The world dropped out underneath me. I had to catch myself by the knees as I doubled over, and sprang back up, watching as Blackjack's face soured with rage.
The door clicked shut. Asphalt spun around, saw us.
His expression ruined me. We locked eyes, just for a second. I wanted to run to him, hold him, apologize for everything and tell him that the only thing that mattered what was lay ahead, not behind us.
It shouldn't have mattered that the wretched animal tied to the chair used me. But, God help us, it did, and my heart splintered in two when I remembered his foul taste, the way daddy flopped against the pillar, covering his eyes with his severed wrist so he wouldn't have to watch.
I'm sorry, baby, I said with my eyes. Jesus Christ, I'm SO fucking sorry.
I couldn't apologize fast enough. I couldn't even move my lips.
Asphalt turned away from me, dropped his knife. The clatter it made on the floor sounded like an asteroid hitting the earth.
Zee looked past him, smiling the same dirty smirk I'd seen before he unbuckled his pants. “You prick. Stupid fuck. Thought you'd just kill me and get a neat, happy ending, didn't you?”
Those were his last words. Everything happened so fast, but it felt like a thousand years as I watched Blackjack step up, grab the knife off the floor, and pull Asphalt up with it.
“Do it, son,” he growled, pushing the switchblade's handle into my man's palm. “Drain every fucking drop of blood from this dog's veins.”
A new stone cold calm came over Asphalt like I'd never seen before. I huddled against the wall and watched as he moved behind the laughing mobster, grabbing his face by the chin and holding it up.
Zee's laughter stopped as soon as the blade sank below his ear. He screamed bloody murder, and after the first twenty seconds, I had to cover my ears.
Blackjack turned, nodded at me, and retreated to the other corner. It seemed like the murder went on forever, an act of savagery that froze my veins.
The bastard deserved it. Every rip, every wound, every spritz of blood pouring out the fissures Asphalt tore into his flesh.
Every last bit of blinding pain.
My heart swelled with pride when I finally dared glance at them. The evil mobster's face was half-peeled away from his skull, and he was still alive, twitching in an agony that wouldn't let him do anything else.
When I uncovered my ear, he wasn't screaming any more. Soft, terrified words in Mandarin hissed through his blood and curdled the air. I took my hands off my ears and listened.
No. No. No!
Don't do this. Don't, don't, don't –
For the love of fucking God!
I was the only one in the room who could truly understand what he was saying, but the other men got the message. They didn't need an education to understand stark raving terror.
Asphalt's face turned into a mask of grim satisfaction as he stripped the remaining meat from his bones and finished peeling his face off.
Zee rasped, then let out another vicious scream. I looked at him and we locked eyes.
“Die, you piece of shit,” I whispered. “We won't even think about you after this. There's no reason to. You have no power over me, none over us.”
Snarling, Asphalt stopped, turned, and looked at me. “Get up here, babe. This shit belongs to both of us.”
My heart beat wild as I slowly approached, shifting my eyes away from the demon to the love of my life. Before I knew what was happening, he pushed the blade's handle into my palm, and tightened his fingers over mine as we formed a double fist.
“We kill this motherfucker together. Put his ass down forever after all he's done to us, everything he did to your old man...”
Totally insane. But I nodded, without a shred of hesitation.
We'd been wed once at the altar. Once more in bed, giving him my body, mixing flesh and passion in sweet vows we'd renew for the rest of our days. This was our third wedding, a marriage in blood, one that would wipe away all the curses we'd suffered for good.
I stared into the wild emotion tightening Asphalt's handsome face. “We'll do it on my mark, on three,” he whispered.
“One,” he began counting, and I moved my lips with him.
For a second, I understood the killer instinct in every outlaw biker's heart.
“Two,” we whispered together.
Zee babbled like a madman, gurgling for a mercy we'd never never give him.
“Three!”
He pulled the blade in our hands back like a spear, and then slammed it into Zee's throat. The devil's body kicked like a mule one more time, and he died.
We dropped the knife, and I stumbled backward, amazed at what I'd just done. Even more incredible that there wasn't a shred of guilt.
I'd felt glee when we slayed the monster. Asphalt hovered over him, watching the steady trail of blood spilling out his neck.
I only got a tiny pang of disgust when Asphalt reached up, grabbed him by his bloody hair, and snapped his head back until it tilted unnaturally, nearly detached from the neck.