“I know.” My throat is dry, palms damp. “But I want to help. Let me do this. Let me find what solace I can putting an end to whatever they’re up to.”
“Alright.” He doesn’t hesitate. Walks out, leaving his coffee cup sitting next to the one he brought me.
A reminder he’ll be back.
Outside, he says something low to Thane. I reach for June’s fur, petting her as she leans against my chair. “Good girl. Thank you for being with me.”
I focus on the tablet, the feed is live. The sound of the garage leaks through the speakers. A chair scrapes across concrete. Boots scrape. Someone says something I can’t make out.
Then Ryker’s voice comes through the tablet. “Start talking.”
His tone hits me surprisingly hard. The man who was with me a moment ago is gone.
Trevor gives a short laugh that crackles through the mic. “That’s not very polite.”
“You’re in no position to ask for manners.”
“Fuck you.”
I grip the edge of the desk and stare at the screen, fighting the urge to throw up at the sound of Trevor’s live voice.
It’s worse than the recording by a hundred times.
On camera, he turns his face toward the sound of Ryker, though the angle keeps me from seeing his full expression. Or the extent of the damage.
He’s got two swollen eyes, cuts and god knows what else on his face.
“I want a lawyer,” Trevor sneers.
One of the masked members of Ryker’s team chuckles.
“What you want isn’t relevant.” Ryker clips. “I want information on Sheriff McCoy.”
Trevor is quiet for a beat.
Then, with that same awful note of humor, “You don’t sound like cops.”
Ryker doesn’t take the bait. “Start talking. McCoy. What’s your relationship to him.”
“I don’t have to say shit to you.”
One of the other men steps into frame, crouches, and says something too low for the mic to catch. Trevor spits at his boots.
The man rises slowly, but then explodes into motion with his boot slamming into Trevor’s knee.
My hand flies to my mouth. Shocked that what I feel is a wave of satisfaction.
On the screen, Trevor wheezes and starts laughing, “You really asking about McCoy or are you asking about Jade?”
When he glances at the camera, every muscle in my body locks.
“She watching right now? Enjoying you taking out your revenge? Because if she is, I just want to say hi.”
He flicks his tongue obscenely at the camera. “Hey, baby. Remember this?”
There’s a burst of motion on the camera, and suddenly Ryker’s the one crouched in front of Trevor this time. A giant knife blade glints in the light.
It’s pressed right against Trevor’s dick.
