The Exception(54)

“Cane—”

“Get. The. Fuck. Up.”

Simon scooted back in the gravel, his eyes filled with absolute terror.

“Max!” I called, turning my head slightly to the side. “Get this motherfucker up!”

I heard the rocks crunch behind me.

“No!” Simon got up to his knees, bringing his hands back to his face again. His nose was already swelling, his face stained with his own fluid. “Let’s figure this out.”

“I’m losing my patience.”

Very slowly, Simon rose to his feet, squeezing his eyes shut. He braced for the impact he knew I was about to deliver.

I threw a roundhouse kick right below his knee, causing his legs to sweep out from under him. The sound of bones snapping pierced through the night.

He landed forcefully back onto the ground, a whooshing sound escaping his mouth as his breath was knocked out of him. He lay on his side, his face in the decomposed granite, his hands wrapped around his calf. He groaned as he rolled onto his back, still holding his leg.

I clicked my tongue against the roof of my mouth. “I’m disappointed, Powers. I expected more from you. I really did.”

I moved until I was standing over him. He looked up at me, tears rolling down his face.

If only I gave a fuck.

“Let me help you up.” I reached down and grabbed him by the shoulders, pulling him to one foot. He winced in pain, trying to pull away, but we both knew he wouldn’t be able to move without assistance.

I helped him get to the front of his Avalanche and he leaned back against the hood, breathing harshly. His nose made a wheezing sound as he tried to inhale around the mixture of tears and gore swirling around his face.

“Now, let’s make sure we are on the same page before I go home, okay?”

He nodded, leery. His eyes were beginning to swell shut and the slits that were left were clouded by tears and blood.

“When you get up in the morning and you can’t walk or breathe or see, I want you to remember not to fuck with me ever again. You got it?” I grabbed his chin in my hand, pulling his eyes to mine.

He nodded again against my palm.

I released his face and patted his face sharply before wiping my hand off on his shirt. “If you call Jada again—no, fuck that. If you ever breathe the same air as her again, I will break both of your legs and make you permanently unrecognizable. Are we clear?”

His head moved slightly.

“I can’t fucking hear you, Powers!”

“Yes,” he whimpered, his hands going back down to his leg.

“Good.” I smiled as I straightened out his shirt, dusting off the debris from the ground.

Simon held his breath, unsure as to what I was doing.

“Now, if you call the police about this, I will leave you in a fucking ditch. The irony of that will not be lost on me. As a matter of fact, go ahead and call them because the thought of following through with that promise makes my dick hard.”

Simon’s lip quivered, my words cutting to the core of our problem. The satisfaction I got from seeing his fear was better than I had ever imagined, regardless of how many times I had dreamed about it.

“Cane, dude, I’m sorry.”

“Fucking really, Simon? After everything that’s happened, you think ‘I’m sorry’ is going to fucking fly with me?”

“I lost everything because of you!” He said, spitting out a mouthful of blood to the side. “Everything! It’s taken me years to get back on my feet while you waltz around the city in your shiny car and with your pretty little girlfriend. I had to sit there and watch that development go up, listen to everyone say how brilliant you were. What a great son you were, what a legacy your father had. You think that was easy for me to swallow?”

“I could give a fuck if it was easy for you.”

“Fuck you.”

I took a step back and smiled widely before reaching out and patting him on the shoulder. I took a step towards Max and heard Simon exhale in relief.

Like a flash, I turned back around and unleashed a flurry—a right, left, right—to his face. His head bounced like a ping pong ball before his eyes rolled back in his head and he collapsed against the SUV. Slowly, painfully I’m sure, he slid to the ground and toppled over into a lifeless heap.

I watched him lay there, reduced to the piece of shit he always had been.

Max came up behind me, clasping me on the shoulder. “What now?”

“He’s still breathing, so we leave him here. If someone finds him, they’ll think it had something to do with drugs. They won’t even question it.”

“Fine. We better get out of here then. You ready?”

“Let’s go.” I turned towards the truck.