Page 116 of Connor's Claim

Cassie worked her jaw. “Who was the second man ye were taking to Cherry the weekend she died? She didn’t like him.”

He gave an eager head tilt towards a still-unconscious Councillor Blake, next to him in the row and with some kind of grime in his fair hair. “Cherry said he smelled bad. She didn’t like it when I brought him along.”

“‘Not so keen on that one.’ That’s what she said,” Genevieve whispered. “Thinking back on it, that might not have been fear. I took it that way because I was scared for her.”

Cassie peered over at us, and I gave her a soft nod to continue.

“Have ye ever hurt a woman?” She turned the knife over in her hands, the blade flashing in the office light.

Slaughter smiled. “I’m a lover not a fighter.”

Cassie slammed a fist into his jaw. The violence came out of the blue, and I yelped then clamped a hand over my mouth.Riordan jumped forward but stopped at a pausing hand from a relaxed Connor. Riordan clearly didn’t like the role Cassie was playing. But she was good at it. We were getting answers.

She shook her fist out. “Jokes piss me off. Try again.”

Slaughter groaned, blood bubbling in spit on his lips. “I sometimes pay to spank them. That isn’t a joke. I don’t want to leave anything out. I don’t know what else you want me to say.”

“That you’re a disgusting misogynist who’d be better off dead?” she quipped.

He hung his head in silence.

Cassie twisted to Connor, a head tilt at the next man in line, cueing him up to ready a needle. As Blake came to, he moaned low and long.

“Councillor Blake. Chelsea Gains, otherwise known as Cherry, didn’t like ye,” Cassie stated. “Ye have one chance to tell me why or I’ll remove your balls.”

Blake lifted his gaze to her. He took in the knife, then Connor at her back, and lastly, his colleague trussed up next to him. Awareness of his situation seemed to hang heavy over him. “S…she had issues with my personal hygiene.”

“Ugh, that tracks.” Cassie heaved a sigh. “Did ye kill her?”

“No! I could never. She was Benjamin’s favourite to start off an evening. We both miss her.” Blake peeked at Councillor Slaughter.

“Has any other woman been hurt at your hands or at your order?”

“I never ordered anyone. My…my wife tells me I cause her emotional pain. I never touch her. I mean, that was the problem and why our marriage fell apart. She wanted more?—”

“Jesus. Enough. Did ye ever meet Natasha Reid or Amelia Martin? Either alive or dead.”

Both shook their heads, nothing sly in their posture. No recognition at all that I could tell.

Exasperated, Cassie turned to Connor. “I’m getting nothing. Is it worth torturing them?”

The men made noises of protest.

Connor tapped his lip as if considering the notion. He moved to stand next to Cassie, over a foot taller than her and twice as wide. She handed back his blade.

Connor used it to point to the two awake men. “Your answers have won ye a reprieve. For now.”

“Thank you, thanks so much,” they babbled.

Cassie cut in. “But any hint that you’ve hurt, degraded, or even looked at a woman the wrong way and I’ll find ye and turn your balls into a pair of earrings.”

Connor nodded. “You’re never safe, not in your fancy workplace or your beds. I’m always aware. Always listening in. And boys?”

He gestured to me, out of sight behind them.

I stared back. He was giving me the opportunity to have my say. He hadn’t used my name, so I could stay put and continue pretending they hadn’t hurt me. Or… I circled the men on shaking legs to stand the other side of Connor. But I couldn’t speak, my voice wouldn’t come out.

“Get on your knees and beg Everly’s forgiveness for being the lowlife scum that ye are,” Cassie said for me.

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