Page 13 of Beautiful Beasts

Dante kisses me again and sits next to me. Harley leans over the counter and sets a mug of coffee in front of him.

Even though this is not my house, not my life, I feel comfortable sitting next to Dante, and the anxiety I felt before is starting to fade.

I am in trouble. Big fucking trouble.

9

Dante

“Bad Drugs” by King Kavalier & ChrisLee

B ella was in the shower again when I finally left her in the room. She takes more showers than anyone I have ever known, but it makes sense that she is trying to wash away her past. I can tell by the look in her eyes that she has been unable to do that, so I will help her. I will erase her past and replace all those men.

I will make sure that the only one she wants, needs, and dreams about is me and me alone. But to do that, we need to take care of Griffin. He is at the center of her nightmares, of her tears and screams. It pisses me off and pains me to know that he has been hurting her. From the information Harley has gathered over the last few days, he is not the only one who has been hurting her.

Griffin was pimping out his daughter to pay off his debts to dealers. It is fucking disgusting that Griffin cares more about his addictions and needs to feel good that he would use his own daughter to make sure that he stays in good standing to get more dope and pussy. He deserves worse than death.

The thought of leaving Bella is making me anxious as I go down the stairs to the lower level of the house. Harley asked Gus to watch over her. Gus has been one of the few people Harley and I can trust. He has proven himself, but I am having a hard time trusting anyone with her.

If I am being completely honest, I don’t even fully trust myself with her yet, but I hope that changes. I know she has been through a lot and needs time to process and heal, and me fucking the shit out of her would not help that happen. The need, the craving to have her, is becoming overwhelming. It takes every ounce of control I have not to touch her when I am lying next to her at night.

My self-control is slipping, especially after we gave ourselves to each other last night. There is no going back, no takebacks. We are forever and nothing, and no one is going to change that fact. I know I will have to be away from her eventually, but until I feel that she will be safe within these walls without me, I will not fucking leave this house.

This won’t take long, which is why I agreed to let him watch over Bella. Harley has the go-ahead to do whatever he wants to Griffin. The original plan was for me to kill him, but that would mean more time away from Bella, and right now, I don’t think I can do that.

I need to see the fear in Griffin’s eyes, and then Harley can take it from there. I pull open the solid door that opens up to the large torture chamber Harley and I designed several years ago. There are several rooms and cells strategically placed around the large area in the middle where the majority of the torture happens. You never know when the need will arise to extend someone’s stay or have multiple people to question. The psychological torture of watching someone else die by our hands is almost as sweet as the fear and screams we get by torturing the person in front of us.

The room already smells like fear, sweat, and blood. Harley must be having fun getting information from him and making him bleed. He has always come through when I ask him to do something. He has no boundaries or lines he won’t cross to get the information I need from people.

He knows that Bella is important to me. We already had the talk, if you want to fucking call it that. He called me out, and his words fucking hit me right between the fucking eyeballs. He told me I was in love with her, that I had fallen, and the only thing that would help me was and is her.

He isn’t wrong, but she is not ready to hear those words from me, and I am not ready to say them out loud. Harley thinks he knows me so fucking well. Fucker.

I know when I fell in love with her. It was that fucking night at the club when I saw her dancing with another man. I kissed her, and she leaned into my touch like I was the drug that she needed to fucking survive. No matter how much I had fought my attraction to her, it was in that moment I knew my heart belonged to her. Now, for the first time in my life, I have a fucking weakness that can destroy me, a weakness that my enemies could use against me to get what I have.

I step in front of Griffin and look over Harley’s handiwork. He is trussed up, bound by chains to hold him in place. His body is covered in bruises, cuts, and blood. Harley is leaning against the back wall with his arms folded over his chest, with Girffin’s blood covering his hands, arms, and chest.

I smack him across the face to get him to open his eyes. They slowly flutter open, and when he sees me standing in front of him, I see the fear flash across his eyes before he locks his emotions down. “Where is my daughter? I want to see her,” he demands.

“She is far away from you, and that is never going to fucking happen. You will never lay eyes on her ever fucking again,” I say calmly, even though I am raging inside.

“She will never love you, Dante,” he says, trying to get under my skin and fucking hurt me, but he is wrong. He doesn’t know his daughter is already falling in love with me, and I am already in love with her, and there is nothing he can do to stop it. It started long before this, but neither one of us realized what was happening until it was too late.

I tilt my head to the side as his words replay in my mind. “She is no longer your concern,” I say through gritted teeth.

His breathing is labored, no doubt due to a few broken ribs, but when he looks into my eyes this time, I see it. The one thing I needed, I see his fucking fear. I feel it surrounding me. He isn’t fucking tough at all. He is a pussy, a worthless excuse of a man who thinks his daughter is his to use and abuse. He is wrong. She belongs to me now. He will never fucking see or talk to her again.

“Thank you, Griffin,” I whisper to him.

“For what, you fucking Beast?” He snaps.

“For giving me your fear,” I say as I give him my back. He started to scream at me and struggle against his restraints, but I got what I wanted.

I look at Harley and nod, and he nods back as an evil grin spreads across his lips. His fate was sealed when we had to track him down. The original plan was to kill him the night we brought him to my house, but I couldn’t do it. I needed him to suffer, I needed to know he was in pain and had come undone before I let Harley kill him, and now I have everything I fucking need.

“I will see you in hell, Griffin,” I say with pride as I look at him in disgust.

His screaming and struggling becomes frantic when Harley approaches him. In three long strides, Harley comes up behind him and snaps his fucking neck. The noise echoes off the walls, and then there is nothing but peaceful silence. I close my eyes and take a deep breath as I relive the sounds of his screams and the crack that brought everything full circle.

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