Anger

Den of Violence

"You know where she is!" I could not help grabbing him by the shirt collar and shoving him against the wall. This was the guy who had Sarah. Every bone in his body straining aginst mine screamed it. "Are you going to tell me yourself, and save a lot of pain, or just try to hold it in and give me the satisfaction of beating you to a pulp in the process of getting what I want from you?"

Johnny's shifty, beady green eyes darted from one side of my face to the other. Behind me, the hefty shuffles as his buddies prepared their own assault on me.

"Jordan, let him go!"

One voice cut through the den of violence. The voice belonging to someone I'd told to stay in the car. Kelly.

"You gonna let your woman order you around?" Johnny's voice was barely above a whisper as he spoke, one lip curled up derisively at me. "Or you gonna finish what you started, Crusty?"

"You mean what you started?"

I ignored the new nickname, slamming him against the wall again instead. Kelly was going to have to wait. I had no time to tell her to get out of here at the moment. But she would hear all about it later.

"You're the one bustin' up in here, goin' on about your niece. Way I figure, you started this."

The smugness in his tone was too much. He knew, and by the end of this, he would spilling his guts. So the grunt he let out when my foot connected with his shin was satisfying.

"Jordan!" Kelly screamed.

"Somebody shut her up!" One of the guys yelled.

Thank you for reading my mind, I thought, and pushed Johnny up against the wall again.

"You bought her."

Surprisingly, the rage pulsing through my blood stayed in my blood this time, and out of my voice.

"You bought her, and you put her out there to make you some money."

"You're whacked."

But he was squirming to get away. Yeah, this was the guy. I was going to make him pay - once Sarah was safe at home again.

"Am I?" Another shake. "Rube told me he sold her to you - you know Rube, he brings you all your girls. Including my niece."

"That's enough!"

Kelly was at my side in a second, her grip on my arm tight.

"Let him go, Jordan," her voice was urgent. "Before you hurt someone."

I puased for a second. A brief second. This guy wasn't a someone. He wasn't really anyone - at least, not the way I felt at that moment. He didn't deserve to be, the way he treated 'his' girls.

"You gonna listen to that ****?" Johnny taunted. "Or you gonna take what you came for?"

I couldn't do it. He knew that. As long as Kelly hung around, I could do nothing. These was no way I could get Sarah out now. I was going to have to get Nate here. Thanks, Kel. Thanks for listening to me.

"You'd like that." Slowly, I let Johnny go and stepped away.

"Yeah, I'd enjoy beating your face in." Johnny grinned. "'Cuz I do that to pretty boys like you who let their women tell them what to do."

"I'll be back."

It wasn't an idle threat. I would be back. Only Johnny didn't take me seriously.

"You do that," he said as he laughed. "And while you're gone, I'll be tappin' your niece's ***, ya know?"

Kelly's presence, and only Kelly's presence - kept the rage inside from spilling out any further. I could hear him laugh all the way out the door, and as it slammed shut, I knew I could kill Johnny the next time I saw him.


Note: Story censored by author for language before posting.