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Billy’s lower lip trembled.
“This is strike two,” Grey added. “I think you know what happens if you get to strike three.”
They let the threat hang in the air for a moment before Grey backed away from Billy to lean against the right wall of the cooler where I couldn’t see him. Corvus backed up, too, leaning casually against the doorframe with his arms crossed over his chest. Blocking most of my view of Billy.
“What happened to you?” Corvus asked Billy.
“...w-what?”
“I saidwhat happened to you?”
“I...I had an accident. I fell onto a hook.”
“That’s right.” Rook answered him, and I could hear his smile even if I couldn’t see it behind his mask. “You also might’ve broken some bones. Maybe smashed your face into a table, too. Guess you should stop drinking at work.”
“Wait—”
“Let’s get this over with,” Corvus said simply.
“No!” Billy screamed a second before a sickeningpopandcrunchtunneled into my ears. I knew what it was without having to see it. Rook had broken his arm, just like Billy had broken his daughter’s. It’s what I would’ve wanted to do, too.
An eye for an eye.
When the second break came and there was no end in sight, I carefully removed my phone from the shelf and stopped recording, gripping it tightly in my hand.
It would be almost useless. They were wearing masks. They didn’t say each other’s names. They would have been smart enough to take a vehicle not registered to them and even then, they would have carved a wide path outside of view of any surveillance cameras.
All I’d done here tonight was witness something I wished I fucking hadn’t. I didn’t want to feel this...connection.
And honestly? I wasn’t sure what I’d do with the footage even if it had been usable. Godfuckingdammit.
I didn’t flinch as Rook snapped more bones and Billy screamed and cried until Rook eventually knocked him unconscious. I listened, hating how much I wished I could hurt him, too. How the sounds of his agony had almost no effect on me.
A five and seven-year-old? They were too young. Too innocent to be subjected to that sort of abuse from someone who was supposed to love them.
I’d have just killed him, the thought came viciously to my mind and a sour taste coated my tongue, making me grimace and clench my fists.
People made mistakes. Hell, I’d made plenty, but I learned from them.
This fuckwad would continue to make mistakes. I could see it in his face. Hear it in his voice. Who was to say that he wouldn’t kill one of his little girls the next time he was angry? Then it would be too late. Thenstrike threewould only be vengeance instead of prevention.
I pressed my head between my knees as the Crows took a limp Billy down from the hook and left him on the floor in a pool of his own blood. My breaths came heavier. My pulse throbbed in my temples. Fingers twitching.
I worked hard to fight it, trying to stay calm. Stay quiet. Not let the darkness grab hold. Flashes of the man at the train tracks scorched into the back of my eyelids, and I forced my eyes open to erase them, sweat beading at my hairline.
A loud metallicchinkrang out through the shop. Grey had snapped off the lever inside of the cooler and wiped it down for prints before tossing it to the floor. It scraped over the linoleum tiles and came to a clattering stop near my feet.
“What are you doing?” Corvus asked.
“Seeing how he likes being locked up,” Grey replied stoically and closed the cooler door as he shouldered past Corvus.
“And if no one finds him?” Corvus asked, and I got the distinct sense that he was waiting to judge Grey’s answer. That this was a test, and Corvus wanted to see if Grey would pass it.
“Then no one finds him,” Grey replied and left, pushing through the back door of the shop to vanish into the night.
Corvus nodded quietly to himself. He passed.
“You hungry?” Rook asked. “I could really go for some McDicks right now.”
