Page 78 of Maverick
“Luck’s on your side,” I said, pulling it out of his mouth, and hearing the sharp breaths Hardy was heaving in. Keeping my hand on his shirt, I flicked the cylinder around, and put the gun back in his mouth. He wheezed around it, panic flaring in his eyes, before I pulled down on the trigger.
Click.
Click.
Two in a row. I could hear him scream around the barrel, the ground underneath him turning darker from his urine.
“Had a bit of an accident there, did ya mate?” I asked, looking down with a smirk. “Or was that just my own leaking through? I had been holding it for a little while.”
Vegas chuckled from his position on the wall. I pulled the gun out again, and flicked the cylinder once more. Hardy had sealed his mouth shut, and removed the ability to push the barrel back in.
“Come on, Hardy,” I said, mockingly. “Don’t make this hard on yourself.”
The harsh smell of excrement wafted up into my nose. Vegas recoiled as well. “Jesus, what did you eat?”
“He’s gone to shitting himself now. Surely, his body will give up eventually."
“Eh,” I shrugged my shoulders. “Even if it doesn’t, I’m having fun, and that’s the main thing.”
“Sicko,” Vegas laughed, but he made no move to get away. He lived for this shit as much as I did.
I tapped the barrel against Hardy’s cheek, waiting for him to open it. His nose was snotty now, which meant he would eventually have to breathe through his mouth.
Eventually, he let out an exasperated gasp for air, and I slid the barrel in, knocking it against his teeth. Hard.
Shards of his front tooth fell against the gun and onto his lap.
I didn’t wait this time.
Click.
Hardy let out another gasp of relief, the barrel of the gun getting incredibly wet with the added saliva he was producing from the fear.
I didn’t spin the cylinder this time. Hardy knew it. I saw it in his eyes. Dawning realisation, just as I pulled the trigger and the gun let out a loud pop. Hardy’s head exploded before my eyes. Letting him go, he fell flat to the ground with an ungodly sound, just as Vegas pushed off the wall, his eyes behind me.
Spinning, I turned to see Tavi there.
Still in her gold dress, still fucking gorgeous, but this time, when she looked at me, she recognised me. She wasn’t distant. Now, her eyes fell to the body behind me. I expected her to scream, to cry out, to do something.
Stepping into her line of vision, and blocking her sight, she looked up at me. “Is he–?”
“Yeah, baby, he’s gone. He’s not going to hurt you again.”
She stepped into my arms, her eyes skating behind me. “I need to see.”
Closing my eyes, and wishing that I could change all of this for her, I allowed her to move around. She gazed down on the bloody carcass where herhusband’shead used to be.
She didn’t look away. She didn’t cower. Instead, she stepped closer, her fingers still clasped in mine, and she spat on his body.
Fuck me. How could this woman be any more perfect?
Chaos pulled the car up at the end of the alley, and I wheeled Tavi into my arms. She buried her head into my chest before I wrapped my arms around her. Vegas carefully pulled the revolver from my hand and put it away, before he and Chaos carried the body of Hardy away, toward the car. A large spoil of his blood, still on the ground.
“I suppose I should go now,” she said, moving out of my grasp. It felt like she was going along with whatever, and that’s when it occurred to me. Despite seeing his body blown to smithereens, she didn’t think this was real.
Pulling her back, I wheeled her into my arms. She looked up at me, those eyes searching mine for something, I wasn’t sure what.
“Baby, this is real. I’m real. I’m here with you.”
