Page 25 of Violent Little Thing

ADONIS

Me: Where is she?

Vic: We’re still at the grocery store, sir

Before I left the office, Victor told me he was taking Delilah to the Fresh Market around the corner to pick up something.

Me: I thought she only needed one thing? It’s been two hours.

Vic: Yes, but she’s been on this supplement aisle for the last hour.

A picture pops up in our chat and it’s Delilah in a deep squat in front of the lowest shelf of supplements. She has two bottles in her hands, reading the backs of them. And even though I can only see the side of her face, my lips twitch when I think about the concentration on her face.

I stare at the picture until Victor texts me again.

Vic: Would you like me to take her back to the house? We were going to stay until Agnes told us dinner is ready

Me: No. It’s fine. She can stay as long as she wants

Vic: Ok

Me: I’m at the warehouse. I’ll text you when I leave

Vic: Yes, sir

The only other car outside the warehouse is Alonzo’s gray Suburban.

Nobody else ever comes this far up the hill. And I have guards on all sides at the base to make sure it stays that way when I need privacy.

Some would say the best view of the city is from this parking lot, but the skyline and sunset are the last things on my mind whenever I drive out here.

That’s still true today.

After loading the clip into my magazine, I grab my gun and push until I’m satisfied with the flush fit.

One glance at my watch tells me I have an hour until dinner, and after missing breakfast with Delilah this morning, I know I need to get the fuck out of here in half an hour so I can make it back in time.

A minute later, I lift the loading bay door and grin at the sight in front of me. My eyes zero in on the slight crook in his nose before I let myself study the rest of him.

James Garrison.

Fifty-two years old.

Five-eleven.

Two hundred pounds.

Original founder of Garrison Media Group or GMG.

Retired early five years ago.

Initiated into The Lost Rose three years ago.

Current net worth: 125 million.

It should be more than that, but Delilah’s father wasn’t the only one with a gambling problem. Might have even been how they met. Jimmy got his addiction under control a few years ago, and I’d be impressed if it wasn’t for the other stain on his legacy.

Jimmy’s obsession with younger women wasn’t a secret. He liked them young and more than that, he liked them docile.

A trait he didn’t find in Delilah when her father tried to arrange her marriage to him two years ago.

So, here he is—restrained and gagged in the folding chair in front of me while Alonzo stands in the corner, studying his cuticles.

“Jimmy…do you know why you’re here today?”

A muffled sound comes from the other side of the cloth around his mouth. If I know anything about Alonzo, I know the zip tie holding it in place is tied tight enough to cut into the skin on either side of his face.

Wide, watery eyes beg me for mercy that I don’t have after watching the shit he pulled with Delilah.

“I’m gonna take that as a no.” I look over his shoulder and nod at Alonzo. “Let me jog your memory, Jimmy.”

When I turn to face the stone wall, Alonzo has the TV in place and the footage cued up exactly where I need it.

A still of the staircase in Marcellus’ house is loaded on the screen and Jimmy squirms, the chair groaning under his weight.

“I’ve never watched TV in here before, Jimmy,” I tell him with too much excitement in my voice. “But I got something special just for you.”

Another muffled sound comes from the man beside me at the same time the smell of urine invades the air.

A dark stain settles around the crotch of his blue jeans, and I curl my lip.

“Man, that’s fucking nasty. Why you scared, Jimmy? I didn’t show you anything yet.”

Sweat sticks his gray hair to his neck and forehead before sliding in his eyes to mix with the tears.

“You married now, right? Pia or something?” I taunt, knowing he can’t respond. “And I bet you did some fuck shit to end up with her. How old is she? Twenty? Twenty-one?”

He doesn’t make a sound, and I snicker.

“Oh, that’s right. She’s fucking nineteen and you’re fifty-two.” It was bad enough that he was twice Delilah’s age, but to end up with a damn teenager? One he claimed on her eighteenth birthday?

Nah, he had to pay me double for that .

“Come on, let’s watch this together then I owe you a conversation.”

His head sags toward his chest, so I loop a finger through the zip tie around the back of his head, yanking it back up.

Something that sounds like a scream gets stuck in his throat. “Pay attention, Jimmy. This is important.”

Alonzo presses play behind us and the video I’ve seen at least ten times starts to play.

Jimmy walks into Marcellus’ office, in the camera’s blind spot. The clip cuts to an hour later and he walks out with Marcellus on his heels and a devious smile on his face.

While Jimmy looks like he just won the lottery, Marcellus calls Delilah out of her room, one door down from his office.

The set up of the camera angle never made sense to me until I realized he’d put it there to track her upstairs.

Delilah appears, introductions are made, and then the show starts.

Two minutes after meeting her, Jimmy’s hand stretches toward her chest, fondling her breasts like she’s a fucking animal at a petting zoo. That smile on his face grew darker while she let him get away with it. The worst part is the nonchalance in her father’s gaze.

Delilah lets a whole ten seconds of groping pass before she rears her head back and rams it into his nose.

Blood drips on Jimmy’s white shirt and Delilah stares at him, a silent dare in her eyes to try it again.

“Fuck you, bitch.” Jimmy raises his hand to backhand her, but she catches his wrist and knees him in the groin.

Then his bitch ass scream fills the air, and Marcellus drags Delilah somewhere off camera.

“Wait, let’s watch that again, ‘cause you got me fucked up, Jimmy.” I take a blade out of my pocket and cut the zip tie, sending chunks of his hair to the warehouse floor with it. “Let’s watch it again and this time I want you to explain what the fuck you were thinking.”

Avoiding my eyes, he spits the cloth out of his mouth, and it lands in his pissy lap.

I pocket the knife and pull out my gun.

Behind us, Alonzo laughs dryly before aiming the remote at the TV.

We watch it again, pausing right as Jimmy’s scream punctures the air.

“Explain, Jimmy. What the hell did you think you were doing?”

“Did she put you up to this?”

“No.” I shake my head. “She doesn’t even know I’m here. This is private. Just between me and you. Now, tell me why the fuck you put your hands on her.”

Panic squeezes the words out of his throat until they come out in a wheezed jumble. “We were going to get married! Her dad said?—”

The butt of my gun slams into his temple and I’m rewarded with a scream that turns into a whimper. Got damn, he’s a bitch. “I don’t really give a fuck about what he said. That man is in the ground and unless you want to join him, I need an answer that ain’t bullshit.”

Jimmy’s eyes roll before his head tries to loll forward again. My thumb flicks over the safety, dislodging it.

“The bitch already broke my nose. What the—fuck!” His sentence ends on a screech when I put a bullet through his restrained hands.

“Call her a bitch again, Jimmy.”

“This is bullshit, that contract was void before I left that house. What do you want with me? ”

I can’t ignore the hoarse desperation clinging to his voice. Satisfaction rolls through me.

“Honestly, I don’t want anything you can give me.

I wanted to know why you thought it was okay to buy a woman for her virginity like she was a fucking handbag.

But I gave you a chance to man up to your actions and you’re wasting my time.

And I really need to get home for dinner.

” I lower myself to his eye level. “So, I’ll tell you what’s going to happen.

Your bank account is already drained. And since you don’t have a will?—”

“I-I h-have a will,” he croaks brokenly, his eyes brimming with trepidation and tears.

“Nah, I don’t think you do,” I answer, voice devoid of anything but boredom. “And since you failed to plan, I’m gonna help you out.”

Tears collect on his cheeks, and I smile at how easy it was to break this man.

“Your cars and houses will go to your wife as well as twenty million in cash. Ten million will go to a charity I choose. And the rest has already been wired to an account in Delilah’s name. Five point five million. But let’s just call it even.”

The blood draining from his hands and pooling behind his chair has him swaying against his restraints.

He looks like he’s fading in and out of consciousness, so I prop the head of my gun under his chin, forcing his head up.

“I’ll never forget how sorry you look right now, Jimmy. That shit gone help me sleep at night.”

I pull the trigger and watch him slump forward. Then I aim the gun at his heart and put another hole in him.

Whistling lowly, Alonzo comes to my side. “That got messier than I thought it would. ”

“Sorry.” My apology is a mumble as I assess my clothes.

Blood is splattered all over the tassels on my loafers and the front of my gray slacks.

Fuck . I can’t sit down for dinner like this.

Reading my mind, Alonzo shakes his head and says, “Change at my house. You know the code.” He looks at Jimmy like he’s a pile of laundry. “I’ll take care of getting this cleaned up.”

“Thanks, Lo.”

I’m almost at the bay door when his voice stops me. “And Don?”

I don’t turn around. “Yeah?”

“I can’t wait to meet Delilah at the charity gala next week.”