Surrender To Me

Flipping the dagger in his hand, he changed grip and came at me, slashing. Leaning back, I missed each arc of his blade, giving Dagger the advantage of distracting him. The guy was so focused on me, that he didn’t see Dagger coming. Dagger sank his knife into the man’s throat, driving the steel through the flesh where his shoulder and neck met. Blood spewed from the wound, gushing down to the dusty warehouse floor. He weaved on his feet for a moment, clutching at the wound like that would stem the flow. Staggering toward the door, he reached the handle and pressed it down. Dagger looked at me with his brows raised. I simply shook my head. There was no way this little fucker was walking out of here.

Sanderson’s man took a lurching step before falling face-first into the dirt. Blood pumped from his neck, pooling on the ground in a macabre black puddle. Turning around, I looked at the carnage, then at the three corpses that weren’t there fifteen minutes ago.

Dagger strolled over to me, holding his stomach.

“Did you get hit?”

He stared at me for a moment, the color draining from his face just before he collapsed. I dove for him, catching him under my arm before he could hit the concrete. Easing him down slowly, I moved his hand out of the way, then lifted his shirt. Blood was pumping from a stomach wound.

“Fuck!” Dagger wasn’t going to make it if I didn’t do something right now. Wiping my bloody hands on my pants, I pulled out my phone and dialed Andy. “Boss?”

“I need medical,” I barked into the phone.

“On my way.” Andy hung up, and I pressed my hand against the hole in Dagger’s stomach. I eyed the blood that already soaked through his black shirt, knowing it was too much. He must’ve been hit in that first wave of shooting before he could take cover. I looked behind me at Hawk, whose blood was draining into the barrel beneath him. His eyes were still open, watching me even in death. I would’ve killed the bastard eventually, but it would’ve been much slower and much more painful. The fucker had gotten off easy.

Wren was going to be devastated by this news, though, and the thought of breaking it to her made pain lance through me. I would protect her from everything if I could, but my life was dirty as shit, my business done in the darkness. Long ago, I’d made peace with how I earned a living.

Peddling pussy was great.

It was legal.

It was lucrative.

Drugs, on the other hand, I got a high from selling them. There was so much money to be made, but so many lives got ruined by it too, like those of my dealers.

I shook my head and pressed a little harder into Dagger’s torso. It made him moan, but he was still out cold. Before Wren, I was hard, driven, and cold-blooded, but my Little Bird had opened my eyes to some shit that I can’t ignore now. I couldn’t ignore everything that had happened. Her brother was dead because of me. I looked down at Dagger. He might die because of me too.

Dropping my head, I waited for Andy. And then I did something I hadn’t done since I was a kid-I prayed. I pleaded with whatever entity out there or up there that Andy would arrive quickly.

I looked toward the entrance when I heard a car pull up. A door opened and shut, then Andy walked in, a jump bag in his hand. He scanned the area efficiently and then came our way.

He stopped on the other side of Dagger and motioned for me to move my hands. As soon as I did, blood gushed.

“I need to stop the bleeding,” he said, ripping open the medical bag and rummaging through it. He pulled out an endless mountain of gauze and then proceeded to rip the sterile packs open. I followed his lead, tearing open the plastic and pressing the cloth to Dagger’s wound.

“More pressure,” Andy barked, reaching one-handed into the jump bag again. Both our hands were slick with blood, and I wondered if this would cause Andy to have flashbacks of his time in Afghanistan.

He pulled out a disposable pre-filled syringe and then jabbed it into Dagger’s thigh. I felt his body suddenly go limp beneath my hands.

“It’s morphine,” Andy said. “It relaxed him.”

“How bad is it?” I asked, nodding down to the hole in Dagger’s abdomen.

“GSW. Nicked an artery. Once I slow the bleeding, I’ll turn him over and look for the exit wound. Just keep that pressure on there.”

I did everything Andy asked of me, watching as more and more color drained from Dagger’s face. His blood wrapped around him on the floor, creeping into my field of vision on all sides. Once Andy was satisfied the bleeding had slowed enough, I helped turn Dagger’s body. Andy inspected his back and swore.

“The bullet didn’t come through. He needs surgery, and that is beyond my skills. He has to go to the hospital.”

Fuck. I avoided them for my men when I could, especially when their wounds came from fucking shoot-outs with rival drug dealers.

“Let’s get him to the car.”Content bel0ngs to Nôvel(D)r/a/ma.Org.

Together, we lifted and placed him in the back seat of the town car.

“Go,” I told Andy. “I have to take care of this.” I gestured to the warehouse. Andy nodded, got into the driver’s seat, and peeled out of there. Fuck, I hoped Dagger made it. He’d been with me for years, and his loyalty wasn’t something that could be easily replaced.

Stalking back into the warehouse, I pulled both of Sanderson’s guys into the middle of the concrete floor, then dragged Sanderson’s corpse out too. The next job was getting Hawk down. After moving the drum out of the way, I strode to the wall where the rope was tied off and began to undo it. As soon as gravity helped me, I stood back and watched Hawk flop to the floor. Picking up his hands, I dragged him into the pile of bodies, then stripped him out of my clothes, adding them to what was going to be a spectacular fire.

Back out at the car, I cleaned my face with some pre-moistened towelettes, changed into a spare set of clothes I kept in the town car and then grabbed the red gasoline can and the matches. I spread the accelerant around the building, making sure to soak the bodies the most. They needed to burn so hot that not even dental records could help them. Just for good measure, I ripped out a couple of the henchmen’s teeth too.

When the gasoline can was empty, I placed it by my feet and lit a match. Touching it to the line of gas I’d made to the door, I grabbed the can and hauled ass out of there, taking cover behind the car. The fire that erupted from the warehouse burned hot, the heat singeing my face as I watched it engulf another one of my buildings-this one under a false name.

Black smoke drifted up into the sky, the flames licked at the stars. I watched it for as long as I could, making sure every square inch of it was consumed by the fire. Content that nothing could get traced back to me, I got back in the car and drove away.