“Say she’s yours again,” Knox growls.
“You didn’t have the balls to shoot Coach after what he did to the woman you love. What makes you think you can shoot me when you need m—”
The gunfire is shockingly loud, nearly blowing out my eardrum, but the bastard’s scream is louder. He stares at his shoulder. Then he slumps into it while blood ruins his white button-up.
“What the fuck?!” he demands.
Knox doesn’t react, doesn’t complain, doesn’t have a sassy line. He just grabs the man’s injured arm and holds it behind his back, whispering in his ear. “The fact I need you gives me more options. What next? Your foot? Your cock? Your thigh? Even your ear… I have plenty of options, plenty of ammo, and you’re going to spill everything I want to know before or after you start bleeding out.”
I’ve never seen him like this, never seen him so raw.
“It’ll never be gone. We enabled downloading,” he breathes. “But I have a system that flags when her videos are posted. I can… I’ll show it to you. You can have it, just…”
Knox moves the barrel of the gun to the man’s cock. He whines and tries to twist away, but he gasps and pants at the slightest move of his shoulder.
“I want original files, I want the code to clock when something new is posted, I want the entire drive of IP addresses that you’venoted downloads with,” I say, unable to match Knox’s lethal calm. “But, if you need more convincing…”
I grab his hair and bring my knee up, hitting him in the nose. “Blood for blood, fucker.”
The man whimpers. “Fuck. My phone and my—”
Knox shoots him in the hip, hitting bone for sure, and based on an echoing bang somewhere else in the room, the guy is lucky it’s not worse. The shock takes care of it though and he slumps to the side.
“Tie him up. Get the info. Our girl isours. No one else’s,” Knox growls. “I’m going to check on them.”
“Jax?”
“Fuckface here said he’s not alone. One guess who had the audio of Daisy,” Knox says with that same calm that prickles my skin more than the bloodshed does.
Fuck… Gauge.
JAXON
My fury is working overtime to try to make sense of seeing Gauge here. “You did more than listen.”
He arches an eyebrow. “Did I?”
“I read her diary. You just loved Coach’s teachings, didn’t you? Ate it up,” I hiss.
His gun moves from Hope back to me, and he shakes his head. “Coach was a good man. He understood the way the world works. You can’t ask for things nicely, cross your fingers, andhope you get them. You have to take them… even if they scream a little. Isn’t that right, Hope? You like it rough. I think you’d love being fucked in your boyfriend’s blood.”
I grit my teeth. He’s going to pay for every comment. I’m not letting him get away with a single fucking thing. I start to move, but he steps closer. I keep my hands on Hope. No matter what happens to me,nothingis going to happen to her. Even if it means she hides under my dead body.
“He was wrong!” Hope yells from behind me, her voice a squeak as she squeezes me against her, making my back ache, but it’s better knowing she’s there.
“Sweetheart, now—”
“No, let the whore talk. How exactly was daddy dearest wrong? He fucked your pretty mother. Who, by the way, loved the spotlight as much as you. Her videos were fucking delicious,” Gauge groans and rubs his cock. “Seriously, the final one…”
“He recorded that?” Hope whimpers. Despite her voice, her hold on me is firm.
“Of course he did. His disobedient wife finally getting what she deserved. Honestly, it was better when she was—”
“That’s my mother, you incestuous pig!” she yells. “But you being a pig explains plenty, doesn’t it? Why you get off to rape videos. Why you sent me my father’s hand. Why you wanted us here. It’s all because you can’t handle that Jaxon is better than you.”
Gauge’s laughter is gone. With the flashlight trained on Hope, I can see his face. He’s livid, pissed at the insinuation, ready to fire just to make sure she can’t say anything else.
“I believe I told you what your mouth was good for. Do I need to remind you the way your daddy did?” Gauge asks, taking another step closer.
