Deviants (Badlands 2)

?? just seemed so meaningless, and an apology would never fix us. Whoever said violence isn’t the answer was full of shit.

Violence soothed our demons and gave them a semblance of peace. I sat and watched the man I loved unleash his. There was no doubting that anymore. I didn’t need to know the definition of a word to feel its meaning.

I think I loved him before we met. We’d been together only a moment, but it felt like a thousand lifetimes. Even then, as my brain slid pieces of a puzzle together that made my chest hurt, I still loved him.

Romero was irrefutably deranged and diabolically astute. He was a lethal fucking cocktail that came with a hazardous warning label, and I would die being blissfully inebriated by him.

I watched him strip Jonah of his robes and throw them in the fireplace. He grabbed a lit candle from the candelabra sitting on the mantle and shoved it straight up Jonah’s ass, flame side up.

The act had Jonah screaming himself awake. He never got the chance to move. Romero’s steel toed boot met his side, and something else cracked. Giving the man no time to reciprocate, he grabbed hold of his hair to lift him up. He dragged his heavy body like it weighed nothing to the other side of the room where he grabbed a cross off the wall.

Grimm flew into the room, quickly assessing the scene, falling right into a role he must have played a hundred times. He approached Romero cautiously, like one would a raging bull, taking hold of Jonah by the back of the neck.

Romero relinquished his grip as they shared a look. In one second flat, Jonah was on his back, the movement wedging the candle deeper, tearing the sensitive tissue in his rectum. A trickle of blood ran from between his legs.

Grimm grabbed hold of his upper and lower jaw in a familiar move. His muscles flexed and he pulled as hard as he could.

He kept hold of it as Romero slammed his boot down on Jonah’s chest and the metal cross he’d snatched off the wall in his mouth, forcing it to fit.

They proceeded to tag team him. Jonah’s wide hazel eyes met mine only once.

“You don’t get to look at her, you piece of shit,” Romero growled, sounding like a possessed beast. I thought he’d forgotten I was even in the room.

By the time they were finished, he was no longer recognizable as a human being. He was missing chunks of blonde hair. His skin was black, blue, and bloody. His body looked unnatural and clearly broken. They’d finished him off by carving a large leviathan cross down his stomach.

Both men were breathing heavily, covered in blood and sweat. Unsure what to do, I slowly stood up with the intention to give them a minute alone. They’d clearly needed this one kill much more than I did.

Romero’s eyes flashed to mine and cemented me to the floor.

“Get the torques ready. We need a minute.” He spoke to Grimm but continued to stare at me. Looking between us, Grimm nodded, grabbed Jonah’s large, broken body, and left the room.

“You were going to come in here alone with him.”

Okay. That wasn’t the first thing I’d expected him to say, but I understood why he’d be pissed. I had never seen Romero lose control of himself, but there was a first time for everything.

He wasn’t a get-angry-in-your-face kind of psycho. He was a silent killer. He raged inside and only showed it through his actions. He’d just brutalized a man and barely spoken a word the entire time. His eyes told a different story.

“What the fuck were you thinking?”

“I wasn’t,” I admitted. The steel in his voice had part of me ready to hide under the desk, but I refused to cower, and I honestly hadn’t been thinking. All I knew was that he couldn’t get away. Now that it came back to me, I saw how reckless it was.

“I shouldn’t have done that. I won’t do it again.”

“I know you won’t, because I’m taking you home,” he replied, cool as ice.

“You’re going to keep me at your warehouse while you––”

“That’s not our home.” He cut me off. “This isn’t a debatable topic. I don’t give a shit what you do once you’re there, but it’s the best place for you. There’s a fucking tiny army of Savages that will die for you there. There’s a doc on standby. I need you to do this without fighting me. It makes me fucking crazier than I already am every time you go off on your own.

“I’d tear this whole motherfucking world apart if something happened to either one of you. I can’t lose you.”

I swallowed, opened my mouth and then shut it again. He hadn’t said a damn thing wrong. He’d said everything right. The rawness in his voice tore at my heartstrings.

“I will bring David to you alive. We can still end this together,” he added in a quieter voice.

“Okay. I’ll go.”

“Okay?” he asked in disbelief.