The anniversary of her parents’ death was coming up soon. Just a few months away, and I had a feeling it was what spurredher to finish this. She wanted it to end, to clean up the mess Rusty created, and clear her father’s name. Rusty was her dad’s business partner who turned on his best friend. He hadn’t just had a hand in killing her father, but he also used her father’s business to tarnish her father’s hard work by channeling a human trafficking ring.
She had a personal stake in this, and no matter how much none of us liked her here, we knew she wouldn’t leave.
“He was one of the guards.” Kaylor angled her head at our prisoner. “I never did get your name.”
The blank stare on her face actually frightened me…how she could detach like a flip of a switch. It couldn’t be healthy. But then again, none of us would clinically be deemed healthy by any standard.
The guard spat blood at her feet, and I swore I heard Kreed growl. He was going to fucking kill him before we got any vital information out of the guard. He’d already done a number on him. I’d be surprised if the asshole had a tongue to speak.
“Where’d you find him?” I asked, shrugging out of my jacket and tossing it over a chair, tensing to intervene if Kreed couldn’t find some restraint.
None of us were particularly great at control, but Kreed…he tried, but he bottled his shit up too much until he just popped like a damn shaken soda can.
Mason gave a humorless grin. His dimples appeared, but his eyes stayed flat. “Fynn tracked him down using some crazy face-recognition tech shit. Picked up his face in some sleepy town near the state border.”
“Too bad you didn’t make it farther than county lines,” Raine stated to the guard, his knife pausing mid-flip. “Amateur mistake.”
The guard swallowed hard, his good eye darting between us. Kreed pushed off the table he’d been leaning against and movedbeside me. “Other than guard duties inside the house, he also did transport, moving girls when needed.”
“He has a face I wouldn’t likely forget,” Kaylor said, rubbing at her wrists as she got this haunted look in her eyes. I didn’t like it, her having to remember and relive those moments when she’d been taken.
Kreed fucking liked it even less.
He took a step in the guard’s direction, but I intervened, putting myself in his path. “We know you want to kill him. We all do. Has he talked yet?” I looked the man over slowly, taking in the split lip that was still bleeding sluggishly, the bruising already blooming across his cheekbone, and the way his hands trembled behind the chair even though he was trying to hide it.
Mason sighed, running a hand through his hair. “He’s trying very hard to be loyal.”
“Admirable,” I said flatly. “Stupid. But admirable.” I rolled my shoulders once, feeling the tension there, the coiled energy. Then I reached for the extra chair by the wall and dragged it across the floor, metal legs screeching against concrete loud enough to make the guard flinch.
I sat backward in the chair, straddling it as I rested my forearms across the top. “I’m hungry. I don’t want to be here all night. It’s been a long day, longer for you, I imagine. So how about we try this again?” I started, my voice calm. “I have one simple question. Where’s Silvia? You give me her, and I have no need for you.” She had all the important information we needed. She wasthekey player.
The guard sneered through bloody teeth, trying to find courage he didn’t have. “Go to hell.”
Raine clicked his tongue, disappointment descending on his features. “That was the wrong answer.”
What followed wasn’t pretty, but he didn’t deserve a soft touch. Pretty didn’t save lives or make monsters think twice before taking another victim.
Mason drove his fist into the man’s ribs hard enough to tip the chair sideways, the impact making a sound like a bat hitting meat. The guard wheezed, air exploding from his lungs. Kreed caught the chair before it could fall completely, righting it with one hand.
Raine appeared on the guard’s other side, dragging the blade slowly across the guy’s shoulder, his forearm, and the side of his neck. He applied enough pressure to part the skin, letting the blood well up in thin lines.
Kaylor stood nearby watching him unravel piece by piece, her silence more unnerving than any threat. The quiet judgment of someone who’d been on the other side of this, who knew exactly what these men did to the girls they took.
I couldn’t let my brothers have all the fun.
The guard’s eye, the one that could still open, tracked me warily as I kicked the chair out from under me, bracing for the unknown. I gave him credit. He did an admirable job taking the pain, or perhaps his voice was too hoarse to make a sound. That happened sometimes.
I crouched in front of him, elbows resting on my knees, getting down to his level. “You know what your problem is?” I asked.
He didn’t answer. Just stared at me with his one good eye, blood trickling from his nose into his mouth.
“You still think Silvia gives a shit whether you survive.”
A twitch pulsed at his eyebrow.
“She doesn’t,” I continued. “Rusty’s dead. Everyone under him is disposable now. You’re not protecting a boss anymore. You’re protecting your own grave. Dying for someone who wouldn’t piss on you if you were on fire.”
His finger twitched, a crack in the foundation.
