There’s silence for a moment. Spider seems a bit nervous all of a sudden.
“W-wh-what the fuck are you talking about, Stone?” Spider asks, giving anxious glances toward Grinder. “We had a deal.”
“And that deal is now off,” I say calmly. “I wanted to tell you before you started making any more plans.”
It’s been a week since Spider told me about the plan and I’ve been wracking my brain trying to figure out what to say and do to keep Kerri safe.
I haven’t been able to get her out of my fucking head. We’ve even been finding a way to meet up in the Alcove every day now. We get maybe an hour, tops. But that’s fine. It’s long enough for me to bend her over, grab her by the ass, and pound her with my cock as she moans lewdly. To slap her ass until she groans with the lascivious sounds of pleasure. To suck her clit and make her claw my hair and back as she thrashes in the midst of multiple orgasms. To leave her legs wobbly and shaky after she impales herself on my tree trunk of a cock. All 10 inches of it, buried inside of her.
Afterwards, basking in the afterglow, we talk. She tells me about her life. About her ex-boyfriend who she caught cheating. About her parents. Her job. The ways that she’s trying to get stronger. And I listen to her. Listen to the words of a woman who could be with any man in the world, and she chose a caged beast. And each time I hear her I swear to fucking God that I will do everything I can to protect her.
“You can’t back out on a deal, Stone,” Spider says, emboldened by indignation. He jars me back to the present from the reverie I'm in. “You’re committed.”
“Listen Spider,” I say, giving him a stare that should intimidate most men. “You never really asked me if I wanted in on the deal, but I spent a fucking week trying to figure out how. It’s just not possible. End of story.”
I’m going to leave it at that and I turn away, taking two steps.
“Now wait just one moment, player,” Grinder finally speaks and I immediately stop. Good. I’ve been waiting for this.
“Don’t you think you’re being a bit hasty?” Grinder asks me. “You want out of here just as much as we do, and we need you for the first part just as much as you need us for the second part when we’re at St. Simons.”
He’s got a point. Without me, there’s no point in Grinder’s connections getting out of St. Simons. Because we’ll never even have left here.
“As you’re no doubt aware, if you don’t leave, Lucien, then neither do we,” Grinder says and then pauses. “And I really need to leave here, Lucien.”
I can tell he’s taken a step closer but my back is still turned.
“I’m sorry, Grinder,” I say and take one step away.
I hear him take two more steps toward me to match and start to catch up.
This is going to end in a fight. I can tell. There’s only one thing that someone like Grinder will respect. That’s violence.
“It would be very stupid of you to say no, player,” Grinder says and takes one final step towards me that places him at arms length. He’s going to attack. I can tell. The hairs on my neck are pricked and my entire body is tensed. Grinder’s going to do something in the next few seconds.
Which is why I need to act now.
I turn around in a flash and take two fast steps toward Grinder before he has a chance to react. I take my fist and bring it up wildly in an uppercut punch, hitting Grinder in the chin. He lets out a WHOOF as I hit him in the lower stomach with my other arm.
Grinder doubles over and I grab him and turn him, wrapping my forearm from behind him and constricting his neck.
Grinder can’t breathe. He struggles, but those struggles start to subside. I look at his gang. They’re looking to see what happens and how they can defend their leader.
“It would be very stupid to continue to press me on this matter, Grinder,” I say to him, glancing at his men and tightening my forearm on his neck, causing them to stop their advance. Spider has faded to the background.
“I’m going to let you go and turn around and consider this matter settled,” I say in a calm voice. “Got that?”
There are slight movements of Grinder’s gang but after a few seconds, they look downward in defeat. Grinder stops struggling.
With a snarl, I release my choke-hold and toss Grinder toward his gang.
I turn around and begin to walk away. I can tell that Grinder is rubbing his neck. But he does get the last word as I walk from them.
“Just watch your back, Stone,” Grinder says after a wheeze. “You’ve annoyed me today and disappointed me to boot. I don't take either very well.”