“Make it work?” He waved his hand at Corey, then Bear. “You’re going to kill people.”
“I am.”
“You’re going to kill me?” Corey whimpered, but I ignored him in favor of pointing at Bear.
“He deserves death. I only kill those who deserve it.”
“Who are you to decide what a life is worth, Julian?”
I narrowed my eyes. “I’m the future king, Wynn. This is my land to rule, and scum like him aren’t worthy of living under my rule.”
He motioned to Corey. “And him, what he did was worthy of death?”
“He hurt your friend. Would’ve hurt you if you got the drinks.”
“I didn’t mean to hurt her, just scare her, make a scene.” Corey was pleading with Wynn.
A moan caught all our attention. Bear was trying to sit up and was having some difficulty. Between the sedatives and copious amount of liquor in his system, it was no shock.
“Oh, good.” I crouched close to the man. “You’re awake.”
“Julian.” Wynn’s came over to me. “Don’t do this.”
I stood and cocked my head. “This is who I am, my last secret. The one you can’t run from, Wynn. I’ll make you understand, this man deserves death.”
“I—”
“Have a seat.” I motioned to a chair out of the way.
He knew he couldn’t fight whatever was happening here. His terror was palpable, and I was sure that right at this moment he didn’t love—let alone like—me. But I’d make him, he’d see.
I smiled at Bear. “You ready?”
“For what?” he mumbled.
“To die, of course.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Wynn
I had to do something,had to stop this. Corey wasn’t a great person, but he didn’t deserve to die. I didn’t know this Bear and yeah, okay, he sounded like a really awful person, but it wasn’t our place to decide who lived and died.
“Normally I don’t need to plead my case for why I’m ending someone’s life, but Wynn here is looking at me like I’m something out of his nightmares. So, he’s gonna need to understand that I take this need to unalive people and focus it on the truly terrible.”
“What?” Bear was still somewhat dazed; I was guessing Julian had sedated him. He was huge and while Julian appeared capable, I wasn’t sure he’d have won a fight with him otherwise.
“I did some research on you.” He waved his phone by the man’s face. “Six women, Leonard?” He tsked. “How do you slip through the cracks so effortlessly?”
“You’re Prince Julian.” Okay, so he was becoming more cognizant.
Julian didn’t acknowledge Bear’s realization. He hit a button on his phone.
“Marcy Nelson, age twenty-six; Leslie Granger, age eighteen; Helga Tomlinson, age sixty-seven; Tasha Butler, age twenty; Kelly O’Shea, age forty-two; and Gretchen Franks, age fifty.” He slipped the phone into his pocket.
“What about them?” Bear sneered, and I could tell he knew each one of those women and that what Julian said was true. He had assaulted them.
“Four of those women are missing, and two changed their testimony against you.”
