It was over.
I was frozen, staring at the words, my brain trying to catch up, but I just couldn’t believe them.
“She’s gone. I told you,” she spit out. “The police told me how pathetic you were even after all this time. Calling them twice a month like clockwork. Did you know that the officer they assigned her case came here after you left that night? He found me among all my drugs, and you know what he did? He let me pay for his silence. One quick fuck and I got to keep my freedom. Honestly, you should thank me. I saved her from this life.”
“You think you saved her?” I roared, sweeping my hand over the counter, sending everything slamming into the opposite wall. My voice echoed around us and I was breathing like a bull as I turned.
I meant to take my time, to force every confession from her cracked lips, but instead I stormed across the room, my knife plunging into her stomach before I could stop myself. Her eyes widened, blood spilling from her lips and the fresh wound there.
If what she said was true, then they’d ruined any chances I had of finding my omega, my scent match, the woman I had loved from the moment I had met her.
We were just kids then. They robbed an entire lifetime that we could’ve spent together, and my alpha and I were not going to stand for that.
I stood over her and watched as her skin turned pale, then gray, blood leaking from her lips and the gaping wound in her stomach.
“Killing me isn’t going to bring her back. She’s dead. Good fucking riddance,” she managed to choke out, blood spattering past her lips.
I couldn’t fathom how anyone could talk about their own daughter that way.
Fuck this. I couldn’t listen to another word out of her mouth. I moved on instinct, yanking her up by her grimy dress and throwing her to the floor. She tried to scramble away, dirty nails gripping the tile but finding no purchase, desperation souring her scent.
It was fucking pathetic.
She was too dazed to move fast but I had no such issues. I moved closer before lifting my boot and slamming it down on her cheek where it rested against the disgusting tile.
Pure, raw rage took over the moment I slammed my boot down. A jagged scream tore through my throat as I stomped over and over again. Soon her face was crushed and unrecognizable, only a bloody mass left behind.
“I hope you rot in hell,” I said, though there was no life left in her body, only blood and shattered bone left behind.
I heard Ronan pull out his phone and say something into it, but I didn’t bother to stay behind and find out what that something was. I wiped my shoe on the rug. I made sure there were no traces of blood left on my clothes before heading out into the night.
Two men on foot were heading towards me. At first, I froze until Ronan stepped out.
“They’re here for the job,” he said, reaching out and gripping my shoulder, giving it a squeeze before pushing gently, forcing me to move forward. If my mind hadn’t calmed into its usual numbness I might have reacted or shoved him away.
I should care that another alpha was touching me. But Ronan was different. Something I wasn’t going to think too hard on right now.
The debt had been paid, and I’d effectively signed my life away to the Crows.
He’d given me this, and for that I would do whatever he wanted.
Because if those papers were true, I’d already lost my heart and soul. I had nothing else but this.
Chapter
Six
Ronan
If there was any life in my brother‘s eyes when I met him, it was effectively gone now. I wanted to ask questions, demand answers, but I couldn’t bring myself to make him re-live that.
Instead, I swiped the papers he’d dropped when he stepped outside.
He may not understand the reach that the Crows have, but I did. In time he’d realize the truth.
There was something in the way he studied those words, like he knew he would never accept that reality. They had stolen his chance to see the body, and to me, it sounded like a damn cover-up.
But, now wasn’t the time to push it.
