Cain shifts somewhere behind me, listening.
“I really believed that once you screamed enough… once you suffered enough…” I let out a hollow laugh, shaking my head slowly. “Maybe I’d stop seeing him burn every time I try to sleep.”
Sierra’s lips tremble.
“I-I didn’t mean…”
“Don’t.” The word comes out colder than I mean it to, cutting clean through the room and silencing her on the spot.
Everything goes quiet after that, except for her uneven breathing and the sound of my own as I stay focused on her for a long moment, trying to force whatever the fuck is happening inside me back under control, but it only keeps growing instead, spreading deeper through my chest with every second I look at her.
The grief never left me, the rage never faded, and whatever was left underneath all of it stopped feeling human a long time ago—it just learned how to smile, speak, and pretend to be a man.
“See?” I rasp. “That’s what I wanted.” I step toward her slowly. “I wanted you terrified. I want you in pain every second of your life.”
I watch her carefully, taking in every trembling breath and every flicker of dread crossing her face, like I’m deciding which part of her I want to destroy next.
“I want you to wake up choking on it. I want it sitting in your chest every fucking day the same way it’s been sitting in mine for the last ten years.”
Her breathing stutters harder with every word, and I swear to God, the fear in her eyes almost feels holy.
“But Vince was driving,” she chokes out, her voice wrecked from crying. “He caused this… not me.”
I stay quiet at first, just watching her while something vicious coils tighter inside my chest, wrapping around a feeling I buried so long ago I barely recognize it anymore.
“Exactly,” I say almost gently. “But because that pathetic fuck died so fast…” I step closer, the next words turning colder. “You’re the one left to carry all the punishment.”
The fear in her face shifts instantly, confusion crashing into it so hard it almost knocks the breath out of her again.
“You… you knew he died?”
The second the words leave her mouth, a laugh tears out of me before I can stop it—sharp and dark enough to make her flinch instantly, because there’s something almost absurd about the horror finally catching up to her now.
Behind me, Cain starts laughing too, quieter than mine but somehow worse—the sound scraping through the room, slow and rough like a blade against stone.
“Tell her,” he insists, amusement dripping from every word.
I drag a hand down my mouth, trying and failing to suppress the grin still pulling at my lips.
“The punishment was supposed to be so much worse for your boyfriend,” I say. “But unfortunately, the idiot jumped into the pool after finishing his drink.” I shake my head, letting out another disbelieving laugh. “You rich people are so fucking stupid sometimes. The poison in his glass was only meant to paralyze him temporarily,” I continue casually, like I’m reciting a grocery list instead of describing a murder. “But your boyfriend decided he needed to cool off after that drink.”
Cain snorts behind me, and I fucking lose it again, laughing harder now as the memory plays in my head.
“The poison kicked in while he was in the water.” I take a step closer to her, lowering my voice. “Paralyzed. Completely conscious. Drowning slowly without being able to save himself.” I let the silence stretch. “Couldn’t move, couldn’t scream, couldn’t even call for help.”
Something dark settles warmly in my chest at the memory, twisted in a way that makes my whole body feel lighter.
“Pathetic.” The word leaves me with a grin, then my expression slowly falls flat again as I look back at her. “But enough about him.” I lean in closer, forcing her to look at me. “Now we get back to you.”
She looks horrified, not just scared anymore—destroyed. Because the reality finally hit her in full force, brutal and irreversible, and I can see it happening right in front of me—theexact moment her mind realizes Vince didn’t just die by accident—we killed him, and somehow… that truth seems to break something inside her even more than everything we’ve already done.
Chapter 27
Sierra
Pain spreads across my chest in brutal waves, hot and sharp enough to make my stomach turn every time I breathe. My skin feels tight where the water hit me, angry red already starting to rise across my breasts, ribs, and stomach, and I can still feel droplets sliding down my body like they’re burning me all over again on the way down. The cold air in the room only makes it worse, every movement pulling at skin that already feels ruined.
My arms ache so badly from hanging like this for hours that I can barely feel my hands anymore, my wrists throbbing above my head where the restraints bite into them, while pain keeps shooting through my shoulders every time my body jerks. I’m shaking hard now, not even from the cold anymore, just shock and exhaustion and whatever the hell is happening to my body after everything they’ve done to me.
