Chapter 18
Chapter
Eighteen
CASSIDY
When I’m scared, I fight. I’m not sure where in my life this trigger was pulled, but it’s been this way for most of my life. I’ll act out, pick a fight, and end up carried over one of my alpha’s shoulders to spar until the rage dissipates enough that I can be hate fucked against a wall.
As I stride into the main section of the warehouse, I grin.
“Who brought me fun toys to play with?” I ask.
“Oh, shit,” Drego mutters under his breath. He’s newer, but I’m sure rumors circulate. Pack Tremaine isn’t to be fucked with. “Dealer’s choice. Bat, knife, ax, or bullwhip?”
“Oooh. I’m in a mood. I’ll take the whip, please.”
Henri hands me the weapon, motioning for everyone to back up. Matilda is hanging from a hook, crying from two already swelling eyes. The guys didn’t waste time getting to work.
“Since you enjoy hurting people who you perceive to be weak, I want to see how you can handle me,” I say without sympathy.
No one’s gagged the bitch yet, and she screams obscenities at me.
“You can’t do this! You don’t understand, Clara is desperate. She made me do this—”
“Not interested,” I mutter, bringing my hand up and flicking my wrist to hit her in the face with the whip. I have zero shits to give when it comes to this woman.
Although…
“They’re your family. Is money really your only motivation?” I ask her.
“Bellamy’s father took my sister from me,” Matilda snarls. “She was so easy to manipulate, until he came along! I was siphoning money out of her bank account, and she never knew.”
“Why?” I ask, eyes narrowing as I brandish the whip when she tightens her lips to deny me an answer.
“I wouldn’t push her,” Henri growls. “Miss Casey will rip your intestines out of your body and feed them to you.”
“I’ve seen her force feed a man so many laxatives, he shit out his rectum,” another man says with a cruel grin. “That was disgusting and kind of awesome.”
“I see my reputation is glowing as always,” I chuckle. “What’s it gonna be, Matilda?”
“I have a few enemas in this bag,” Drego says nervously. “I’m out of laxatives. I didn’t know it was that kind of party.”
The bubble of laughter in my chest is inappropriate. Do not laugh, Cassidy Alice!
Hearing the memory of my mother’s voice in my head helps me pull it together. Fuck, it’s not Drego’s fault he’s hysterical while boot licking.
“You were asked a question,” Henri says, the bat leaving his hand as he fucking throws it at the bitch.
The breath is knocked out of her as it hits her in the sternum, and I wait like a lady as she catches it again. It takes fucking forever though, so my patience is almost nonexistent at this point.
“He took control of her accounts,” she wheezes. “Alan told her she needed better passwords and locked me out! Helen still had the ability to spend her money as she wanted, but he was poisoning my sister against me.”
“Boo hoo,” I reply, putting my pointer and index finger close together to show a measurement. “See this here? This is the world’s tiniest piece of toilet paper, because I don’t believe your bullshit.”
I let the whip fly again, catching her eye. The blood explodes beautifully, and I smirk as I see that her eyelid is ruined. The skin and tissue around the eye continues to bruise, but her eye no longer has protection.
“Next question,” I say, flicking my ponytail over my shoulder. “Clara’s acting a little desperate. Why is that exactly?”
“Just kill me,” Matilda snarls.
“Wrong answer,” I sing. “Do we have a metal spoon by chance?”
“I never leave home without one,” one of the men snorts, pulling it out of his back pocket.
Drego’s jaw drops, but I don’t care. This is his trial by fire. If he pukes during this, he’ll no longer be involved in anything important. I need people with lead stomachs and the ability to have the foresight to bring a goddamned spoon with them in case they need to remove an eyeball, dammit!
“You know what to do,” I say, watching as another man gives him a lighter to warm up the spoon. “Remember, Matilda. You did this to yourself. Here I was, being nice… You had to fuck it up.”
Jake grins at me over his shoulder before bringing the spoon to the eye with a remaining lid and digging it out. Very nice. Always leave them guessing. I like it.
“Keep the eye, Jake,” I say, watching as he nods, balancing it on the spoon. “If you hesitate, Matilda, I’ll make you eat it.”
“You’re a monster!”
“I do try,” I shrug, taking it as a compliment. Most people are too scared to call me one to my face. “Were you involved in the death of Helen and Alan?”
I wasn’t planning to ask that. It just…popped out. I always follow my gut, and this is where it’s leading me.
“How could I have been?” she asks. “Someone drove into oncoming traffic.”
“Did they?” I drawl.
“That’s what the police told me. The fact that I cut and drained their brake fluid didn’t matter, which was nice for me, wasn’t it?
” Matilda asks, blood on her lips as she bares her teeth at me.
“I’m going to die either way, you may as well know that while I did try, I was hoping that Bellamy and Winter would be with them when their brakes went out. It’s a pity they weren’t.”
Ever since I heard about the way their parents died, I’ve agonized about this. What if they were with them?
I whip her across the face again, aiming for the exposed eye, when I hear the gasp of horror.
“Bullseye,” Henri mutters under his breath as it ruptures gloriously under the force of my whip.
Glancing in the direction of the gasp, I find Bellamy and Ansel watching us.
“He wanted to come see,” Ansel sighs.
“I’m sorry you had to hear that,” I say with a wince.
Bellamy’s face is contorted in anger as he stares at Matilda, and Jake picks up a bat from the table beside him and brings it over to him. He hides the eyeball behind his back while he does, which I appreciate.
“Want a crack at her?” Jake asks. “Sometimes, it helps.”
“Yeah,” Bellamy says, the word sounding strangled and angry.
We watch as he takes the bat and stalks over to Matilda, fury in his gaze.
“You stupid fucking whore!”
The metal bat cracks against her hip with a clang, and Matilda gasps, unable to bring herself to scream.
“My mother loved you!”
Tears burn behind my eyes as he calls Helen his mother, remembering the way he said he didn’t know his biological mom.
“No. I loved her,” Matilda wheezes. “You’re no one.”
Shaking his head, he continues to beat the fuck out of her, breathing hard as he finally steps back. Matilda is a tough cookie, and hangs onto consciousness, though she’s beaten all to hell. Her skin shows the impact of Bellamy’s work, as welts and bruises begin to rise up.
Just because he didn’t enjoy exercise, doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a damn good swing.
“Madam Clara’s auction is currently without omegas,” Bellamy says, his voice ragged and fucked. “That’s why she pushed Matilda to find Winter and I when we escaped.”
Ah. That’s a big part of the puzzle. I don’t think I need Matilda anymore.
“Bellamy, I need to finish up here, and it’s going to get really ugly,” I say slowly.
It’s one thing to kill an asshole you don’t know from Adam who raped your sister. It’s quite another to watch a woman who was part of your family be killed ruthlessly by your alpha. This isn’t a group killing, but mine.
“I don’t want you to look at me differently. Could you wait with Winter, please?” I ask.
Bellamy lopes over to me, light on his feet as he hands the bat back to Jake.
“That did help. Thank you,” he says politely.
His hand rises to loop my ponytail around it before fisting it tightly. My eyes widen slightly, waiting for half a beat before his lips slam onto mine, kissing me hard.
“I think you’re so fucking sexy when you’re like this,” he growls, leaving me panting as he releases me. “Carry on.”
He walks away, and Ansel chuckles under his breath.
“The omega’s got game,” he mutters. “Have fun, baby.”
Ansel follows our omega out while I shake my head.
“I need to regain my feminine rage,” I murmur. “Would you gentlemen like to take over for a bit?”
“Can I feed her eye to her now?” Jake asks, grinning.
“I think this is the perfect time. Anyone have a pair of murder coveralls? I’m trying not to get any Matilda on me. Ripping her intestines out is starting to sound really good to me,” I say.
“I do,” Drego says, pulling out a pair of them. “I thought this was overkill, but now I’m realizing I should have brought more.”
“Learn as you go,” I say pleasantly, watching as Jake approaches a blind Matilda.
“I hear you! Go away!” she screams. “No!”
Jake politely plugs her nose to force her to open her mouth even as she struggles, before shoving the eyeball inside. He doesn’t care much about the state of her jaw, and he shoves her teeth together so hard, I hear one crack.
“Swallow the eyeball or I’ll fucking make you,” Jake snarls.
Matilda struggles even more as she realizes it’s exactly what she thinks it is, and he keeps her nose plugged, forcing her to struggle for air that’s not coming.
He waits until she’s really having a hard time before releasing her. Matilda’s immediate response is to suck in air, which also pulls the eyeball down her throat.
“Hey-yo!” I cheer as I get into the coveralls. “I give it an eight for technique!”
“That was at least a nine, Casey,” Henri chuckles darkly. “Need a knife?”
“Please, I don’t feel like using my own.”
Drago sighs as he hands me a wickedly sharp knife and I thank him. If he’s tired of my bullshit already, he’ll hate the next few minutes.
“Let’s give the boss lady a proper canvas, shall we?” Henri yells.
“Plastic gloves?” I ask Drego, and he pulls out a pair from a box, handing them to me as if I might bite.
Shoving the knife in my back pocket, I pull on the latex gloves as I wait.
Most of these men know how I work, and a few of them grab scissors and cut off Matilda’s clothing while she continues to cough and wheeze around the eyeball. Grinning because this is fucking hysterical, I shove the knife deep into her upper gut, careful not to perforate her intestines.
I think I need to gag her with her intestines before I finish choking her to death.
Cutting across her abdomen, I widen the hole, digging inside until I can pull out my reward.
“I’ll bring her body down for you,” Henri says, bringing her down slightly so I can reach her throat easily.
The intestines slide out easily, as if as excited as I am about Matilda’s death. Just call me the intestine whisperer.
The woman writhes in pain from the burn in her throat from choking, and my not very gentle ministrations. This is the least of it, because I wrap her intestines around her head, shoving them into her mouth as well.
“I got a twenty that she bites down,” Freddy says, watching tentatively.
“She’s dumb enough to do it,” I laugh before I focus on choking her out with her own intestines.
Matilda does bite down as her body fights for oxygen. She can’t expel the eyeball, nor can she fight me off. It only takes a few minutes before her wretched soul leaves her body, and I release her intestines with a smirk.
“Another one for the fire?” I suggest.
This is only part of our crew, as most of the newer people are incinerating bodies. I don’t know how Drego managed to become the weapons and supplies man, but he hasn’t puked yet.
I suppose we can keep him.
“We got it,” Henri promises.
Pulling off the gloves, I toss them in the trash as they begin to bring her down from the hook.
“Does this place have any running water?” I ask. I need to wash up before I go back to see my omegas.
Someone shows me where there’s a bathroom, and I scrub my hands with some dish soap the guys have. Honestly, you never know when you’ll need some.
Sighing, I look at myself in the mirror and feel no regrets. My heart feels a little more settled, though I dislike that Clara is still out there.
I caught a glimpse of her long hair, couture dress, and high heels as I was coming in to get to Winter and Bellamy. The alpha is an entitled woman who believes she can make money off the backs of other people’s misery.
Not on my watch, not when my omegas’ lives are on the line. Shaking off my hands since they’re still wet and there aren’t any paper towels, I carefully take off the coveralls without getting any gore on me.
Leaving it on the ground for the guys to collect, I leave without a second glance. I need to hug my pack and my omegas to remind myself the monster inside me is not only necessary, it also protects them.