Page 96 of Overkill

The world wasn’t fair, especially to women. And victims, even underaged ones, were always blamed.

This way, no one really knew. If they did, they’d never admit it. She could live her life.

I was putting my faith in Taz’s opinion of Braun as I explained all of this.

I was putting my faith in the hope that the world wasn’t entirely full of morally bankrupt assholes who thought victims deserved to relive their trauma over and over again. That the long-arm of the damn law didn’t send victims and their families through years of hell as the lawyers figured shit out.

“I’m still listening, son.” Braun fished out his cigar box and opened it.

With just the tips of his curled fingers, he pushed it my way. This time, I took one. I nipped the tip after he did his, and with the Zippo he kept on his desk, lit the end. Then he went into his drawer and pulled out two tumblers, each with a dummy round embedded in the glass along with 10th Group and 20th Group glazed in white.

“Melody Gray’s a good person who’s been through hell and back,” I said quietly, leaning over his desk as I whispered the words. “What I can say is that Luke Gray got what he deserved. Hell, better than what he deserved, because he went peacefully…Well, relatively peacefully.”

Braun lifted a brow, waving for me to continue.

“He drowned. That was too good for him.” My free hand curled into a fist.

I didn’t need to know or hear what had happened. Not in detail. He’d hurt my woman, and that was all I needed.

“What do you think should happen to men who rape girls?” I asked.

Braun’s eyes narrowed. “I think they should be drawn and quartered. Their genitals cut off and lit on fire in front of their eyes as their intestines are pulled out bit by bit.”

“I think the same.”

“Are you telling me Luke Gray raped a girl?”

I couldn’t say it. His crime was too awful, especially when I thought about who the crime had been perpetrated against.

Because I loved her. With every fiber of my being, I loved her.

“Hypothetically, if he had power over a girl and…and abused her for years—decades, even, I don’t know for sure—what do you think should happen to him?” I still tiptoed around it; I didn’t want to say it. I didn’t want to confirm what Braun was likely figuring out. Not beyond a reasonable doubt. Not yet.

“And this…girl—now a woman, I assume—you know for a fact she’s telling the truth? She doesn’t just have you pussy-whipped into believing everything she says?”

“Don’t you ever call her a liar!” I growled before walking it back, because I was not doing myself any fucking favors. “She wasn’t the one who told me. She confirmed it…sort of.”

She hadn’t said it, but her eyes did. The terror in her face…

Braun tapped his finger on his desk.

I took a deep breath and leaned back in my seat. Much calmer now, I looked up at him.

“You know that it’s a family pastime. Harming young girls, I mean.” I shook my head. “You know Whitlaw—”

“There’s no need to bring the good Sheriff into this.” His tone did not leave room for discussion.

I flattened my lips against so much of what I wanted to say.

I may have charmed Daria to look into some things none of us should have been able to look at. The things Melody thought were secrets had been seen. I’d read every word, then vomited into a trash can—to Daria’s absolute irritation.

It was my fault, really, for having learned to read.

If I could have unlearned those things and then bleached my eyeballs, I would have. What Luke had done to Melody…

“I know she’s telling the truth. I have proof. Texts. Letters. Emails. Him, confessing his crimes and trying to lure her back. Using her siblings to do it. That’s why she did it. Came back, I mean. That’s why…” I wanted to kill him. I wanted to bring him back to life, tie him down, and tear him apart with my bare hands. Knuckle by knuckle. Joint by joint, I wanted to twisted his bones bit by bit, slipping them out of his body until he was nothing but a shapeless skin sack, writhing in unimaginable pain. He deserved to die a slow, painful death. He had it too easy.

“I don’t want you to see them, though. I’ll show you if I have to, but I don’t think she’d want—”