As I rode to the warehouse where Peyton and his thugs hid out, my heart was in my throat. I was riding in the back of Nefertiti’s black Mercedes, hidden safely behind tinted windows. The leather inside was like the skin of the softest woman I’d ever touched, and the car smelled better than pussy.
“Honey, what are you thinking that we’ll do?” Nefertiti reclined in her seat and took a drink of her champagne. In the past few hours, she’d warmed to me remarkably. Well, not really. But I no longer had the sense that she was trying to kill me. So, there was that.
“I’m dropping off the heroin,” I replied gruffly. “Just give me the package, and I’ll carry it in. I’ll carry a gun under the packages. When they take the boxes from me, pop, pop. He’s dead.”
She looked at me and cocked her head to the side. “Don’t you think that’s a little bit of an easy way out, honey? Just pop, pop, and he’s dead? What about all the people he made suffer? Don’t you care about them?”
I shook my head. “I can’t fuckin’ worry about anyone else. This is about me. This is about me getting my revenge. Just because we’re working together on this doesn’t mean I care about you.”
Nefertiti pursed her lips. “You smarter than I give you credit for, honey,” she drawled. “I thought you were gonna be all about saving me after our fun together!”
I gritted my teeth and rolled my eyes. “Don’t count on it,” I told her icily. “I just want what’s mine.”
Nefertiti kicked her shoe off and stuck her stockinged toes in my lap. When I tried to push her foot away, she clicked her tongue, and the guards shot me a look. Sighing, I let her continue rubbing my cock with her toes until she was grinning and I was hard. Putting up with her little sexual harassment was bad, but it could have been worse. At least I wasn’t worried she was going to cut my cock off.
“This is so fun,” she gushed. “Ain’t we having fun?”
“Oh, yes, Ms. Nefertiti,” one of the thugs said. He patted her on the shoulder, and she swatted his hand away with a sharp slap. “This is real fun we’re havin’.”
I rolled my eyes and looked out the window. As we pulled up to the warehouse, I felt a sinking feeling in my chest. What if this was all wrong? What if Nefertiti wanted me dead just as much as Peyton? A horrible image slipped into my mind of them taking turns torturing me until I was almost dead, then crawling over my broken body and fucking like dogs.
“You nervous, baby?”
“Not at all,” I replied smoothly. “And you’re going to be watching and waiting?”
She nodded. “Of course. I couldn’t let you have all the fun, could I?”
I laughed once, a harsh sound. “Of course not,” I said, mimicking her tone. She grinned at me; if she knew I was mocking her, she didn’t show it.
When Nefertiti nodded, I climbed out of the car and walked quickly to the building. Putting my hands in my waistband, I pulled out the semi-automatic and cocked it, sneaking along the threshold of the building. There was silence. In one hand, I held the bag with the heroin. Looking at the other, the hand with my gun, I could see how badly I was shaking. Pull yourself together, McIntyre. This is fucking it. This is it, big man.
The only thought on my mind was seeing Peyton’s face as I shot him in the chest, time after time. I wanted him to know that he was dying. I wanted him to know why. I wanted all of his thugs to know why. No matter what happened, I wouldn’t rest until he was dead.
There was some whispering and hushing as I got to the back door. I stuck the gun in the back of my pants and put the heroin package down on the ground. After knocking three times in quick succession, there was a scurry of footfall, and the door opened.
“Hello,” one of the thugs said in stilted English. “Come with me now.”
I shook my head. “That’s not the fuckin’ deal, man. Peyton’s supposed to come and talk with me.”
The guy looked at me like he had no idea what I was saying. “Come with me,” he repeated.
“Fuck!” I cried out.
He gave me an alarmed glance and pulled me inside, putting a finger to his lips and blowing quietly. Inside my head, my thoughts swirled around until I was panicking. This wasn’t the plan. This wasn’t the plan at all. The plan was for Peyton to meet me at the door, and then Nefertiti was going to come up and shoot him in the arm to weaken him. Then, the two of us were going to drag him inside and make him confess to everything. On video. Then, we were going to take turns killing him. It was as simple as that, and something that we’d both agreed on.
I flashed back to her cool demeanor in the limo. Was she fucking with me after all? Was there something really bad going on? I still had no way of knowing, but every second that the guy dragged me farther and farther from the door, I felt like something bad was going to happen. Warning bells clanged inside my head. The guy grabbed hold of my shirtsleeve and yanked so hard that I almost stumbled and fell. When I got to my feet, I looked around and saw that he’d dragged me into the main part of the warehouse.
Peyton was sitting behind a massive oak table, with his hands spread out. He saw me and broke out into a massive grin. What is it with these psycho fucking gangsters? I thought to myself as I held up the package of heroin.
“Good to see you, Zed,” Peyton said with a big grin. “I was beginning to think that you wouldn’t show!” He held up his machete. The blade gleamed in the few bits of sunlight that filtered in through the rafters. “What a horrible thing that would have been!”
“Right,” I said warily. “Look, I have the stuff. What else do you need?”
Peyton grinned. “I need some help, Zedy boy. I haven’t been able to get in touch with Net all day. Why don’t you help me call him?”
I shook my head. “No way, man. That’s your fuckin’ game, not mine.”
Peyton laughed. “You’re fuckin’ retarded. Don’t you get that you have to help me? Or I’ll kill you!” He tossed his head back, opening his mouth and showing a full array of teeth. From where I was standing, I could smell his breath. It smelled like whiskey and pussy.
“Fine,” I spat out. “Get out your phone, and I’ll call him. What do you want me to say?”
Peyton wagged a finger in the air. “Zedy, that’s not how this works,” he chastised me. “Where’s your phone?”
My mouth went dry; it was back in the limo with Nefertiti. “I don’t have it,” I said gruffly. “I lost it yesterday. Yesterday was a pretty bad fuckin’ day for me, all in all. You of all people should remember that, Peyton.”
Peyton laughed. “You expect me to believe that?” To the thugs, he snapped his head towards me and said, “Search him!”
I barely had a second to defend myself before his thugs came at me like well-oiled machines. One of them yanked the gun out of my waistband and waved it around in the air, crowing triumphantly. The other patted me down and stuck his hands in my pockets, grabbing and groping the inside of my thighs to see if I had something taped there. It felt remarkably like being violated by Nefertiti.
“Zedy, what’s this about you not having your phone?”
Just as I was about to shake my head, there was a deafening roar of gunfire. I dropped to the floor and tried to wriggle my way to the center of the room to grab Peyton, but a shot landed so close to my head that my ears started to ring and I froze. Blinking, I looked around quickly and saw Nefertiti and her thugs at the door. They barely seemed to notice me as they advanced on Peyton, carrying AK-47s and firing them as rapidly as possible.
The sound was enough to make me pass out, that’s how loud it was. Slowly, I crawled to the opposite side of the room. Just when I was almost to safety, I heard Nefertiti cackling. Quickly, I got to my knees and turned my head towards her. She was standing next to Peyton with the barrel of her gun pressed into his chest.
All I could register on his face was shock and horror; it was like he couldn’t believe this had happened. The whole scene: bullets everywhere, whizzing past my head at a mile per minute, plus Nefertiti and Peyton in some kind of vicious dance. He tried to swipe her out of the way and put her in a headlock, but she fell to the ground and grabbed him by the hips. As she fell, she pulled him down with her and rolled on top of him. Peyton was struggling to get up, but she delivered a swift roundhouse kick to his head, knocking him back.
“Zed!” one of her guards yelled. “Move! I’ve got a clear shot!”
“Don’t shoot!” I cried out, moving towards him. Suddenly, he had a panicked look on his face. Just as I looked down, a sharp pain stabbed me in the arm. I cried out and held my arm up to see a bloom of crimson developing all over my sleeve. Fuck!
The adrenaline was too much for me. I crashed to the ground and watched as Nefertiti punched Peyton square in the face. He cried out, and blood spurted everywhere. She took out a small, silver handgun from her pocket and pressed it against his throat. She smiled a wicked smile from ear to ear, and then pulled the trigger.
The shock of the gun firing got me to my senses. Nefertiti had barely turned towards me when I was on my feet, running out into the night.
The last thing I heard behind me was someone screaming my name before I ducked into the trees. My arm hurt like hell, but I kept running. Just as I was about to pass out from loss of blood, Lily’s face popped into my head.
Lily, I’m dying, I thought. I’m dying, but at least you’re safe.