Page 85 of Malice and Surrender
“What are you doing here, Kai? I didn’t even know you were out of prison,” Irene said, then shrank back into the bed as I glared at her.
“Yeah, no thanks to you, I hear,” I said, propping my boot on the bed to lean on my knee.
Nick’s eyes went to my boot and then up to my face, and I looked away from Irene long enough to see if Nick was going to be stupid enough to say something. Her eyes grew wide, and she swallowed hard.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said right on cue.
I didn’t actually expect her to be honest with me. Liars didn’t know how to be honest until their backs were against the wall. Roach paced around the room, and I knew that Nick was thinking of making a run for it.
“You know, Nick, your skill for making smart decisions has certainly diminished. If you bolt for the door, you’ll end up with two in the back and one in the head for good measure.” Flicking my gaze away from the shifty man, I gave Irene my best don’t-fuck-with-me look. “Then I will assume you haven’t spoken to your husband?”
“We aren’t together anymore,” she said.
“Shocking. The point is, I’ve had some very interesting conversations in the last couple of days. The first one was with Raine,” I said, and let that piece of knowledge seep into her brain. I tapped the gun off my knee. “It was amazing what she told me. How the police were told I’d threatened you to have sex with me.” I raised my eyebrows at her. “And how you were the one who said it. Didn’t exactly paint me in the best light, now did it?”
“I don’t know how she got that mistaken. I…ah…” She licked her lips. “I mean, can you really believe anything that little bitch says?” she said.
A growl left me, and I stomped the short distance around to her side of the bed and grabbed her as she tried to scamper over Nick to get away.
Hand wrapped firmly around her neck, I shoved her down onto the mattress and stuffed the barrel of my gun into her screaming mouth. “First, don’t ever call Raine a bitch unless you want me to cut out your tongue. Second, don’t fucking lie to me.”
I got low to her face, so our noses were almost touching. She shivered in my hold. Roach moved close to Nick’s side of the bed, so he couldn’t take off without me even asking. I appreciated that.
“Third, and this one is the most important. My patience after spending ten fucking years in prison is really like skating on thin ice with hungry alligators waiting underneath. So, here is what’s going to happen… I want to know why you said the shit you did. I want to know now, and if you lie, I will kill you nice and slow. Understood?”
Irene nodded slightly.
“Perfect.” Pulling the gun from her mouth, I laid it against her cheek. “Start talking.”
“Dave found out about us. He’d put one of those nanny cams in the bedroom and caught us on camera. I didn’t want to lose my relationship, so I told him that you threatened me to have sex with you,” she spit out in a single breath.
“So you decided to tell the cops when I was arrested?” I asked, the gun pushing a little harder into her cheek.
Nick chose that moment to make a run for it, and a child-like screech could be heard as Roach clothes-lined him. Coughing ensued, and Nick let out a loud breath as Roach slammed his foot down onto the guy’s stomach.
Roach waggled his finger at Nick. “Tut tut, Nick. Now I get to cut off a finger for fun.” Roach pulled a switchblade from his back pocket. He began to scream as Roach stepped on his hand with his other boot.
“Hold up. If Nick here can provide good information, I’ll let him keep his fingers. See Nick, I’m a generous guy, but don’t try anything that stupid again.”
He shook his head hard, and Roach released the parasite from under his boots.
“Dave was more pissed than I thought and ordered me to do it, or he’d divorce me and leave me penniless without a home. I’d committed adultery, and he had it on film. What else was I supposed to do?”
“Exactly how pissed off was Dave?” I asked.
“Oh, livid. He stomped out of the house, swearing and spouting off that he was going to kill you.”
A shiver traveled down my spine.
“What did he do?”
Irene shrugged.
“Don’t fucking lie to me, Irene.”
“I’m not, I swear. He stormed off and was back a few hours later and was calmer, but said he wanted you to move out. That he couldn’t live under the same roof as you.”
“When did the cops arrive?”
