Chapter 16
Sixteen
Clara
Iwalk around the glass cage where George is being held. He’s tied to the chair with thick rope that Curt used.
He has air holes and a steel toilet, which seems much more accommodating than what we had. A wave of shame rolls over me, and sweat beads on my hairline when I think about squatting and straining in the stall.
“Why use Bailey?”
He stares at me, but it’s like nothing lives behind the dark irises, and I hate it. “Convenience.”
Stepping over to the table Burke set up for me, I glance over the tools they brought. Wire-cutting clippers are something I’m looking forward to. An assortment of knives seems boring, but I know it’s not supposed to last forever.
Grabbing the drill, I unlock the door and close it behind me.
“You think I’m afraid of you?” he asks.
“I think you should rethink whether you are or not.” Stepping toward him, he attempts to stand, and I turn on the drill and watch it go through his arm. “Sick. I love it.”
Georgie wails and spits toward me. The bit is large, and although I thought it would leave a big enough hole, it’s not as large as I thought.
With his knees bent, I aim the next spot for his kneecaps as blood stains his pants. The distinct sound of bones cracking fills me with joy.
“CLARA.”
I whip my gaze to the door. Burke is standing with his hands on his hips with Curt close behind him.
Georgie wails again. I hit him in the head with the butt of the drill. With a thud, his head falls back—that was less than impressive.
“Why’d you ruin my fun?” I roll my eyes and walk away from the body so he can rouse again, closing the door behind me.
“You know the rules. They’re there—”
“—to keep me safe.” Putting the drill on the table, I wipe my hands on the towel and stare at both of them.
They want to be here when I’m torturing, in the event anyone gets loose or causes me harm.
Burke just doesn't know the immoral thoughts that brew deep within me, the moral compass I’ve tossed away whenever I am faced with another man who deserves to endure his punishment.
“Dragonfly, we’ve talked about this.”
“Okay, dad.” Folding my arms across my chest, I arch my eyebrow.
Burke’s jaw tightens, and his icy blue gaze burns into me. “Clara, this is only going to work if you follow the rules. I can’t stomach the thought of losing you again. This is controlled, and I don’t ask for much.”
Turning away, I go back to the table and think of what I should do next. The need to shatter his bones is strong because of what he did to Bailey, but pain is my only real thought.
Slapping fills the air, and Curt’s deep voice mumbles something to the scum stuck in the cage.
“I’m—”
“Nope, I get it. Just try for me, okay?”
I lean back against his chest and look up at him. “I’ll try.”
“This warehouse is big enough to house whatever you need, and I’m more than happy to have whatever you want built. I’m so proud of you and what you’ve become.” Burke’s arms circle my torso, and he nuzzles my neck.
He kisses my head and follows as Curt passes us. I turn around to face George. He’s awake again, and I’m glad to cause more pain.
“Ready to tell me why Bailey?” I grab the drill again and enter through the open door.
George stares through me, so I advance and start putting a hole through his other knee. The cracking of bones might be my new favourite sound.
The melody of his cries mixed with it is on another level and layers over the memory of what he did to her.
“She was closest to you,” he spits out.
“Wasn’t so fucking hard, now was it, Georgie?” I flip him off as I walk back to the table and pick up one of the pairing knives. “Wanna play a game?”
He shakes his head, and I wonder how someone so weak can instill so much fear. Be a man if you’re going to try and act like one.
“Too bad. I have the perfect one—you answer, and I don’t stab or cut something off. You don’t, and Georgie pieces end up on the floor.” I grab the wire cutters and head into the glass room.
Slipping the clippers into my back pocket, I trace the knife over his neck as I circle him.
“She was closest to me, but why did you need her?”
He doesn’t say a word, and I tilt my head to wait for an answer. When one doesn’t come, I dig the knife under the shell of his ear.
It lands with a thud after I cut through. He whimpers and strains against the rope.
“Now?”
“She was easy to manipulate. It didn’t take much to have her eating out of my hand. She was a means to an end.” Hearing those words enrages me. Bailey is my best friend, and he used her for his own sick needs.
“Why?”
“What’s the point, you fucking bitch? You’re gonna kill me.”
I give a slow nod and a casual shrug. "There are two ways this ends," I whisper from behind him, my voice low. "You can die quickly, or you can take your time. And me? I have all the fucking time in the world."
Holding his chin tight, I slide the blade over his nose. Cartilage is harder to slice through, but soon it falls off. Cutting off his nose to spite his face—an interesting take on revenge.
“What was your plan? Why did you take us?”
“I was planning on killing you. You can get revenge in two ways, you know.”
Puzzled, I stare at his bloody face. “For whom?”
George struggles against the restraints, but Curt has him tightly wrapped up. A better job than I did with Ryan.
Moving behind him, I fold over his shoulder and cut near his eye with no real precision or care.
“My father.”
Swallowing the bile in my throat, I close my eyes to try to remember, but nothing comes.
“Andrew?” I don’t remember any boy in his life, and it didn’t look like anyone was living with him, but we assumed.
“You killed him, you fucking bitch.”
I pull out the clippers and try to open his mouth, but he won’t move his lips. Dragging the blade across them, they fall into his lap, and crimson pours over his chin.
Putting the knife into his mouth, I wrench it between his teeth until he opens.
Using the wire cutters, I clip his teeth in half. Shivers run down my spine because the sheer thought of it gives me pain.
“He had to go. Daddy dearest wasn’t exactly wholesome, was he?” Stepping back, I look at my handiwork and the mess that has become poor old Georgie.
With an extra pep in my step, I jog out the door to the main one, and Burke meets me there.
“One of you has to go to Andrew’s. This cocksucker has got to have more evidence hidden at the house. I’ll be done with him soon. I just want ice, or an ice cream?”
Curt and Burke exchange a look, but both nod. I walk back to my project and grab a different knife.
Torturing him shouldn’t feel this good, but it sure does. I’ve never felt so fucking alive as I do when I’m killing. They deserve everything I’ve done, but I don’t know how anyone could really love someone who turns into a monster like me.
“If you would’ve been good, he wouldn’t have had to punish you.” Spit flows down his chin, and his words are warbled.
I twirl the knife in my palm, leaning from foot to foot before stalking toward George. “Is that why he raped me so many times, or beat me with a fucking rolling pin—because I was bad?”
His gasp tells me he didn’t know, but I’m too far lost in this feeling of control and everything that was ever taken from me. I am exactly who I’m supposed to be, monster or killer; it is what I was meant to become.
“You must have deserved it,” he whispers.
Clenching my jaw, my stomach rolls. I cut into his cheek, pulling the knife down until it scrapes against his molars.
No one deserves what I went through. The millions of people who have met the same punishments for crimes they never committed at another's hands didn’t deserve it. I stare at him bleeding all over himself for several minutes until I hear footsteps.
“Dragonfly, why do you need ice?” Burke asks from the doorway with a bowl in his hand.
Stepping forward, I grab two cubes and move back to George. Shoving them into the hole in his cheek, I watch as the coldness reaches his newly sensitive teeth.
When his tears fall, I lean in close.
“Guess you should’ve behaved.” I sever his artery with the knife, pulling away as blood soaks his clothes and his eyes roll.
“You’re always there for me, Burke,” I say without turning away from George.
“Couldn’t be without you. I’ll provide whatever you need.”
“Even now?” I look over my shoulder. His strong hand grips the doorway of the cage with a bowl of melting ice cubes in his other.
“What do you need, Dragonfly?”
“Fuck me?” I bite my lip but grin and drop the knife next to the body.
As alive as I feel, the need for him courses through me.
Walking toward the door, we step out and he spins me in a circle, pressing me against the glass wall. Staring at my fresh kill fills me with excitement.
The whisper of his zipper fills the space before Burke yanks down my pants.
“Do you see how much power you have?” he growls in my ear as he bites along my neck and kisses me.
I moan, needing more, but when I take my hand away from the glass he puts it back. “Don’t move, not now. Listen.”
Burke kneels behind me and grips the globes of my ass before opening me up to him, and I jolt against the glass when his tongue touches me.
He slips it into me and fucks me with it while manhandling me. My knees weaken, and I focus on the sensations while looking through the glass. The power that consumes me makes me feel like a goddess as I come over his tongue.
Cool air replaces his touch for a moment before Burke grips the nape of my neck and thrusts into me. His length fills me, and I arch back toward him as he continues.
“Such a good fucking girl. So perfect.”
“Just like that,” I groan.
“You’re my gorgeous killer, aren’t you?” Burke moves his hand to my clit and rubs his thumb in a circular way as he pumps into me, pressing me against the glass harder as he consumes me. His mouth doesn’t leave my neck and jaw as he groans.
I’m lost to the bliss coursing through me and squeeze down on his cock as the orgasm takes over my body. He doesn’t stop, and it continues as he fucks me.
“Yes, I’m yours.”
“Good. Cum again.”
I don’t think I can until he nips my neck again, and it feels like I’m drowning in pleasure as Burke growls into my ear and fills me.
Letting go is so easy while he fucks me or when I kill, like I can finally relax and enjoy the feelings floating through me.
A loud clank sounds, which means Curt is back. Burke slips my pants back up after pulling out of me and does his own pants up.
“If you’re gonna fuck against the glass, don’t act like you didn’t. I can see her entire body print against it.” He smirks and hands Burke a flash drive, then heads into the glass cage. “Get outta here. I’ll deal with this, and you handle that. I guess we’re going to have more cleanup jobs, Clara?’
Lowering my gaze, I know I’ll never be able to stop. Ending the lives of monsters is exactly what I need, and I nod.
“Get her a burner and call me when you need me. Like when you tell me I’m getting a raise.”
“On it,” Burke says, and grabs my hand as we head out of the warehouse.
We get into the car, and he grabs my leg as we drive home. “Why do I need a burner?”
“You gotta let some abusers walk. Let the court handle them, even though it’s all bullshit. Pick your battles, and Curt will be there to clean them up.”
I turn on the heater for my seat and look out into the darkness. “How do you both know?”
“When you kill, light returns to your eyes. There’s only so much I can provide. I know your job and friends help so fucking much, but if you need this, we’ll make it happen.”
Toying with a hole in my pants, emotion chokes me.
Pouring into someone else is always easier, showing them how they deserve to be treated, but speaking the words of vulnerability will always be my biggest battle.
“You bring light to me. I don’t think I would have made it this far without you.”
He chuckles as we pull into the driveway, and he pushes the button for the garage door.
“Dragonfly, you’d be able to handle anything without anyone. I’m honoured to have a place in your life. Just because you don’t need anyone doesn’t mean you should be alone. I’ll always be there until you tell me to go.”
“Bath and food?” I deflect, and he knows but lets it go.
“Of course. Let’s go.”