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Douglass was dead. I clenched my teeth and kept going, tears streaming down my face as I struck Garrett again and again. Not letting up. Instead, my blows became faster, harder, and more powerful as I unleashed my fury. He’d lied to me. Him. The man I trusted.
“Please, Ro…” The gurgling sound intensified, and the satisfaction of my fist hitting flesh unlocked primal rage inside me.
Release.
Over and over. The veneer of my own civility shattered. All control lost. The savage wolf inside me unleashed.
Again and again and again until finally, my rage began to wane.
I stepped back, breathing heavily. My knuckles ached and I loosened my clenched fist, staring at him in disgust.
His face was a bloody mess. Rope kept him from slithering to the floor like the snake that he was. He was still alive, but barely.
“Pleaachsh. ” Broken teeth revealed in the rasp of his slurred words. Bits of enamel, combined with saliva and blood stained his shirt. “Have to…have to belishhh m…”
“That’s your problem, Garrett. I don’t believe you. It hasn’t sunk in—I already know the truth.” I held out his phone, though it was doubtful he could see the screen through his swollen eyes. “You thought that I wouldn’t find out?” On it, I’d found his texts with Summer, along with nudes she’d sent him.
How dare he fucking see her like that.
My lip curled upward in revulsion. Revulsion not just for him, but also myself—those pictures stirred feelings I shouldn’t have.
Feelings that went against my oath to Douglass.
Feelings that I tried to bury deep inside.
I needed to focus.
I hit Garrett again, now numbed to the pain, the crunching sound from his nose a satisfying pop. "You understood the assignment. You signed my contract.” Again. "And yet, you thought you could betray me. I brought you in, and you lied to my face.”
For years, I’d been trying to discover who’d killed my grandmother. Brought men like Garrett to infiltrate the Veritas.
And the truth—that Douglass had known all along. That he’d kept it from me…
"I told you," he choked out, his voice now muffled by his broken nose, “I couldn't stop it. They were going?—”
“Shut your fucking face!” I roared. “You made your choice!”
The air filled with the smell of sweat and piss and desperation. "Pleaachsh," he was sobbing now, blood running from his nose and onto the concrete flooring. “I can play a double. I’ll spy on them. I ca?—”
“You’re worthless to me. God, you’re disgusting. You have nothing I want.”
“Please then. Tell—tell me. Tell me what to do.”
“Now you want my advice?” I wiped the sweat from my brow. All emotions were drained, leaving only emptiness inside. I’d poured my rage into him. Now, all that was left was payment in pound of flesh. “It’s a little too late for that, don’t you think?”
“What do you want from me? Anything. I’ll tell you anything.”
“What do they want from Summer?” The image of her luscious body, her beautiful shaped tits, flashed before my mind, making my dick hard. I smashed the phone to the ground, desperately trying to dispel my dirty thoughts. “They had you reach out to her. Why?” I growled through gritted teeth.
“If I tell you, will you—will you spare me?”
“Spare you for what?” I spread my arms out at the six thousand square footage around me. Pale, wooden bones of framing. Rolls of thick padding and carpet stacked against the wall. Signs of a man with hopes and dreams, of pride and ego, a thirst for something that would never come without a price. "You think the Magnolia would let you keep all this?"
His lips parted, his eyes already beginning to glaze over. “But I thought… they told me… I was….”
Understanding dawned.
I hunched, resting my hands on my knees to stare at him in astonishment. "You didn't realize Scarlett was manipulating you?” A rolling chuckle filled my chest and throat. “Even after everything I taught you? She’s the Veritas’ femme fatale. The woman’s supposed to seduce you, that’s literally her job. I told you to watch out for her.”
