“Help me and I’ll tell you.”
“No, you tell us and then we'll think about helping you.” I glanced around. Zara was watching us. Ilara had taken Hope out of the room. She was the only one who might be disturbed by this. The others were babies. Zara came closer.
“I’m a doctor. If you want to live, I suggest you tell them what they want to know. I estimate if I don’t stop that bleeding in the next five or ten minutes, it’ll be too late,” she said calmly. Demon tucked her under his shoulder.
“Tell us why you’re so pissed and where the photos are. Who else has copies of them?” I snapped.
“The photos are safe in my safe deposit box. You won’t be able to get your hands on those. If I die, when they open that box, there’s all those delicious photos for the world to see. She acted like what he did was wrong. It wasn’t. Children need love. They’re sexual creatures like adults are.” I lunged at him and slammed my boot into his ribs. He screamed as one of them cracked.
“Don’t talk your pedophile shit to us. You’ll say anything to justify it in your own head, but it’s sick and wrong. She didn’t want to be touched by him or anyone else. Again, why the hell are you so mad? Other than your sicko buddy isn’t here to look at pictures with you anymore.”
“Because I loved him! I know if it wasn’t for what her and her bitch of a mother did, he’d have been able to tell me he loved me too. I thought I had to honor his memory by leaving her alone, but I didn’t. She isn’t even his! She doesn’t deserve to be happy or to have his money. She needs to suffer,” he yelled.
“How did you get into our compound?” Player asked. That's what I wanted to know. Did we have a weak spot?
Wagner laughed. “While you were all busy watching the house, I snuck out an old underground railway tunnel. I picked that house because it had been part of the movement back in the day. I came out right by that van you brought. I got in the back and hid under the tarp you had in there. You brought me right inside and never even knew it.”
We all groaned. No one had thought to make sure we didn’t have a stowaway. I knew we’d never make that mistake again. I’d heard enough. He might be lying about others having copies. There was no way to know for sure. As for his safe deposit box, I could find it and we’d get those contents one way or the other. I already had Petrillo searching his Atlanta house.
“Well, the jokes on you, because she is going to be happy, and she’s going to use that money to do good. You and your buddy are the ones who deserve to be dead. I wish I could make you suffer, but it doesn't look like I’m going to get the chance, not the way you’re bleeding.”
He looked down at his hands and then up at Zara. “Help me! You said if I answered their questions, you’d save me. Do it!”
“I never said I’d save you. I said I could if you didn’t take longer than five or ten minutes to answer. But see, I have a real hatred for people who abuse others, especially children. You don’t deserve prison. So, I'm going to sit down and put up my feet, since this baby is killing my back, and I’m going to wait for you to die. We could call the cops and tell them we caught an intruder, but I think you need to be one of those people who simply disappear one day. It’s less paperwork.” She turned her back on him and walked over to the couch. Demon went with her and pulled her feet up onto his lap. She groaned as he took off her shoes and started massaging her feet.
The other women left the room, all except Tarin. She stayed at my side. We watched as he begged us to help him then he’d swear at us and her. He yelled more about what a terrible person she was and how she should be dead, not Mercer. It took him less than another ten minutes to be gone. When he was, I sent Tarin to Ilara. We had work to do to ensure we got rid of the body, found the photos, and cleaned up any connection to us. We didn’t want the police to come sniffing around when he was reported missing.
It took us several hours to get things at least situated. Some would take several days and we’d have to go to Atlanta to do some of it. But by the time I went to find Tarin and take her home, we’d gotten rid of the body and started the process of cleaning up the trail. Goodbye to another deserving sicko.