Chapter 50 #2
“Raven, Raven, Raven,” he echoes back. “Just couldn’t stay away, could you? I wooed you with my virility, and now you’re back, begging.”
Keeping my exterior calm, I crack my neck and straddle the prone half of his body. “Is that the only way you’re able to fuck a woman? You have to drug her first?”
Leonard’s nostrils flare.
I cross the arm holding the pliers over my chest and touch my finger on my other hand to my lips. “If you weren’t able to incapacitate a woman, I think you’d be what people call an incel.” Dropping my arms, I look down at Leonard with a vituperative smile. “It means involuntary celibate.”
Griffin moves to stand next to Knox off to my right, and whispers not so softly, “Is it totally weird that I’m getting a semi watching this?”
Knox snorts.
I plop down, taking a seat on Leonard’s stomach. My weight forces a rush of air to expel from his lungs.
Tracing his jaw with the tip of the pliers, I mock him, “I wouldn’t let you stick your limp dick inside me even if you paid me.”
My free hand winds back and goes flying across his cheek. Just like he did to me many times before. Every time Dr. Whitlock wouldn’t let him have a turn with me, Leonard would take it out on me when he got me back to my room.
Letting the pliers drop on his chest, I use my other hand to slap his other cheek. Leonard’s head turns to the side. The burn of my blow has him breathing harder and faster.
After he gathers himself back together, he faces me again with an icy expression. “You hit like a girl.”
“Better than hitting like a little bitch,” I retort, digging my insult further into his injured pride with another slap.
Rising to my feet, I snag the pliers from Leonard’s chest. I look to my admiring spectators and tilt my head. Griffin and Knox, knowing what I mean as usual, right the chair and double-check the duct tape holding Leonard in place.
They step back and assess my body appreciatively. Suddenly, my need from the moment in the truck earlier returns tenfold.
Questions first. Sex later.
Griffin and Knox stride around the chair and flank my sides.
“Let’s hurry this along, shall we?” My polite grin disappears as quickly as it came. Stepping forward, I pinch Leonard’s index fingernail between the teeth of the pliers.
“Stop! No! That fucking hurts! Stop!” Leonard’s shouts barely register in my brain.
Wiggling his nail while pulling up at the same time, my movements cause a high-pitch screech to come out of Leonard. With a firm yank, I separate the nail from his finger.
Holding the pliers up, I examine the small nail. “Huh. That was more difficult than I thought it would be.”
Leonard heaves, catching his breath. “You psycho bitch!”
Something inside my brain splinters. “Psycho bitch? I’ll show you a psycho bitch.” I repeat the process on his middle and ring finger, but faster than before.
“It’s not a semi anymore,” Griffin announces to the room.
Knox snorts again. “I’m right there with you.”
Leonard has streaks on his face from his tears. “What do you want?”
“I’m so glad you asked.” I sigh dramatically as if that’s what I’ve been waiting for this whole time. Straddling him again, I sit on his lap and drop the pliers. “Tell us everything you know about the pills you’ve been selling. Who’s the supplier, what’s in them, all that stuff.”
“Bu-But I don’t know. I don’t know!”
Shaking my head, I cup Leonard’s cheek and frown. “So disappointing.” Turning my head to talk over my shoulder, I casually ask, “What do y’all think? Thumb or pinky next?”
“Pinky,” Griffin and Knox answer in unison.
Leonard’s panicked breaths crowd my face. “Wait!”
Returning my attention to Leonard, I raise a brow. “Got something to say?”
“The Alienist. That’s his name.”
Standing back up, I pick up the pliers and rip off Leonard’s pinky nail. He howls in agony.
My hand waves between Leonard and me. “We both know The Alienist is good old Lewis Whitlock. I want to know where he gets the pills from. How does he distribute them to you and the other dealers? How does he find dealers to work for him? That’s the kind of thing we want to know.”
“He-He leaves them in my locker at the hospital.”
“See? Now we’re getting somewhere,” I say enthusiastically. “Dealers. Where is he getting them?”
“They’re patients.”
I flinch my head back. “Excuse me? What?”
“They’re patients who plead insanity but aren’t actually insane. They have an agreement. They get to come and go as they please as long as they sell Lewis’s product.”
My jaw clenches.
Lewis and these people are taking advantage of the system. Insanity plea is for those who actually need it. Not for criminals who don’t want to face the repercussions of breaking the law.
Without warning, I take Leonard’s thumbnail. Leonard turns his head to the side and vomits.
“Party foul, man!” Griffin scolds.
“Now we have to clean that up,” Knox complains.
Leonard coughs, spitting out the rest of the acid in his mouth. “What was that for? I’m cooperating.”
Shrugging a shoulder, I wear an indifferent expression. “I felt like it.”
“Psycho bitch!” Leonard hurls at me.
A wide smile splits my face. “Well, if you insist.” I drop the pliers and snag the first thing my hand finds on the worktable.
Hedge clippers, it is.
With a grip in each hand, I raise them above my head, disregarding Leonard’s cries. As I tighten my core, I thrust the sharp end into his stomach. Leonard grunts and begins coughing up blood.
Bending down, I place my mouth next to his ear so he can hear me. “I am the monster you helped create.”
Stepping back, I find his eyes wide and his pupils dilated. Raising the clippers again, I stab him again.
And again.
And again.
Eventually, I can’t lift my arms, and my hands drop the clippers of their own accord.
Hesitantly, I face Griffin and Knox. “It’s okay that I killed him, right? We didn’t need him for anything else?”
They look back at me with a fire in their eyes.
Relief swarms me, and I sag backward. Two sets of arms catch me before I can fall. My favorite scents engulf me—sea salt and bergamot mixed with vetiver.
“So beautiful.” Knox kisses my cheek.
“So perfect.” Griffin kisses the other.
Basking in the moment, I close my eyes and sigh.
Griffin leads me over to the worktable and clears a spot for me to sit down. “Let’s get you cleaned up.” He wets a rag with a bottle of water I didn’t notice earlier.
As he wipes my face, I peek over his shoulder to Knox, who has a plastic tarp laid out. He carries what’s leftover of Leonard and drops the pieces onto the plastic.
I wince. “Sorry, I made a mess.”
“No apologies needed, Sunshine,” Griffin replies for them both.
Knox shakes his head. “That was so damn hot.”
Oh my word. We’re all fucked up, aren’t we?
I let Griffin finish cleaning me up as Knox ties up the tarp and places it in the back of Griffin’s truck.
Together, they hose down the dirt, erasing any trace of Leonard and what I did to him.
Erasing the pain he caused me. Erasing the scars he gave me.