I must’ve been out for a while for them to bring me to Butcher and Sons. It was a good forty-five minute drive from where we’d been.
“I said get up,” my father growled and I staggered to my feet, swaying as my legs threatened to give out.
I was dying of thirst and my head throbbed something fierce. I was also confident a couple of my ribs were broken.
When I looked at Zachariah, he stood beside our father. They both flanked a long battered table. And littering the top was an assortment of implements they would use on me tonight.
A cattle whip. Branding iron. A knife. Salt. I took a step back and curled my hand into a fist.
I could defend myself, could have taken my father down at the very least. But Zachariah was still a little bigger than me, and just as brutal and strong. But now? I was too weak, my body too battered.
Zachariah walked over and gripped the scarred wooden chair that I’d seen far too many times. I’d sat in that chair more times than I could count, feeling the slats on the back digging into me. I gripped the armrest with my nails until my fingers bled.
I shook my head and pulled my shoulders back, resolve filling me. My father’s face became dark with rage, and Zachariah just smirked. He liked my defiance, the motherfucker. He liked pushing me so I fought back. The asshole got off on it.
Well, today they might still get what they wanted, but I was also going to leave a couple marks of my own.
Because if I was going to feel pain at the end of all this, I was going to get my pound of flesh as well.
Chapter27
Hades
Irefused to look at her after what I’d just said.
I didn’t want her sympathy, didn’t want her sorrow. The boy that had experienced that abuse was no more. He died a long time ago in that abandoned warehouse with bruises and cuts covering his body.
And out of the flames of that torment, a demon was created. I may still be flesh and able to bleed, to bruise, but I’d built a wall around myself to where nothing and no one could touch me.
It was the only way I’d been able to survive.
“Did you retaliate?”
Her voice was soft in the darkness. I still stood by the window, refusing to get closer, to look at her.
Because I knew what I’d see. Her gaze would hold empathy. And that would just piss me off. I curled my hands tightly into fists, and felt her gaze on me, tracing every scar that covered my body.
I closed my eyes as I thought about all the times I tried to go after Zachariah. “Keep your enemies close,” I murmured. “My brother was clever, the bastard. So I waited. Watched. But he started getting sloppy, careless. Cracks were showing, frays in what he did in the dark. So I dug deeper, and realized he was swindling not only his money, but the company funds as well.” I ground my back molars. “I could’ve ended him, destroyed him with all of that. And I would have. I planned on it. I wanted him to suffer, to become homeless and destitute before I delivered that final blow.”
I let those words hang between us, let them sink in. She needed to know what a fucking monster I really was.
“All that ran through my veins was revenge.”
“Did you… are you the reason…” The look on my face must have frightened her, because she moved back on the bed and brought the sheet closer to her chest.
As if that would keep me away from her. As if anything on this fucking planet could keep her from me.
“Accidents aren’t how I do things, baby. No, my retaliation would’ve been in the form of vicious vengeance. And since he’s gone… you’re the next best thing. Because hurting you would’ve ruined him.”
I ran a hand over my face, suddenly feeling exhausted. When exactly had my plans changed where Persephone was concerned?
“You knew there was something not right with all of this. You’re not only beautiful, you’re smart. Come on, darling.’ I could see her mind working as she put together the pieces.
I was growing pissed. She was too fucking good for me but I was too selfish to let her go. I hated myself, hated her for making me feel anything but rage and the darkness I’d always been comforted by.
I lashed out. It was my default. And being stripped bare, telling her things that made me vulnerable, conjured so much anger in me I wanted to tear this room apart.
“I knew but—”