Eleven
Darius
For a split second, my heart catches in my throat. For some reason, I thought I hit her. My life turned to ashes instantly, but she’s not screaming, she’s going down. Rushing forward, I catch Stacey before she falls to the ground. “Hold on baby,” I say and pull my Kershaw Blur knife from my pocket and cut the zip ties from around her wrists, then remove the tape from her mouth.
“Don’t try to talk,” I murmur as I check her over for any sign of injury. I almost wish I hadn’t killed the bastard so quickly. I’m feeling mighty tortuous right about now. I hate that all of the color has drained from her face, and she looks like she’s about to faint. Probably from the fact that I dropped that motherfucker with my Dirty Harry gun, affectionately named Clint. That’s why there is so much blood and gore, but it did the damn job.
“Franny,” she whispers. “Where’s Franny?” She frantically looks around the room for any sign of her best friend. Over her head, in the back corner of the room, Franny and Jason are locked in a tight embrace. I can hear her sobs from here, but she’s alive, and that’s all that matters right now. They survived. Endured. We can deal with what comes next later.
“She’s fine, Baby. Jason has her,” I say, trying to calm her. She melts into me a little.
“You just killed him. Like killed him dead,” she says, burying her head in my chest. “Dead, dead, dead,” she repeats.
“I had to, baby. I had to.”
“It was so… hot,” she says, looking up at me. I can’t help laughing at that. While not the reaction I expected from her, I don’t hate it.
“Don’t laugh at me. I know it’s weird. I mean for fuck’s sake, I am covered in his blood, now is not the time to be thinking about my pussy and how much I need you right now.” She pouts, as I growl my agreement.
“Why not? I think about that pretty pussy all the time,” I say, shrugging before taking the hem of my shirt and wiping the blood and other bits off of her beautiful face. Then, I take her lips with mine and kiss her, my tongue sweeping into her mouth. She moans and wraps her arms around my neck. When I let her up for air, I pull away from her just enough to continue checking her injuries.
“Wow,” she murmurs. “Thank you for saving me.”
“You don’t have to thank me, Stacey. You are mine. Mine to keep safe,” I say, pulling her closer to me. I don’t know what I’d do if I hadn’t been able to keep her safe.
“I love you, Darius,” she whispers.
“I love you so fucking much, Stacey. Nothing would have kept me getting you back.”
“What do we do now? Get rid of the body?” she asks. Fuck, she’s adorable.
“No. I’m not a mobster,” I say, chuckling again. God, she brings out a side of me. I didn’t know that I had. “I called the police on the way, but this is so far out of the way, it’ll take them a minute to get here.”
“I didn’t know, but I’d have been down for anything. I’m just glad he’s not in my life anymore. God, that’s terrible, isn’t it?”
“No, baby. That’s a perfectly normal sentiment to have right about now,” I tell her. Grabbing her hands, I feel the ring I put on her.
“I want to go home,” she says.”
“We have to wait for the police, give our statements,”
“But then we can go home?”
“Yes, of course.”
“I want a hot shower and a bed.”
“We can arrange that,” I agree.
“Maybe some pancakes?”
“I happen to be the best pancake maker,” I exaggerate.
“I’ll be the judge of that,” she sasses, kissing me again. You’d never know there was a dead body just inches from our feet, but this is good. At least she’s not sobbing like poor Franny.
“Marry me,” I demand.
“You already asked me that, and I already said yes, silly.”
“I mean marry me tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow? What about…” she begins before I cut her off.
“Nothing else matters. You, me, your brother and Franny. That’s all we need and you know it. If you want to have a ritzy party later, fine, but tomorrow you will be my wife. Say yes.”
“Yes,” she says, shivering.
“You cold?” I ask, taking my suit jacket off and draping it around her shoulders.
“No. So turned on. Do you think we..”
“Phoenix PD! Hands up,” someone shouts, coming into the room. We all do so, but I explain quickly that I am the one who called. After an exhausting three hours, we are finally able to leave.
Norman Sheffield was the man’s name. A quick search told us he used to work in the marketing department of Lipton Industries. He was fired about six months ago for sexually harassing an intern. Stacey did the firing, and that is when he became obsessed with her, according to the sick fuck’s manifesto, which was found on his phone. Detective Locklear assured us the matter was closed. The other two fuckers who kidnapped her were arrested and charged with kidnapping and assault.