Page 51 of Bells
She quickened her pace. It didn’t do anything for her when one of my steps equaled three of hers. “Just a hunch.”
“Coulda been spying on Mike.” I shrugged. “There’s just something about a guy who slurps his beer like a toddler that really gets my dick goin’.”
“Does his fiancée know that?”
“How do you know he has a fiancée?” I threw back at her. I didn’t miss the fact she didn’t question how I knew the guy’s name. I knew everyone’s name at my bar.
“Another hunch.” Bellatrix stopped when the sidewalk ended. Keep going left and it would lead you out of the neighborhood. Right and you were headed deeper into the city. Bright lights, busy streets, witnesses…
I stopped beside her and waited for her to decide.
She turned left. She wanted me alone. “What happened to me going where I please?”
“Ain’t that exactly what you’re doin’,myshka?”
“How’d you get that scar on your back?” she countered as we passed the first stretch of townhouses, nothing but the random porch light guiding our way and more than a half dozen dogs barking in the background.
Now she was trying to distract me by asking an uncomfortable question.
“Which one?” I wasn’t being a smart-ass. Or maybe I was. But I also wasn’t wrong. I had at least a dozen scars running up and down my spine. Some from the Bossman, most of 'em not. It was about the same odds when it came to how many weren’t actually meant to help me walk again.
“How about the first one?” she clarified, and I grinned becauseshe wasbeing a smart-ass.
“My cousin bet me I couldn’t fly.” I lifted a shoulder. “I wanted to prove her wrong.”
“And did you prove her wrong?” Bellatrix glanced in my direction, a small smirk playing on her lips. She was doing her best not to smile. Her best was shit.
“Was flying for at least a second or two before I hit the ground. She never said how long I had to be in the air for it to count.”
“I’m sure she didn’t.” Bellatrix snorted, and I grinned wider when she moved a hand up to cover her nose. Until her leg also shot out in front of me and she sent me face-first on the concrete.
I caught myself before I busted my chin. Jumped back to my boots and sprinted after her. She was already a block ahead of me.
See? Told ya she liked being chased.
“Two!” she called out over a shoulder, and it took me a few beats to catch up with her. Both my brain and my feet.
I grabbed the back of her shirt and swung her to my right, into some asshole’s lawn. The automatic porch light flickered on but no one bothered to check on it as I flopped myself down on top of her, covering her mouth with the meat of my palm.
When I was sure she wasn’t gonna scream, mostly because I was more interested in dealing with her than dealing with whoever’s house we were trespassing on, I lifted my hand. “Doesn’t count. You can’t kill someone from tripping them.”
“Maybeyoucan’t.” She smirked.
“If you wanna waste your count on a cheap shot, that’s on you.” I rolled over, kicked up to my feet again, and lowered a hand in her direction. “When I kill you, it will only be once.”
She swiped my arm aside and stood, much slower than I would have done it on my own or with help. She was tired and she was trying to hide it.
She pushed past me, and I stepped up to match her pace. She was just walking now. I was sure of it. She had no idea where she was going but she was too stubborn to turn back.
I whistled the song my mother used to sing to me as a kid—didn’t know the words anymore but I knew the tune—and tuckedmy hands into my pockets. Whistling louder, the more annoyed Bellatrix appeared to get.
“We can turn back, you know,” I hummed. “Just say the word.”
“If you wanna turn back, turn back,” she huffed.
“It’s okay to admit you’re tired,myshka. Not everyone has my… stamina.”
“I’m not tired.”
