Page 111 of Slaughter

I nod. “Give me a second.”

He walks out, and I take a deep breath before crouching outside the shower. She looks straight ahead. All this fucking time! All the fucking lies! I believed them. How stupid of me. I watch the way she sits, huddled by the wall, rocking. She looks terrified. Of me. I did this to her. I swallow the knot that forms in my throat. Now is not the time for me to become a little bitch. So I ask. “Are you hungry?” She doesn’t answer me. “I’ll have Marvin make something for you.” Then I stand and walk out of my bathroom, not giving her a chance to argue.

_______________

I stand down in the cellar, my brother standing beside me. Lance kneels on the floor in front of me with his arms tied behind his back thanks to Kayn. We both look down at him. His chest rises and falls fast as he breathes heavily. He bares his teeth. “Just fucking kill me and get it over with.”

Tristan laughs, and I just smile at him, knowing I’m getting ready to play. “Now why would I show you that kind of mercy?”

He growls. “Because I didn’t fuck her. I didn’t beat her.”

“You didn’t stop them,” my brother snaps, getting irritated.

I rub my chin with my hand, allowing myself to drown in the anger. “And you didn’t tell me eleven years ago that my father killed my child while he raped and beat the love of my life.”

His eyes widen, and I bend down in front of him. “You lied to me all those years ago. Oh, yeah, I found that out too.”

“He wanted me to abort the baby,” he says quickly, “and I wouldn’t do it.”

“That won’t get you any brownie points,” I say.

His head sags. “Your father is a very sadistic man. If I wouldn’t have done what he wanted, he would have made me pay.”

“Now I’m going to make you pay,” I inform him.

I stand to my full height, and my brother turns to face me. “I think he was the one to tell him she was here,” he muses. “I keep racking my brain trying to figure out how Victor knew she was with you. Darrell could have told him or Vaughn, but how would he have known what Victor did to her all those years ago? And Lance is the only one who has seen her who knows.”

My brows pull together, and my brother rolls his eyes. “He came when you found her in the bathtub almost dead. He acted strangely about it too.” He looks back down at him. “Seeing her here. With you.”

I haven’t really thought about it. All that mattered was that she was gone, and I needed to find her. How they knew she was here didn’t matter until now.

“Is that true?”

“Your father has kept an eye on her, making sure she stayed far away from you, but then he found out she was on Damon’s radar. But I didn’t tell him. I saw her here with you, and I panicked. When he called me, he already knew you had her and just needed the right opportunity.” He squeals like a fucking pig. Much easier than Darrell.

“Was he at the house with you and my brother?” He bows his head. “Was he?” I shout.

“Yes,” he says softly.

I grind my teeth and fist my hands. Why isn’t she telling me this? This changes things. Vaughn is a sadistic man, but my father was the one who taught him. He plays games better than anyone I know. “What were his plans for her?”

He shakes his head as if he can’t believe he has ended up in this situation. “She was to be his slave.”

“Until …?”

“Until he broke her.”

I grind my teeth. “Broke her how?” Our father has many different definitions for the word broken.

“Physically. Mentally. He wanted to watch you suffer, not knowing who had her. Or what was happening to her. And then eventually he’d killed her and drop her body off at your front door.”

“And what part were you supposed to play?” I vibrate with anger.

“I was to be her personal doctor. Sew her up when needed. Relocate broken bones. Make sure …”

“Make sure what?” I snap when he stops.

“Make sure she was kept alive.”

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