Total pages in book: 65
Estimated words: 61101 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 306(@200wpm)___ 244(@250wpm)___ 204(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 61101 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 306(@200wpm)___ 244(@250wpm)___ 204(@300wpm)
“Was it true what they told you?” I ask him as I ease up and pull the stapler out just enough to force him to focus on me again. “Is younger better?”
This time, I squeeze the stapler, and I grin when those eyes that used to torment my nightmares widen as a staple lodges in his throat. I do it again and again. He has no choice but to swallow.
“Swallowing is better, isn’t it? There’s no mess, no evidence of what’s happened.” All the remarks I’m voicing right now are ones he said to me as he made me wish I was dead.
Pulling the stapler from his mouth, I set it back down on his desk before grabbing my blade once again. Dante’s hands hold on to the bastard’s shoulders, keeping him in place as I continue my fun.
“W-W-What are you doing?” Petrov’s words are followed by a gagging sound as he retches, and I step back, allowing him to puke up whatever he had for lunch and some, but by no means all, of the staples.
The expensive tailored suit is now ruined as his filth clings to him. Those snake-like eyes look up at me as anger and fear flicker in them. And in my chest, I can’t help the intense satisfaction I’m feeling.
I look up at Dante and give him a nod. Without waiting, he reaches around and rips the bastard’s shirt open, and that’s when I hold the blade up so Petrov can see it glinting in the low light.
“I’m going to make sure everyone knows what you are,” I tell him as I watch the anger in his gaze turn to terror.
“What?” He’s confused as he stares at me, his mouth now open in shock.
I press the sharp tip of the knife into his chest and slowly start carving. When one of these monsters is in agony, like this vile devil, the sound of their cries is music to my ears.
The first letter begins to drip blood as I continue onto the next, a large red E, right next to the P. When I’m done here, there will be no doubt in anyone’s mind as to what he’s been doing.
I can hear Harper clicking on the computer keyboard behind me. We have all the evidence we need, thanks to Falcon. He managed to access the videos Petrov recorded of all the slaves he kept imprisoned in the cellar under his holiday home.
We didn’t know where it was located until Falcon did a deep dive. The place where this asshole would take his family on vacation was the place he kept slave after slave over the years. How his wife never suspected anything is beyond me.
“Did she ever ask you about the screams coming from the basement?” I ask him. I realize it’s something that’s been bothering me since I saw the file.
“What?”
“Your wife,” I clarify. “Didn’t she ever hear the cries of the young girls you kept down in the cellar over the years?” I stop my artwork for a moment and look at him, dead in the eye. I want an answer.
“She was never there,” he says finally, his voice croaking from my light torture with the stapler. “I-I didn’t ever t-take her there.”
“I see.” Nodding, I continue my handiwork until all the letters on his chest are complete and dripping blood. I can only fit four on, but it’s enough so everyone, including his family, will recognize the meaning.
“Y-You’ll never g-get away with this,” he tells me with certainty in his voice, which only makes me laugh.
“We will get away with it, and you will get what you deserve. You’ll lose everything you hold dear. But the best part of it is, you won’t be alive to see it.”
When I decided I wanted Petrov dead in addition to exposing his crimes, I knew the reasoning didn’t make sense to Dante. But I’m not interested in Petrov’s response to being exposed as a child molester. I want to see how his colleagues, his friends, and his family react. I want to watch their lips curl in disgust at the very thought of him.
“You can’t stop what’s happening all over the world. The trafficking organizations will continue doing their work, even if you kill me,” he warns. “There is nothing you can do to me that will stop them. In the end, they will be the winners.”
I hand the blade to Dante, and leaning in, I spit in the old bastard’s face.
“Why don’t you go to hell,” I tell him before I turn away and wait for the sound of his demise.
I might not have been willing to deliver the fatal stab to Petrov’s heart, but as I close my eyes and listen to the final gurgles of the man who tortured me, I feel some of the weight that’s been holding me down release.