My guess is that the precious princess pissed him off, and he’s taking it out on me.
When I land on the second floor, I roll onto my back and grunt. That shit hurt—I’m sure that’s what he wanted, but he could have finessed it a little bit. Not to mention that he could have almost killed me. Falling down the stairs is a dangerous thing, let alone being tossed like a sack of garbage.
“Alright, I’m getting sick of this,” I tell him in a pained tone as I struggle to push myself up to my feet, but the big man with the even bigger arms is already descending down the staircase with rage in his eyes and I have to do the one thing I’m not comfortable with to get out of this alive.
I have to run.
Taking a deep breath, I move quickly and start sprinting down the stairs wondering if, or when, Trixie would ever let me live this down. I’ve never run away from a fight—I run toward them, but this isn’t an ordinary fight. This meat head is out for blood and I’m not exactly interested in letting him have mine.
“Come on, big boy! Catch me if you can!” I call up, mimicking Trixie, as I race down the last flight of stairs toward the main floor.
Gray almost catches me; I felt his fingertips graze the back of my shirt when I turned and scooted down the stairs. He’s gonna be pissed when he catches up to me, but I still think I can talk my way out of this. I’m a charming son of a bitch and I haven’t turned it up on him yet. We’ve been playing with each other—a fun little game of cat and mouse—and now it’s time to bare my teeth.
“Okay,” I say, turning to face him, once we’re both on the main floor. Gray’s coming toward me at a slow, deliberate pace, but he has to understand that he’s not as scary as I’m letting him think he is. If anything, I kinda wanna bend him over one more time before me and Trixie head out. “I’m gonna give you one more chance to be cordial and end this the nice way. What do you say?”
He stops walking and narrows his eyes at me, or at least I think he does, because it’s so goddamn dark in here it’s hard to see anything really.
“I thought artists were supposed to be pacifists,” I grumble at him, irritated that he’s started walking toward me again.
“I’m not that kind of artist,” he replies softly.
Gray stops so close to me that I can feel his breathing on my face, and when I look up into his eyes, I know that I have to think fast or this will definitely be the last time I get to play with anyone.
I clear my throat and rake a hand back through my hair, “Just let me get Beatrix and we’ll be out of here. I won’t even come back—I promise. I’m really bored with this entire thing now and I kinda just wanna go home.”
“And you always keep your promises don’t you?” he retorts in that quiet tone of his.
I walked into that one.
“Actually, I do. I stated nothing. I merely inquired,” I answer with a sly grin. “Ow! Fuck!” I yell out when my head jerks back and white spots start to explode in front of my eyes. I can’t believe the bastard punched me again.
With a growl, I shove him away and almost knock him off his feet because he wasn’t expecting it. I take advantage of Gray stumbling and lunge at him, putting my weight into my movements, drive my shoulder right into his sternum, and dropping him down to his ass gasping for breath. “I told you not to put your goddamn hands on me again.”
I walk over to him and kick him across his macho face, and smirk when blood spurts from his mouth. Maybe he can make himself a new tooth, I think wryly as I walk over to my shiny new, souvenir, and pocket it.
Gray grunts as he struggles to get up and I turn to face him.
“See? We could have been friends, and here you are crawling on the ground like the little bitch that I knew you would be,” I mock with a laugh. “And you know what? I like you better down there, anyway.”
He looks up at me with rage and confusion in his eyes and I take the opportunity to kick him again. “Stay down, punk. I’m done dealing with you. Wanna live to see tomorrow? Tell me how to open the fucking door. Now.”
Gray coughs and clutches his stomach. I really hope he doesn’t throw up right now. I can deal with my fair share of gross things but puke and body seepage are the two I cannot handle.
Just as I’m about to lay another kick into his precious face, a soft knock at the door stops me.
“Now what?” I ask loudly.
I walk over to the door and try to pull it open but it doesn’t budge. I look at Gray who points to the door frame and I raise an eyebrow. Reaching my fingers up, I run my hand along the dust until I feel a switch.
Flipping it, I open the gateway to freedom, and step out to take a breath of fresh air when I bump into Gray’s newest visitor.
Seventeen
Enough
Gray
Lakyn looks shocked and takes a step back into my home. At least that’s how it looks from down here, but I’m still trying to shake the cobwebs away.