Page 45 of Snagged By Hook

“How can you talk about your daughter like that? She’s your flesh and blood.”

“She’s a means to an end, nothing more,” he shouted at Nova, then turned to pace. He was talking to himself more than her.

She realized she was witnessing a breakdown. Brent was losing his mind.

“He said if I turned her over to him, he’d give me everything I needed to start a new life. I could finally get out.” He was worrying one of the nails on his free hand to the point it looked like it was bleeding. How had she not realized how bonkers he was before, or was that a new development?

No way someone gets like that overnight. It must’ve been there the whole time she knew him.

“Why did he have to change things? You do your time, and when you’re too old to make a profit, you find a replacement, and everything works out. Why change it now?”

Oh my god.Nova tried to control her breathing. The things he was whispering to himself were disconcertingly similar to Hook’s story. But there was no way he could be Casey. They’d already established that, but there was a connection.

Nova tried to calm herself, willing her racing heart to slow. After hearing Brent’s words, death was no longer an option. If she could stay alive, she could give Hook some closure.

And if she couldn’t, well, she crossed her fingers her phone was miraculously still recording.

Brent continued whispering to himself. Switching between hitting his face and chewing his bloody finger.

“That’s how he said it would be. He promised, but then he changed the rules.”

Nova needed to know more if she were to understand how Brent tied into Hook’s past.

“Who changed the rules, Brent?” She used her most soothing and concerned voice.

“Casey. Casey did.” She couldn’t control her gasp. Luckily, it didn’t look like Brent heard her. “He took me off the street. Said his brother was supposed to, but instead he killed our mother and ran. That’s why he had to take over and why he had to start with me. It was my destiny.”

His voice was whiny and childlike. Even with all the vile shit he’d done, she mustered up some genuine sympathy for him, or rather the child that he had been. But she needed more information about Casey and why June and just…

“Then why June?”

“Because Casey thought it would be safer to make our kids rather than risk getting caught taking them. But that requires the long game for freedom. He promised me it would be worth the extra years, but it wasn’t.”

Brent slipped back into his right mind again, and she tried to coax him out.

“Why wasn’t it worth it, Brent?”

The look he gave her was withering. Like she was a moron for not knowing. He really was too far gone. Brent stopped pacing.

“Because I was supposed to get to play house for at least a decade. He promised,” Brent shouted. “Experience a real family, my own family. But he lied. As soon as the brat was born, he made me start seeing clients again. Here.” He spun with his arms out, then pointed to his own chest with the knife. “In my home. The only one I ever knew. He ruined it. Ruined everything. You, my house, my play at being a normal fucking man. And you didn’t do anything to stop it, just complained about what I couldn’t do or the bills I couldn’t pay.”

Wow, it just got worse and worse, but she was not giving up. “Untie me, Brent. I will help you now. We can?—”

“Fuck you, cunt. I don’t need your help anymore.” He pointed the knife from her to his own chest. “I helped myself.”

Brent leaned in close to her face. She could see the madness in his eyes. The Brent she’d known was long gone. Just the mad creation of years of abuse was left. She wondered for a moment if that’s what would’ve happened to Hook if he’d not gotten free and then found the club, the family he’d been denied his whole life.

“Do you want to know how?” Brent waited for her to acknowledge his question.

“How what?”

His smile was pure evil. “How I helped myself, of course.” Where just seconds before he had been shouting, his voice was now happy and sing-songy.

“Yeah, Brent. I do want to know.”

“You always were a condescending bitch, but I’m going to tell you anyway. I killed him. Strangled him with my bare hands. Now I can start my own business with June and be free. And when she’s old enough, she will be able to give me a kid a year, and they can make me rich. Free and rich, isn’t that the American Dream?”

Nova lost the fight to pretend complacency at the mention of her daughter. His plan for June was even worse than she’d imagined.

---