Buck’s eyes widened, sweat on his brow. “What do you mean, save my neck? If you could see it, I’d be okay?”
I shrugged.
“What if I had a copy?”
I fought to hide my reaction. I’d assumed he’d spill details from memory to avoid the inevitable pain we’d bring, but this was something else.
Shade spoke because I couldn’t. “Show us.”
Buck scrambled to get his phone from his pocket then swiped through the screens, holding it out to show us. He had photos and videos. Dozens showing rooms in the brothel, the women at work with clients, baring themselves for pay, not for freeloaders like Buck to get off over. Nausea gripped my gut.
“I know I shouldn’t have this,” he muttered, pausing over an image of two of the women together. “But check it out. Can they seriously expect us not to look?”
I took the phone from him. At his protest, Shade put a boot to his chest.
“Wouldn’t if I was ye,” he cautioned.
“It’s just jerk-off material,” Buck pleaded.
Shade heaved a sigh. “And exactly what Manny fired ye for. I don’t get the youth of today. Bunch of fucking morons.”
I swiped through until I reached a video containing the small, blonde figure I’d recognise in the dark. My heart dropped.
Dixie entered the room, three men in pursuit. I watched them circle her. Ignore her cues. Touch her. Hold her down. Her face contorted in obvious fear, even if there was no sound over Buck’s heavy breathing to hear her words.
Sickness combined with my fury. She’d suffered, and he’d watched. Recorded it.
Shade touched my arm.
I recoiled. “Don’t.”
“I wasn’t. I won’t.” He raised his hands, then booted Buck to lying flat once more.
Though the video was only a minute and a half long, I forced myself to watch it through, analysing every action the clients had taken and committing them to memory. For her. I needed to see it all so I could make sure it never happened again. Or, the devil in the back of my mind decided, to get the payback she deserved.
Sullivan was the lead guy’s name, Manny had told me. It was obvious which man he was. Aged around thirty, he had on a suit that told me he thought a lot of himself. The other two hung on his every word.
All of them hurt her, then the mood switched to something that looked like ridicule. Or humiliation. Enough for them to let her run out crying.
I forced myself to hold the image in my mind, trying to work out the change. They’d been lining up to rape her but had let her go. Why? Not that it mattered to the end result.
All would pay for what they did.
At last, I returned to our captive. “Ye let this happen.”
“Me? How was I to know she wasn’t into it? The bitch ran. If they’d hit her, I would have done something. Ruined goods and all that.”
Something cold settled in my chest. “Say her name.”
“The whore? Dixie.”
Rage scoured me of any other thought but her. I needed answers. Not blood. My hand didn’t listen. In a flash, I disarmed Shade and stabbed Buck through the palm, pinning him to his bed on the floor. He screamed. Shade grabbed a pillow and stuffed it over his face to muffle him.
He ducked to meet my eye. “Not here. Clean-up.”
I hesitated, then dragged the pillow away so Buck could see my eyes. “Who else did ye send these to?”
“N-no one.”
