Heaven help me.
That protective tone, the way he does everything to keep me from being hurt more, brings a hailstorm of tears against the back of my eyes.
“Hopefully it will be over for both of us,” I say, reaching for his arm. “I’m sorry you have to go in there and see him.”
“Oh, I want to do more than puteyeson him,” he growls.
As he straightens the muscles in his biceps ripple with tension. A vision of Ryker snapping the man’s neck in the forest flashes through my mind.
“Remember if he’s dead, he can’t talk.”
“You’d be surprised how many body parts you can lose and still talk.”
I shudder.“Ryker!”
He clears his throat, eyes softening. “Sorry. That should have stayed in my head.”
When he leans over and kisses my forehead, my lashes drift closed. He makes me feel so safe and loved. I’m in deep here.
“Just be careful,” I tell him, gripping his forearm before he leaves. “I know you’re a big mean beast, and your team will be with you, but having you in the same room with Trevor’s kind of evil still worries me.”
“I’m good. But you stay in here. Door stays shut. Thane’s going to be stationed in the hallway. If I think for one second this is too much, I end it.”
“That’s exactly what I imagined you’d say it.”
One side of his mouth twitches, but the expression vanishes and he taps the screen a few times, then angles it toward me.
A live video feed opens on the garage, a little grainy, but clear enough. The view is coming from high in a corner.
Trevor is sitting on the floor, chained around the torso to a thick support post, his hands are bound behind him.
The way his shoulders are hunched makes me wonder how long they’ve been going at him.
There are two masked men inside the frame and at least three others moving in and out of view. My stomach slowly drops.
God.It’s terrifying, facing Trevor and seeing a…
Torture chamber?
“What’s that garage used for when it’s not, um, being used like this?”
“Multi-purpose. Holding prisoners. Interrogation. Storm shelter. Extra bunker in case of attack.”
So they dothisin their line of work.
The sensation of cold fingers trails down my spine. I’m happy it’s not me that has to do that kind of thing.
“I’m so glad he’s not in the house,” I admit with a shiver.
That would have been too much. It was enough to find out he was locked up in the underground room at the back of the property. Only grass and doors between us.
“Honey,” he rumbles, stroking my hair. “I’d have dug a hole to put that motherfucker in before he was ever under the same roof as you.”
“Even seeing him through a screen makes my skin prickle,” I admit when I should probably keep my mouth shut.
Ryker steps closer, reaching past me to lower the volume.
“You don’t have to prove anything,” he says, quietly, next to my ear. “Not to me. Not to yourself.”
