My heart beats heavy in my chest with guilt. “It is. I was so focused on my hatred of your father. I never considered someone else took you, let alone my own fucking mother.” I squeeze my eyes shut, wishing I could do things differently. Wanting to kill my father for not being honest with me. “If I hadn’t received a tip of where you were, I don’t know if I would have ever found you.”
She leans back slightly and tilts her head at me. “You received a tip?”
I heave a sigh and brush my lips over her forehead. “Yes, an unaddressed envelope showed up at my office with your rings inside and the address of the place you were being held at.”
She shifts and sits back, her lips twisting to the side. “Who sent it to you?”
“I don’t know. We tested it for fingerprints, but nothing came back.” I swallow as I feel a hole opening in my chest that aches. “I assumed it was your father toying with me.”
Kenz pushes off my lap and begins to pace. “I need to find my father. Does he go to the auctions anymore?”
The last thing I want is for her to go looking for her father. He may not have been behind her being taken, but I still don’t trust him. He still sold her. He still trusted a man that shouldn’t have been trusted. I scoff inwardly. Not that I’m any better. I trusted my father. I trusted Dr. Chamberland. I knew Bill was unhinged, but didn’t realize how unhinged. I push my hands in my pockets as the pit in my stomach grows more pronounced.
“He hasn’t been to one in a while. He might go once a year. I used to think it was his way of reminding me he was still around, but knowing what I know now, it was probably so he could check on you and make sure you were okay.”
Before she can respond, Rex comes back into the room. “Everything is ready, sir.” I nod at him and extend my hand to McKenzie. She stares at it for a long moment. I wouldn’t blame her if she didn’t take it. After all the shit I’ve put her through, I wouldn’t blame her if she walked away from me and never returned this time.
But she does put her hand in mine. Then she looks up at me with those big brown eyes of hers and gives me a small smile. “We’ll make it through this. Together.” Relief courses through my veins.
“Together.”
Chapter 28
McKenzie
Nix and I follow Rex into the room we were in earlier. Bill and Dr. Chamberland are chained to chairs. The chairs look like the kind at a dentist's office. The silver tray Nix was preparing is on a rolling cart between the two chairs. Dr. Chamberland’s eyes are wide with fear as he watches us walk in, hand in hand.
Bill is sweating profusely, blood still running down his cheek from the shard of glass sticking out. I glance at his arm andnotice the bottle is right where I twisted it. I had no idea I had that in me. Pure rage filled my veins when he laughed at what he did to me and taunted Nix, but when he said Shay was chained to his bed, I lost it.
I wonder how many women he’s sexually assaulted. How many women has Dr. Chamberland drugged? Bill doesn’t seem right in the head, but Dr. Chamberland he seems normal.I sigh and shake my head.I guess you never really know someone. Not really.
That thought tickles something in my brain. Something that’s just out of reach. Something that’s right there on the edge and if I could just touch it, I’ll be able to pull it out of the blackness in that part of my brain that has forgotten so many things. When it doesn’t come out of that darkness, my shoulders sag in defeat.
I’ll remember. I will.Rex steps up beside me, concern evident in his eyes. He hands me a wet washcloth and I realize it’s to wash off the blood that sprayed on me from what I did to Bill. I give him a grateful smile and wipe it off. It’s so strange. I thought I’d feel some twinge of guilt for what I did to Bill, but I don’t.
Maybe I am my father’s daughter. I can do unimaginable things without it causing any type of guilt. It could also be because I did it to someone who deserved it. Perhaps the men my father did it to deserved it as well. Hope is beginning to swell within me that my father is the man I remember as a young girl.
The one that would sneak me a cookie and push me in the swing. Until my mother was killed. That feeling comes back. The one where I know I’m forgetting something. Missing something.
“You okay?” Rex asks me.
I realize I zoned out, and Nix is walking from the wardrobe at the side of the room. He’s taken his shirt off again. I take in his tattoos, his abs, and the V that disappears below the waistband of his pants. I remember earlier tonight crawling to him, takinghim in my mouth, and being reminded he tattooed the very spot I gave him a hickey for the first time.
He stops in front of me with a small smile on his lips, like he knows what I’m thinking. “I’m okay,” I tell Rex, not taking my eyes off of Phoenix. Bill and Dr. Chamberland are being unusually quiet, but I don’t question it. Maybe Rex gagged them. “It’s weird,” I begin to say as I take a step closer to Nix and rub my right hand over his pec and shoulder while tracing the lines of his abs with my left hand. He sucks in a breath and I tip my lips into a slight smile.
“What’s weird, love?” he asks as he allows me to continue to explore him.
Right, I was going to say something. How easily he distracts me.“It’s weird how turned on I still am.” His muscles tighten beneath my hands. “I want you to erase the memory of him, but it’s not just that. It’s you protecting me, your dominance, the way you love me, everything.” I step even closer to him, my breasts pressing against his chest. “I still want that orgasm you promised.”
He wraps a hand around the back of my neck and pulls me closer. He leans down and kisses me long and hard, with his tongue brushing against mine. “You’ll get it.” He steps away and turns to look at Dr. Chamberland and Bill. “As soon as I kill these motherfuckers.”
Dr. Chamberland begins to mumble something. I look closer and see the strap wrapped around his head. Heisgagged. Bill thrashes against his chains. Nix rubs his hands together. “I see the drug is wearing off for you.” He walks over to his metal tray, ignoring the mumbling still coming from Dr. Chamberland.
He picks up an injection needle and turns to me. “Should I give them more, love?” I stare at him. I have no idea what the right answer is. “If I give them the injection, it will completely paralyze them, but they’ll remain awake. I’ll be able to torturethem and they’ll feel everything, but since this one is more potent, they won’t be able to scream. With the powder, they could still scream.”
To prove his point, he grabs the bottleneck that’s still sticking out of Bill’s arm and twists it. Bill screams behind his gag, saliva and blood dripping down the corners of his mouth. Dr. Chamberland’s eyes shift to the right, as his body trembles and tears stream down his face. I walk toward him and place my hands on the arms of his chair.
“Do you know what you’re feeling right now, Dr. Chamberland?” He’s struggling, trying to swallow only for drool to spill out of his mouth, down his chin, to his throat and disappearing behind his buttoned up shirt. “It’s what I felt every time you drugged me, not knowing if that dose would kill me or if I’d wake up. How many girls have you drugged? How long have you worked with her?”
