Crystal gurgles.
“Fuck, bro. Don’t kill her. That’s your baby momma.”
I crane my neck to see the three of them in a scuffle. Bruno’s choking Crystal as his brother attempts to pull him off. Her face is jacked up. Two black eyes and a swollen nose. Cracked and bleeding lips.
A gunshot fires then two more. Bruno drops to a knee as Crystal gasps for a breath. His brother runs out the back. I look to Hazel. She stands beaten and bloodied. Appearing like an avenging angel holding a gun, naked from the waist down. Her gaze cuts to mine and what I see there kills me. There’s a hollowness where her sparkle should be.
She points the gun on Crystal. “Cut him loose. Now,” she screams.
Crystal gets a knife from the kitchen and nicks me in the process of cutting the ties, but I don’t care. I need to get to my wife.
Bruno grunts and lunges for Crystal. Hazel doesn’t hesitate to put another bullet in him. His body slumps forward on Crystal. I use my free hand to grab the knife she was using to finish cutting the hard plastic.
The second I’m freed I’m on Hazel. “Need to get you to the hospital.”
“No. No cops. No doctors.”
“Babe, someone had to have heard we need to play this the right way. Need to have our stories straight. Gotta be truthful. The drugs. All of it.”
“You killed him,” Crystal whispers, shoving Bruno’s body to the side.
Fuck.
“He was going to kill you. He beat and raped me.”
“I know,” she says on a sniffle. “But I love him. He’s the father of my child. I can’t do this.” She retches.
“Hazel, you need to clean up. If we’re doing this, we do it my way. No fucking questions asked.”
She nods and I look to Crystal. “You with me on this? You got Hazel into this shit. Brought your man and his fuckwad brother to her door. This shit is on you.”
She sucks in a breath. Her chin wobbles as she cries. “I never meant for it to go this far. He was mad and I... he told me she tried to sleep with him. I didn’t think.”
“You think I would willingly have sex with him? I told you I got married, and I thought you knew me better than that.”
“Hazel, shower.”
“Yeah. Okay.” She walks woodenly to the bedroom, and I feel like an asshole but if we’re doing this its gotta go fast. No room for mistakes. If the police show, we are royally fucked.
“Crystal?”
She stares at the blood covering her hands. “Oh god.” She dry heaves.
“Crystal,” I snap.
“Yeah?”
“Need you to pull it together and be a soldier right now. Get the quilt and sheets off the bed.”
She stares at Bruno as blood seeps onto the hardwood. “I think he’s still breathing.” The blood is coming from his lower back and his mouth.
“Go,” I growl, and she jumps but gets to it.
I put two fingers to his neck. He has a faint pulse. Bastard is getting off easier than he deserves. Crystal returns with what I asked for. “Help me roll him.” Fucker is heavy.
If he wasn’t such a disgusting person, I’d have some sort of remorse, but I don’t. He’s taken something from Hazel I can never replace. I promised she’d always be safe with me. That I’d never hurt her and now she’s been violated in the worst possible way. I don’t know whether to kill Crystal now or wait till she’s helped me load this fat fuck.
The sketchy bitch sticks with me doing everything I ask including helping me load the body into the back of my cage. Fucker better not bleed all over my upholstery.