Chapter 12 #2
Declan continues, getting so close he’s spitting in the guy’s face.
“That same email has also sent hundreds of emails with seemingly random addresses to someone working for the Vasiliev family over the last four years, and guess who they belonged to? Half the omegas that have gone missing since the emails started. A little dig into your financials shows you were being paid one thousand dollars for every omega you sold out.”
“Do we really need the information he has, Dec?” My voice is stone cold, a stark contrast to my lightheartedness only moments ago. “We should just kill him now, make the world a little bit of a better place.”
I know that the speakers that project the noise in here out into the hallway are working, since nothing but disgust and anger radiates from Hayden’s side of the bond.
When I chance a glance outside the cell, I see every man who had been in the hallway when I came downstairs standing less than six inches away from the glass, dark expressions on their faces.
“Maybe.” Declan looms down thoughtfully. “But there is something I haven’t quite put together yet. Where did you get the addresses, Victor?”
The beta’s eyes widen and his mouth gapes, but he doesn’t answer.
My brother grabs the man by the collar, lifting him slightly. “Where. Did you get. The addresses?”
Victor’s blood, snot, and tear-soaked face looks between Declan and me. “I…hung out outside heat clinics and followed the ones home who didn’t have anyone to pick them up! But I can explain! I can explain everything, just—”
“Have you ever heard the sayin’ that actions speak louder than words?
” I sneer, crossing my arms. “I’d say that sellin’ out people for your own profit, sellin’ exploitative videos, and giving an enemy information that was designed to lead to the death of your boss’s sister are actions so loud, I wouldn’t be able to hear any bullshit explanation you’d try to give, even if I wanted to. ”
Declan releases the weasel with a hard shove, standing before he reaches into the back of his pants and pulls out his revolver.
The one used for executions.
The barrel presses into the side of Victor’s skull as Dec looks down at him with pure hatred.
“I kept you on after I killed my father because you swore your loyalty to me. You swore you were against what he had done, but that your duty to him left you no choice. I now see that I was lied to.”
Declan’s thumb pulls back the hammer of the gun, and I wrinkle my nose as a wet spot fills the front of Victor’s trousers, his whining and crying never stopping.
My brother proceeds as if he doesn’t notice.
“Victor Byrne, you have been accused of, and are now charged with selling privileged information to outsiders, stalking omegas, assisting in the trade of omegas, distributing video footage of omegas being actively abused—”
Rory’s voice cuts in over the intercom, “And for being an overall piece of shit human.”
Declan continues as if he’s the one who said that last sentence. “Do you have anything to say for yourself?”
“You don’t understand!” he sobs pitifully.
“And I never will,” Declan spits. “Victor Byrne, by the witnesses of your crimes, and by the leaders of the family you have betrayed, I hereby sentence you to immediate death.”
I have a split second to throw my hands over my ears before he pulls the trigger. My ears ring as Victor’s body hits the wall with a thud, a giant hole in the side of his head, and half his brain splattering the wall he was huddled against.
Good riddance.
Declan stands, his chest heaving as he stares down at the dead man.
There’s a brief pause before Aidan’s voice comes on over the intercom. “I’m going to call some guys in to get that mess cleaned up. Really, Declan, you couldn’t have shot his brains out in the room with red walls instead? That stain might not ever come out.”
Declan whips around, scowling at Aidan. “Someone,” he motions at Rory, “insisted we only make one of the rooms down here red so it feels ‘more ominous’, and that room is currently occupied!”
The guys continue to argue as I look away from the sight of the dead beta, my stomach turning for a reason that has absolutely nothing to do with the brain matter on the wall.
The door to the cell slides open, and in the next instant I’m wrapped in the strong arms of my Russian giant. His scent fills my senses, soothing me. “Come, Lisichka, let us leave. You may taunt Brooks when we get back from your dinner.”
I open my mouth to argue, but after having been slapped in the face with crimes Victor Byrne committed, I’m not much up for any kind of fun.
Those omegas…they could have been me.
If Declan had never found me, I could have been the one snatched off the street and sold into sexual slavery or to Thornfield.
Nolan comes into the cell, placing a hand on Declan’s shoulder. He startles at first, his eyes still fixed on Victor Byrne’s dead body, but when he sees it’s Nolan, he relaxes.
They speak quietly, and I swallow the lump in my throat, nodding. “Alright, Sugar Bear. Let’s go get me ready.”