Raging Heart On_ Friends to Lovers Romance(123)

I grasp the gun and step out into the open.

“I thought I told you, Hernandez, to never touch what’s mine.”

Hernandez looks shocked for a second and then the bastard gives that slimy smile I’d like to beat off his face. I just might before I leave here. In the corner of my eye, I can see Dweeb pulling for a gun, so I quickly shoot him in the arm. Dweeb cries out in pain and the gun drops. Hernandez cusses and takes Tess roughly, holding her in front of him like a shield and putting a knife against her throat.

I advance back towards Dweeb and make sure I kick his gun hard in the other direction. “Shut up your whining or I’ll shoot you again,” I growl when he doesn’t shut up.

“I don’t think you should be ordering anyone around, Gringo. That is; if you want your woman back in one piece,” Hernandez interjects.

“I thought I already warned you to stay away from my property, Hernandez.”

“What is it they say? Possession is nine-tenths of the law? Since I have possession, it would appear, that the puta is mine.”

“Thinking never was your strong point. Now you have about two minutes to give me my woman, and let us be on our way, or the only pussy you’ll ever get again will be in hell. Your choice.”

“Does your woman mean so little to you that you’d let me kill her, just so you can end me, Max?”

“I’ll put a bullet in you so fast it will make your motherfucking head spin.” I see him looking at me, measuring out my words, and I make sure my face stays impassive, giving nothing away.

“I just let go of your woman, and we call it even?”

“That’s the deal, but it’s getting ready to leave the table in another minute.”

“Except, how can we be even when you have wounded my friend there? Dweeb will just slow me down now and make me vulnerable. It seems I should be compensated somehow.”

“Fine,” I tell him and turn around and put a bullet between Dweeb’s eyes. Tess screams and jumps and the knife Hernandez is holding cuts just enough that a deep drop of red seeps and drips down her neck. It looks obscene against the milky white of her skin. “There, problem solved,” I tell him easily, doing my best to tune out Tess’s crying. Hernandez holds his hands up and backs away from Tess.

“Okay, gringo, I see you are serious about this one and…” I shoot him in the knee. And give him a sick smile as he falls to the ground. Tess screams again.

“Get behind me, Tess.” She looks at me, her face stark white and tracked with tears and there’s fear, real fear, staring back at me. My gut clenches. With everything that we’ve been through, I’ve never seen this look on her face. She’s afraid of me. Living in a fantasy has been nice, but it’s obvious that is over now. Still, she does as I order, giving me a wide berth, so she doesn’t get close to me. Knowing that, sits bitterly in my stomach.

“Fuck you, Maxwell! You said we were even!”

I shoot his other knee and walk towards him. “I lied. I warned you, Hernandez. No one touches what’s mine. You really should have listened.”

“I didn’t…”

He never gets the chance to finish his sentence because I shoot him again, making sure to end it quickly. Tess cries out again and as I’m turning around to face her she doubles over and retches, emptying the contents of her stomach. I go over to her and gather her in my arms as she heaves, holding her hair away from her face. When she’s done, she remains bent over and stiff in my arms, but she doesn’t pull away, so I guess that’s something.

I take the backpack off my shoulder and search in it to find a washing cloth and hand it to her. She stares at my hand for a minute and then takes it. Next, I hand her the canteen, and she rinses her mouth out and hands it back to me. All this happens without a word passing between us.

“Tess…”

“You shouldn’t have killed them,” she counters before I can say anything else.

“He shouldn’t have touched you!” I growl taking another cloth from the backpack and putting it on the still bleeding mark on her neck. She jerks away like I’m going to fucking hurt her, and that pisses me off.

“You can’t just kill people, Max. That’s not the way the world works!” She yells, holding the cloth to her neck.

“It’s the way my world works!” I counter, not exactly telling the truth, but she’s got me so pissed off I might as well let her have it all. I turn away from her and start dragging Hernandez’s body off the main path.

“And that’s why you’ve been rotting in jail! That is not a normal reaction! That is not what you do, Max! Violence is not the answer!”