Cavalier (Crimson Elite 1)

“Falcon wants her,” I state plainly. D turns to me, pulling out a chair and sitting on it as we wait for the councilman to wake up.

“He doesn’t want her the way you want her, that much is obvious. Plus, Falcon. Well, we all know exactly how he is. He wouldn’t know what love is if it smacked him in the face. He’s purely doing it to get a rise out of you. You aren’t easy to rise, so he’s taking great pride in it.”

I shrug my shoulders at him. “Maybe I should let him have her.”

D laughs. “My case in point. This is exactly what pisses him off. He can make everyone jealous or raving mad. The most he makes you do is a slam into the shoulders. So, he tries to do that as often as possible. If you give a bite, he will want the whole sandwich. He’s trying for that sandwich, Creed, are you going to give it to him? Because he will take her, and how would you feel seeing her with his hands all over her?”

My teeth instantly start grinding at his words.

“Exactly, I can see it makes you mad. You’re usually so cavalier, you don’t care what others think. Or even take into consideration how they feel. But I can see she’s breaking through, and you don’t know what to do.”

“I don’t know her.”

The councilman starts to stir in his chair. D stands, removing his gun from his belt and placing it on the table directly in front of the councilman, so when he wakes it will be the first thing he sees.

“Something obviously attracted you to her. How often can you say a woman has made you feel that way?”

“Since when did you become helpful? You hated the idea.”

He cracks his neck then looks down at me. “I’ve had a change of heart.” His smile is evil as the councilman fully awakens. His eyes drop to me then quickly to D who’s standing. D’s hand meets his face hard, and I hear the crack under his fists as I sit there thinking about how I should play this. If Falcon believes I want her, it will just make his pursuit of her stronger, and what if she likes him? That’s not something I want to deal with ever again.

Cries snap me out of my thoughts as I stand up, walking to the kitchen while D wipes his hand on a cloth. Grabbing the closest sharpest knife, I walk back over to him.

The councilman is now begging for his life.

“It was an accident, it slipped. I didn’t mean to. I swear.” He knows exactly why we’re here, there’s no use denying it. We don’t visit our clients unless they break the contract, then we visit them and they all know precisely why. His eyes keep on dropping from me to D, but D’s now back on his cell as I walk toward him. Dropping the knife down his front, I slice his buttons open from top to bottom, and as I go, the knife drags beautifully over his peachy skin, making the red crimson come to life. His perfect white shirt now stained with a beautiful red flow. His cries go unheard until I’ve reached the very last button.

“Please, please—I won’t say a word again.” His eyes plead with me, but it doesn’t work. Dragging the knife back up through the same incision, making it even deeper so the blood rushes out faster, his screams pick up.

“It won’t happen again?” D asks, looking up as I pause the knife on his chest.

He nods, fast tears streaking down his face. “I swear, please believe me.”

D looks to me then nods. The councilman starts screaming again.

“You’ll be punished, and you will pay us for your dishonesty. If you so happen to mention our club again, next time you’ll meet the end of Creed’s bullet. Do you understand?”

He nods fast, trying to look between us. D nods his head one more time as I smile at the man. He doesn’t smile back, his eyes are deathly afraid. He should be. With one hand, I pinch his hairy nipple, with the other I slice it straight off.

D stands to untie him as I wipe the handle of the knife, carefully making sure my fingerprints aren’t on it, and place it in his sink. The guy falls to the floor crying. D drops a card to the floor with the bank details to pay us. He doesn’t have the energy to reply as we leave.The music is loud and the shouts from Falcon are drunk and the cheers are even louder. Stepping around the corner, I see Falcon with a line of shots at the counter. Elicea is egging him on, counting as he shoots each one. Echo’s sitting there, amused as he watches Falcon be a dick. This is how we unwind, our downtime, it’s where we aren’t at work and we don’t bring anything here. D’s house is far enough away we don’t have to worry. He has two, this one for us and the other none of us are allowed to go to.