Page 143 of Executing Malice

I can’t.

There’s a small chance it died from its injuries, but I doubt it. I know to my soul he did something.

He smirks when I can only glare at him. “And the panties were yours the first time I ate your pussy. Did you know you cum in your sleep? Don’t,” he warns when I make to lunge at him. “Bullets are faster than stupidity.”

“Whose body did I bury?” I force out, willing my temper to calm.

“Right, back to our story.” The gun taps against his thigh. “After you sucker punched me and I tried to defend myself, you grabbed a knife and stabbed me.”

There was more to it than that.

I did sucker punch him. Running into the room to find Leila forced face down on the counter with Everett grinding into her ass while working his fingers between her legs, I lost it. I grabbed him and slammed my fist into his face. Unsteady on hisfeet, he crumpled to the ground but refused to stay there.

He was back on his feet, and we collided. Years of pent-up rage and resentment bubbled over in a fury of fists. He broke three of my ribs, busted my lip. I had a shiner that nearly fused my eye shut, but I stayed on my feet. Stayed between him and Leila even when every inhale sent speckles of light floating across my dimming vision.

I knew I was about to pass out.

I knew if I didn’t end this and I went dark, he would get her. I had to take him down.

There’s no memory of me grabbing the knife. I don’t even know where it came from. It was just suddenly in my hand, and the blade was buried in his side. Blood gushed hot and sticky over my fingers, down his side to coat the filthy linoleum. Everett never even made a sound as he went down.

“I heard you two make plans to bury me as I lay there in a pool of my own blood,” he grumbles with a grudging note. “Playing dead wasn’t so hard when neither of you bothered to check for a pulse.”

We were both stunned.

Neither of us could believe what just happened.

We stood over his motionless frame wondering what the hell to do next.

Leila came to her senses first.

“Grab the shovel from the shed. I’m going to get a sheet and clean up.”

That was it.

The solution was made.

I no longer felt faint, but coursing with a new and terrifying adrenaline. Every nerve hummed with a numb energy that got me to the shed. I found the shovel. When I returned, Leila had draped the body in a white sheet.

“In the time between covering me in a sheet and running around like lunatics, Angel came down to see what was taking so long. See, even though he aged out, we were friends. He still came over to hang out in my room and drink beer and watch porn. He had a thing for the snuff stuff. Really gross, but he’d jerk off right there. I liked that about him. He gave no fucks about anything.

Well, he found me there on the floor, and I knew I had one chance to get out of this alive. I stabbed him, but I was smart, I cut his damn throat, dragged his body in my spot and I hid while you two bundled him up and carried him out.”

“You killed your friend?” Leila gasps.

“There’s no such thing as a friend in our world, sweetheart,” Everett mumbles. “There are only predators and prey. I know he would have done the same given the chance. Plus, being eighteen, out of the system and a worthless delinquent with a rap sheet a mile long, no one gave a shit when he went missing. I took his place in the gang he was running in. I was stronger, meaner and more resilient than he was, and they loved me. I built my life from the bottom and now, I run theorganization. I have friends in all manner of places. Friends who helped me keep an eye on you, little brother. Because I knew, if anyone were to find Leila, it would be you. Guess I was right. Also,” he peers at Leila, “just so you know, I made sure to go back and deal with Dad for what he did. That whole situation was between me and Danny. He had no business touching you.”

“What did you do?” Leila whispers.

“Dealt with him,” he answers shortly. “He won’t be fucking anything ever again.”

“You did that for me?”

The quiet murmur has the back of my neck prickling. I would recognize that little purr anywhere. But the fact that it’s aimed at Everett has my stomach knotting.

Everett grins. “I don’t play around. He took you from me. I wasn’t going to let that slide.”

“What did you do?”