Red Hot(Sex & Mayhem #5)(118)

“You think you can trick me, you biker slut? How do you even know where I live, huh?” hissed Paxton. There was another slap, and Lucy’s knees pressed together as she screamed out in pain. “You’re gonna eat it. Now swallow.”

“Paxton’s fucking mental,” Jack hissed and pulled out his gun as well. “We gotta do something. The bitch slammed my face against the table on the raid. Fuck knows what she’ll do at home.”

“She can’t have more than two of those croissants. Were going in,” said Monster, shaking his head even as he was standing up. “I don’t know how, but we need to.”

Sam opened the back of the van and jumped off into the darkness. “I’ll find the backdoor.”

Monster followed, and Jack was right behind him. He turned to Loki. “Keep to the back. I mean it.”

Loki nodded, but followed nevertheless, taking each step blindly, led by the pale blue color of the T-shirt Jack was wearing. Only now, moving over unknown terrain, which could send him tumbling to the ground any second for all Loki knew, did he realize that he had no weapon. He was just there, a liability with no purpose other than making the van more packed. It wasn’t like he could provide medical attention to Lucy. Or to Jack for that matter, if he got shot.

They approached from the front of the house when Monster pointed to the windows. Jack and Loki crouched under one, and Monster under another. Lucy’s pleading was loud enough to be heard outside and as much as Loki thought of her as a mean bitch, the hopeless sounds sent chills down his spine. He didn’t want her anywhere near Jack, but he’d never wish her any serious harm. The choked screams and sobs were pushing holes in his skin and crawling underneath, pulling at strings he never wanted to remember.

“She’s gonna kill her,” he whispered to Jack, crouching by the wall.

“Fuck.” Jack took one look at Monster, but before Monster could even acknowledge him, Jack smashed the window with one shot from his gun, and jumped right after the bullet.

To Loki’s right, the other window fell to pieces, and bullets drummed to accompany the screams. Somewhere behind the floating curtain, Jack was facing Paxton, who hated him most of all the Coffin Nails. She would aim at him first, shoot him in the head and claim she was only protecting herself. Everyone would believe her. It was her home. She’d kill Jack and face no consequences.

Loki jumped in. He was not about to live out the rest of his life in misery after getting a chance for a do-over.

Lucy’s hands were in handcuffs, and three of the four croissants were gone. She was crying and a complete mess, in a way Loki never seen the ‘Ice Queen Stripper’ be. “Help me!” she sobbed, only to get hit on the head by Paxton.

“You dirty faggot scum!” Paxton yelled and aimed at Jack. “I gave you a choice, fucker. Put your guns down or one of you dies. Or she dies. Whatever.” Paxton put the barrel of her gun against Lucy’s head.

Monster licked his upper lip, and Loki could clearly see his forehead glimmering with sweat. “If you kill one, you have no chance of surviving. You are outgunned,” he said, not lowering his weapon. Loki stared at Jack’s back, and at the gruesome scene in front of them. There was blood on Paxton’s knuckles, but the moment Loki noticed movement in the darkness behind her, he did his best to keep his eyes off Sam.

“I bet more people would be looking for a senior officer than for a biker slut.” Paxton poked Lucy’s head with the gun, prompting her to cry out again. In the state she was in, Lucy looked much younger than in her stripper makeup and heels.

Jack’s deep breaths were all Loki could hear, all he could focus on. He wanted to fall asleep every night and hear that sound by his ear.

Paxton screamed when Sam came at her from behind. He tackled her and struggled for the gun, but she was like a wounded animal, writhing and clawing for a way out. She didn’t even care who she was shooting when she pulled the trigger. Loki was already there, pulling Jack down to the floor when something wet sprayed his face. Some of it even splashed into his eye, and he fell to his knees with shock clouding his brain. The world around him was dragging in slow motion that made his insides constrict with an unpleasant heat that spread all over his right arm.

In the midst of the chaos, Jack was like a blur, jumping at Paxton when she managed to hit Sam with the barrel of her gun and get to her knees. Jack kicked the weapon out of her hand, and pushed her to the ground again. His hands squeezed around her neck, an unpleasant reminder of the one time when Jack tried to drown him. He felt like he did then, with voices coming to him like from behind a wall of water.