: Chapter 45

“You need to calm down, you have already killed four people,” Garrett snaps, but despite his words, his hands are clenched and his body is vibrating with lethal intent. I’m not the only one struggling with our girl going missing.

My little bird.

Mine.

And they took her.

I will paint this town red. I will kill everyone in it and wear their skin to find her. She’s mine!

“They had it coming.” I shrug, wiping the blood from my hands.

“That last guy?” he scoffs, and I look over at him with a smile which he winces at. “D…” He sighs. “He only asked what he could do to help.”

“I didn’t like his attitude.” I sniff, and I feel him staring at me.

“We’ll get her back, D, but ya gotta hold on, okay?”

“We will get her back.” I nod calmly and then look at him again, grinning. “I’m going to rip their hearts from their chests and give them to her.”

“That’s…the spirit.” He sniggers. “Fucking idiots don’t know what they have unleashed.”

“You are one to talk.” I grin wider. “Why did you beat the shit out of the security guard at the apartment?”

He scowls then. “He let them go. Idiot.”

“He’s in ICU,” I point out cheerfully, but inside, a fire is burning. Like always, it flays me from the inside, but these flames are growing higher than before without my little bird to help control them. They scream for blood, for death, and I’m twitchier than normal. I don’t know what is right and wrong…even for me.

Garrett is right, I’m already carving a bloody path through the city, but I don’t care. When I was hunting my mum’s killer, the bodies piled up, and I never even loved her that much. Little Bird? She’s my world. My goddamn black beating heart is hers and she is mine.

Mine.

And they took her.

The carnage will be unimaginable. They will call me a serial killer. They will all fear me, but I don’t care, as long as she’s back in my arms before the night is through. When I saw the bodies of her guards in the car and her blood on the backseat…fuck.

Panic like I have never felt before poured through me. No one gets to hurt her, to hear her screams, but me.

She fought, of course she did. She’s a fighter, a Viper. She killed them and would have slain them all if she could have. But she couldn’t, so I will for her. I will place their bodies at her feet for hurting her. And after…

After she will have to survive me.

Because I am unleashed.

We meet Ryder and Kenzo at the warehouse. They have been busy as well. The scent of the ocean wafts to us, which is just behind the dock. The shops are not too far away, but inside the warehouse is an entirely different world. Our security is swarming the place, all of us are together.

All of us are furious.

All of us are seeking blood.

On their knees before my brothers are eight men, who no doubt work for the Triad. I don’t ask how they found them so quickly, I don’t care. I can already feel their screams, their bones breaking in my hands. I ache for their pain, to sate the monster inside me until I get my hands on the bastards who took her. But Ryder stops me as he steps forward and eyes them with disgust.

“The Triad took something of ours, and we won’t stop until we get it back. Anyone with any information is to come forward now. You all know something, you work for them.” He waits, and the men all shift nervously, not wanting to betray their employers. Ryder loses his patience.

Usually, he would let Garrett or me do the dirty work, not that he’s afraid of blood, but it paints him as the cautious leader. But now? He pulls his gun and suddenly fires, shooting the man at the very left in the head without even blinking, his face cold. The men on their knees shy away, some screaming, some crying. “I will kill you one by one until I get what I want to know, and if none of you know it? I will start on another lot, I don’t need you alive. I will kill all of you. So I will ask again, any information?”

“Oh God,” one of them sobs, and Ryder shoots him next.

Six left.

I prowl around them, taunting them, kicking them, needing to feel their pain, needing to make them hurt.

Crouching behind one, I stroke his sweaty hair. “I would tell him. I might be crazy, but he’s worse,” I murmur to him, as I look up at Ryder and Kenzo. Ordinarily, Kenzo would be smiling, playing the good guy and hiding the Viper underneath.

He might be soft and romantic for Roxy, but only for her.

And she isn’t here.

The Viper is unleashed in him. His face is dark, thunderous with anger, his suit is stripped off, and his dice move rapidly through his fingers as he shakes with the need to do something. Anything. I know, ’cause I feel it too. Garrett is the same, storming around the warehouse on his phone, no doubt searching for anything, anyone we can use.

“Please,” he whimpers, shaking with fear, sweat pouring down him. “I know nothing, I’m just a delivery—” I snap his neck and stand as Ryder frowns at me, but he knows better than to try and stop me. Especially with her on the line, my little bird.

Just the thought of her has me turning and grabbing the closest man. I roar into his face, screaming into it. He screams back, trying to get away, but it’s no use. I need blood. I need pain.

Now.

Everything’s a blur, but when I come to, I’m heaving and my body is shaking with adrenaline. I lift my hands and notice they are covered in blood, as are my arms. I can feel it dripping down my face, and at my feet is the mauled corpse of the man. He’s a bloody mess.

I glare at the others, and they scream, one even pisses himself, the smell filling the air as I prowl closer. “D, enough,” Ryder snarls.

I scowl at him, but he narrows his eyes. Garrett steps closer to me, watching in case he needs to restrain me. It wouldn’t be the first time he tried. Until my little bird came, I did my own thing. Only doing as ordered when it suited me.

But then she wrapped me around her little finger. One smile, one punch, and I was hers. Her animal. Her killer.

“Diesel!” he roars, and I slink away, not far though.

“Anyone?” Someone shifts, and Ryder sighs, aiming again, and the man screams.

“Wait, wait! I know something!” he begs.

Ryder pauses, stepping closer and pressing the gun to his head while I laugh. “Tell us, better tell us.” I grin.

“They have taken one of your safe houses, that’s where they are keeping her, that’s all I know, I swear. I overheard it!” he sobs.

Garrett snarls and punches a cement support, which must hurt. “Fuck, we have loads of them, which fucking one?”

“We need to find Daphne and ask her.”

Garrett turns and, without a word, shoots all the men as he converges on me. “How is she alive?” He towers above me, but I’ve never feared him.

“I don’t know.” I shrug, I really don’t. “I played with her for a bit before I burned her in a building. She was tied down.”

“Fuck,” he snaps. “She’s helping them, we need to get her.”

“Roxy first, she’s all that matters,” Ryder reminds us, and we all look at him. “We need to know which safe house, call everyone in. Find it.”

Kenzo doesn’t speak, just turns away and stomps to the car waiting for us. I look at the bodies. “We should send a message,” I murmur.

Ryder nods. “Do it. I want this city turning on them. Let them know anyone who’s helping them is now our enemy and will die like the rats they are. Hunt the bastards down, make it rain.”

I grin then. “Are you letting me loose?”

He stares at me as he holsters his gun. “Go fucking wild. Make them come to our door, begging for forgiveness, while I find the safe house. Garrett, go with him, you need to release some tension. I will warn the police to stay out of our way,” he orders, before looking at the car Kenzo went into. “I’ll find the house with Kenzo, we will have it before dawn. Be ready to move.”

I glance at Garrett then, and even he looks worried. “D—” He starts.

“You heard him.” I laugh. “Let’s play.”

“Oh fuck,” he mumbles. “This should be good.”

For you, Little Bird, I’m coming for you.