“Dropped. That. Bitch. Desert.”
I punched him two more times, left jaw, right jaw. “I know that much motherfucker. Where is she?”
“Red Rock,” he spat out around a mouthful of blood.
I punched him again, dead center in his chest and watched in delight as he struggled to get air into his lungs. I was turning into a monster. Thinking about Bonnie and watching the man who kidnapped her in agony made me smile in a way it shouldn’t.
“Blunt force trauma is a dangerous thing. Could rupture an organ or cause internal bleeding.” Another punch, right to the liver. “That blood you spit out could be a loose tooth or a ruptured liver.” Another punch.
“Okay! Okay, fuck…okay!” His chest heaved dramatically as he hung, his arms turning a pale shade of purple from circulation loss. “Get me down, and I’ll tell you everything.”
Bargaining? This motherfucker was in no position to bargain yet here he fucking was. That was it, the last fucking straw. The last sign of disrespect I would fucking take. Left. Right. Left. Right. Left. Right. Left. Right.
Again and again I punched that fucker, taking aim at his vital organs because I didn’t give a fuck if he lived or died. In fact, I wanted him dead. Knowing that he’d been instrumental in taking Bonnie from me, in putting her in danger, and who knew what else, he needed to die.
“Calvin.”
I was vaguely aware of Virgil’s voice calling to me, but I was done, too far gone to stop. Too fucking hypnotized by the soothing motion of landing one blow after the other, too transfixed by the sound of bone crunching against bone, the warm spray of blood as it splattered from his wounds.
In that beating, I found a piece of myself that I’d denied for too long. The beast that lived inside of me, the one willing to do whatever the fuck it took to protect what was mine.
“Calvin, enough!” Virgil grabbed my wrists before I could land another blow, yanking me from the trance I was in. “Don’t kill him.”
I looked up at Joey’s face, bruised and swollen and bloody. He hung like a limp fish, flopping slightly but on the brink of the Great Beyond.
“Where. Is. She?”
“Red Rock,” he spit out again. “Grand Circle.”
Shit. Fear and worry for Bonnie settled in my gut, and I let the rage take hold, just like dear ol’ fucking Da, because that was what I needed right now. I could worry about Bonnie but finding her was the priority. Another string of blows landed, hitting wild and hard, without regard to preserving consciousness. Or life.
Joey laughed but, in his eyes, I saw defeat. Resignation. He knew what was coming and accepted it like a man.
“Dropped that bitch right in the middle of the trail. Better hurry, I hear exposure is a real bitch.”
“Motherfucker!”
Virgil’s loud roar was the only reminder that someone else was still in the room. My brother growled and stalked forward, grabbing the nine-inch blade from its sheath and shoving it deep into the man’s side and yanking it out with twice as much force.
Joey coughed up blood with a smile on his face. “Fuck. You. All.”
I stood and watched, fascinated with the way the smile clung on Joey’s face even after that light, that spark of life, had vanished from his eyes. Even when his head fell forward in death, the smile lingered.
It was the last thing to go.
That image of Joey stuck with me even as this time Virgil followed me to the car and I let him tear up the road out to Red Rock Canyon. Nothing he could do behind the wheel could scare me now.
“She could be anywhere,” I said as the sports car lurched onto the pocked desert roads. Looking out across the vastness of the area, I realized that we would need luck to find her. I called her number every thirty seconds, hoping. Close to the unthinkable, praying.
“She could be,” Virgil said. “But my guess is he took her to the point farthest from the start or the finish of the trail. Increase the chances that something happens to her.”
“Fucker!” My heart pounded so heart there was no way the bones of my chest could contain it. “We have to find her, Virg.”
“’Cause you love her?”
I groaned and rolled my eyes. “Not this shit again. I like her, okay? No one said anything about love.”
“That’s why you nearly killed a man with your bare hands? Because you like her? Wow, okay.” His eyes were wide with surprise but the sarcasm in his tone wasn’t lost on me. “Can’t wait to see what you do when you actually fall for a woman.”
“Focus, Virgil. Bonnie is out here, scared, and probably injured. Fuck! If he laid one hand on her…you should have let me kill him.”