"I don't think you could have," she said. "If you tried, they would have killed you."
"Not if I killed them first," I said without hesitation.
"You were outnumbered." She sucked on a smear of peanut butter on the side of her thumb.
My cock twitched in response.
"So was Woody," I pointed out. "Are you trying to suggest I couldn't have done what he did?" I gave her a playful side eye. I was more secure in my masculinity and ability to kill than to really be offend.
"Of course you could," she said quickly. "He had me too, though. And it was dark."
"I'll give Woody credit for doing good work, killing five men in the dark," I said with a grin.
If I'm honest, I was a little envious. It sounded like they had a lot more fun than Forrest and I. Killing assholes was a better time than being in the company of entitled pricks.
I loved my day job, but I also enjoyed a good sneak around in the dark, stabbing people. Sometimes a guy needed a thing likethat in his life to feel a little more alive. If someone charged me to do it, like a big game hunt, I'd pay.
That was an under-serviced market, if there was one. Of course, if anyone started up a business like that, they'd get in the way of us having fun for free.
Still, whatever it took to rid the world of a few more predators, I'd support it.
"Did seeing all that killing get to you?" She was new to all of this. A bloodbath like Woody left behind was confronting at the best of times. When you hadn't seen anything like that before, it would be terrifying as fuck.
"I'd be lying if I said it didn't," she said. "Those thugs?—"
I put a hand over hers before she could continue. "Don't say they were just doing their jobs. That's the catch cry of people who did the wrong thing and got caught. They knew exactly who they were working for. They were the ones that took you from the Halloran, weren't they?"
"Yes, they were." She obviously felt bad for them being killed for the crime of standing around making sure she didn't escape.
"They don't deserve your sympathy," I said firmly. "They were in it up to their eyeballs. Any one of them could have gotten a job as a mall cop if they wanted to. Or a bodyguard to someone reputable."
"Someone like you?" she suggested.
"Exactly," I said lightly.
Working for me, they'd be almost as complicit as if they were working for the senator. That was a good reason not to have a bodyguard. The more people who knew your secrets, the easier it was to fuck you over. That wasn't the kind of fucking I enjoyed.
"They made their choice. Men like them, they understand they're living on borrowed time when they work for someone like that. Sooner or later, someone was going to come after him. Not only are they complicit, they're collateral damage."
"But watching Woody strangle one of them," she closed her eyes and grimaced. "That was… I've never seen anything like it."
"Woody choked the living shit out of someone, and I didn't get to see it," I whined jokingly. "I wonder if he could reenact it some time. I could find him someone fun to work with."
She gave a short laugh. "You'll have to ask him. I got the impression he didn't enjoy it much."
"Even better." I gave her a wink. "Now, have you seen the rooftop terrace?" I pointed to the ceiling above me.
"I haven't," she said.
I grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet, enjoying the way the shirt rode up her thighs before she stood.
"Then you're in for a treat."
CHAPTER 20
SABLE
"It's cold up here." I rubbed my hands up and down my arms to warm them.