Thieving Florida

chapter 23

Marisa's hand flew out, telling me to stay put. Or that's what I thought and hoped it meant.

"We outnumber you," Marisa said. "How do you expect to come out alive?"

"You outnumber me by one," said the dark haired man. His skin was practically glittering like copper, since that was the color of it. "You are missing a man to compete against me."

"Still cocky as ever," Xander said. "Did you know that we killed Caleb? Your leader?"

"Good, that gets rid of a lot of dirty work for me," Charlie said while filing his nails.

"Caleb was a lot stronger than you would ever be, and he had a knife lodged into that unibrow of his," Marisa snarled. "So if you think I can't do the same-"

"Where is your knife?" he asked. "In that man's leg? If you reach for it or even move, I'll blow your brains out."

Marisa froze, her jaw setting in frustration.

"What happened to the girl? The other one, that is," Charlie said. "Marisa, baby, you are excused from any retribution."

"Don't fucking call me baby," she snarled.

"Oh, getting a little sassy are we?" Charlie teased. Charlie's attitude was different than Caleb's, it made him scarier.

But he was also an arrogant little shit.

"But the girl," he continued. "Where is she?"

His voice was like ice, cutting right through me. My entire body froze, if could have even more.

"Downstairs?" Xander said, but more like a question. Damn it, the one time he loses his cool.

"Don't think I haven't checked there?" Charlie growled, growing impatient. "Where the hell is she!"

"We don't know!" Xander shouted back.

Charlie laughed. "Stop lying, Hendricks. You're pathetic. I watched you run off as she refused to have sex or something like that with you. You looked heart broken."

"She meant nothing," Xander said without emotion, just like he had done about a dozen times.

"Sure," Charlie snorted. "But you wouldn't just watch her die without feeling any remorse. She's our revenge."

"She didn't mean anything to you, Charlie. Why do you care?" Xander said. I assumed he was referring to Miranda.

"She didn't mean anything to me?" he echoed quietly.

"SHE DIDN'T MEAN ANYTHING TO ME?" he yelled. His face was filled with pure rage.

"She was pregnant! Do you remember that? Wasn't she begging for you to let her go for the baby?" He yelled.

"Oh don't tell me-"

"SHUT UP!" Charlie roared. "Yeah, she was with that shit head Caleb. She was so in love with him. But she was pregnant with my child!  But it was all about Caleb.

"I loved her. I would have treated her better than Caleb ever would have. I would have saved her, and I would have taken cared of that child that Caleb would have never wanted."

I thought back to when Caleb talked about Miranda. Even though he did almost kill me and Marisa, I knew that he actually did care about the child in Miranda's womb. Whether it was his or not.

"That's not my fault," Xander said.

"BUT WHY DID YOU DO IT!" Charlie yelled.

"Because that was my fucking job!" Xander shouted.