Part 10 (2/2)

He turns to make his way across the room, but stops at the foot of the bed. ”I know we have f.u.c.ked-up lives, but everybody needs a limit. This should have been yours!” He can't even look at me now. His eyes are locked on her. ”You're f.u.c.king soulless.”

He's right. I close my eyes and exhale. ”You may be my brother, Caleb, but tread f.u.c.king carefully. It's me that keeps this business and this family alive. Everyone outside of this house is a threat.”

”Right now”-he points to her-”I trust her more than I trust you. You better hold her until she comes to. I've done all I can f.u.c.king do.” He opens the door and slams it closed.

I stare at the wall, holding her so d.a.m.n close to my body that the cold is bleeding into me. ”Bring me some clothes to put on her, do you hear me?” I yell, my voice straining from the volume. I want to scream until my throat f.u.c.king bleeds.

I roll her onto her side and slide up behind her. I rest my chin on her shoulder and breathe over her neck to try and warm it. She's not near as cold, and her breathing is growing less shallow and erratic. I pull her closer, my palm slipping over the mutilated flesh on her stomach, the thread coa.r.s.e against my palm. I have to swallow down the acid rising in my throat. Her blood is all over my hand. s.h.i.+t.

I grew up in the middle of violence. This life has been all I've known. I can't count the number of times as a child that I watched my father rough someone up. Violence surrounded me, and the only pure things in my life were my mother and sister. In my family, women were respected, wors.h.i.+pped almost. They were like a forgiving light that s.h.i.+ned through the h.e.l.l that surrounded us, and then that light was smothered by Joe.

This life will damage and ruin anyone I become involved with. It's an evil that seeps its way into things, and this right here just proves that to me. I watched her try to kill herself. Out of all the people I've seen die, I have never seen someone beg for death. They beg for life, they plead, they bargain-but she saw death as a better option. What the f.u.c.k have I done to her?

She moves her arm, and a m.u.f.fled whimper escapes her lips. I know she's in pain. I've never felt remorse like this for hurting someone, and I'm finding the guilt slamming its way over me right now to be f.u.c.king unbearable. This right here has f.u.c.ked me in a way I've never been f.u.c.ked. She was good and pure. She was everything I'm not. I took that innocence from her. This girl makes me have a f.u.c.king soul, and I can't have that.

It's late. And here I sit, slumped against the wall, staring at her asleep in my bed. I feel a need to protect my family, my business, but, for whatever reason, I also feel the need to protect her.

Bob defied me; he went against my orders and he hurt her. What he did to her will be permanently marred across her body, and f.u.c.k knows what it's done to her mind. He's made me no better than Joe. Every time her hands brush over that scar, she'll see Bob's face, and she'll hate me for leaving her, for allowing it to happen.

I bite down on my lip as anger slowly swallows me like a black void. She turns in the bed, the pain causing her to cry out in her sleep. That sound flips the switch in me.

I jump up and leave the room, storming through the house. ”Bob?” I shout. ”Where the f.u.c.k is that piece of s.h.i.+t?” With each step I take, I feel my pulse behind my eyes. I can't get the image of him on top of her out of my head, and it's making me enraged. ”Bob!” I yell, balling my fists.

I come into the living room, and he's sitting on the sofa.

”What did I tell you I'd do if you disrespected me?” My fingers dig into my fists, and tension courses through my muscles.

His eyes hone in on me as he takes a sip of his beer. ”If I didn't know better, I'd think you liked the b.i.t.c.h.”

I feel my eye twitch, and I inhale. Gritting my teeth, I slowly cross the room. Without thought, I raise my hand back and slap the beer from his hand. Frothy white foam spews through the air. Bob's eyes fly open and he attempts to stand, but I grab him by the throat, jerking him to his feet.

”You don't deserve to live after what you did.” I squeeze my hand around his thick throat. The tendons pop beneath my grip as my fingers dig into his sweaty flesh.

His fingers clench into my arms, clawing at me to let him go. He strains his neck to the side, managing to choke out, ”You're no better.”

I shake him, my hold tightening. He's thras.h.i.+ng around, trying to fight me. In a moment of strength, he grabs my shoulders and manages to force me back. My legs bang into the coffee table, and we both crash down on top of it. I hear the gla.s.s cracking beneath me, and before I can stand, the gla.s.s shatters, sending us both cras.h.i.+ng to the floor.

I lose my hold on Bob, and he attempts to roll away, crawling on his hands and knees as he pants for breath.

I go at him, grabbing him by his hair. ”Family or not, I'll teach you to f.u.c.k around with me. Blood holds little meaning when you can't trust a person.”

I pull him to his feet and drag him down the hallway to the bas.e.m.e.nt door. He's screaming like a b.i.t.c.h the entire way. ”Caleb! Paul! Help!” he shouts. ”He's gonna kill me. Help!” He's pleading, groveling; his voice has a prominent tremor behind it.

I open the door to the stairs and pull him behind me. His body bangs down each step. He's scratching at my hands to let him go. When we get to the bottom I hear footsteps running down the stairs.

”The f.u.c.k, Jude?” I hear Caleb mutter behind me. ”Jude!” He tries to get my attention again, but I just keep walking to the door leading to that room.

”Jude!” Caleb keeps shouting after me.

I open the door to the room Bob tortured Tor in. The cold air rushes around me as I step in. I pull the thin, worn string that hangs above my head, and the dim light buzzes on. The floor is still covered in Tor's blood and a thin layer of water. ”Cut the temp up to sixty, Caleb.”

He says nothing, but I hear him fumble with the dial outside the room.

I eye Bob, my nostrils flaring. ”Get me some chains.”

”Jude, man, you can't be serious.”

”Did I f.u.c.king stutter, Caleb? Get them. Now!” I growl.

He turns, and I glance down at Bob. ”You will be sorry for what you did to her. You will regret disobeying me.”

Bob tries to shake free from me and I twist a fistful of hair, jerking his head back. ”Don't f.u.c.king fight me. I will win. Don't f.u.c.k with me.”

His body falls limp and he releases a long breath of surrender. The rattle of chains breaks the silence when Caleb drops the heavy metal on the floor beside me.

”Chain his arms and hang him up.” I point to the ceiling.

Caleb's gaze locks on Bob as he closes the handcuff around his wrists. He unfolds the step stool, the worn metal legs scratching against the floor as he climbs up to hook the chains to the ceiling.

My gaze is fixated on Bob. ”You will stay here until you realize how wrong you were.”

Bob laughs while his body is raised slightly from the ground. ”You're the one who's wrong. You're the one that's f.u.c.ked up.”

I can't stop myself. My vision goes red from the amount of blood coursing through my body. I slam my fists across the bridge of his nose. Warm blood splatters over my forearm and the front of my jeans. I want to f.u.c.king kill him, but I have something else in mind right now. I stand, glaring at him, angry as h.e.l.l, and have to force myself to leave.

”Come on,” I say to Caleb On the way out of the room, I catch the glint of something on the floor. Tor's necklace. I pick it up and continue out of the room.

”He shouldn't have done that to her,” Caleb says.

I nod, shoving the necklace in my pocket. ”We shouldn't have done that to her. I should have let her go the second she got here,” I mumble, climbing the stairs, my chest tightening with regret and guilt.

I feel responsible for her, and in that moment, my mother and sister flash through my mind. I need a f.u.c.king line, and Tor is that line. I draw in a labored breath as we step onto the landing. ”Every f.u.c.king piece of s.h.i.+t that put her here will pay, I'll see to that.”

I floor the accelerator, the momentum forcing my head against the leather headrest. I've had an entire day to mull over what happened, and all the anger has festered into full-on wrath.

I know Tor's here because of Joe. That b.a.s.t.a.r.d never should have put an innocent woman in that situation, and I will not let him use her the way he planned. She's mine now, and I will f.u.c.king kill him. I will torture him, then kill him in the most brutal way I can think up. He made me choose between my business, my life, and my dignity. He made me realize what kind of person I really am-he made it apparent that I'm just like him. I am exactly like the man I f.u.c.king hate. And I will f.u.c.king murder him for that.

I'm going a good fifty miles over the speed limit and coming up on traffic. I swerve around an eighteen-wheeler, my tires losing traction for a moment, and the car fishtails across the lane.

”Get the f.u.c.k outta my way!” I shout, clenching my jaw and gripping the stick s.h.i.+ft.

I pull up to the apartment complex and park the rental car by the exit. The ground is covered in a thin layer of snow, which crunches underneath my boots as I make my way toward the apartment. The tendons in my neck tighten, and my breath grows more heated with each hard step I take. I check to make sure my gun is secured in the waist of my jeans, then stop in front of apartment 3C.Tapping my fingers over the door, I wait.

Nothing.

I pound my fist over the door, but not too hard. I don't want to give away that the person on this side of the door is ready to f.u.c.king kill someone.

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