“Pretty girl,” Gage says gently. “You can do this.”
“No. No, I can’t. Please don’t make me.”
“I would never make you do something,” he says, jerking me into his arms and leading me back to the main door. When the main entrance opens into the wine cellar, Zane is standing with his arms crossed over his chest, leaning against one of the shelves. His head pops up when he sees me; he’s there in two steps.
I collapse on his chest when Gage lets me go. “You wanted to take the power back, Beautiful,” Zane says, his voice running over me like honey. “Let’s take it back together.”
I look up at his face, realizing it will be hard for him to walk down there too. Mine is more spacious and doesn’t have that rotten smell, but it still represents the same thing. I nod, turning back to face Gage.
“You sure?” Gage asks, looking between us.
“Open it,” Zane says, taking a deep breath.
With Zane’s arm around my shoulders, I step through. We make our way to the end together, one step at a time, with Gage behind us. I can feel him feeding us his strength to move past this.
Gage steps in front of us when we get to the last door, placing histhumb on the lock. It opens, and he sweeps his arm out for us to enter.
A nervous laugh escapes me when I see a guy tied to the chair in the center of the room, my knives out and uncovered. “Who’s that?” I ask, shooting a glance at Zane.
“You remember Todd Gilroy?” Gage asks. Of course, I do. That’s the guy I killed right before everything went to shit with Leo. “Well, that’s his dad.”
My research on Todd brought up a lot of stuff about his dad, who also got away with raping a sixteen-year-old girl. She was on her way home from cheerleading practice when he grabbed her. She was so scarred from the trial that no one else stepped forward, but deep down, I knew she wasn’t his only one.
“You grabbed his dad for me?”
Gage rubs the back of his neck nervously. “Well, we did. We were careful, I promise.”
Leo steps out from the shadows, dressed in all black like Gage. He gives me a flirty wink, walking toward me. “Hey, Baby,” he greets, kissing my lips with no regard that Zane’s arm is still around my shoulders. “You look sexy as fuck,” he says with a grin, taking in my outfit.
“I can agree with that,” Zane chuckles.
Leo went out with Gage to grab someone for me to kill? I know it makes me fucked up how much that makes me love them even more.
“I know I shouldn’t agree with their methods,” Zane says dryly. “But they made a good point.”
“What point is that?” I ask, looking between them.
Gage holds out my favorite knife, the one that Ryder got me, hilt first. “Take the power back, starting with these assholes.” Now that I’m down here and know what’s going on, the outfit makes much more sense.
I step out from under Zane’s arm, running my fingers across the shiny silver on the knife’s hilt. Grasping it, I twirl it around my fingers, just like I used to.
Something settles over me, a weird sort of peace just from holdingthe knife. Walking toward the table, I run my fingers over the various ones I’ve collected through the years, each used for something different. The guys line up against the wall, including Zane, and I block them out, trying to get back into my zone. I snatch up an ammonia capsule, making my way toward my victim, Heath Gilroy. My heels click across the floor, echoing off the walls, making this moment feel right.
I snap it open, waving it under his nose. “Wakey wakey,” I sing song, and Gage laughs right on cue, just like he always does.
Heath’s head snaps up, immediately jerking on his arms. “What is this?”
I tilt my head to the side. “Your final day is what this is.”
“Let me go! Do you know who I am?!”
“Yes. A piece of shit.” I wave my hand. “That’s beside the point. I have a story for you.” I walk around to his side, making his head follow. “Your son died in that same spot. You want to know why?” I don’t wait for him to answer. “For rape.” I let that sink in. “Do you know why you’re here now?”
“You’re crazy! My son didn’t rape anyone!”
I sigh, walking back into his line of sight. “They all say that. Now, as for you, you’re here for the same reason. You took a girl’s innocence at sixteen, made her trial so bad that no one else would step forward, and she was locked in a mental institution after that.” He raped her for days, then dumped her in front of her school, still in her cheer uniform.
“I never touched her,” he rages, jerking against his bonds. “She was lying!”
