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“Yeah.”
“What’s the message of burning down this house? You already eliminated the owner, and he was one of your grandfather’s biggest assets.”
“The message is that he can’t hide anything from me. I will find it, and I will destroy it. It’s cat and mouse right now, but I’ve become the cat. He just doesn’t know it. Me burning this house down, and the five others we’re going to do by the end of this trip, is me letting him know. He’s now the mouse. I want him scared and I want him doing what she did, messing up and trapping himself.”
Josh and Jasper arrived back, stepping out from the small door, and in their hands was a struggling old lover.
I greeted her. “Hello, Victoria.”
The guys hadn’t lied. Her eyes were dilated, her hair a mess. She was wearing a robe over a nightgown. Her feet were bare and she reeked of booze.
“You mother fucker fuckerrr. I’m gonna—I’m gonna—aghrdd.” She tried again, twisting around. “Im gont hurd youph. Yood aholed!”
I had to take stock for a beat, because the last time I saw Victoria, she’d been furious, but she hadn’t been this Victoria. She was skin and bones.
“Boss.” Jasper lifted her arm, shoving her robe’s sleeve up.
Her veins were black and blue. Track marks.
I frowned, shooting an order out to Josh. “Go. Search the house. I want all the drug paraphernalia collected.”
“What?Noooph. Im nod a drgge. I’m nod.”
“Vic.”
The nickname silenced her. She stopped struggling against Jasper’s lone hold. He was behind her, one foot between hers so she couldn’t kick back, and he had a firm grip on both her arms, keeping them slightly behind her.
Her eyes were wide, but damn, she was gone. Anything I said to her would be wasted. So instead of issuing the threats and the ultimatums that I wanted to, I remembered she was someone I used to care about.
I never loved her, but I cared for her.
I stepped close, sliding my hand under a strand of hair that was hanging over her face, and I moved it back. I tucked it behind her ear and I let her feel a gentle slide of my hand down her cheek, a slight cupping of her chin, before I angled her head to see me better.
“You’re going to get clean.” The words were firm and without reproach from me.
She took note and her eyes widened. Defiance started to fill, but I shook my head.
I let go and stepped back. “I’m not asking, Vic.”
“You took away my grandfather,” she whispered.
“But not you, Victoria.”
Her eyes closed first.
Her shoulders fell.
The fight left her body.
It could’ve all been an act. It probably was, because she had the signs of a full drug addict. I wasn’t going to give her an option.
“Take her outside,” I told Jasper.
Derek was listening to his radio, and as Jasper led Victoria outside, he approached. “They’re done outside.”
“Okay.” I nodded toward where Jasper and Victoria were going out the door. “Leave me the remote. I want you to go back with them and the guys.”
“Will do.”
