Page 102 of Hurt for Me

“Why wasn’t it your call, Clint? Why didn’t you and Bobby come after me if you knew where I was this whole time?”

He grinned. “It doesn’t matter. I have you now, and you’ll finally get to know what real pain feels like.”

Rae saw his muscles tense, the angry, scarred skin of his right arm stretching, reaching for his gun. He was about to make a move. She saw Dayton at the other end of the library, his gun aimed at Clint.

“Get down, Rae!”

She threw herself to the ground and heard several gunshots. Then everything went quiet until she heard a pained grunt and ragged breathing.Please,she prayed,let it be Clint.She lifted her head enough to see Dayton on the marble floor, blood starting to pool beneath him as his eyes rolled back in his head. “No!”

Clint came over to her, his left shoulder bleeding. He looked down at her, the butt of his gun raised to strike. “Like I said, don’t aim for the shoulder.”

Lights flashed behind her eyes, and she felt a split second of intense pain, and then nothing.

When Rae opened her eyes, her head was heavy like a blood-engorged tick about to burst. She was sitting in a chair, her hands tied behind her back. She raised her head a little and saw about a dozen people, most she didn’t recognize. She was in the great hall, Pearson and Bobby standing in front of her, Clint off to the side, his left shoulder bandaged. She didn’t know how long she’d been out.

She heard whimpering. It hurt to move her head too much, but she turned to her left, and her heart felt like shattering when she saw Lily gagged and tied to a chair next to her, tears running down her cheeks.

“It’s okay, honey, I’m here.” Rae tried to keep her voice calm, but it wasn’t possible.

“Hello again, Mistress V,” Pearson said, his perfectly tailored suit as immaculate as his snow-white hair. “I must say I’m sad to see you in this position. Poor Thomas told me how skilled you are before we unfortunately had to end our partnership with him. He did try, however, to pay off his debt by bringing you into our fold. And, honestly, I was inclined to let you go. I admire your resilience. You remind me a lot of myself, how you reinvented your life after your time in Santa Monica.” He walked over to her, his eyes examining her with sadness like she was a disappointment. “I forgave you for the mess you made of my investments there, much to the dismay of Bobby and Clint, but I don’t forgive twice. Business is business, and I don’t appreciate your interfering with mine. I think it’s time for retribution. You got your revenge back then, and now we deserve ours. Don’t you agree?”

“Fuck you!”

Pearson’s impassive expression made her want to claw his eyes out. “The other unfortunate business involves a certain detective I’m sure you’re familiar with. He helped us with a matter and then got ...” He waved his hand. “Distracted. I had hoped to maybe use him again, to let himreinventhimself, but it’s not possible.”

Dayton.Rae’s chest tightened so much she couldn’t breathe for a second. She didn’t even get to hold him, and she didn’t know where they’d taken him or if he was already dead. Then Pearson’s words fully hit her. They thought Dayton had destroyed the rape-kit evidence. Maybe they didn’t know about Dayton’s meeting with the police chief that afternoon after all. Or if they did, they weren’t giving anything away to her. She felt the rope binding her hands. It was silky like Shibari rope, but she could tell whoever had tied her didn’t do a good job, and she started stretching her wrists out, over and over, thankful no one was standing behind her to see.

“I guess the fortunate thing is he’s still alive to watch the consequences of trying to help you and your daughter.”

Before Rae had a chance to feel any joy in knowing Dayton was alive, everyone in the room turned to see his semilimp body being dragged by two hulking men, his hands bound in front of him. She immediately recognized one of the men as the one who had attacked her in her dungeon. He had to be Benson.

Dayton had a gunshot wound to his right thigh and a head wound bleeding down the left side of his face. The men slammed him into a chair and held him there by his shoulders. Dayton’s eyes fluttered open long enough to lock on to Rae, and she saw an apology lodged in his expression.

“He got a nasty head injury killing one of my best men outside in the garden, but I must say Clint did a number on ourbravedetective,” Pearson said. “So, now he gets to bleed out watching us play with you and your lovely daughter.” He moved over to Lily and knelt on the floor in front of her. He caressed her cheek, a sickening paternal look spreading across his face. “You get to go first, my dear.”

“Don’t you fucking touch her!” Rae screamed, her insides burning with the desire to cut off Pearson’s hands so he could never touch Lily again.

Pearson snapped his fingers, and a large man with a gut untied Lily from the chair and yanked her up, Rae yelling the whole time as she fought to loosen her bindings. She heard Dayton’s voice yelling too.

“Remove her clothes and get her on the cross,” Pearson said, and the large man fought to pull off Lily’s T-shirt as she thrashed in his arms. He was sweating with the effort, but he got her shirt off, exposing her sports bra, before hauling her over to a large Saint Andrew’s cross. Pearson turned to Clint and pointed to a table full of various implements—paddles, canes, whips. “You have the first go. Do whatever you like. Beat her, fuck her. I don’t care.”

“Don’t do it, Clint!” But he moved over to Lily, who was kicking the large man as he attempted to get her jeans off. Rae didn’t want to do it, but she had no choice. She closed her eyes tight and let out an animal howl. “She’s your fucking child!” She cried with the words. “She’s yours, you bastard!”

Clint froze and stared at Lily, and she saw his uncertainty.

“It’s true, Clint. For God’s sake, she has your fucking eyes!”

Lily had stopped fighting the large man and was looking at Clint, at this man partially responsible for her existence. Rae saw the shock on her daughter’s face, and her chest felt like it was caving in. She couldn’t make herself look at Dayton to see his reaction.

“I’m so sorry, honey. I should’ve told you. Please, Lily, please look at me.” But Lily continued to stare wide eyed at Clint, her mouth open in horror.

“You are just full of delightful surprises, Mistress V,” Pearson cooed, his eyes lit up like blue flames. “Go ahead, Clint.”

Clint didn’t move. Rae saw the recognition on his face. He knew she was telling the truth, but she didn’t trust what he’d do with it.

She almost had her hands free from the bindings as Pearson turned to Bobby. “Maybe we made a mistake in giving your friend a second chance. Perhaps he needs to go back to the streets, selling pills to high school kids and stay-at-home moms. He doesn’t have the stomach forthe revenge he’s begged for all these years, the thing I’m being generous enough to give you both when I could have saved all the fun for myself.” He motioned to the small audience. “Such ungratefulness when our esteemed guests are patiently waiting.”

Clint’s face was pale and sweaty as he looked at Lily’s crying face. Rae kept her eyes on him while she got one hand free from the ropes, then the other. He turned toward Pearson and Bobby, acquiescence in his eyes, and she knew he was going to do it. He was going to hurt Lily. She jumped up from the chair and snatched a long whip from the implement table, quickly pulling her arm back and striking Clint’s face right on his eyes. He screamed, clutching his face as blood poured down his cheeks.

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