Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 134531 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 673(@200wpm)___ 538(@250wpm)___ 448(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 134531 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 673(@200wpm)___ 538(@250wpm)___ 448(@300wpm)
But she was out.
So I’d climbed on my bike and rode here, creeping through the silent halls of the club before heading down to the bowels. Where we took people who made it personal. Who needed to die a specific way.
The room smelled of piss and shit.
This fuck soiled himself the first fucking day down here. ’Cause he was that much of a coward. The ones who laid hands on women always were.
He’d cried, begged, of course. They all did. I’d gotten tired of that and gagged him, kept it that way. Hades had fed him enough food and water to keep him alive ’cause I couldn’t stomach giving this piece of shit anything that would prolong his life.
There were muffled cries against the gag as I walked into the room.
I ignored them and yanked over a metal stool to face him in the chair he was tied to.
“I’ve heard a little story about you.” I struggled to keep my voice even. “About your past.” I clenched my fists on top of my thighs. “With my woman.”
I gritted the last word out, unable to lock my shit down, thinking of Kate telling that story.
The story that fucking tore my insides apart. I’d had to stand still, stock fucking still, the entire time, even though I’d been desperate to go to her. To touch her. Comfort her. But I couldn’t. ’Cause if I had moved during the time she had been telling me about the stepfather who fucking raped her, about the husband who beat her, there would’ve been no comfort. I would’ve torn the room apart. Then I would’ve come here and put a bullet in his brain. No matter what promises I’d made. I would’ve done it. Would’ve ruined Kate and I if I’d moved.
So I’d stayed as still as a statue while my woman bared herself to me. Second to holding my daughter, to finding Kate on the side of the road, it was the hardest moment of my fucking life.
“Years of her life you stole,” I said quietly. “Fuckin’ years. That she had to live under your rule.” My eyes met his. His were wide with fear. At least one of them was. The other was swollen shut. He had a fractured eye socket. That’s what I’d been going for. Recreating every single one of Kate’s injuries, but with a little more flair, of course.
He’d be lucky if he regained full sight in that eye.
Lucky.
That’s what the fucker was.
Lucky that Kate loved her daughter. That Kate was a good mother. Lucky that I loved Kate more than I needed vengeance.
“I had been planning to take years of yours,” I cracked my neck. “I was looking forward to it. Fuck was I looking forward to it.”
For a moment, my resolve wavered. My hand twitched, instinctually going for the knife at my belt so I could start carving him apart. But that knife was sitting on a table in the house my woman slept in. Along with my piece. I’d left them there on purpose ’cause I fuckin’ knew I couldn’t trust myself.
Sure, I could still kill him with my bare hands, and I fucking itched to.
But I stayed on that stool, my eyes on him.
“Unfortunately, you’re gonna walk outta here.”
The fuck sagged in relief, and ferocity lanced through me.
“Let’s get this straight, you fuck,” I spat. “Your life is not gonna go well after this. It’s not gonna look anything like it did before. You will never see Kate again.”
My heart fibrillated at the thought of him laying eyes on her. Him touching her.
“You will give her a divorce,” I grated out. “You will give her fuckin’ everything. You won’t say a word about our time together, or I swear to fuck that I will tear you apart with my bare hands, and I’ll enjoy it.”
A part of me hoped he’d try something. Prayed that I’d be given a valid reason to end him. One that I could take to Kate as being outside of my control.
“We will be watchin’ you,” I stared into his good eye, his eyelashes fluttering faster the longer I glared. “For as long as you draw breath on this earth, we will have eyes on you. I will make it my personal crusade that you eat shit until the day you fuckin’ die. I will ruin everything you have until you live in a fuckin’ wasteland.”
I grinned at him.
“Kate, my woman, the one I’m gonna spend the rest of my life with, has requested that I not kill you.”
His body jerked.
“Yeah, I was shocked too,” I agreed. “But she wants you dead, know that. You’re alive now ’cause of your daughter. That’s the only reason. And again, you say fuckin’ anything to your daughter about Kate, your dick is the first thing I cut off.”