If only you knew half as much about the monster you spent that night with as I do about you.
You’d have run as fast as you could.
But it’s too late.
Because I’ve got you.
It might not happen tonight, or even tomorrow.
But I will make you mine.
My ultimate revenge.
* * *
There’s no movement as I step into the room later that afternoon, and it’s not until I slam the heavy door closed behind me that he finally jolts awake, his swollen eyes barely opening to see who’s come to play with him.
His dry, cracked lips part, but no words come out. I’m hardly surprised.
He stopped talking a while ago.
Probably trying to protect her.
Fair play if he is, because quite honestly, after all these years, I wasn’t actually aware that he was capable of caring about anything.
And someone who doesn’t even share his blood.Tsk.
The guys were right the night we discovered that Jonas had another son—or rather, a son seeing as it turned out that I didn’t share an ounce of DNA with this motherfucker—thank fuck. But there were no others. And while that might be true, there is another out there who stole his dark and twisted heart. A girl. A girl I’m sure he wants me far, far away from.At least, with the lengths he went to to cover her up seem to point that way.
Too bad for him that the Cirillo PI is better than Jonas and all the attempts he made to protect her, to sever any connection between Joker and his own family.
His eyes follow me as I walk across the room, but he still doesn’t move. Probably too weak after all the time he’s spent down here, being our personal punching bag.
Most of the bruises and cuts that litter his body are courtesy of my own fists, but not all.
The guys—even Damien and Evan, and obviously Galen—have happily joined the little party we’ve been having down here in the depths of our building. Hell, even Stella finally convinced me to let her down here one night when Seb was out, and she unleashed her inner monster on the man who wanted her dead. It was beautiful. Really fucking beautiful. His shock at the sheer brutality behind the woman he tried to ruin only made the whole experience that much sweeter.
I pace for a few minutes, hoping to unnerve him. Although, from the way his body trembles, I’m not sure it’s really necessary.
Stopping, I take two steps toward him before lowering to my haunches, just out of reach.
Holding his eyes, I roll her name around in my head, trying to predict his reaction.
“You think you’re so clever, don’t you, Jonas?” I start. “You think you’ve tied up all your loose ends, hidden all your secrets. But you forgot one important thing.” His brow lifts slightly, but it’s the only reaction I get. “You trained me. You taught me all the tricks. How to find people’s biggest weaknesses, and how to use them against them. I watched—experienced—you do it time and time again.”
The vein in his temple starts pulsating. As a kid, that was the most terrifying sight in the world, because it meant that whatever was coming next was seriously going to hurt. It might not have been physically, but it would hurt all the same.
Pulling my phone from my pocket, I open the photos I took only this morning while I was out on my morning run. It’s been my favourite part of the day for a while now, and I do love to capture the beauty of it.
“I’ve got a new hobby,” I tell him. “I thought you’d enjoy it too. That maybe we could bond over it. Things have been a little strained recently, after all,” I mock. “I think this one is my favourite. The lighting is perfect, my subject…” I turn the screen around, showing him the image of Jodie. “Mouth-watering.”
“No,” he cries, proving to me that he still does have a voice in there somewhere. “No.”
Pulling my phone back when he weakly tries to reach for it, I stand with an accomplished smirk playing on my lips.
“Too late, old man. And let me tell you, she’s not just mouth-watering,” I taunt. “She’s fucking delicious.”
Some kind of pained groan rumbles in his throat as he finally pushes himself from the cold slab of concrete he’s using as a bed.
“Stay away from her,” he pleads, proving to me just how much of a soft spot he has for this woman.
“Sorry, can’t do that. But, I do need you to tell me something.” He stares at me. “Aside from the obvious,” I use my hands to mimic her curves, “what makes her so much better than me? Neither of us is yours, so why protect her over me?”
His fingers curl around the edge of the concrete, a move that should really hurt, seeing as he’s missing more than a few fingernails right now.
“Stay away from her,” he begs again.
A smile curls at my lips as I take in his thin frame and heaving chest.
“How the mighty fall, old man. It’s been fun chatting, but I’ve got a date… and an itch that needs scratching.” I wink at him before marching for the door, my smile only growing when his cries for me to stop hit my ears seconds before the door slams and the locks engage behind me.