Page 22 of Vengeful Lies

“Do you want us to watch it for you?” Connor asked softly.

“No,” he shot back adamantly. This was his daughter, his … whatever the hell Gabriella was to him. He had to watch. They were both innocent and they’d been taken because of him. Hurtbecause of him. The least he owed them was to watch whatever horror they had to endure.

“It won't serve any purpose to put yourself through that,” Jax spoke up.

“We won’t miss anything. Swear,” Cole added. “Any detail in there that will help us we’ll pick up on.”

“Don’t put yourself through this,” Jake said, a slight air of authority to his tone.

Only Cade was the big brother, a year older than his stepbrother, two years older than the twins, three years older than his other stepbrother, and four years older than his baby brother. Perhaps not a huge age gap, especially now that they were all in their thirties, but he was the oldest, and besides, this was his family that had been taken.

“I have to watch,” he told them. “And don’t say it doesn’t serve any purpose. It does. Essie and Gabriella were taken because of me. I owe them this.”

Before one of his brothers could argue the point, he grabbed the laptop on his kitchen table where they’d set themselves up that morning and turned it to face him.

With sighs and understanding looks, his brothers all moved to stand around him so they could watch with him. Offer the only support they could, their presence.

The email came from what was clearly an email address created exactly for this purpose. Since it had been titled lessonsforcade, he wasn't sure if Olivia and the others would be able to trace where it had been sent from, but as soon as he watched the video, he’d forward the email to her.

While he hoped the others wouldn't notice, but sure they would, his hand was shaking as he moved it to click on the video link. There was no text in the email and there didn't need to be. The email address said it all. As did the subject line, which simply read, this was fun.

When he opened the video, Essie and Gabriella appeared on the screen.

His momentary relief at seeing them alive was quickly eaten up by fury at the terrified looks on both their faces. Essie was wearing the same dress he’d seen her in that morning before he left to meet with the man who claimed to be Cassandra’s half-brother, but Gabriella was wearing only her swimsuit. It left her long, lean legs on display for these men, and he could see bruises peeking out from underneath the skin-tight material.

There were bruises on Gabriella’s face as well, but Essie’s seemed clear. Cade didn't need to guess why. The protective way she kept Essie tucked to her side and the glint of defiance in her green eyes said that Gabriella had been doing what they all had expected her to do and protecting his daughter as best she could.

And it had cost her.

“Missing something?” a man dressed in black and wearing a ski mask asked as he strolled into view. The man walked until he was behind the girls and ran a hand down both of their hair, making Cade see red.

Nobody touched his daughter without her permission.

“Unless you want your kid getting a real up close and personal lesson in the birds and the bees, I suggest you back off, stop looking for answers about topics that don’t concern you,” another man said as he walked over to the chairs and shoved Gabriella’s legs apart.

“Close your eyes, Essie. Keep them closed, okay? Until I tell you to open them,” Gabriella’s soft voice whispered urgently, and his daughter obeyed without hesitation.

Even in the face of groping, Gabriella couldn’t stop putting his child first.

The man between her legs laughed and then clamped a hand around her neck. When he leaned in and crushed his mouth against hers, Cade thought he was going to explode with rage.The other man palmed her breasts and began to squeeze them, and even on the video, he could hear Gabriella’s small whimper.

It was the single tear that trailed down her cheek that broke him.

Of course, he wanted his four-year-old daughter safe and protected, but the cost was so high. His Gabriella was being broken in the process.

When Gabriella’s eyes lifted and looked directly at the camera, Cade was unable to bear watching this horrific travesty a second longer. He didn't care if there was more to the video, he didn't want to see it if there was, Cade picked up the laptop and hurled it with all his might across the room.

It spun as it flew through the air, then connected with the glass sliding doors leading out onto the back deck with a satisfying crash as both the door and the laptop shattered.

Then he shoved to his feet, ran blindly toward the downstairs bathroom, dropped to his knees in front of the toilet, and threw up.

September 4th

7:34 A.M.

Gabriella was unsettled this morning, but she couldn’t tell why.

They were almost seventy-two hours into their ordeal, and while things had been terrible and she’d been forced to allow men to touch her and to touch them, things hadn't been as bad as she’d thought.

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