?”
“That has to be Motshan,” she said, taking the phone from Tristan and zooming in on each photo, flipping through them all. “God, he’s grown up,” she said with a wistful tone.
“Is this good news or bad, poppet?” Tristan asked as she handed him back his phone.
“This is good.” I could see the worry in everyone’s faces. “Stop looking at me like that, dickheads.” I laughed and wrapped my arms around her waist. I was worried too. She was being oddly trusting of some cousin she hadn’t seen since she was a kid. They could’ve easily gotten under his skin.
“Elliot said they shipped him off to Romania?” I asked her. “They could’ve easily turned him against you in that time.”
“One hundred percent,” Elliot mumbled into his coffee. I could feel her shoot daggers at him with her eyes. Her body had stiffened up at our doubting him.
“Hey,” Tristan said, reaching across the table to take her hand. Kenna’s eyes followed the movement. “We are on your side here. We just can’t go in blindly assuming that he is going to be on our side.”
She nodded and pulled her hand free from his, going back to her cereal. “Let’s figure out a way to set up a meeting, then,” she suggested.
“Oh, absolutely fucking not,” Elliot said, slamming down his cup of coffee.
“Yeah, there’s no fucking way,” Tristan agreed.
“Why not?” I asked. “It would give me a good excuse to hurt those assholes if they step out of line. It’s been too long since I’ve had blood on my hands.”
“You had blood on your hands like two weeks ago, Seb,” Scarlet said, turning around to give me a little smile.
“Yeah, but your family deserves it,” I told her. “Remember that first night together when I told you I would let you watch me dismember the asshole that tried to rape you? Cut off his fingers knuckle by knuckle?” I slid my fingertips over hers, feeling her shiver against me. “I’d still let you watch,” I whispered into her ear before nibbling on the lobe.
“Jesus,” Kenna muttered. I looked over at her and winked.
“Look,” Tristan started before Scarlet interrupted him.
“I’m not letting this go. We could use him. If he is still the Motshan I knew, and he still has any type of love for me, he could be an ally when he takes over…if that’s what they’re grooming him for. Imagine how nice it would be to have my family on your side instead of at your throats.”
Tristan sighed.
“Okay, can we table it for now? Let us do some more digging. Let our guys do some more surveillance before we jump into contacting him for a meeting, yeah?”
She leaned forward over the table and held out her hand, just like she did on that first night out together.
“Deal. Shake on it,” she demanded. Tristan smiled and took her hand in his.
“Deal.”
They continued to talk about everything Tristan and I had learned on our trip to London, but I zoned out. I was too busy thinking about how many people I could and would kill for her. If Motshan was going to ultimately be on our side, good. If he was important to Scarlet, I’d welcome him into our little fucked -up circle.
But if he wasn’t…
There were so many people to kill and so many ways to do it.
I had been working on my own little side project: trying to figure out who the fuck had attempted to rape and kill my girl. I wanted to taste his blood, fucking bathe in it as he screamed and begged for his life. I had dreamed about it every night since she told me her story.
I could flay him alive, peeling off his skin in little patches and cauterizing the wounds as I went, making sure he stayed alive. I would stop when he passed out and start back up when he came to.
Or…I could pull off all of his fingernails and toenails, one by one. Then I could chop off each appendage knuckle by knuckle. Then his hands and feet. I could cut out his tongue and watch him choke on his own blood. I didn’t think that option would make him suffer long enough though. We’d have to torture him before we started. Maybe waterboarding.
“Sebastian.” Scarlet’s voice brought me back to the present.
“Yeah, pet?”
“Why are you hard right now?”
I just grinned and kissed her cheek. We could discuss it later.