Page 43 of Gentleman Wanted
Young Blood screamed as Wicked attacked, his finger flicking the lighter to life. He tossed it towards Gemma as she tried to scuttle out of the way.
Almost instantly, that tiny yellow flame blazed to life. Her dress ignited. And then it was her screams that echoed around the room. She desperately tried to pat them down. To extinguish them as they started to lick at her hair and skin.
“Get down, Gem. On the floor now.” Swinging the fire extinguisher towards her, I let the foam fly. Covering her as she screamed and writhed on the floor.
Her screams were the only thing I could hear. They cancelled out everything else. It was only when the last flame blinked out that I stopped the flow.
She wasn’t moving. She wasn’t even making a sound, and I couldn’t move.
Slowly I turned my head. My eyes locked on the man held in Wicked’s grip. I could hear Ruin fall to his knees as he started to tend Gemma.
I didn’t know whether she was alive or dead. But one thing was for sure, the young man I had loved as a brother was about to die.
A crooked smile spread across my face, and I knew the moment Young Blood realised his death was imminent. His eyes widened.
And then I smashed the red fire extinguisher into his face.
He dropped like a stone, and Wicked let him go. Stepping back so I could do what I needed to do.
Kneeling over Young Blood, I forced him to look at me through the blood that was soaking his face. I wanted him to know that it was me that was going to kill him. Mine would be the last face he saw before darkness took him.
He had killed Ruin’s father. Murdered two brothers upstairs, but he was mine. He had tried to take my family from me.
“Look at me.” Oddly my voice was calm, unlike the rage that was like a wildfire inside.
Blearily Young Blood blinked through the blood. He opened his mouth to speak, and I smashed the fire extinguisher into his mouth. Blood and teeth went flying as he gargled.
I didn’t want to hear anything he had to say. I didn’t want to look at his face for another minute. All I wanted was for him to die.
Again and again, I smashed it into his face. The gargling stopped. There was no sound from him but the wet sound of metal hitting meat. Wet meat.
That’s all Young Blood was now. Raw, bloody meat. The man I had loved like a brother was gone. If he had ever been real to begin with.
And still, I couldn’t stop. I didn’t want to stop until there was nothing left of him.
I wanted to wipe him off the face of the earth.
I ground the metal into the ruins of his face. Feeling the grating of his bones as they turned to dust. One eye hung lifeless and unseeing from what remained of the socket.
And still, I couldn’t stop. I kept bringing it down into the mess of Young Blood’s face.
“He’s dead.” Wicked put a hand on my shoulder, and I froze. The fire extinguisher raised over my head. “He’s dead, Gent. You need to stop now.”
Stop? For a second, I was confused. Young Blood’s face looked like bloody hamburger meat.
I had done that.
My hands started to shake.
“It’s time to go, Gent. Gemma needs you.”
It was Gemma’s name that did it. I shook my head. The fog of aggression lifting. Swallowing hard, I glanced around.
Gemma was nowhere in sight.
Panic gripped me. Stumbling to my feet, I searched the room for her.
“Where is….”
