“I’ll go help Shane,” Shanny offers.
I flick my chin at her and Kellerman before stalking toward the basement. I’ve never hurt a woman before, other than Patricia and that doesn’t count because she was drugged up enough to fight me like a man. I refused to take jobs that involved women the entire time I worked for my uncle. I don’t know if I have it in me, but if there was ever a woman I’d want to hurt it’s Trish Booker.
I throw the door open and flip on the lights in the wine cellar, startling a sleeping Trish. Kat shuts the door and stands at my side as I stare down the petrified cowering bitch. She wasn’t afraid of Kat and Shanny, but she’s scared of me…of the monster.
“You like gettin’ fucked with knifes? That a turn on for you?” I purr into her face before ripping off the tape covering her mouth.
“I didn’t do it. She’s still a virgin,” she blabbers quickly.
“You trained her for two years. How did you train Cara?” I continue to purr close to her ear in a voice that’s promising unbridled torture.
Trish doesn’t respond so I step back and study her from afar before moving to my toolbox. I rummage around until I find my weapon of choice, a steel file. I pass it to Kat who pulls a chair up to Trish.
“I think you need a manicure,” Kat chirps brightly and begins to file the raw flesh where Trish’s fingernails used to be.
The screams and pleas that flow from her lips are music to my ears. I love this. I shouldn’t enjoy this, but it fills me with delight to here evil beg for help. No one is coming to help something as depraved as Trish Booker. Never.
“That’s better,” Kat announces gleefully as she completes one hand. Trish’s flesh is filed down to the bone and she’s vomited and pissed all over herself. It’s not enough. It’ll never be enough.
“Would you like Kat to continue or are you ready to answer questions?”
“She was beaten, whipped, choked, face raped, bound, gagged, suspended, shocked and burned,” Trish gasps out.
Kat leaps out of the seat in front of Trish, pushes me aside and rummages through the tools. She grabs a hole borer and lunges at Trish, plunging the steel tip into her arms, hands, thighs, shoulders, the places that hurt and don’t risk bleeding to death.
Trish screams and cries until no sound travels from her. The agony smothers the reverberations within her. She weeps. She doesn’t deserve to weep.
“Where’s Hoyt Burke?” I growl leaning into her face as Kat flops into a chair.
“Carrington, New Jersey,” she sleepily drawls out.
“Are you the top of the trafficking ring?”
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“Since I took over for my father. Seventeen years.”
“Who else are you working with?”
“Everyone,” she answers through a snort.
“Where are your books?”
“Bunker under the church.”
“When’s your next shipment of girls?”
“Yesterday.”
“Where?”
“They’re gone. You won’t find ’em. That’s why it works. No trail.”
“And when you and Burke are gone?”
“Someone else will step in somewhere,” she says with a smirk.
Kat leaps to her feet smashing her fist into Trish’s nose, shattering it. I relish the sound of the bone crushing married with the wails of suffering. How loud did Cara scream and no one stopped?
“I’m gonna sell your son and daughter in your next shipment. Your daughter is going to the person that wanted Cara. If you weren’t so ugly I’d sell you too. Maybe a brothel is South America would take you. You think?” I ask Kat.
“I’m sure we could find one for her in a favela in Brazil,” Kat answers thoughtfully.
“You think I give a shit what you do with those kids or me? You don’t know me as well as you think,” Trish scoffs.
“That’s right. You wanted to be fucked with a knife. I don’t have a knife in here. Is a box cutter good enough?” I rumble into her ear in a sadistic tone.
“You don’t have the balls,” Trish dares me.
“Does Hoyt Burke?”
Her face blanches at the suggestion.
“I guess he does. So we’ll get him here and let him work on you instead of us workin’ on you. Then I don’t have to come in contact with your putrid skin.”
“Hoyt won’t hurt me,” she hisses.
“That man knows no loyalty. He’ll fuck you six ways to Sunday when I tell him to if he believes he’ll walk away with his life. The worst part of your undoing is the woman upstairs waiting for you. You hurt her sister and she has abilities and rage that make Kat and I look like pussy cats. She’s comin’ for you sooner rather than later. She will not relent. She will not stop. She will not turn away when your screaming begins to deafen her. She’ll push harder. She’ll smile as you plead for your last breath. That’s what you’ve got coming. And come to think of it, I’m ready to be done with you so I can watch the show.”
“Let me go and I’ll tell you where I got the girl. You wanna know where I got her. It’s not in my books. It was a private deal. You’ll never be able to find out if you kill me,” Trish pleads.
“You wanna know the best thing this job teaches you?” Kat questions. Trish moves her wary gaze to Kat’s cool calculated one. “You can spot a liar. You’re lying. I can smell it on you even through the piss and puke. I think I smell shit too. Did you shit yourself, Trish? Ah, what would Maybelle think of that? Disgusting cunt of a whore like you lunching with the wealthy, shits herself when she’s scared. Pathetic. Tell us where you got Cara now and I’ll ask Shannon to cut it short. Say anything other than that and I’m leaving this room and bringing her down here to have her way with you as long as she wants. You know what people call Shannon? A machine. She’s a killing machine.
“I feel sorry for you. Something truly fucked up had to have happened to you for you to turn into this monster. Nick won’t touch you because he can’t bring himself to hurt a woman even though you’re nowhere near anything I’d consider a woman. Shannon doesn’t have those issues. She doesn’t feel sorry for you or care that you’re a woman. You hurt her family and have become an object to exact her revenge on. Enjoy your last breaths. Where did you get Cara?”
“Harold Lancaster. Please just shoot me. Don’t let that woman down here,” her voice quivers with fear.
“How the fuck is Harold Lancaster involved in this shit?” Kat demands.
“We had an order for a girl. Auburn hair, green eyes, tall, American and eighteen. Harold had some contacts that he offered us in exchange for some other services. He found the girl somewhere in the Midwest as a domestic.”
“Why did Harold beat Sawyer?” I ask, starting to put pieces of a fucked up puzzle together.
“He thought Sawyer figured it out,” Trish offers blankly, sweat pouring down her face from nerves and trauma.
“Why did he think Sawyer had figured it out?” I snarl in her face.
“I told him. I saw Sawyer looking at a picture of Cara on his phone and told Harold.”
“You saw Sawyer looking at a picture of the woman that’s comin’ to take your life you stupid cunt!” Kat rages.
I hawk back and spit in her face before turning to Kat who’s shaking with adrenaline. This can’t be good for the baby. I don’t worry about Shanny coming in here and ending this because her pulse will be below resting rate as she does it. This will soothe Shanny while it’s riling Kat.
“We’re done. We don’t need anything else. Think about the baby and the boys,” I speak softly to Kat, trying to calm her.
“Two minutes alone and then send Shannon down,” Kat says clinically.
“Two minutes and don’t hurt yourself,” I instruct holding her hazel eyes.
She nods as Trish begins to beg. I leave the room after brushing my lips across Kat’s golden locks. Her body is speckled with Trish’s blood and her face is thirsty for more as she move
s away from me to avenge our son.
Kat
Trish killed Sawyer. I watched him die and had to bring him back to life. She’s the reason that happened. All because Sawyer used Nick’s phone at a basketball game and scrolled past a photo that had Shannon in it. I doubt Sawyer even remembers it. I didn’t until this very moment. I promised Shannon this life in front of me and I’m going to be a liar in sixty seconds time.
Trish Booker hurt Shannon’s family, but she killed my son. Her death is mine.
I stand in front of Trish, grab her by the shoulders and repeatedly ram my knee into her ribs until they begin to crack from the force. I don’t hear her screams. I hear Sawyer’s whimpers calling out for me to help him.
I pummel her face with my elbows and forearms, saving my knuckles from any damage. She’s coughing and choking on the blood filling her mouth from the teeth I’ve knocked loose. I grab a hammer and crush her hands and knees when she starts to lose consciousness, bringing her back around. I’m panting heaving breaths from the workout.
“This is what my son felt because of you,” I seethe into her swollen deformed face.
I wrap my hands around her neck and constrict with every bit of strength I have in me. The wine cellar opens and Shannon comes to my side but doesn’t intercede. She watches as Trish strains and wiggles beneath my grasp trying to fight for her last breath. I clamp down harder seeing my son’s face as Harold choked the life from him. I squeeze so hard my fingers burn with a fire that warms my soul.
A soft hand settles on my shoulder bringing me back to the room. It’s silent, shimmering with reflections of glass and wine. Peaceful.
“She’s gone,” Shannon whispers, running her hand down my arm to help me release my cramped fingers.
“I’m sorry,” I say genuinely, peering into Shannon’s face.
“She tried to kill your son,” Shannon says pulling me into her arms, her pregnant belly smashing into mine. “You did good.”
I release a giant breath I didn’t realize I was holding as we stand embracing each other for a long while.
“Cleaner’s here,” Nick announces from the doorway.
Shannon and I separate offering each other comforting squeezes as we do. She moves to Trish’s unrecognizable body before spitting on her corpse. That pretty much sums it up. So we leave the wine cellar together climbing the stairs feeling lighter, freer.
“I need a shower,” I declare when we hit the kitchen.
A slight man with grey hair and wire rimmed glasses nods at Nick before descending the stairs with a large black bag over his shoulder. He’ll wash Trish down the drain in the basement bathtub. It’s better than she deserves.
“Shanny, I need your clothes for the cleaner,” Nick says kindly.
He needs mine too. I should have changed out of my new favorite track suit the boys bought me. I’m irritated that I didn’t think about that. Luckily, they bought me five.
Nick follows Shannon and me up the stairs, leaving me at our room with a soft kiss before following Shannon up to the guest room to wait for her clothes. I quickly strip and bag my clothes for Nick before climbing into a excruciatingly searing hot shower. I scour every inch of my body twice, removing any trace of Trish or her death from my body and my mind. I’ll never think of her again after I get out of this shower.
She’s gone from the world and gone from my mind. Never to be considered again. I feel no guilt. No remorse. No regret. I feel avenged and peaceful as the last of the suds funnel down the drain. My soul is clean for the first time since I began this job. I feel whole and right in the world. Serene.
I cut off the water and dress in a heather grey track suit. I’m no longer Stepford. That’s a relief I don’t have words for. I can’t wait to get out of this house. The boys are mostly packed already. I want out tomorrow. I’m done. I’m done with this life. I’m done with the DCA. I’m ready for normal.
Hair piled on my head in a messy lump and make-up free I run into Shannon on the stairs. She looks much the same in a long sleeved pale yellow T-shirt and yoga pants. We’re a sexy pair. The doorbell rings and Shannon and I hurry down the stairs to find Phil Ganesly walking in shaking Nick’s hand as he does.
“Kat, meet Federal Agent Phil Ganesly,” Nick introduces as I hit the bottom stair.
I nod but make no move to greet him.
“Phil, this is my best friend Shannon Kelly.”
“Pleasure,” Phil says shaking Shannon’s hand professionally.
“It’s nice to meet you, Agent Ganesly,” Shannon returns.
“Phil has been undercover working to get Tony Booker on charity fraud,” Nick explains.
“I knew you were workin’ an angle here. Just wasn’t sure what it was. When your prints on your business card didn’t pull up any hits in our system, I figured you were lookin’ for an in on the charity fraud. When you hooked up with the rest of the poker group I was almost certain. With the surveillance you were able to collect on them, they’ll be goin’ away for a long time,” he says to Nick and then turns his attention to me. “I’m sorry for how rude I was to you, Agent Russell. I had no idea who you were. I’m glad you’re recovering well.”
“No offense taken. I know how the job works. Thank you for your help with Patricia Lancaster. I’m feeling much better,” I reply professionally. He’s a good agent because he had me convinced he was the classic Maybelle asshole.
Phil smiles kindly at me, not a hint of that jerk I met before in sight.
“If you wanna follow me, your mark’s up here,” Nick says to Phil, leading him up to the office.
I guess Tony didn’t have anything to do with this and gets to go to white collar prison. At least he’ll have his poker buddies with him. I just want him out of this house so I can get the boys here and packed to move. Shannon and I plod into the kitchen and then the family room where Dylan is laying on the couch watching ESPN with Johnny asleep on his chest. Those two are so laid back. Shannon climbs over her son and settles on her side draped over her man and baby.
“You want in on this?” Shannon asks sincerely.
“I’m good,” I respond through a smile, collapsing on the other couch. Exhaustion hits me quickly and I’m asleep in moments as basketball drones in the background.
“Mom,” Sawyer’s voice tickles my ear.
“Hmm.”
“We’re home,” Cole announces softly.
I peel my eyes open to see the three boys perched on the coffee table watching me.
“Hey,” I say through a large stretch.
“You were sawin’ logs,” Dane informs me with a teasing smirk on his lips.
“I was worn out. That’s when I do my best lumberjack impersonation.”
They all snicker at my joke as I stretch my aching body.
“We met Cara,” Sawyer says sympathetically.
I sit up and face my kids. They look happy and normal. None of this has touched them other than Sawyer and he’ll never know that. I’ll shelter him from this until the day I die.
“How’d that go?”
“Fine I guess. She’s stuck to Jake like glue, but she laughed at Dane so I think it went well,” Cole says with an easy grin.
“You guys hungry?”
“Nah, we ate.” I love it when they answer in unison like that.
“You have much more to pack?” I ask as I sit up to face them.
“You’re really makin’ us go,” Sawyer complains dejectedly.
“I’m really makin’ you go. And I’m comin’ with you.”
“What?”
“Really?”
“How?”
The three of them fire off in harmony.
“We wrapped the op this afternoon. I can’t tell you much more than that, but we’re done. I think we could all use a change of scenery. Kansas City seems like the best option for us at this point. Nick and I don’t have any family. The only people I have are Shane and Jess. I love them, but I don’t wanna raise you boys in the shadow of the DCA in Vi
rginia. I’d like us to be in the Midwest where I’m from. With Shannon and her family in Kansas City I think we’ll be happy there. What do you boys think?”
“Sounds good to me,” Dane says with his typical laid back shrug.
“Me too,” Cole agrees.
“What about Jake?” Sawyer whispers.
“What about him?”
“You think he’ll go with us now? He doesn’t need to look out for us anymore. Maybe he’ll decide to stay in the DCA.”
“He’s going with us,” I state emphatically.
“Okay,” Sawyer says with a glint in his ebony eyes.
“Where’s everyone else?” I ask as I stand to go search.
“Aunt Shanny went up to nurse Johnny. Shane’s in the office. Dad and Uncle Dylan are down in the gym and Jake and Cara are in the game room,” Dane answers as we walk into the kitchen.
“All right, you three go up and finish packing. I’ll be up in a while to see where you’re at.”
I kiss them each on the cheek before padding down the stairs to the basement. I can hear the slap and crunch of the heavy bag being brutalized before I enter the gym. I stand in the doorway and watch Nick pummeling away as Dylan braces the bag. These two with their shirts off should be illegal.
“Hey,” I call out stopping Nick mid-swing.
“Hey,” they respond in unison.
Both men start unwrapping their hands as I stare at their god-like physiques. I think a little drool is pooling in the corner of my mouth.
“Should be fuckin’ illegal,” Shannon whispers in my ear.
I look over my shoulder catching her mischievous green eyes and we burst into laughter.
“What’s wrong with you two?” Dylan asks, striding his massive frame toward us. Two, four, six, eight…that’s an eight pack and a man V Batman would be jealous of.
“Pick your jaw up, Kat,” Nick admonishes me.
“You too,” Dylan chides Shannon who’s staring at Nick.
Her and I exchange looks again and fall into fits of laughter so deep that my sides hurt and tears are running down our cheeks.
Into the Blackness (Blackness Series Book 4) Page 30
