Total pages in book: 18
Estimated words: 16796 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 84(@200wpm)___ 67(@250wpm)___ 56(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 16796 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 84(@200wpm)___ 67(@250wpm)___ 56(@300wpm)
“See, Natalie here is mine.” He speaks as if announcing it to everyone in the bar. Making sure that not a single person misses what’s about to come next. “And I don’t like trash laying their grubby fingers on what belongs to me.”
“What are you gonna do about it?” The creep steps forward, and his friends join. In some stupid, bold attempt to prove he’s fearless in the face of The Demon, he reaches out to me again.
“Big mistake,” Dante says. He grabs the creep’s two fingers inching closer to me, and with a flick of his wrist and a thrust of his arm, a sickening pop emits from between their hands. The sound is followed by a blood-curdling scream, and a childish grin splashed across Dante’s face.
5
DANTE
Fury is a fucking understatement. I was on my feet and ready to tear his throat out the moment he touched her. And now, Lord have mercy on the cunt who laid his filthy hands on my woman and anyone stupid enough to stand at his side.
How dare they make Natalie feel scared? Unsafe in her place of work? Big men who feel strong throwing their weight around my delicate little flower. They’re lucky she’s still standing here. If it were us alone, I’d kill ‘em.
The ringleader stumbles back, screeching in agony while his eyes lock onto his gnarled fingers that are bent the wrong way. His two goons allow him to pass by, creating a wall of meat between me and him.
If they think that’s going to stop me, they’re sorely mistaken.
I don’t give them a chance to make a move. While they’re still getting in position, I drive my fist forward. It connects to the soft, squishy side of the guy to the right, and he wheezes as the air escapes his lungs.
I send another blow, and then a third in quick succession. The second hook strikes his jaw and the third cracks right across his temple. He crumbles to the ground like a sack of shit.
The last man standing gets a swing in while I’m dealing with his buddy. It smashes against my jaw, hard enough for me to feel it but too soft to make me stumble. All the beatings I’ve taken over the years working for The Lion have conditioned my body to take much worse than that.
“Wanna take another crack at it?” I ask, grinning wickedly in his direction. I even tilt my head to the side and expose more of my chin for another blow.
His friends wail at his feet as his resolve for a fight fleets by the second. As bad as a punch can be, fighting is a mental game. Once you’ve lost the will to win, there’s no coming back. Still, he manages to prepare another strike. He cocks his shoulder, locks it for a hefty blow, but before it gets anywhere near me, I catch his fist in the palm of my hand.
Using my leverage on his arm, I pull him into me. He storms forward, and I drive the hardest point of my forehead down on the bridge of his nose. His legs buckle, and he crumbles as the blood begins to pour down his face.
Pathetic.
“What the fuck?” the ringleader spouts.
He’s on his feet again, stumbling away from me until he hits a dead end. The table where it all kicked off. I follow slowly, cautiously, on the off chance anyone else might try and get involved.
“Don’t hurt me,” he mumbles when I get close.
Without the chaos of our battle, I take stock of my surroundings. Everyone’s looking at us, with some even brave enough to get up close to the action. But none dare make a sound, nor do they try to stop what I’m about to do.
“Is that really what you want to say?” I grab him by the shirt and pull him with me as I start trudging back to Natalie.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean it. I was just having some fun.” He raises his hands in cowardly surrender. The broken fingers dangle loosely in ways that disgust even myself.
“Better, but I don’t want it.” With my grip on his shirt, I pull him down to Natalie’s feet. He falls without a fight. “You’re going to say sorry to her.”
Larry’s standing on the edge of the crowd, with a slack jaw and wide eyes at the sheer brutality on display. Good. I’ve had my eye on this sack of shit since Natalie was supposed to clock off for the night. He hasn’t even tried to hide his interest in her. And more often than not, I saw him biting his lip and gawking at her body in clothes that exposed too much.
But right now, he isn’t much of a threat. I’ll deal with him if he becomes one.