Page 17 of Alien Prince Defender (Space Knights MC #4)

CHAPTER 17

TARAX

" I can't even begin to express just how enraged I am at you, David, for doing something so reckless," Grace fired accusingly at David.

Jennifer had made it clear that she wasn't too happy with the asshole either. As for me, I was absolutely dumbfounded by this twisted turn of events and how David could be so callous.

"David…you are going to have to start giving us some answers," Grace began impatiently. "As to why you thought it would be a good idea to endanger the lives of everyone in this bank and in the near vicinity. I mean, what the hell were you really thinking? You are crazy, David. You know that by turning on the sirens, you put your own life in danger too , right?"

"Stop screaming at me!" David yelled. The veins in his neck bulged furiously. He balled his good fist with rage.

Grace took a step backward, looking flustered. David looked ready to hit her. I protectively took a step in front of her.

"Why don't we all just try to calm down and figure this out," I suggested, knowing in my heart that it had gone too far and that was probably a farfetched answer.

"Speak for yourself," Jennifer hissed. "I'm ready to tear the fucker's head off his shoulders."

David stepped forward, giving Jennifer an icy glower. Then he looked at Grace with scary obsession flaring in his eyes.

"It's all your fault." He glared at Grace accusingly.

" My fault?" Grace pointed to herself, looking appalled and baffled. "How is it my fault? Are you somehow saying I prompted you to turn on the fire truck sirens? Are you insane ?"

"You shouldn't have been a whore ," David said.

" What ?" Grace looked like David had just punched her in the stomach. She frowned, clearly insulted by David's brazen name calling. "How dare you speak to me that way."

"You need to take it easy," I said, more as a warning than anything else, to David.

He stepped toward me. He and I both knew I was much bigger, muscular, and brooding. He thought he was intimidating, but David was a fucking wimp. He didn't seem phased in the slightest. He didn't even look in my direction, as if he were unbothered. He just stared at Grace with these eyes of pure, vile hatred.

"You need to shut the fuck up and mind your own business ," David hissed through clenched teeth, glancing at me through the corner of his eye.

I tightened my jaw too, feeling stressed about the whole situation and worried that a physical fight was going to escalate. Meanwhile, we still had to worry about the murderous androids hovering thirty feet above our heads.

"Be careful, asshole. I don't have any reservations about punching you so hard in the jaw your head spins off your neck. Then when you recover from that , I'll punch you in the throat until you can't breathe," I said to the deranged David.

David finally gave me a horrified glance — right before he went ballistic.

"Fuck you, man," David fired back, charging toward me, even though he didn't have a shot in hell of being able to successfully win any physical battle against me. "You stole my woman!"

"He stole your woman? What is this… the third grade, David? Or a bad tabloid talk show? I'm not yours to steal," Grace cut in.

"You shouldn't be his either!" David fired back.

"He didn't steal me," Grace retorted. "I'm a person , not a handbag."

David proceeded to ignore Grace and went flying toward me, his good fist balled, arm outstretched, sadistic expression on his face. He wasn't letting his broken arm stop him as he really went all out — the whole works. I wasn't scared of him, but I didn't want him to hurt Grace or Jennifer who were now hovering behind me.

He was so scrawny that if I just flicked his arm with my fingers, David would probably fall over. That was how audacious David was. He was blind to his rage. He couldn't ever see clearly because he was always so angry at everyone — accusing everyone around him of doing him wrong.

I was glad that David was showing his true colors though. It just went to prove just how torturous his mind actually worked, and how he had no problem inflicting and projecting that internal torture of his onto others. I knew Grace and Jennifer had no problem seeing it, either.

As David went rushing toward me, I realized what he was trying to do. He was trying to corner me so that I'd be at the edge of the building. At the last second, I jumped away before David could slam into me and cause me to go flying over the roof.

David's torso hammered into mine. His eyes were full of rage and madness. He belted me with a solid punch. It hurt — I'd give him that — but I held my own. I was solid on my own accord, and I was able to maintain my balance through his intense thrashing.

I quickly gained the upper hand and started throwing punches at David too — landing far more than he was at me, seeing as he only had the one good hand to punch with. I clocked him right in the jaw, and then swiftly put him in a headlock and slammed my elbow into David's temple.

Grace and Jennifer were screaming behind us. Grace was trying to be scrappy too and get David off me.

David was stuck to me like a monkey to a tree. I started scratching and clawing at his back, trying to get him off me. I ripped his shirt in the process, and it hung haphazardly off his shoulders.

'I'm going to kill you," David growled. He barred his teeth like an animal. His eyes were red and sick.

I lifted my knee and sucker punched him straight in the gut. David gasped for air and clutched his stomach with his bad arm, reeling back a bit. He was in enough pain to loosen his grip on me, and then David let go of me completely.

I was able to avoid being knocked off the ledge, but David was sure as hell ready to boot me off and watch me tumble to the concrete below — quickly to become roadkill to be scraped off the sidewalks.

In the scuffle, David lost his balance. He was closer to the edge of the building than I was. The androids hovering above us had finished off the robo Knights, unfortunately. They began scrambling toward us, flying at us with determined, homicidal intent.

We just didn't have enough of robo Knights left to fight them off anymore.

I looked at Grace. "We're going to have to fight them head on."

Grace looked terrified. "Don't fall off the ledge."

As soon as she shouted it, one of the androids clipped David in the leg. It burned a hole right through his thigh like it was nothing but dust. It was enough to significantly injure David.

David, screaming in pain, flailed about near the edge.

It all happened so fast — but it also felt like slow motion.

I heard Jennifer scream first. I couldn't reach for him in time. He was already halfway over the edge. I tried to snatch him by his shirt, but it was already ripped and when I grabbed for him — it tore the rest of the way.

David went plummeting over the side of the building with his bleeding, searing, raw leg that the androids had blown a hole into only seconds before.

I stared over the edge, watching as David cried out with terror. It was a fearful scream that I would remember for the rest of my life. It was a helpless situation and there was nothing I could do. I felt bad for him — but he had tried to kill me — so I quickly reminded myself of that.

As soon as his head smacked into the pavement, his body went limp, and he screamed no more.

Grace rushed into my arms. She was sobbing with distress and terror. I cradled her head in my chest.

"Don't look down there," I told her and tried to sooth her momentarily by stroking her hair.

David was dead. He was gone — but the threat to our safety that he ultimately had created was still looming large all around us.