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“I want to see them,” she demands.
Everyone else remains silent, their eyes volleying back and forth between us. No one is on her side, she knows it, but if anyone else speaks up, she will double down. We all know it. We won’t be able to outvote her this time. Noah or Declan would try to reason with her. Ryder can’t really say no to her. He’s her yes-man, through and through. Even if he’s on our side here. Kade might have a shot, but she softens for him. She’s playful with him. But me? I bring out her fire, her fight. That’s what we need right now.
She isn’t getting her hands on these damn photos if it’s the last fucking thing I do. But I don’t mind if she goes down swinging. Hell, I encourage it. I’ve taken a black eye from almost everyone in this room at one point or another. One from her would be a badge of honor.
“You’re going to have to pry them from my unconscious hands if you want them.”
Kade moves to his feet, ready to grab her if she really does launch herself at me like she seems to be contemplating. I wave him off as she threatens, “Don’t tempt me.”
I tap my cheek with two fingers, taunting her. “Come on, Letty. You want them? Come take them.”
She growls, but doesn’t attack me like I half expected her to. I wouldn’t have been able to blame her. I was quite literally asking for it. Her body shifts to the desk in front of her and I know what’s going to happen half a second before she screams and flips the desk. I wince. At least it was a desk without a computer on it?
“You’re such a bastard,” she curses, huffing.
Ryder stands beside Kade. “I’ll punch him for you if that’ll make you feel better, boss lady.”
I roll my eyes and snort but some of my tension eases as Scar’s lips twitch.
“I’m not punching anyone,” she huffs, crossing her arms over her chest. “Yet,” she finishes under her breath, making me grin. She’s calming down. She’s pissed, but she hasn’t lost control, not for a moment of our fight.
“I know you want the confirmation,” I concede. This is why I had Charles bring a few of the photos. She needs some type of concession in order to walk away from seeing them. I nod to Noah and he pulls up the images he edited, taking the photos we had and only focusing on their faces. Pulling them closer, lightening them up, and cropping everything else out.
It was hard to watch him work. The color drained from his face as he clicked through each one, rushing to get the worst of the images out of the frame. Ryder and I both knew we wouldn’t be able to handle seeing her like that. The murderous rage would far outweigh any logic we have. Kade wanted to be strong enough to do it, but even he knew he would fly off the handle. The emotional upheaval from the trauma depicted in those photos has no place in this room. Not right now. Not when we need to create a plan more flawless than any plan we’ve ever worked on before.
Declan and Noah are the only ones who were able to click through the photos methodically, quickly. Though neither of them were unaffected. What they saw will haunt them as surely as it will haunt Charles and Scar. Kade stood right by both of them, showing more self-restraint than I could ever manage as he held onto both their shoulders. Offering comfort the only way he could, all while keeping his gaze firmly planted above the computer screen.
Silence hangs in the room as she studies the faces on the screen. Charles moves to her side and grabs her hand. The sight doesn’t bother me as much as it did just a few short days ago. In fact, I’m filled with relief as she rests her head against his shoulder. She’s not shutting down, locking us out. I’ll never be his biggest fan, don’t think we can ever become best friends, but I can accept his role in her life. In this family. The way she needs him in a different way than she needs us.
“It really is them,” she sighs.
Charles’ sigh is just as heavy as hers. “It makes sense in a twisted way.”
She nods against him. “Easy to see the signs now looking back.”
“It’s easy to see a lot of questionable behavior from the adults we were surrounded by back then. It was our normal.” His words make my hands tighten into fists at my sides. The reality of the world they grew up in is far darker and more perverse than should be humanly possible.
I wave to Noah and he takes the photos down off the screen, instead pulling up the information he’s been able to collect on all three of the men who have become our prey over the last twenty-four hours.
“We need to start planning how we’re going to take them out,” I say, trying to steer us back on track. I watch the back of Scar’s head as I talk. “Are we hunting them down individually? Broadcasting their sins? Making it look like an accident?” We’ve done all of the above. What type of justice does she need for this final step of vengeance?
Scar lifts her head from Charles’ shoulder and begins to run her fingers over the desk Noah is sitting at. She chews on her lip and I wait for her answer. It needs to come from her. We will figure out how to give her exactly what she needs from this.
“I want them all together,” she decides.
Of course, she does. I shake my head and smirk.
“In his office. Just like the night this all started,” she continues, a faraway look in her eyes. “I want to recreate that night. Make them feel every bit of pain and humiliation I did. Feel what it’s like to be bleeding out on the floor, helpless, incapable of moving, as smoke fills their lungs and flames inch closer and closer to their bodies. I want them to know the fear of slowly suffocating and being stuck, resigned to their fate as the heat becomes overwhelmingly oppressive. I want them to sit there and be forced to wonder if all the harm they caused was worth their fate all while knowing it’s too late to go back and make different choices. I want pain, fear, shame, and regret to be the last things they ever feel.”
“Oh, is that all?” Ryder asks dryly, but there’s a delighted gleam in his eyes. He loves her plan. Of course he does.
Okay. We’re going with the hardest option to pull off. Getting three grown, suspicious, wealthy men into a designated place without making them wary. Nothing like a challenge.
“I assume you mean Donahue’s office?” He’s the one who took it further than any other, the ringleader of the ones left. She can’t mean her father’s office as it’s gone.
She nods and Charles hums. “Schroder shouldn’t be too hard to get him there, but my father has nothing to do with the Dean any longer.”
Scar moves to sit in Noah’s lap and starts reading through the intel he’s gathered, looking for a connection to get them all together.
