49. Cordelia
The door shuts quietly behind Kai, and I open my eyes, looking at the blind-covered window as the moonlight tries to peek its way through. I’m exhausted, but the thought of sleeping scares me. The nightmares feel like they are already creeping in around me.
Closing my eyes again, this baby has been through a lot just like his mama, and sleep will help. But I can’t get it out of my head: where he went, what he’s doing down there. I feel like I should be there for … I don’t know, moral support?
Don’t be na?ve, Cordelia. You know he’s done this before, and you know he’s done this without you. He has his brothers. He’s fine. But I’m not fine. I want to skewer the man who came after me and my child. Also, I don’t like being told no.
“Screw it,” I mutter and roll myself out of bed. I toss my night dress, grab one of Kai’s giant hoodies, and slip on yoga pants. My hand hovers over the knob, shaking. This could upset Kai, but I don’t particularly care. Those men came for my husband, too. I take a deep breath and leave our room. I’m his wife, for better or worse, good or morally grey. If he’s in it, then so am I.
I’m not familiar with the house, so it takes me a minute to find the stairs to the lower level. Refusing to think more about it, I take the stairs down slowly, watching my feet, then freeze when I hear a scream. It’s muffled and probably not nearly as loud as it should be. Which means they have stuff down here that absorbs sound. That’s…smart.
My foot hits the bottom step. The lights are on, and there’s a couch, a large TV, and a small bathroom with a shower off to the side. It’s the perfect man cave where I imagine the boys spent a lot of time when they were younger. Lightning flashes off in the distance of the mountains, and it feels like some kind of sign.
A muffled groan comes from behind one of the closed doors, and I make my way towards the hall, forcing air into my lungs as my heart pounds against my ribcage. Leaning my ear against the first door on my right, I don’t hear anything. I do the same thing to the next door. Nothing. Then there’s a third where I hear a muffled cry, then a grunt, like a fist hitting a face.
The knob turns in my hand, and I step into the room with a concrete floor and no window. This must be one of the rooms directly into the rock. Liam glances at me, and his mouth tips up. He winks at me while he stands in the corner, leaning against a stainless steel table. Kai is focused on the bloodied man tied to a chair, so he doesn’t know I’m here.
Emerson stands over him with blood dripping from his split knuckles. Kai looks up at me, and his eyes widen. He steps towards me, and I stare at the man who came for us.
“Is this him?” I ask Kai.
He opens his mouth, but no words come out.
“It is, Cordi,” Liam says. Emerson punches him again. One light is hanging over the man in the chair like a movie while everyone else is cloaked in darkness.
“Gem, this is no place for you. You don’t need to see this. I thought—“ Kai starts.
I spin on him and look him in the eye. “Has he told you what you want to know?” I ask them. Liam shrugs, and Kai’s worried face almost makes my eyes roll. I’m not innocent.
“I still think he’s holding back,” Emerson grunts.
“Gem,” Kai rasps. I grab his hand and ignore the way it slides against mine.
“I’m here. I am with you. They didn’t just come for me. They came for you. That’s why I will stand here, right next to you.” He searches my eyes and sighs but remains beside me with my hand locked in his.
“I think it’s my turn,” Liam says, almost…gleeful. He turns and picks something off the stainless steel table. He brings what looks like a fish filleting knife to the man. Emerson steps back, but not too far. The moment Emerson moved, the man’s eyes fell on me, with a cross between anger and fear flying through them. My heart pangs, but I push it down. This is no place for kindness.
“Don’t look at her, look at me!” Liam yells. The man looks up at Liam as Liam circles him. His wide eyes go back and forth as Liam disappears from sight, circling around him and then back in sight, coming around the chair. He takes the knife, gently pressing it to his thumb. “You know, this knife is made specifically to pull the skin off a fish. Do you know how delicate you have to be to pull a fish’s skin from its flesh?” The man doesn’t say anything. “Do you?” Liam yells again. The man shakes his head rapidly. Liam holds the knife to the man’s ear and leans into it. I barely hear him say, “Very, very, careful.” Then he slices the man’s ear off. I wince as he screams behind his mouth gag. Tears roll down his face as blood pools onto his ripped t-shirt. Kai squeezes my hand. I know he doesn’t want me to be here, but I don’t care. “Whoops, my hand slipped,” Liam chuckles, cleaning the blade off on the man’s pants, and then stabs the knife with a slight curve at the top of the blade into his thigh. The man yells again, and his head lolls. Liam taps his face. “No, no, stay awake. Otherwise, I will have to wake you up. Now, I would enjoy that, but I’m sure you wouldn’t. Are you ready to talk?“ Liam sighs, picking at his cuticles.
The man nods slowly. Liam unties his gag and stands back, waiting. Who knew my sweet, funny brother-in-law was so….unhinged.
“Boss told us to kill the girl and hurt him,” he says, nodding to Kai and me.
Kai growls, and my hand goes to my stomach.
Liam sighs dramatically. “Yeah, that was your first mistake. But tell me something I don’t know, dumbass, otherwise I’ll gut you like the animal you are.”
“They didn’t tell us much, but they gave us an address and instructions. That’s all I know! Please, please let me go, I…I have kids,” he cries. My heart stops, and I look at Kai. He’s already looking at me, waiting for a reaction. I don’t know what to say because there’s nothing to say.
Emerson approaches the man and grabs his throat, squeezing. “Nice try, Tyler. You think we didn’t look you up? You think we don’t know what you’ve done? Your rap sheet is longer than Al Capone’s. You don’t have kids, you piece of shit. Well…kids, you know about. Good for them. They are better off,“ he grits out.
For some reason, the fact that he lied about having children breaks something in me. It makes my blood boil higher and hotter than ever before.
And I.
See.
Red.
I storm over to the scary table, grab a screwdriver, and stomp over to the lying piece of shit. With every ounce of strength in my body, I plunge the screwdriver into his shoulder. He doesn’t have a gag in, so his scream is loud. I hardly hear it as I pull the screwdriver out of his flesh and go for his other shoulder. He groans long and low, trying not to scream, trying to hide his fear. “Tell us what we want to know now, you bastard!” I scream. I pull the screwdriver out again and faintly notice liquid on my face. I lift my hand to stab him again, but I’m stopped mid-air.
“I will do this part, gem. Not you, me. Your hands need to remain clean,“ Kai says quietly. His words shake me from the red mist, and I turn my head. “Let me protect our family this way. You protect our family that way. I can’t do that part, baby,” he says and glances down at my stomach. I step back from the tied-up man. Kai steps back with me and pries my fingers off the screwdriver’s handle. I finally relent, relaxing my hand, and he kisses my cheek. “Go upstairs and get yourself cleaned up,” he says gently, but his tone leaves no room for discussion. I dip my head once as my heart pumps like a kick drum and leave the room.
My hands shake as I head straight for our bedroom. I don’t want to get Esmarie’s very expensive furniture stained. In the back of my mind, though, a little bell goes off that I should be more concerned about what I just did to another human being. I am, in some respects. In others…I’m not that torn up about it. Pushing that thought away, I undress and get back in the shower, scrubbing my skin until it feels almost raw.