Before he can answer, a loud screech cuts in, full of pain and frustration.
“Fucking psycho bitch!”
That would be Francesca.
On shaking legs, I stand and turn to find Sibby dragging Francesca’s flailing body toward us, her red, sweaty face twisted with annoyance. Zade starts to head to her but pauses and points at Xavier.
“I hear you call her any
names one more time, I’m cutting out your fucking tongue. Believe me when I say you wouldn’t be the first.”
My brows pinch. “Who was the first?”
Zade just grins, then jogs over to Sibby and takes over, relieving her of Francesca’s weight and carrying the screeching woman the rest of the way, an arrow protruding from her ass cheek.
I’m still a little hung up on the tongue thing, but I decide that I don’t really want to know anyway. Ignorance is bliss and shit.
“Where are your henchmen?” I call out, raising my voice above Francesca’s screaming. From the sour look on Sibby’s face, I’m assuming she wasn’t imagining one of them as the one dragging Francesca.
“I told them to stay behind. They’ve been arguing with each other all day, and it’s driving me nuts. I needed a break from those morons.”
Zade drops Francesca next to Rocco, her scream heightening when she lands on the arrow. The stem breaks, though the arrowhead is still lodged deeply in muscle and bone.
Then, Zade approaches Xavier, the injured man’s eyes widening with fear.
“Don’t be shy, come lay with your friends,” Zade says, grabbing Xavier by the front of his shirt and dragging him to lay on the other side of Rocco.
Their agonized moans, curses, and insults blend together, and Jesus Christ, is that annoying.
I approach them, staring down at the pathetic trio of rapists. A part of me wishes Rio were here so he could watch Francesca die alongside me. Who knows how deeply he’s suffered at her hands? Like Sydney, his pain doesn’t justify the pain he’s inflicted on others, but I do know that it wasn’t any less significant than mine.
“Embarrassing,” I spit, revulsion thickening in the pit of my stomach. “How many girls were in your place now while you celebrated and got off on their torment?”
“Fuck you!” Francesca screams, spittle flying from her mouth. “You think you’re better than us? I’ll see you in fucking Hell, and when I do—”
“You’ll what?” I cut in, laughing when she glares at me. I crouch down, putting my face in hers. “Torture me there, too? You will never be stronger than me, Francesca, and you want to know why? I survived you, but you won’t fucking survive me.”
I pull a special gift I had burning in the back of my pocket and present it to her. A heel I broke off from one of her shoes.
“Fucking choke on it, bitch.”
She opens her mouth to curse, scream—do whatever—and I take advantage, shoving the heel down her throat, smiling when her eyes pop out of her head. She convulses, choking on it, but I’m already standing and moving onto Xavier.
“Have fun, Sibby.”
Sibby grins while lowering onto her knees, and then crawls on Francesca’s body. Raising her pink knife above her head, she plunges it down into the slowly dying woman’s chest.
“No, no, no, wait, wait, it was all her—” Rocco begins, then abruptly ends when Zade plunges his knife directly through the side of his mouth. In through one cheek and out the other, the blade caught between his teeth.
Rocco screams, blood quickly pouring from his open mouth. I smile and turn my attention to Xavier. He looks on the verge of passing out, though I can’t tell if it’s from his injuries or because he’s a pussy facing the consequences of his own actions.
Probably the latter.
“Just… kill me already,” he whines. “I will beg you if I must.”
“You want me to grant you mercy? Was that what that was, every time you sliced me open? Did you have mercy on me when you raped me? Paid money and tried to buy me like I’m a fucking object so you could torment me for the rest of my miserable fucking life?”
He stutters, sweat pouring down his face, growing more desperate and panicked. Especially as Sibby begins to remove limbs, and Zade starts to pluck out Rocco’s eyes.