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There’s no way in hell I’m leaving her here alone with the threat of Whisper and Henry still looming.
“Is everything okay?” she asks, a frown appearing between her eyebrows.
While I don’t talk about the darker sides of my life with Cat, I also don’t hide it. Instead of lying, which I hate doing because I’ve already withheld enough information from her for years, I tell her the truth.
“A guy we’ve been hunting for weeks has been brought to Slate. Silas and I have…,” I pause a moment, “things to discuss with him.”
Cat isn’t stupid. She knows there will be no “discussion” involved. Only flesh meeting flesh and a shit ton of bloodshed.
She nods slowly, worry lining her face.
“Get dressed. I’ll be waiting downstairs.”
Fifteen minutes later, Cat and I are in my SUV. Ten minutes after that, I’m pulling behind Slate. We enter through the back entrance, and I take her straight up to my office. Silas is vibrating with rage when he walks in seconds later. The tension emanating from him is palpable. His body is locked tight, like he’s barely holding back the need to drive his fist through something.
I know the feeling.
Katie comes in directly behind him. Anger flares in her eyes, but it’s not as pronounced as the concern. She’s worried about Silas’s temperament and what will happen when he faces the man who nearly raped her.
I turn to Cat. “You’ll stay with Katie while Silas and I take care of this. We won’t be gone long.”
I’m pretty sure it won’t take Silas long to lose control.
“Okay.” She rolls to her toes to reach my lips. “Be safe.”
“Always.”
With my arms wrapped around Cat, I turn to Katie. “Thanks for staying with her.”
Katie’s eyes are soft when they move to Cat. “It’s my pleasure. It’s been too long since Cat and I have had girl time. We need to catch up.”
After leaving the two women in my office, Silas and I make our way to the basement. It’s dark and damp below Slate. The floor and walls are cement, and the temperature is lower than on the upper floors. One of the rooms, where Timothy was placed, has a drain centered in the floor. A hose is attached to a faucet that comes out of one wall. One corner of the room contains a table with rusty tools and rubber gloves.
A mostly naked Timothy hangs from the ceiling by his wrists directly in front of us. Sweat beads down his forehead and hollow cheeks despite the cold seeping from the walls. His naked chest is smeared with dirt, mixing in with the dark hair that covers his torso. The light-blue boxers he’s wearing are soaked on the front. My lips curl at the disgusting sight.
Timothy lifts his head, his mop of dark hair sweat-soaked, and his wide, fearful eyes meet mine before he slides them to Silas beside me. He fears us both, but it’s directed more at Silas, because it was his girlfriend he touched.
“S-Silas, m-man,” he stutters pathetically. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know she was your girl.”
“Wouldn’t fucking matter if she wasn’t,” Silas growls. “You’d still be right here, facing your executioner, had it been any other woman. But touching Katie just ensures it’s going to be a hell of a lot more painful.”
The chains clank as Timothy tries to step back, but they hold him in place. “Please. It was the drugs,” he pleads. “I ain’t never touched a woman like that before. It was the fucking drugs that made me do it.”
“No?” Silas cocks a brow. “What about Kendra?”
Kendra is Timothy’s younger sister. After he disappeared, we searched for his family to figure out where he could have hidden himself. Kendra is from Utah and was a bitch to track down. But when we did, we found out a shit ton about Timothy and his younger years.
“Kendra?” Timothy croaks. “That bitch asked for it.Beggedme for it.”
“She begged you to beat her black and blue? She begged you to get her pregnant and then beat her so badly she lost the baby? Is that what you’re saying? We’ve seen the pictures, Timothy. We saw the goddamn video you took and she stole from you before she disappeared. You raped and beat your sister from the time she was fourteen until she ran away at sixteen.”
His already pale face drains of more color. His mouth opens and closes like a fish out of water as he tries to come up with something to say. But there isn’t shit hecansay. We’ve seen the evidence, and we’re certain he’s raped other women as well. Even if he hadn’t, it wouldn’t matter. The bastard will pay for touching Katie alone.
“How many others, Timothy?” Silas asks, his gait casual as he walks over to the table of tools and starts examining them. Timothy’s eyes stay glued to him. “How many other womenbegged,” he sneers the word, “you to rape them, abuse them?”
“N-none,” he whimpers.
Silas does a half turn, making sure to show Timothy what he’s holding. It’s a nasty looking meat hook. “Are you sure that’s the answer you want to give me? The more you lie, the slower you’ll bleed to ensure you don’t die quickly.”
