Page 139 of Dance of Ruin

Holy fucking hell.

That fucking tape isn’t a goddamnporn.

It’s her gettingraped. Assaulted.

And I held it over her head.

I’m numb as I turn for the door.

“Please, man!” Eddie sobs. He lunges for me, still on his knees, grabbing the cuff of my jacket sleeve. “That big guy out there, the husband of the girl from the car bomb… He’s gonna fuckin’ kill me!”

I look him dead in the eye.

“And I’m her fucking brother. Think about how badlyIwant you dead,” I whisper.

Then I open the door.

“Do whatever you want,” I growl to Kratos.

He smiles darkly as he cracks his knuckles and steps back into the room.

The weight in my chest as I walk out of the back hallway and onto the main club floor isn’t fury—it’s something worse.

Guilt.

This whole thing with Naomi started with me thinking she’d done something bad or stupid, and I was going to hold her to the fire for it to get what I wanted.

I used it to manipulate her. Made her feel dirty about it.

And finding out that that thing was in fact afucking video of her own assaultis…

Horrifying.

Monstrous.

A knife to my heart that I want to rip out and then drive right back in again.

I’m walking blindly back to the front door, my entire body numb, when something catches my eye. I frown when I see the guy standing by the bar, talking to one of the strippers and passing her a wad of cash.

Vaughn.

What the fuck is that asshole doing here?

“Vaughn,” I call out.

He doesn’t acknowledge me. He just stops talking to the girl in the stilettos and bikini and slowly turns his back to me.

“Vaughn,” I say again, louder.

His shoulders tense.

Then, he bolts.

I’m frozen for a second, trying to figure out what the fuck is going on as he runs through the club and down the hallway where I left Eddie and Kratos.

I mean, it's strange enough that he's here right now, and not at rehearsal. But why the fuck is he being so weird?

I give chase, bolting back down the hallway myself.

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