SLAUGHTER

by Tessier, Shantel

  Kayn walks into my house first followed by a sleepy looking Bunny, then Darrell. She comes to a stop inside the foyer, and Darrell shoves her forward. She falls to her knees, and my jaw tightens.

  Kayn turns around, hearing the commotion and her small cry, and helps her to her feet. “Hey, take it easy. The drugs haven’t worn off yet,” he tells him.

  Darrell shrugs carelessly. “If Avery was smart, he would keep her drugged twenty-four seven. The bitch is much more tolerable when she’s unconscious.”

  She sways, and Kayn doesn’t release her. “How much did you give her anyway? She should be more lucid,” he comments, looking down at her.

  “Enough!” He squares his shoulders. “I wasn’t taking the chance of her stabbing me with a fork again.”

  Kayn sighs. “I have already spoken to Avery. You guys get settled in, and I’m gonna go get him. Keep the place together until I get back,” he tells Darrell and then releases Bunny.

  She wraps her arms around her chest and looks at Darrell. “May I call him?” Her voice is rough from sleep.

  “Who?” Darrell snaps.

  “Avery. I want to talk to him.” She rubs her eyes.

  “No.” He snorts. “You’re not allowed to use a phone.”

  “I don’t think that rule applies when it’s him I want to call,” she says angrily. Finding that fire I know she has. I hope wherever she is right now, she is fighting. Hang on, Bunny.

  He slaps her across the face, and she stumbles back into Kayn. Kayn leans down to whisper into her ear, and then she turns and walks up the stairs to go to her room.

  Kayn grabs him by the back of the neck and yanks him forward. “Keep your hands to yourself,” he orders.

  “We’re allowed to do what is necessary to keep her in line.”

  “I’m allowed to do that. You’re just a fucking overpaid babysitter. So keep your fucking hands to yourself,” he snaps, then shoves him away. “Now go upstairs and let her use your cell to call Avery. I’ll be back soon.” He walks toward the door but turns to face a pissed-off Darrell. “I mean it, Darrell. Keep your hands to yourself, or I’ll cut them off myself.” Then he walks out.

  “She never called me,” I say more to myself, lifting the remote to turn off the video.

  My brother stops me. “Stay on him. I wanna see what he does next.”

  We watch him walk into the formal dining room. The same one where I had Bunny bent over the table, and my anger rises that I allowed her out of my sight when I knew she was already in trouble.

  He pulls his cell out and sends a quick text and then he looks up at the camera before turning his back to it and walking right out the front door.

  “Goddammit!” I yell, throwing the remote across the room.

  “We’ll find her,” my brother assures me.

  “I’m sorry, sir,” Kayn says, squaring his shoulders. “I should have never left—”

  “You had orders!” I snap, interrupting him. It’s no one’s fault but mine.

  “Yes, sir. But I could have sent Mason to come and get you.”

  I look at him. “Go get Darrell. Bring him to me. Now!”

  They both shake their heads. “We have to play this smart. He doesn’t know we’re on to him. I can watch his every move. Listen in on his phone calls but he won’t just come out and tell you what he’s up to,” Kayn announces.

  “You expect me to sit on my ass?”

  “Avery?” my brother snaps, and I narrow my eyes on him. “We expect you to be smart about it. If he was a man who you wanted information from, how would you get it?”

  “Torture it out of them.”

  “It won’t work with him, sir. I know Darrell. We need to wait for him to go to her,” Kayn offers.

  I turn my back on them, running a hand down my face. I know they’re right. But what if he never goes to her? How long will she survive out there without me? I don’t want to find out.

  _______________

  It’s been forty-eight hours since she was taken, and I’ve done nothing but pace. And drink.

  My hands itch to tear Darrell’s head off, but every time I go to make a move, my brother or Kayn get in my way. I’m about to rip both of their heads off just because I can.

  I’m in my study, sitting at my desk. I open the top drawer and see her cell sitting there. I haven’t looked at it other than that one time. And it’s dead. Plugging it in, I turn it on. After a few seconds of it vibrating, it shows over fifty texts and ten voicemails.

  I open it up and go through her pictures again, but instead of looking at the ones in the front, I scroll to the older ones. When I come to one that has me in it, my heart instantly stops. We’re young. She was sixteen and I was eighteen. It was taken sitting outside by my pool in the house I grew up in. You can tell it’s a picture she took of the original. She’s standing between me and my best friend. The guy she left me for. The one she chose. When there should have never been a competition to begin with. I should have seen it coming. I always found him too close to her. He would go out of his way when he came over to talk to her. She told me they were just friends, but I should have known better.

  Twelve years ago

  She sits at the outside bar, sipping on some lemonade in a pink two-piece. I promised her we would go swimming after I finished playing basketball. She has half her short blond hair up in a high ponytail. Her white sunglasses cover her face, and she’s smiling right at me.

  “What?” I ask.

  “Just admiring you,” she answers.

  I look away from her, bounce the ball, and then jump up and shoot it. When it hits nothing but net, she claps.

  “Best two out of three?” Tristan whines.

  “Nope. Promised Bunny I’d go swimming with her.”

  He picks up the ball and rolls his eyes.

  I turn to walk over to her but stop when I see my friend Mitch standing beside her. I punched him in the fucking face a few weeks ago when I walked in on them playing pool and he had his hands all over her. I warned him to stay away from her, but he hasn’t listened. She takes a step back from him, and he matches it. Lowering his head, he looks her up and down, and my blood starts to boil when he reaches out for her. Her eyes meet mine, and she smiles nervously. “Avery. I’m ready when you are.” Then she turns around, giving both of us her back, and walks off, heading toward the pool.

  Mitch walks toward me and winks before passing. “Tristan, I’ll play you,” he calls out.

  I fist my hands and ignore the desire to punch him again. She assured me last time that nothing was there. He can try all he wants, but nothing will come of it. Instead, I remove my sweaty shirt and head toward the pool to be with my girl.

  I power off her phone and drop it back into my desk drawer before slamming it shut. I stand, needing to move.

  Promises. She’s the reason I quit making them. She’s the reason for every decision I have ever made.

  How dare she do this to me! She fucking plays me. Leaves me. Ruins me. Then eleven years later, I take her with every intention to ruin her in return and then this happens!

  She makes me feel again!

  Makes me fucking love her again!

  You never stopped loving her.

  “FUCK!” I grab the nearest thing I see, which is an empty glass that held my scotch from earlier, and throw it across the room. It shatters into a million pieces when it hits the brick fireplace.

  I turn to face my desk, grip the edge, and turn it over. My computer goes crashing off it to the floor along with my keyboard, cell and office phone. The drawers I didn’t have locked fall open, and the contents come falling out. My gun hits the floor with a clank.

  My door swings open, and Kayn comes running in, gun drawn, followed by Tristan.

  “Avery, man, you have to calm down.” My brother sighs when he sees my mess.

  Fuck calm! I’ve never been rational when it came to Bunny. Why start now? No matter what she had done to me in the past, she is everything to me.


  My rage.

  My love.

  And my sanity.

  I took her in the first place to protect her, and she made me fail at that!

  “I’m done waiting,” I say, walking behind my tipped over desk and grabbing my gun off the floor along with my cell.

  “Wait!” Tristan says, jumping in front of me. “You need to wait—”

  I point the gun at his face and cock it. “You have two options—move or die.” My voice is even and so is my breathing.

  His jaw sharpens, and his dark blue eyes glare down my barrel at me. Kayn stands off to the side, silently watching us.

  “Which is it?” I’m not bluffing. I never do. I will kill anyone who stands in my way of getting Bunny back. And I’m about to prove it.

  He lets out a long sigh, holds up his hands in surrender, and steps aside. Good choice.

  I walk out of the study. “Where the fuck is he?” I ask when I hear them following me.

  Kayn responds. “He’s at the warehouse.”

  The fucker has been moping around here pretending to be fucking injured from a gunshot wound. It was a graze. He staged her abduction and took a bullet to make himself look innocent. There won’t be much left of him when I’m done.

  I walk through the house and out the front door. I’m jogging down the stairs and to my car that is parked over to the side of the driveway when Kayn stops me. “I’ll drive, sir.”

  I turn around to see him heading to my Escalade, my brother following suit.

  “How are you going to get him to confess?” Tristan asks, getting into the back seat behind me.

  “Whatever it takes,” I say, looking out the bulletproof window but not really seeing anything as we pass.

  “Come on, Avery. You have to have a plan,” he insists.

  “I do. Torture him until he tells me where the fuck she is.”

  The car falls silent, and I close my eyes while my right foot taps on the floorboard. My gun rests in my hand on my thigh.

  I’ll find you, Bunny! Nothing could possibly stop me.

  “Avery, there’s always the chance that …”

  “If you value your life, you will not finish that sentence,” I warn my brother.

  He lets out a growl of frustration. “We should wait. We don’t even know why he did it in the first place,” Tristan continues.

  Why did he even fucking come? “It doesn’t matter why he did it.” I shrug my tight shoulders.

  “But what would he want with her?” he continues. “If he was involved, he didn’t take her for himself.”

  “Shut up, Tristan!” I shout. “I told you I don’t give a fuck why he did it! If he’s involved, he will take me to her!”

  Even if I have to carry him to her because I’ve cut off his arms and legs, I will find her. I smile, knowing the smell of blood is in my near future. He’s gonna bleed until he tells me where my Bunny is.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  AVERY

  WE PULL UP TO THE BACK of the warehouse and walk in the double doors. Darrell stands with his back to us and his cell to his ear. “Yeah, it’s all good here,” he says, nodding once. “They don’t suspect a thing.”

  Fucking bastard!

  My blood starts to boil, and I see red. I lift my gun and place it on the back of his neck. “Actually, I do.” My voice vibrates with my anger.

  His body stiffens, and I yank the phone from his hand. I place it to my ear. “Who the fuck is this?” I demand.

  Click.

  I hand the cell to my brother. “Find out who that number belongs to.”

  He takes it and walks away, heading to the office in the front of the building. He’s our tech guy. If there’s a trace, he’ll find it. I have no doubt. Now I’m glad I didn’t shoot him in my study.

  “Where is she?” I demand.

  “I don’t know …”

  “Don’t play fucking dumb!” I shout and then hit him on the back of the head with my gun. He falls to his knees. “Next time, I’ll shoot you.”

  He turns on his knees to face me and Kayn. He too has his gun pulled and trained on Darrell, and he starts to laugh. “You think you two scare me?” He shakes his head. “You’re not as big as you think you are, Avery.”

  I start to pull back on the trigger, my gun still trained at his head.

  “Dead men can’t speak, sir,” Kayn announces, getting my attention.

  “Injured ones can,” I say and fire the gun.

  The power behind the bullet sends him falling back onto the concrete floor. The sound bouncing off the open warehouse, momentarily deafening me. He grabs his right arm, screaming out as blood starts to pour from the wound.

  Then I pull the trigger again and shoot the other one. “Now. Talk,” I order.

  His lips pull back, hissing in a breath. “She’s as good as dead.”

  “You better hope that’s not the case.” I will set this town on fucking fire! I will burn every person until I get to one who tells me where the fuck she is! The devil himself would be impressed with how determined I will be.

  He looks up at me, eyes narrowing. “If she’s not already, then she’s praying for it.”

  I kick him in the face, and his head snaps back. “Fucking tell me where she is!”

  He moans, falling onto his side. The smell of his blood getting stronger by the minute. I usually revel in it. Savor it. But I don’t have the time right now. He is right. Is she fighting to live? Has she already given up?

  “Did you give her to Damon?” I demand.

  He lets out a strangled laugh. “Why do so many of you guys want that bitch? Is she that good of a fuck?”

  My jaw tightens, his words letting me know that it wasn’t Damon. Who else would fucking want her? And what do they plan on doing with her? I lower my gun and look at Kayn. “I need a few things.”

  _______________

  “I won’t tell you where she is,” he snarls, shaking his head. “Never.”

  “We’ll see,” I say, removing my Rolex from my wrist. Then I undo the buttons on my sleeves and roll them up to my elbows.

  He sits in a metal chair in the center of the warehouse with his wrists tied to the back legs. Blood runs down both arms to the floor, and his head hangs forward.

  “You’ve lost a lot of blood,” I inform him in case he doesn’t already know.

  His only response is a grunt.

  “Kayn, why don’t you help him out? Don’t want him to bleed to death before we’re done.”

  Kayn walks over to him and digs his hands into the bucket by Darrell’s feet. He grabs a hand full of the contents and then places them on his arm over the bullet wound.

  Darrell’s head falls back, and he grits his teeth, refusing to make a noise while Kayn presses salt into the wound—packing it tightly. He then takes the plastic wrap and wraps it around his upper arm to keep it in place. “The salt helps stop the bleeding and closes the wound faster,” I inform him. “It hurts like a bitch, but it allows me to torture you longer.”

  “Fuck … you,” he says through clenched teeth while Kayn does the other.

  I don’t have time for this! “Tell me where she is.”

  He shakes his head, and I walk over to him, yanking his shoes and socks off his feet. I grab the bucket of water and place his feet in it. Then I take the car battery off the table and place it on the floor along with the jumper cables.

  I shove a rag into his mouth and connect the cables to the battery and let it shock him for ten seconds.

  His body jerks, and he makes unintelligible noises into his gag. I unplug it and rip the rag from his mouth. “Ready to speak?” I ask.

  He looks up at me. His eyes narrowed with rage. A vein pops out of his head. “I hope you enjoyed fucking her while you had the chance …”

  My hand shoots out and wraps around his large neck with so much force it knocks his chair back. I go down to my knees while the chair slaps the floor. He lies on his back looking up at me as I squeeze his large neck.


  His mouth opens but nothing comes out. I grind my teeth, squeezing so hard my hand fucking shakes.

  His body jerks, trying to fight the ropes binding him to the chair. His face red, eyes large with fear. “I’m gonna kill you so fucking slowly,” I growl, “you’re gonna wish I had just shot you in the head.” I release him and stand to my full height.

  He coughs, and his body jerks. He spits, and the blood splatters over his face. “If you wanna shoot someone ...” He wheezes. “Shoot yourself. You did this to her.”

  I take my gun and press it into his kneecap. “Last chance. Where is she?”

  He starts to laugh, but it turns into a cough. “Where she belongs.” His lips turn into a sadistic smile. “Being a real fucking slave.”

  I pull the trigger, and it takes out his right knee.

  He throws his head back, and it hits the concrete floor, growling through gritted teeth.

  “He … came to … me …”

  “Who came to you?” I snap, already pressing the gun to his other kneecap.

  He opens his mouth to speak.

  “Avery!”

  I look over my shoulder to see Tristan running toward us from the front office. His eyes wide, and his cell in his hand.

  “Did you find out who the number belongs to?” I growl. He interrupted whatever Darrell was about to tell me. It better be worth it.

  He nods, then looks at Darrell lying on his back tied to the chair. His eyes come back to mine. “It’s Vaughn.”

  My blood runs cold at that name. The sadistic son of a bitch will treat her exactly like a slave. He’ll rape her. Torture her. He’ll make her scream again and again. He’s like me; he likes to watch things bleed. But eventually he’ll grow bored with her and just leave her chained up to die of starvation and dehydration. Then he’ll throw her out with the trash.

  I take a deep, calming breath, trying to get my head on straight. Thoughts of her tied down and bleeding keep entering my mind, but I have to push them aside. I have to get to her. And now.

  “Avery.” My brother’s voice rings out. “We need to go …”

  I block him out as the blood rushes in my ears. Even Tristan knows she may already be dead. We may already be too late.