Chapter 26
Dom
The room smells like sweat, blood, and burnt metal by the time we come back.
She’s barely conscious where we left her, head hanging forward, dark hair stuck to her face, wrists trembling every now and then, like her body still hasn’t realized the fight is over. Or maybe it has. Maybe that’s the worst part.
Cain leans against the wall, cigarette burning slow between his fingers, watching me with that same hollow, bored expression—like I’ve already disappointed him without even trying, which pisses me off more than it should.
I grab the old metal pot from the camping stove in the corner, the water inside rattling violently against the sides, steam rising thick and vicious into the air.
“Well…” Cain’s brow lifts, something close to interest flickering across his face for the first time. “I was wondering when the real you would finally show up.”
I don’t answer. Instead, I walk toward her slowly, every step measured as I watch the change in her breathing happen before she even opens her eyes. Her body already knows I’m close before her mind catches up, tension creeping into her muscles as fear settles deeper under her skin.
The second I reach her, I throw the boiling water across her chest without hesitation, and her scream tears through the room so violently it barely sounds human anymore.
Her entire body jerks against the restraints while the water splashes over her skin, steam rising instantly around her, as broken cries keep spilling from her mouth between desperate gasps for air.
And fuck, there it is again, that same ugly satisfaction dragging itself through my chest like something rotten finally waking up, because watching her break like this feels disturbingly right in a way I stopped questioning a long time ago.
“Wakey wakey, kitten,” I murmur calmly as I stop right in front of her, watching the way her body shakes in fear. “We’re not done yet.”
“P-please…” she chokes out, barely able to form the word.
I clamp my hand around her jaw, forcing her to look at me, my fingers digging in harder the second her eyes try to dart away from mine.
“Do you know what the problem is, Sierra?” I ask softly, almost calmly, which somehow makes it worse. “You still think there’s an end to this.”
Her eyes glisten instantly, too many emotions crashing into her at once so violently it almost looks painful to watch. I move closer until barely any space remains between us, her uneven breaths brushing against my mouth with every shaky inhale.
“But this stopped being revenge a long time ago.” The words leave me quietly, and the second they do, something shifts in her expression—like she finally understands this was never really about Reed anymore.
Cain scoffs quietly somewhere behind me, and it slowly pulls a smile onto my lips too—something empty and wrong that only makes the fear in her eyes deepen as I keep staring directly into her.
Because that’s the truth neither of us wants to say out loud anymore.
Reed was just the beginning. But his death deserves so much more than this.
“You know what the funny part is?” I ask quietly, almost conversational. “I thought killing you would fix it.”
Cain shifts somewhere behind me, listening.
“I really believed that once you screamed enough… once you suffered enough…” I let out a hollow laugh, shaking my head slowly. “Maybe I’d stop seeing him burn every time I try to sleep.”
Sierra’s lips tremble.
“I-I didn’t mean…”
“Don’t.” The word comes out colder than I mean it to, cutting clean through the room and silencing her on the spot.
Everything goes quiet after that, except for her uneven breathing and the sound of my own as I stay focused on her for a long moment, trying to force whatever the fuck is happening inside me back under control, but it only keeps growing instead, spreading deeper through my chest with every second I look at her.
The grief never left me, the rage never faded, and whatever was left underneath all of it stopped feeling human a long time ago—it just learned how to smile, speak, and pretend to be a man.
“See?” I rasp. “That’s what I wanted.” I step toward her slowly. “I wanted you terrified. I want you in pain every second of your life.”
I watch her carefully, taking in every trembling breath and every flicker of dread crossing her face, like I’m deciding which part of her I want to destroy next.
“I want you to wake up choking on it. I want it sitting in your chest every fucking day the same way it’s been sitting in mine for the last ten years.”
Her breathing stutters harder with every word, and I swear to God, the fear in her eyes almost feels holy.
“But Vince was driving,” she chokes out, her voice wrecked from crying. “He caused this… not me.”
I stay quiet at first, just watching her while something vicious coils tighter inside my chest, wrapping around a feeling I buried so long ago I barely recognize it anymore.
“Exactly,” I say almost gently. “But because that pathetic fuck died so fast…” I step closer, the next words turning colder. “You’re the one left to carry all the punishment.”
The fear in her face shifts instantly, confusion crashing into it so hard it almost knocks the breath out of her again.
“You… you knew he died?”
The second the words leave her mouth, a laugh tears out of me before I can stop it—sharp and dark enough to make her flinch instantly, because there’s something almost absurd about the horror finally catching up to her now.
Behind me, Cain starts laughing too, quieter than mine but somehow worse—the sound scraping through the room, slow and rough like a blade against stone.
“Tell her,” he insists, amusement dripping from every word.
I drag a hand down my mouth, trying and failing to suppress the grin still pulling at my lips.
“The punishment was supposed to be so much worse for your boyfriend,” I say.
“But unfortunately, the idiot jumped into the pool after finishing his drink.” I shake my head, letting out another disbelieving laugh.
“You rich people are so fucking stupid sometimes. The poison in his glass was only meant to paralyze him temporarily,” I continue casually, like I’m reciting a grocery list instead of describing a murder.
“But your boyfriend decided he needed to cool off after that drink.”
Cain snorts behind me, and I fucking lose it again, laughing harder now as the memory plays in my head.
“The poison kicked in while he was in the water.” I take a step closer to her, lowering my voice. “Paralyzed. Completely conscious. Drowning slowly without being able to save himself.” I let the silence stretch. “Couldn’t move, couldn’t scream, couldn’t even call for help.”
Something dark settles warmly in my chest at the memory, twisted in a way that makes my whole body feel lighter.
“Pathetic.” The word leaves me with a grin, then my expression slowly falls flat again as I look back at her. “But enough about him.” I lean in closer, forcing her to look at me. “Now we get back to you.”
She looks horrified, not just scared anymore—destroyed.
Because the reality finally hit her in full force, brutal and irreversible, and I can see it happening right in front of me—the exact moment her mind realizes Vince didn’t just die by accident—we killed him, and somehow…
that truth seems to break something inside her even more than everything we’ve already done.