Page 73 of Shattered

No.She can’t be dead. We can’t be too late. We just can’t…

“She’s innocent.” When I open my mouth, I don’t recognize my voice.

“She’s human. None of us are innocent. But she was your penance.”

My penance… Penance for what? I fucked around with his wife, so Lila had to die a painful death? Jared came to me for a tattoo that he never would’ve gotten with the brothers, and so Lila had to die? She had to be raped and brutally tortured, torn apart, burned, and then drowned in a bathtub?

“Are those tears, Asher?”

I don’t feel them until he mentions them, and I realize they’re pouring from my eyes like a faucet. When they lock on his, he grins wickedly.

“In all the years I’ve known you, I’ve never seen you give the slightest fuck about a woman. But this is the one? She’s got fire, I’ll admit. And beautiful eyes, until the light left them.”

“Shut the fuck up!” Bane snaps.

“Nice cunt, too. At least, it was until Rooney used her all up. Did you hear her screams? He ruined her.”

Just as the rage in my heart boils over, movement grabs my attention, and Rocco screams out in pain, falling backward. Red splatters from his midsection, and a knife thrown at the speed of fucking light falls from his stomach.

Turner.

I dive face first for the gun, racing Rocco, who’s scrambling to reach for it. Bane drops for it beside me. Rocco manages to grab it, and I slide forward to punch him in the face, cracking his nose open like an egg, and he howls in pain. As the three of us struggle in a seriesof punches, hits, and flying knives, Bane cries out. Just as he does, Rocco is tackled away from us. Turner lands straight on top of him, straddling his stomach, and lands punch after furious punch to his head, and the fury and strength he puts behind them and Rocco’s resulting screams satisfy me.

There’s another knife on the ground, and I have an opportunity to brutalize this fuck. I don’t hesitate to take it.

I crawl up on my knees, ignoring the firing pain. I yank down his pants, finding his small flaccid dick. Without hesitation, I wrap my hand right around his penis and balls, yanking them hard, and he screams as he realizes what I’m doing. In one swipe of the surprisingly sharp knife, they’re removed from his body in an explosion of blood. Wherever the fuck he’s going from here, he’s going neutered.

The screams from him pierce me to the core as I move up beside Turner to his head, nudging him to stop his onslaught of punches. His face is already half caved in and soaked in blood. I pry his jaw open with little struggle and stuff all of it in his mouth, closing his jaw on it, and he screams.

“That’s for Lila, you sick fuck!”

“Jesus christ,” Turner says in awe as we watch the motherfucker take his last breaths, choking on his own dick. He deserved so much worse than this.

When he falls still, and the room goes quiet, I hear Bane’s heavy breaths. I turn around to find him against a wall, his hand wrapping around a knife handle embedded in his abdomen. His eyes meet mine, pained.

“Bane! DON’T PULL IT OUT!”

I slide across the floor to him with Turner right on my heels, but we’re too late as Bane yanks the knife out, showering blood. Turner reaches him half a second before me and presses his hand on the wound, stopping the blood.

“Bane, are you okay?” I ask in terror.

“I’m fine,” he says breathlessly. “Go find Lila.”

When I hesitate, Turner nods at me. “I’ve got this. Take the gun and find Lila; watch out for the other guy.”

Right, Rooney.

At that moment, I hear a slight knock on the floor above us, and we all lift our heads. A moment later, Turner nudges me. “Go!”

I grab the gun off the floor and cross the room to the stairs, with pain exploding through my leg. I push it down, my adrenaline fueling me, even though I know I’ll pay for it later.

The stairs round a bend, and when I turn to ascend the last few, I briefly freeze, spotting a dead body on the floor.

My heart stops as I tumble up the last few steps, preparing to take in the scene. The body is lifeless.

It’s Rooney, and he is deader than dead. He’s covered in fresh blood pooling around him. He’s been stabbed in the neck, the stomach, and the dick. His eyes are closed.

Not closed. Gone.

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