"I want to hear you say it."
I meet his gaze.
Don't flinch.
Don't look away.
"Because he hurt Ingrid. Because every hour he was free was another hour she suffered. Because waiting for the 'right' way to do things meant waiting while she woke up screaming from nightmares. Because I made her a promise, and I keep my promises."
"And the club? Your brothers? The chain of command that exists for a reason?"
"I'm sorry for the way I went about it." The words come out steady. True. "I should have told you. Should have asked for backup. I know I violated protocol, and I'll accept whatever consequences come from that."
"But?" Runes prompts.
"But I'm not sorry for what I did. I'm not sorry for getting the information we needed. I'm not sorry for bringing this piece of shit back here to face justice. And I'm not sorry for getting Ingrid's ring back."
The ring.
I pull it from my pocket.
Hold it up.
The emerald catches the dim light.
"He took this from her. Ripped it off her finger while she lay bleeding on the floor. And now it's coming home. Where it belongs."
Fenrir's expression shifts.
Just slightly.
Just enough for me to see the father underneath the VP.
The man whose daughter was brutalized by the piece of shit chained to the chair.
"What did he tell you?" Runes asks.
"Everything. Names of everyone in the operation. Locations—safe houses, routes, warehouses. How they move the kids. Who pays. Who profits."
I relay the information.
All of it.
The names Ted gave me.
The locations.
The schedule.
And then the last part.
The part that still makes my blood boil.
"He doesn't just transport them. He's a participant. He—" I have to force the words out. "He rapes them. Before they're sold. 'Samples the merchandise,' he called it. Breaks them in for buyers who want them already trained."
The room goes deathly quiet.
Runes' face hardens into something I've never seen before.
