Page 55 of Fervent

“Where’s Tawny?” Jax placed both hands flat on the desk and glared at his father. He grabbed the pen and notepad sitting to his right and thrust them toward Perrone. “Details, old man. Address, the men who bought her, how much she went for. I want all of it.”

Perrone eased back in his seat, as if the barrel of my gun didn’t bother him, and picked up the pen. He tapped it against the desk in a rhythmic beat that set me on edge.

“She went for a hundred grand. You should be proud of that. The buyer went by the last name of Perez. He took her to Mexico where thewhiny bitch died.” Perrone smiled. “I heard she died just like Nikki Malone did. Perez didn’t have the patience to train someone as strong-willed as Tawny.”

Jax stumbled back, his face blanching in denial. “You’re lying.”

“‘Fraid not, boy. Your sister’s dead.”

Tap, tap, tapwith that fucking pen.

Perrone leaned forward, unfazed with how his words impacted his own blood.

“I don’t believe you,” Jax said, hands bunched at his sides.

I knocked him in the temple with the gun. Wincing, Perrone dropped the pen, and it slowly rolled toward him. He regarded me from the corner of his eye. “Did Alex tell you how she enjoyed sucking me off? I’ve got a big dick, and I rammed it so far down her throat, she cried.”

The thought of Alex crying for anyone besides me filled my veins with too much energy—the dangerous kind that sparked and singed until I nearly blew.

“Bitch gagged on my cum.”

Images of urine trickling down her legs, her screams as Brock’s whip tore through her flesh, sent me into a tailspin.

I’d failed her.

This scum bucket had worn her down, made her give him something she’d resisted giving me—her fucking tears. He’d taken everything; the island, my family’s vineyard, Alex’s last shred of self-respect. The bastard had ruined his own children’s lives.

As that pen drew closer, as Jax’s shoulders drooped in defeat, I saw Nikki in my mind’s eye. The mischievous spark in her gaze, the way her laughter used to fill me with contentment. She’d been the mother of my child.

And Perrone had taken her from our son in a bloody display of horror. One quick swipe of a knife, and she was gone, her life gurgling from her throat, hands wrapping around her neck as if she could contain her own life-force. Jax’s grief as it slid down his cheeks…the way he’d held her, bawling like a broken man.

Everything hurtled through my head in a turbulent mural of rage.

I lurched forward, grabbed the pen, and stabbed Perrone in the neck, right where his veins pumped corrupted, evil blood to his brain. He jerked over the desk, fingers clawing at the pen, and pulled it out amidst a gush of blood.

Red…that’s all I saw as I wrapped an arm around his neck and squeezed with every bit of strength I possessed. Letting the fucker bleed out wasn’t enough. Jax shouted something, but I couldn’t hear shit beyond the roar in my head.

Perrone struggled for a few intense seconds, a blip in the grand scheme of things, before he slumped over the smooth surface of the desk, gone to the world.

Dead.

Unable to hurt anyone else.

“You killed him.” Jax grasped his blond hair and stared at me, mouth gaping.

I stepped back and lifted my blood-drenched hands. The sticky red bathed my arms and shirt. Outwardly, I was the picture of calm, as if I’d taken a life without a second thought, but on the inside, I cowered in a corner and silently screamed.

Heartbeat racing way too fucking fast, I pulled out the throwaway phone we’d bought on the way to Portland. A tremor seized my fingers, and I had to punch in the sheriff’s number twice before it went through.

He answered on the third ring with a barked, “Lewis.”

“You’ll find Nikki Malone’s remains somewhere in Forrest Park. You’ll need—”

“Who is this?” he shouted through the earpiece.

“Shut up and listen.” The plan relied heavily on chance and Lyle Lewis actually acting on an anonymous tip. “You’ll need several men, probably a few ATVs. There’s an underground tunnel being used for sex trafficking.” I relayed the general whereabouts of the entrance, though Jax and I had a hard time pinpointing the area on a map, which made explaining it over the phone next to impossible. If they didn’t show, or if they did but couldn’t find the right spot…

He began interrogating me, so I ended the call, and that’s when the shaking started, the rush of heat flushing my skin. My stomach revolted, and my knees buckled.

---