Page 2 of Her Wicked Men

“Yes?” My voice was barely a whisper, and he sighed as he took my hands.

“You’re not okay, are you?”

I forced my gaze up to his, staring into those warm brown eyes.

“I just executed a man.” I didn’t even blink as I said it, and Hank’s mouth set in a grim line as he nodded understandingly.

“From what I understood, he hurt you, a lot. And the brothers had us dig up dirt on him. You weren’t his first victim. There have been charges against him since he was a teen, but they were covered up. We found he even had some accusations in his workplace, but they’d been swept under the rug due to his position. Veronica, he wasn’t a good man, I can promise you that,” Hank stated as he squeezed my hands.

So why did I still feel like complete shit, even knowing this?

“This was a man who’d continue to hurt women until he killed them. I’ve been around some time, Veronica, I’ve seen men like him before. Men who prey on women. Eventually, the beating and need for control isn’t enough, and he would have finally crossed a line and killed.”

“Did I make the right choice, then?” I whispered, my brow knitted together as Hank stared at me. How could taking a life be justified?

“Did Callum have to go? Yes, no question about it. But it’s a shame the boys made you call the shots. I know it was their way of showing their true selves, of proving you have power with them,” Hank said slowly. “Although, in all honesty, I doubted they would’ve truly let him live if you’d said no. They were not fans of how he treated you. The Slade family lives by a code, and he broke it in the worst way.”

“If they would’ve done it anyway, why ask me? Why make me make that call?” I hissed, tears stinging my eyes as a lump formed in my throat.

“To see if you could bear the weight of their darkness, and to set you free from your past.”

“How is this setting me free? I’m an accomplice to murder!” I snapped, hating the tears that slid down my cheeks, my whole body trembling.

“No, you were saving future women, and you were saving yourself. You’ve broken the chains by making that call, but they’ve chosen to wear the blood on their hands for you, to protect you from that. At the end of the day, this is on them, they did this,” Hank assured me as he held my hands tight, as if he could will away the tremors that were racking my body.

I wanted to believe him, to truly think I had no part in this, but I’d said he had to pay. I’d told them it was okay to make him draw his last breath.

I’d chosen for him to die.

“Veronica, listen to me, this will pass. You did the right thing, even if it hurts. I know it’s hard. This was a man you vowed to marry, a man who you thought you once loved, and supposedly loved you, but no man who loves a woman would ever put her through what he put you through. Pushed you to do the thingsyou did to escape. This is justice, even if it seems wicked and cruel. These boys, this is all they know, the world they live in. It’s a dark one, but it can be just.”

“Would you have killed him?” I asked, his words sinking in and settling over my heart like a wretched shadow. A shadow that would haunt me forever, plaguing my happiness.

“Yes.” He didn’t even hesitate as our eyes locked once more. “He had to pay, and I would’ve feared for the other women he went after. He was a predator, he had a need for power over women. Any man like that is far more dangerous than a man who kills for his family and legacy.”

I blinked, taking in his words as I clung to his hands like they were the only thing holding me to this reality, keeping me from plunging into the dark depths of this bloody, cruel world.

I nodded, no words forming as my mind reeled, and I let out a shaky breath as I slumped forward.

“You’ll get through this, Veronica. This is not your fault. None of it is, and do not think you making that call would have changed anything. As soon as the brothers found you and learned he hurt you, he was a dead man walking. Nothing you could’ve said or done would’ve changed that. You may have thought they’d let him live if you asked, but I honestly doubt it.”

If they’d planned to kill him, why did they even let me see him? Why give me that false belief that I had any power by saying it was my call?

No, if I’d said so, they would’ve let him live, although they’d make sure it was in fear. I knew that for a fact, they’d drill it into him, that he had to watch his back. A life living in fear, like how I’d lived with him. That would’ve been their other option. Or they would have crippled him. He wouldn’t have merely walked away.

Hank may have believed they’d have killed him anyway, but I had my doubts. Intimidation was their forte, so instilling fear in the man was just another day for them. They’d revel in it.

Would I have found some twisted satisfaction in knowing he was living looking over his shoulder instead of me? Probably.

But I’d chosen his death instead.

It was a mercy. Living in fear was no way to live.

But being dead didn’t give you any options either.

“I’m going to get you a hot chocolate, okay, Veronica? Yell out if you need me,” Hank said slowly, as if he sensed my spiral beginning.

I nodded, feeling like I was drifting away in my mind as I let his hands slip away from mine. A part of me didn’t want him to leave, wanting to take comfort in having another person there, but I also wanted to be alone for a moment to process what the hell I’d just done.

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