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I didn’t look back, and whatever he screamed next came out far more pained, but the door closing cut it off. Rome picked me up to carry me out of the office. He didn’t say anything as I buried my face against his neck.
Words weren’t what I needed right now.
CHAPTER26
JASPER
No one moved while Rome walked Swan out. I wasn’t the only one tracking their passage. Her head was up and her shoulders back, despite trembling with every attempt she made to cover it.
When she couldn’t cover anymore, we did. Rome moved her as Milo shifted his stance to block Sharpe’s view, even as the sad sack of shit kept screaming her name. No one said a word as bloody spittle flew from his mouth.
“Godda—” He didn’t get to finish his bellow as Kellan made a cutting motion with his hand. We surged forward. Milo, me, and Liam hauled Sharpe to his feet. We were less than gentle.
Vaughn lugged the chains down and moved to get the shackles on his wrists. All at once, Sharpe seemed to finally grasp how precarious his situation was. He tried to kick at Milo, so I wrenched his arms a little harder. Once he was locked in, we towed the chains up until he dangled from his wrists.
There was a certain point where your feet were just barely under you. When you could almost balance on your toes, except you had no steady foundation. The rest of your weight would hang from your wrists while dragging at your shoulders. If you could maintain a specific posture, you relieved the pressure on your upper body only to increase the pain in your feet and ankles.
Mentally and physically exhausting. As the door to the fridge closed, it echoed in the quiet. By unspoken agreement, we swapped places as Doc took point, and he didn’t slow down as he ripped the man’s shirt open and shredded it.
New bruises littered his chest and arms. Someone hadn’t been gentle in how they bound him and transported him. The faint sound of labored breath—
Sharpe cried out as Doc tested his ribs. The moment he found one cracked, he applied fresh pressure and the man flinched, trying to escape the contact. Not that he could go far. He tried to grab at the chain with his mangled hand and shrieked out another cry.
“This is going to get much worse for you,” Doc informed him, his voice sounding clinically detached.
“What do you want?” the man practically wept.
“About sixteen years of pure torture,” Milo informed him in a voice so chilling it was hot. “I want you to experience every ounce of her terror and discomfort. I want you to feel the humiliating pain and the knowledge that nothing you do will stop what is about to happen to you. That no matter if there is even one single person out there who cares about you, they aren’t coming. They arenevercoming, because you are a worthless piece of shit.”
“I want dates, I want names, and I want locations,” Kellan informed him as Doc moved to a medical bag we’d set up on the side table. Freddie didn’t move at all. He just watched Sharpe with empty, cool eyes as his knife danced over his fingers.
“You’re going to give us the information,” Liam informed him as he snapped a couple of photographs with his phone. “The only thing to be determined is how long you think you can hold out on giving it to us and how much pain you need to suffer to get there.”
“Personally,” Vaughn said, his tone as nonchalant even if he was not. “I’m good if it takes a while. We have the time. We also have a solid idea of how much Dove has suffered.”
“We do,” I said, more to myself than to him. “Let’s start this way…” I moved to where Doc was pulling out a scalpel, some clamps, and a series of electrodes.
Yeah, those all looked very uncomfortable. I approved. I snagged a black sack and dragged it over his head. Frankly, I didn’t want to look at his fucking face when I wasn’t able to just start with breaking the bones in his feet and working my way up.
The sad fact was, we actually needed information from this son of a bitch. I caught Milo’s gaze and the barely banked fury flickering in his eyes. There was a stillness in the room, like one spark, and we’d all go up in flames.
Fuck, we all had gone up in flames. We couldn’t undo what had been done to her. We couldn’t erase the past. The scars were there, inside and out.
We could get vengeance to assuage the loss of her innocence and her freedom. We could seek retribution for the cruelty visited on her repeatedly. It started with that fucker from her dance company, and it wouldn’t end until everyone who ever hurt her paid for it.
Kellan cleared his throat and put out his fist. One by one, we all did the same—including Doc. It took four rounds, but we determined the order. We each had a question and a punishment in mind.
The verbal gasping and complaints from under the hood had Liam ripping off a strip of duct tape. So I dragged the fabric upward.
“Just ask the questions.”
“Don’t worry,” Liam told him as he slapped the duct tape over his mouth. The silence was a little blissful. “We will, but you don’t make the rules here. You only think you’re willing to help right now.”
I yanked the cover back over his head. I really didn’t want to look at the son of a bitch. Doc moved over to where he was and began to apply the electrodes. His expression had emptied of all emotion after our girl left.
It could be said for all of us. We didn’t have to keep anything in reserve right now, for we finally had someone we could unleash our grief and pain on as well. Retribution for his failure to protect the baby he’d taken from all of us.
“You know,” Milo said in an undertone next to me. “I keep thinking what it would have been like if I’d fought back against her adoption. If I’d pushed to keep her with me…”
