Chapter 27
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Wynn
I had to do something, had to stop this. Corey wasn’t a great person, but he didn’t deserve to die. I didn’t know this Bear and yeah, okay, he sounded like a really awful person, but it wasn’t our place to decide who lived and died.
“Normally I don’t need to plead my case for why I’m ending someone’s life, but Wynn here is looking at me like I’m something out of his nightmares. So, he’s gonna need to understand that I take this need to unalive people and focus it on the truly terrible.”
“What?” Bear was still somewhat dazed; I was guessing Julian had sedated him. He was huge and while Julian appeared capable, I wasn’t sure he’d have won a fight with him otherwise.
“I did some research on you.” He waved his phone by the man’s face. “Six women, Leonard?” He tsked. “How do you slip through the cracks so effortlessly?”
“You’re Prince Julian.” Okay, so he was becoming more cognizant.
Julian didn’t acknowledge Bear’s realization. He hit a button on his phone.
“Marcy Nelson, age twenty-six; Leslie Granger, age eighteen; Helga Tomlinson, age sixty-seven; Tasha Butler, age twenty; Kelly O’Shea, age forty-two; and Gretchen Franks, age fifty.” He slipped the phone into his pocket.
“What about them?” Bear sneered, and I could tell he knew each one of those women and that what Julian said was true. He had assaulted them.
“Four of those women are missing, and two changed their testimony against you.”
“Because I didn’t do nothin’ to them.”
Julian hummed and walked over to a metal closet. “But you did. Helga Tomlinson is in a wheelchair now because you beat her so badly, you damaged her spinal cord.” He reached into the closet and pulled out a black rope.
“Who?” Bear smirked, and it was like ice water through my veins.
“Kelly O’Shea committed suicide two months ago.”
Bear grunted. “You’ve mistaken me for someone else. Let me go.”
Jesus. “What happened to the other four women?” I found myself asking.
Both Julian and Bear looked at me.
“Answer him.” Julian moved to a small table and picked up a syringe.
“How am I supposed to know where those bitches went?”
In my heart, I knew he’d killed them. I just knew. Was it horrible? Had they suffered, had it been quick? I glanced at Julian; he held the needle in his hand.
“He killed them, didn’t he?”
“I didn’t kill nobody!” Bear shouted, chains rattled against the wall. “Let me fucking go you motherfucker, or—”
Julian was on him in a second, plunging the syringe into his neck. “You’ve met your match, Bear.”
Then the big man slumped against the wall and slid to the floor. He wasn’t dead, his chest rose and fell.
“I never killed anyone.” Corey’s voice was soft. “I’m so sorry for hurting your friend; I needed the money.”
“What did you need it for?” I asked him, and his shoulders sagged.
“Food. I was starving.”
Fucking hell. “Julian, you can’t kill him.”
He tilted his head. “He’s seen me, Wynn. There are rules.”
“Whose rules?”
“Ones I abide by and others that protect the royal family.”
“I won’t say anything.” Corey jutted his chin toward Bear. “I get why killing him is a service to everyone, though. I’d do it too.”
Julian turned to me. “Would you?”
“Kill him?”
“Knowing what you know now about him. If you were given the chance, would you end his life?”
I didn’t think I was capable of murder. “I don’t think I could.” Julian watched me. “But I doubt I’d stop someone else from doing it.”
Julian didn’t smile or comment. He simply wrapped the rope around Bear’s throat and yanked. I closed my eyes and hung my head.
The action seemed to revive Bear somewhat, judging by the grunting and gasping. I peeked through my lids. He was turning purple, and Julian’s face was so close to his. His arms shook with the obvious strength it took to strangle him. Once more, I looked away. I couldn’t watch anymore.
I buried myself into my mind, cutting off the noises, smells, everything. I had no idea how much time had passed, but suddenly I felt a presence hovering and knew it was Julian.
“Wynn.”
I couldn’t lift my head. I wasn’t sure I could ever look at him again.
“Wynn.”
“I can’t, Julian.” The trickle of a tear slid down my cheek.
His hand gently touched my thigh as he kneeled in front of me. “I need you to look at me.”
“Please leave me alone, Julian.” More tears fell, and I both wanted to push his hand from my leg and pull him closer and sob against him.
With a sigh, he rose and I heard the sound of metal sliding. “Talk!” Julian’s voice boomed.
“I…okay, but you can’t kill me, please.”
The jolt of awareness that Julian was going after Corey shook me to the present. “No!” I rushed over and yanked on Julian’s arm.
He didn’t budge. “Name!”
“F-f-fine. It was that cop or detective whatever.”
I froze. “Wait, a cop paid you to cause a scene?”
Corey was sweating, fear evident in his gaze, and he was shaking. “He said he’d kill me if I spoke.”
“You’ll die if you don’t,” Julian growled.
“So if I tell you, I can go free?”
“Yes,” I answered.
“Wynn.” I still couldn’t bring myself to look into Julian’s eyes.
“He won’t tell anyone.” I nodded at Corey. “I’m sure Julian can get you off the island. You leave, go far away from here.”
“Y-yes, okay.”
“That’s not how this works.”
I ignored Julian. He wasn’t going to hurt me and for some strange reason, I knew he’d listen to me.
“Who was the cop?” I asked Corey.
He licked his lips, his eyes darting between me and Julian. This was the only thing keeping him breathing. He’d witnessed Julian strangling a man and understood what the prince was capable of. I hoped I would be able to hold him back. Corey didn’t deserve the same fate as Bear.
“He approached me while I was on a bench, begging for money. I didn’t even know he was a detective at first. He was nice.
Smiled at me and said he’d give me money if I did him a favor.
Told me to go into the café across the street.
Said there were two people with Prince Julian and if I made a fuss and scene with one of them, he’d give me the money. ”
“And you did.”
He nodded at me. “But I never got paid because I was taken in. I really didn’t know the guy the police were asking me about. Then I saw him at the station. He got me alone and told me he’d kill me if I spoke. Said he’d make my life miserable more so than it was.”
“Ridgeway,” Julian hissed.
The surprise of that detective’s name finally brought my attention to Julian. His eyes were like obsidian, hardly any silver showing. It was as if I were face-to-face with a nightmare.
“Yeah,” Corey answered.
What the fuck is going on?