“You took my sister.” Cain strikes him again, his fist like an anvil. “You raped innocent women.” Dossier number two yanks his arms up to cover his face and openly cries, his tears mingled with blood, but I feel no sympathy. I want to see him suffer. I want to see him cry. “You dared to hurt my woman.” The next punch breaks bone. Dossier number two is a human punching bag and Cain has hit his rhythm, punching until he’s unconscious.
“Cain!” I damn near risk my life and grab at his arm as he rears back to deliver what will no doubt be the blow that kills Dossier. The latent power in his arm sizzles through me, and I almost release him, but make myself hold fast. “While this is highly entertaining, you have to stop.” He’s panting with the exertion, sweat dripping down his face. I gentle my voice. “You have to stop, Cain. You have to leave something for us to interrogate.”
The other one lunges at me, and I step out of the way just in time.
“Right.” Cain faces the other Dossier, baring his teeth. “You piece of shit. You’ll get a taste of the same fucking medicine.”
“Cain,” I say pleadingly. “Let me?”
He reaches down with a sickening smile and grabs Dossier by the hair. “Have at it, baby.”
I swivel and give him a roundhouse kick. I hit him as hard as I can. He doubles over, grabbing his stomach. I knee him in the back and he falls to the floor. “You hurt his sister. You hurt innocent women. You broke into my house, and you made my man bleed.” I puncture every word with another jab, strike, and kick until he’s whimpering and begging for mercy. It hasn’t even begun to satisfy my thirst for violence when Cain speaks.
“Alright, Violet,” Cain says, with unmistakable pride in his voice that makes my chest swell.
“He deserves more than that.”
“And I’ll make sure he gets what he deserves.”
I look into Cain’s eyes and reach my hand up to cup his jaw. His icy blue gaze locks with mine. “Promise me.”
Gently extracting my hand from his face, he kisses each bloodied fingertip, one by one. “I promise you, sweetheart. I’ll make them pay. Both of them.”
A thrill of arousal races through me.
I might love this monster of a man.
Satisfied, I look around the room and see wires hanging out of a broken video game. I slice them with one of my knives, then tie both men at their ankles and wrists so I can get to Skylar.
Cain and I unfasten her and lead her off the dirty bed, grabbing a sheet to wrap around her waist. She trembles but walks beside me.
“Are you alright?” I ask her.
She looks away and doesn’t answer at first, then finally nods. “I am now.”
I walk back to the bed while Cain drags both men to it. He hauls one up like he’s a sack of potatoes and tosses him unceremoniously on the bed. The guy whimpers. He takes the second, hog-tied and immobile, and tosses him beside his brother. Even though they’re beaten beyond recognition and tied fast, he has me hold both men at gunpoint while he makes the call.
I don’t even want to think about what he’ll do to them when he brings them back to his place. I haven’t even begun to explore the many rooms he has at his home, but something tells me the target range isn’t the only soundproof room in the house. And I remember what I’ve read about his methods.
These men will wish we’d killed them here.
Skylar stares at me with large, frightened eyes.
“Who are you?” Her voice is wobbly, broken. My heart splinters. I don’t even want to think about what she’s been through.
I give her a gentle smile. “My name’s Violet.”
Skylar gives me a tentative smile back, through her obvious pain. “That’s a beautiful name.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Violet
It’s late into the night. Darkness settles over the house on the hill, as the sun set hours ago. Skylar’s soundly sleeping in one of the guest rooms on the main floor, sedated by the doctor. She needs rest now more than anything.
Cain has her heavily guarded. I didn’t think I liked Cain’s straightlaced bodyguard the day I came here. Now I’ve never been so happy to see him.
Today, we brought down the men responsible for the abductions and rapes. Under Cain’s… questioning, one might call it… we got full confessions. And I was right about them working in tandem. We have much to unpack, and will, but the greatest threat is over.
Cain takes on the task of telling his team all that happened, and instructs me to call Candi. “Then go to your room. Relax and get some rest. I’ll come see you when I’m through down here.” I know without him telling me that he’ll be “through down there” when his men lay twin bodies in shallow graves. I’m not upset by this. I’d be disappointed with anything less.