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Chapter Seventeen
Lucian took the papers Sevastyan offered and started scanning over the names.
Sevastyan started pacing the area between the kitchen counter and the table, head tucked and eyes intent on the floor. The other men started talking about her father and his grizzly murder. All points she didn’t need to hear again. Plans of the evening and how it would go down started floating around. Before she jumped into the fray and started up the argument of her going again she knew would come, she needed a breather.
She quietly slipped from the room. Rhia reached into her pocket for the thumb drive Maya had given her earlier. Sevastyan had left it on the table and Rhia had swiped it while they discussed plans.
She made her way to an office located down a small hallway. Inside she found a laptop and booted it up. If her father was guilty and this flash drive proved it, she wanted to be the first to see.
A couple of clicks brought up a video. Sounds of chains dragging across the floor rattled from the speakers. Whoever was in charge of filming sucked because so far everything was in black.
And then it wasn’t black screened anymore and the gory images flooding her brain nearly forced all the vodka and coffee she’d downed in the past hour back up.
A man with a spider tattoo lay sprawled out on a table, his entire body coated in blood.
She clamped a hand over her mouth. Oh, God. No, that wasn’t blood, she realized too late.
“Oh my God, no! What the fuck is this?” Her eyes couldn’t focus on only one nightmarish detail.
Dimitris walked into view and in his hand was a blade as long as her forearms dripping crimson on a white apron.
She searched the screen for any clues as to location. Haven? She hadn’t seen any place that dank and dark at the club. She focused on the cement walls noticing a lack of windows or markings of any kind to denote location but came up with nothing. No distinguishable marking other than a black circle on the wall with some sort of writing in the middle in what looked like… She gasped, bringing a hand to her mouth.
Blood. Ancient writings were finger-painted on the cement walls, but why? What did they mean? Was it a brand? A curse? What? A murderous sign of some freak who got off on killing?
Hot tears stabbed at her eyes like needles. The weight of what she was witnessing settled on her chest heavier than a ton of stone.
Masculine screams pierced the darkness and vibrated against the speakers until she thought they would burst out of the laptop.
She noticed another man, bulkier than Dimitris. Taller. His face was slashed by deep shadows hiding his identity. She couldn’t bear to watch any longer but couldn’t peel her eyes away from the screen. Hand clutched over her mouth, she gasped into her palm when the unthinkable happened. The camera panned over to a man in a gray suit with long black hair pulled into a sleek ponytail at the nape. Her father.
Her throat tightened, making it hard to breathe.
Gone was the warm smile he always wore for her. In its place was a sneer of disgust.
“We talked about this, Dimitris. You should just walk away. No more bloodshed. Lay low for a while. You didn’t need to do this. Ruin everything with your impulsiveness.” His voice grew thicker the longer he pleaded.
Dimitris glared at him, turning his beady black eyes on her father with a slithering smile. “You don’t get to top of the food chain by cowering in shadows, Crowne. Grow a pair of fucking balls or maybe you want to join our friend on table. I can always make room, da.”
Her father stood quiet for a moment. “I’ll do this one last job, three containers and that’s it. You release my family and me. My debts will be paid. This is not the deal we agreed upon. I was only to deliver the packages and take my cut. Now you want me to smuggle more and more and now children too. Over my dead body.”
“You are being paid handsomely for your troubles. I don’t see how it matters what is in containers. As long as you get the authorities to look the other way, you get your money. You didn’t seem to have a problem until our friend here grew a conscience. It would be a shame to see you both suffer from the same disease.” The monster in human flesh paused, flipping the blade in his hand like it was nothing more than a child’s toy. “No. You make a deal with the devil and the devil gets to decide when your debt is paid.”
Her father turned ashen but did nothing to fight against the raging lunatic in a red suit. Though she wanted to look away, throw the computer across the room, and fall to her knees in tears, Rhia stood strong and watched as they skinned more of the man strapped to the table—her father doing nothing to stop the barbaric crime. Nothing!
“How,” she screamed into the empty room. “How could you do this!”
Dimitris turned his knife on her father, and she looked on as the long blade sailed across the dark room and hit her father in the gut. She clutched the desk and watched her father fall to his knees. The lunatic grabbed a can from a nearby table and poured something from a red canister over him and lit a match. Seconds passed before the monstrous devil doused the flames, but the body left behind writhed in pain.
Hot tears streamed down her cheeks; her vision blurred. The pain in her chest unlike anything she had ever felt before. Betrayal. It cut out her soul and left her insides withering with relentless waves of agony.
“No, God, please. No!” she cried out for the father she knew, not the man he hid from her.
She could hear heavy footsteps rushing toward her and shouts from the men, but it was the warm voice and strong arms that broke the spell she fell under and brought her back to the surface.
“I didn’t know. I didn’t know what was on it. Maya gave me the flash at Haven. I didn’t know what was on it. I’m so sorry, Sevastyan. Your brother. I’m so sorry.” She caught Matteo standing by the door. His face contorted into a mask of agony. He crossed the room and gathered her in his arms, pressing her head to his chest.
“Fuck, amor. You didn’t need to see that.”
