Page 6 of Justified (Ruthless Vigilante #1)

As for the two at the counter, they looked like they were legit customers as they placed their orders.

Fine. I guessed it was about time to get Jordan.

I called his phone and he came out of the men’s room.

He pulled out a twenty and left it on the table.

It covered our bill and gave our waitress a four dollar tip.

I stood up from the booth and Jordan and I walked towards the door.

As we approached the men, one of them swung around in his swivel stool and grabbed my arm.

“Sit the fuck back down,” he growled to me in a low, menacing voice.

Shit, I knew it! Why hadn’t they just let us leave?

This was what I got for not following my intuition.

If I pulled something right now and his partner retaliated, I may not be fast enough to stop others from getting hurt.

By others, I meant Jordan. Did I take that chance?

Jordan backed up several steps like he was reading my mind, and I was happy he was putting some distance between us.

“Get your fucking hand off me,” I snarled back.

That was when he pulled out his 9mm pistol from the middle pocket of his hoodie. Fantastic. “You’ll be the first one I kill, bitch,” he warned me.

I was getting really sick and tired of being called a bitch tonight.

“That is if you don’t sit the fuck down, now,” he added.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see his partner reaching into his pocket, pulling out his weapon since the jig was up. I took a few steps back and sat in the booth closest to them. The waitress saw what was happening and she walked over to the two men very cautiously, and bravely, I might add.

“Please, we don’t want any trouble. We’ll give you whatever you want, please, just don’t hurt anyone,” she begged.

The asshole aimed his gun at her, while his partner kept his gun on us, panning it from Jordan to the other customer, then to me.

“Shut up, whore. Give us all of the money in the register. Then go in the back where you keep your safe and give us the money in there, too. My boy here is going to go with you to make sure you don’t get any bright ideas,” the brains of their operation said. He was the one who kept his back to me.

“Just do what he says, Marnie,” the cook said from the kitchen.

That was when the bad guy boss pointed his gun at the cook. “Get out from back there, motherfucker, and come up here where I can keep my eyes on you.”

The cook did as he was told, and came to the front with his arms held up high.

I must say, they were either pretty desperate or dumb as fuck…

or maybe both, to pull this stunt with all of these windows.

They were taking the risk of a cop driving by or even stopping in and catching them.

But of course, it was late as hell and they might just get away with it. They might.

The guy who had told me to sit down hopped off the stool to “assist” Marnie. He stood over her as she shoved the money from the register into a plastic bag.

“Hurry up, bitch. We ain’t got all night,” he urged.

“I’m going as fast as I can,” she whined.

He slammed the butt of his pistol against the top of her head and she fell down, holding her now bleeding wound as she cried. Yeah, idiot, that ought to make her speed up.

“Don’t talk back, bitch, just follow orders,” he snarled. He snatched up the bag of money she had loaded and shoved the rest of the cash into the bag from the register, then kicked her as she cried out. “Get the fuck up and let’s go to the safe.”

She feebly climbed to her feet, no doubt feeling a bit dizzy after a blow like that, but she managed to stay upright.

She led the way and he followed. That gave me the opportunity I was waiting for.

Divide and conquer. These two were bold, that was for sure, to hit this place up with just him and his boy as back-up.

Jordan kept completely still, as did the cook, so the bastard was keeping his eyes on me and the one other customer who was sitting at his table with both hands lying flat on the surface.

He didn’t want to be shot because the guy mistook him for a threat.

I got the reason for the submissive pose.

I had a feeling they might kill everyone in this place, if only for the fact that we’d seen their faces.

The police in Silver City weren’t completely incompetent, they just had a penchant for getting to the scene too late for the victims. So, I wasn’t putting any hope in one of them coming to the rescue.

Now was my time to strike. I rushed the son of a bitch when he turned to look at the cook and grabbed his gun-carrying hand, crushing it.

It was one of my favorite and most effective tactics for disarming someone and getting the upper-hand at the same time.

He cried out just before I wrapped my hand around his neck, snapping it.

His partner heard the hubbub and came running out with the waitress all hysterical and in front of him as a human shield.

I pointed the gun I had taken from his now dead companion at him. “Let her go,” I ordered.

“You a fucking cop?” he asked as he looked around at the other patrons frantically.

He was scared now, you could see it in his eyes, because he knew the plan they had was unraveling.

Sweat poured down his temples as the fear seeped deeper into him.

He hadn’t planned for anyone to stand up to them, let alone kill his partner.

His chances of getting away with the money and/or his life were reduced significantly.

“I’m not a cop, but I love killing pieces of shit like you,” I said. From my peripheral vision, I saw Jordan crouched low under a table farthest from where I stood. Good boy. He wouldn’t be able to leave or go to the bathroom without drawing attention to himself, so where he was hiding was best.

“Look, just let me go and I won’t kill this bitch,” the guy said.

It was his silly attempt at making a fucking deal, as if I would be interested.

I didn’t take kindly to him pointing a gun at me and my friend.

Plus, I had had my fill of looking down the barrels of guns today without getting proper revenge.

He was making sure to keep himself hidden behind Marnie pretty well. If I wanted to do a headshot, I’d have to go through hers and hope the bullet met its original target. Damn, I hated cowards. I looked for another way to take him out.

Ahh, I’d found it. “Sorry Marnie,” I said, then pulled the trigger, striking her in the upper thigh.

The bullet went straight through her flesh and struck him in the crotch.

Both screamed in pain, one was in more pain than the other, but at least he let her go to grab his bleeding dick and balls.

Blood poured from both of their wounds, but I was only focusing on him.

He was laying on the floor now as a pool of his blood formed around him.

“Motherfucker!” he cursed. “I’ll kill you, you son of a bitch ass motherfucker!”

Yeah, yeah, sure you will. Hurry up and die , I thought as I leaped over the counter.

Marnie fell to the floor, screaming and crying as she applied pressure to her wound.

I could tell by how much blood she was losing that no vital arteries were nicked.

Good. The cook raced over to drag her out of harm’s way as I approached my target.

I stood over the would-be thief, gun aimed.

“Sorry piece of shit,” I said, then pulled the trigger, blasting his brains, and pieces of his skull out of the back of his head in what resembled a starburst pattern.

As far as I was concerned, it was taking him too long to die.

I looked down to see that some of his blood splattered on my clothes, but I didn’t have time to worry about that.

There were more screams from the others, so I didn’t bother to stick around to do any consoling or explaining.

I leaped back over the counter and ran out of the door.

Jordan followed and we ran all the way home, taking a more complicated route back to throw off anyone who might have been on our trail.

I wasn’t worried about leaving fingerprints behind, as those had been burned off two years ago when I thought I had a higher calling.

“Holy shit!” Jordan blurted out once we were safely inside of our soon-to-be-former home.

“Fuck!” I yelled in anger and frustration.

Why did that shit have to go down there?

I loved their food. Now I could never go back, and neither could Jordan.

And the damned place was only a block away, no way could we stay here like that shit hadn’t just gone down.

Eventually, sooner or later, we’d be spotted and taken away.

“We have to get out of here,” Jordan said, already on the same page I was.

“I know,” I said, slamming my ass into my favorite chair. “You need to rent a U-Haul tomorrow. I’ll find us another location to stay, if only for a little while.” I ran my fingers though my dark brown, curly locks. My hair was a little damp from sweat, but other than that, I was okay.

“I can’t believe that happened,” Jordan said breathlessly.

He raced over to me, springing on my lap, taking me by surprise.

“Eric, you were fucking amazing in there. Everyone lived and they didn’t get robbed because of you.

You saved us,” he gushed, then he leaned down, kissing me.

His kiss was pretty intense and, as he leaned into me even more, I felt the hardness of his cock against my stomach.

I grabbed him by his arms and pushed him back. “You don’t think I went too far?” I let his arms go.

He shook his head and pulled his t-shirt off. Okay. Apparently, watching me kill two thugs had put him in the mood. I wasn’t going to lie, I was sporting a boner too. My adrenaline was still pumping fast and strong through my veins and I was raring to go.