Chapter 22 Kip
KIP
Once I collected myself in the woods, I tossed Holland’s limp body over my shoulder and carried her back to her place.
After placing her on the bed where I could watch her in case she woke up sooner than expected, I searched the room and mentally noted what I would need.
I gathered some of her clothes, toothbrush, computer, phone, chargers, and other belongings.
If anyone snooped while she was gone, I needed it to look like she had taken time off for a much-needed vacation.
As I packed her bag, I recalled the name of the place she worked and the information I’d found after she’d nearly hit me with her car.
I located her phone on the nightstand and used her finger to unlock it.
I shook my head with how easy it was. I scrolled through her contacts until I located Howard Blaine, one of her bosses.
Even though it was late, I fired off a text that a family emergency had come up and she’d be taking time off work but would be in touch soon.
I pocketed her cell and looked around one last time for anything else she might need on her extended stay away from home.
Little did she know, she wouldn’t be coming back anytime soon.
She knew who I was now. And with everyone else thinking she was handling an emergency, I had exactly what I needed—time.
Time to get my answers.
Time to make sure she didn’t turn me in.
Because that? That could never happen.
After I meticulously cleaned up Cooper and the bloody chaos he’d left on the living room floor, I retrieved a body bag from my car and crammed him inside like a sardine in a tin can.
“Good riddance, you stupid fuck.”
The first light of dawn was creeping over the horizon, casting a pale glow across the landscape as I hurried to conceal his corpse in the trunk of my car. Once we reached our destination, I would make sure he vanished without a trace, leaving no clues behind for anyone to follow.
But there was still one more problem to resolve—Draco. Before dealing with him, it was crucial to uncover the reason behind his obsession with Holland.
Hours later, Holland was naked on the cot and chained to the wall of one of Death’s warehouses in Idaho. This one had a remodeled bathroom and kitchenette, which meant Holland and I could stay as long as we needed.
Her eyelids fluttered open, lids heavy with exhaustion, and a soft moan escaped her lips as she tried to shift her position. The chain around her neck clinked and scraped across the rough cement floor.
I stood leaning against the wall, my attention fixed on the woman who had once shattered my world. My anger simmered beneath my skin, begging to be unleashed, but my cock had other ideas.
Her gaze followed the chain’s length to where I stood, and I waited for the gravity of her situation to sink in.
“You fucking kidnapped me, Kip?” she seethed.
Her body shook. I suspected it wasn’t from fear but from a rage that fueled my desire to crush her defiance underfoot, and to grind my heel against her pride.
I shrugged. “You left me no other option.”
She looked around the room, at the cinder block fortress I’d chosen for us, at the bottle of water and granola bar on the floor beside her. “I’m not going to help you. And I’m not going to talk.” The chain clinked as she sat up. “Are you going to kill me here?”
“I haven’t decided.” I liked the way the chain made her voice vibrate with every movement, liked the smallness of her in this cold, dark place.
Her skin was patchworked with red marks where Cooper had hit her as well as dents from my hands on her neck, which were starting to turn purple.
My jaw clenched so hard it hurt. Cooper’s marks didn’t belong on her.
No one’s did. The thought of him laying a hand on her made my blood boil, made me want to dig him out of the ground just so I could kill him again, slower this time.
She might be chained here because of me, but she was still mine to break, mine to worship, mine to protect. Even from bastards like him.
“You have to let me go,” she said, but it was so hollow it was almost funny. “If you kill me, they’ll find you.”
I smiled, and maybe it was the first time I actually meant it. “Who’s ‘they’? You think anyone’s looking for you, Holland? I’ve been in your place. I know how little you matter to the world.”
She made a sound, a dry laugh, and then spat on the floor. “Then why the fuck do you care so much?”
I crouched down, closer to her level, and waited for her to recoil, but she didn’t. “I want to know why Draco wants you.”
She said nothing.
“You’re going to talk, Holland,” I said, “even if I have to take you apart piece by piece.” I brushed her thigh, slow and deliberate. “You’re not getting out,” I said, and she shrugged.
We stayed like that, silent, and the only sound was the tremor of her chain and our breathing. “You killed Cooper,” she said finally, not a question.
“He wasn’t useful anymore.”
“Is that what you do? Decide when someone isn’t useful anymore and then you slit their throat?”
I stood and walked to the table before I pulled the kitchen chair across the floor, the legs scraping across the cement. I sank into the seat and leaned forward. She glowered at me.
“That night in the car, I tried to tell you that I wasn’t a fair man and that I often decided if someone lived or died. I wasn’t bullshitting you.”
I stared at her, searching her for any hint of her remembering me. “You’re not here because of Draco. He just did me a favor and helped me plant myself in your life. The situation has taken a turn, though, and I need to know if I should deal with him or not.”
“You’re going to turn me over to him?” She narrowed her gaze at me, attempting to hide the fear.
I placed a finger under her chin and forced her to look at me. “You might be in chains and naked, but let’s get one thing clear. You’re mine. He won’t touch you again.”
A flash of relief crossed her face. Was I to interpret that being chained and naked on a bed with me was better than being with him? What kind of monster was he? I was well aware of what kind I was.
“If you don’t like where you’re at, you have no one to blame except yourself.” I leaned back in my chair again.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” she asked. “You have no idea what I’ve lived through. What I’ve survived. How can you even say something like that?”
I rubbed my jaw as I pondered if I should get to the point, but I couldn’t rush things. I had to savor the words when they left her lips, and she admitted that she betrayed me.
“We have all the time in the world. Your bosses aren’t expecting you at work for at least a few weeks, if not more. Your parents are on vacation, and I have your phone, so I can easily convince them that you’re safe and sound.”
Her shoulders rolled forward in defeat, but I knew it was too easy. I hadn’t won, we were just starting the war.
“What did Draco do?”
She rubbed her arms, goosebumps dotting her flesh. “He stole my sister and me when we were barely teenagers. No, not steal us. He bought us from our own family—like meat. And every night, he made sure we remembered what we were worth.”
He touched her? Sold her? The only reason he was still alive was because I hadn’t known. But I know now. My brow rose with her confession. “And?”
“He sold us for sex. We were raped, drugged, and starved to keep us under his control.”
My stomach lurched, bile scorching my throat. The chain around her neck suddenly felt like my own hands had put her back into that nightmare.
Shame dug in deep, colliding with a rage so sharp it rattled my bones. I wanted to hunt Draco down and kill him slowly, make every bastard who’d touched her bleed.
Understanding dawned on me. It made sense why she wasn’t begging and pleading for me to let her go—to let her live. She’d had this life before, and this time she was determined to walk away with her dignity and life intact.
“How old were you?” My words were laced with eagerness. Her next words would fucking flip my world and everything I knew inside out. I thought the Pied Piper had fucked with me, but this?
For the first time since I’d taken her, Holland choked back a sob. She looked away, shame and guilt dancing across her expression. But what would she have to feel guilty about?
“It was my thirteenth birthday.” She lowered her head, her red hair hiding her pain from me.
The words shattered me. Thirteen. My chest seized, lungs refusing to work as the number echoed in my skull. She hadn’t even been a woman yet—just a child. The same age as some of them I helped save. The same age my world changed forever.
My vision blurred, my heart a fist of fury. Every memory I thought was mine to bear suddenly seemed smaller than the hell she’d survived. And I’d chained her here, naked, like I was no different from them.
The room blurred in and out as the flashback took me away from reality once again.
“Get out! Now!” a voice said.
Dazed, I searched the room, but all I heard were shouting and screams. My uncle jerked my arm so hard I thought it popped out of the socket, but none of that mattered.
“Stop! Let me go!”
Two men grabbed the redheaded girl, and her big blue eyes landed on me for a moment.
“What are you doing to her?” I yelled as I broke free from my uncle and ran toward her.
“You know what to do, Kip. You know,” my mother ordered from behind me. She dug her fingers into my biceps as she pulled me toward the girl. “We’re out of time. Do it.”
Black dots clouded my vision as I tried to resist the drive inside me. I gritted my teeth against the pain inside my chest. The girl’s screams were devoured by even more. I struggled to breathe against the crushing weight on my chest and then …
When I came to, my hands were covered in blood and the redheaded girl was lying on the floor. I stumbled toward her, shaking so hard my legs could barely carry me. The chaos had calmed down, but the body count had risen.
“Kip!” Holland screamed.
My head jerked to the side, and my neck popped with the sudden movement, nearly knocking my chair backward.
“Kip? Look at me. Don’t you dare fucking die and leave me chained up like this.”
She couldn’t hide the fear in her voice. Holland should be afraid. Very afraid.
I rubbed my neck, realizing I’d had another blackout, but how had she known? I’d been able to hide them from Death and Dope, but not her.
“What happened? You were gone all of a sudden, and your eyes rolled back in your head. You were shaking. Are you epileptic?”
I ignored all her questions.
Maybe it was the flashback.
Maybe it was the rage.
It didn’t matter.
All I needed now was the answer.