Chapter 36
Rage like I’ve never known flows through me, giving me the strength of a thousand men—all of them insisting on the most gruesome death for the bastard who’s been harassing us for months.
“Are you okay, Bunny?” I try to keep my tone level, but it wavers with my ire. My attention stays locked on Neil, stunned on the floor from the blow to the side of his head.
Fuck no, she’s not okay. You just walked in on her being sexually assaulted by this piece of shit.
A fresh, fevered wave of wrath brushes my insides. Rough bristles paint my thoughts with a madness I can’t quell—one I’m ready to unleash on the monster before me.
“How fucking dare you,” I seethe, driving my butt of my pistol into his face before holstering it. Chest heaving, I collect Neil by the ankles and drag him toward the basement stairs. “You made a mistake thinking you could have my girl.”
“He threatened to kill Faline.” Bunny’s voice shakes, and even though I try not to look, I do. She clutches what’s left of her top to her chest, dried tears smearing her cheeks, raven flyaways stuck to her face.
Seeing her exposed and violated wakes a beast I’ve only ever shaken hands with but never let out of its cage. One that manifested when I realized what her husband was doing to her.
Thank fuck I turned around after only a few blocks. The farther I got from Bunny, the more the barbed wire around my heart twisted, leaving bloody chunks of me on the sidewalk.
It doesn’t matter that she hurt me. I’d suffer more without her.
The thought that it could’ve become a reality tonight if I hadn’t turned back makes me sick.
“Go upstairs, Bunny. I’ll take care of him.”
Without another word, I head to the basement. A grunt rips out of Neil every time his head knocks against a stair as I descend into what’s about to become his personal hell. By the time we reach the room beyond the main basement, blood slicks the back of his head.
When Bunny was gone, I scoured her basement—learned every nook and cranny.
Pieced together what she did to the men she brought down here.
My old cameras never went beyond the main room.
When I learned she was the Shadow Siren, I could’ve pushed further—but something about that chamber felt sacred to her.
Tonight marks my commencement into her world. Tonight, the space beyond the door becomes my altar. Tonight, I become a murderer.
Neil barely struggles, too dazed to fight, as I secure him to a chair draped in chains. I set my gun on a table littered with tools like something you’d see on a thriller flick.
Grabbing a pair of bolt cutters, I sink to my haunches in front of him, taking my time straightening each of his fingers as they dangle over the arm of the chair.
“You know, I never imagined I’d find joy in something so fucking depraved. But I guess we have that in common, don’t we?”
The image of him on top of Bunny floods in—his mouth on her body, her helpless beneath him, frozen as if she’d accepted her fate. My little rabbit is anything but helpless. Seeing her reduced to a near catatonic state boiled my blood.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Neil coughs, spitting blood at my feet as he fully comes to.
I don’t give him a reprieve, snipping off the tips of his fingers to the first knuckle. His screams tear the air as he thrashes against the chains and I take them one by one.
“This is to teach you not to touch what isn’t yours.”
Surprisingly, he stays conscious—barely—by the time I finish.
“Fuck you!” he spits as the blood drips to the floor. He won’t bleed out, which is precisely the point.
Neil deserves as much pain as I can possibly inflict.
“No, fuck you, you piece of shit!” Bunny’s voice rings out behind me, alive with anger, malice, and a deep-seated need for revenge.
Turning, I see she’s replaced her ruined shirt, baby monitor clutched in her hand like a lifeline.
I rise and go to her. Without looking away from Neil, she hands me the screen to show that Faline is no longer crying.
The sound of Kenny G hums through Bunny’s phone by the bassinet.
If it were a better time, I’d kiss her for that.
“I almost had you, you fucking bitch. You fucking whore!” Neil screams.
Bunny surges past me. I didn’t see it at first, but she’s holding one of her stilettos—the heel pointed outward, a slim blade protruding from it. Forcefully, she slashes across his face, carving a long gash through his cheek. As his brother marked her, she marks him.
“You want to be like Nathaniel, Neil? I smashed his brain in with a rump roast. Maybe you should suffer the same fate.” She drops the shoe and flexes her hands, fingers curling into claws.
It’s how I found her that night—with them curled into the meat like rigor had set in and caused them to stick that way.
A sick sense of pride rolls through me. I know how wrong this is, but the monster in me doesn’t care—he’s relishing finally getting to see this side of her, knowing she’s harbored it in secret for so long.
“There’s a nice set of turkey legs in the freezer,” I supply darkly, chuckling when disgust twists his face. “I can think of a few places to shove those to make it hurt.”
“No need to ruin good meat—there’s an old rack of ribs I don’t mind sacrificing. I could smash his face in with those. After all, Neil, you said you and your brother liked to share. Seems fitting you die the same way.”
Empathy takes over my reasoning for a split second. “I know the piggies are already dead, but don’t desecrate their memory that way. Let them keep their honorable death.”
Bunny goes to the table and grabs the soldering iron, turning it on. “Maybe I’ll take a page from the Baby Doll Killer’s book.”
“That’s my girl.”
Our eyes meet. Understanding passes between us.
That’s right, Little Rabbit. You’re mine. I’m yours. We’re okay.
Neil jerks against the chains, his ruined fingers bleeding again. “You’re fucking crazy!”
“Says the psycho who drank my baby’s milk, then said he’d kill her.” Bunny’s words are ragged with the weight of her exhaustion and a feral need to match the energy he brought into our home.
“What can I do, Little Rabbit?” This is her revenge. Her choose-your-ending to this vein of her past. But she needs to know I’m here. She needs to know I support her in any way she needs me.
“Get the water ready,” she instructs before leaning over him, lowering the iron toward his dick. “I’m going to have so much fun tearing you apart until you are begging to die.”
His eyes widen, his screams fill the basement as she digs the iron into his crotch. The stench of burnt cloth and flesh permeates the air. Fire catches on his lap, nearly singeing the ends of Bunny’s long locks. He passes out from what I assume is excruciating pain.
Quickly, I toss the water over his lap before gathering Bunny’s hair out of her way, holding it back as she slaps Neil’s cheek to rouse him. “No, no, no, my dear brother-in-law. Wake the fuck up. I’m not finished with you yet.”
“Is it weird this is making me hard?” It’s an ill-timed joke, especially given what I walked in on, but before shame can chart a course through me, Bunny’s light laughter extinguishes it.
“Is it weird I like that it’s making you hard?” She flashes a devilish grin over her shoulder and lowers the iron as soon as Neil groans awake.
She makes quick work of what’s left of his dick, and we work in tandem to keep him conscious. His skin goes ashen and slick as she holds the iron to his face.
“Did you know I’m actually a serial killer, Neil?” Bunny muses, tapping the iron against his nose. Flesh sizzles. The grotesque smell of cooked meat wafting into my sinuses.
He wheezes through clenched teeth, refusing to answer. There’s still an edge in his gaze—dark and deadly, like he thinks he’s getting out of this predicament alive and planning how to make us pay.
I shift all Bunny’s hair into one hand—no easy feat with the amount she has—and shove my fingers between his lips, hauling his tongue forward before he can bite me.
“My girl asked you a question. It’s rude not to answer.”
Neil whips his head side to side, snarling, but Bunny is precise. She drops the iron onto his tongue and holds until it’s fully cleaved from his mouth.
High-pitched shrieks split the room. I glance at the baby monitor. Faline sleeps on, blissfully unaware, while her uncle sings his death lullaby below her.
Bunny burns his lips into a bubbling mass, then drives the iron through his eye.
That one nearly makes me puke when it bursts across what’s left of his face.
Her wrath fuels her, even though Neil has long since passed out again, but I can tell the Shadow Siren starts to recede when her limbs begin to shake as the adrenaline wears off.
“Bunny, it’s okay. You don’t need to keep going,” I tell her gently.
Surprisingly, she steps back. Dropping the iron, she spins out of my hold. I let her go, grab my pistol, and end it.
A second later, Neil Jones is dead.
“That’s more than you deserve, you bastard.”
Soft whimpers draw my attention to Bunny.
She’s huddled against the wall, breathing ragged as she watches.
Now I take her in—really take in the damage he did before I got here.
A bruise is blooming over her scar, smaller ones peppering her skin, while a trickle of blood dries at the corner of her mouth.
If I’d gone to her first, I might’ve given him time to recover and get away. Even though every instinct screamed to hold her, I had to fight the urge.
My little rabbit is strong and resilient, but she looks ready to break.
“Bunny—” She launches into my arms with a sob.
Her frame is so much smaller than I remember. I hug her tight and bury my face in her hair, inhaling her scent, savoring the feel of her in my arms.
I missed this. Missed her. All the anger and resentment from her absence washes away with the realization I could’ve lost her tonight.
“You’re okay. I’ve got you, baby. Shh. I’ve got you,” I murmur.
“I’ll never leave you again. I promise. I’m so sorry.” The words hitch with shuddered breaths and hiccups from crying. I do my best to convey with my touch and whispered reassurances that everything is okay now we’re together again.
As if sensing we’re done mutilating the monster, Faline’s cries rise through the monitor, pitching higher the longer she wails.
We both turn toward the door at the same time, pausing to share a watery laugh before ascending the stairs. With every step, the future I thought I’d lost draws closer. Now that the threat is eliminated, and my girls are back home, I’m not letting anything else get in our way of happiness.
I once wrote Bunny into my future. Now I’m ready to write our happily ever after.