TWELVE
Saraya
"Mr. Tomlin. To what do I owe the pleasure?"
I had just finished eating and was passing through the front foyer when I happened to look out the window by the door. Mika Tomlin was walking up to the door. Thank God I had already showered and dressed, because I hurried to the door to open it before he could press the doorbell.
"Saraya," he said with a grin. "Just the person I came to see."
"Oh?"
"Yes, well, after the whole club scene with your brother, I wanted to make sure you were okay."
"Aw, that was sweet of you. Nyx is overwhelmed at the moment and is a bit overprotective of me. I'm sorry that I couldn't stay and chat,"I tell him, slightly embarrassed by how Nyx acted the night before.
"Would you like to have lunch with me?"Mika's brow raises as he waits for my answer.
Although I had just eaten, I didn't want to pass this up, so I accepted his invitation. "I would love to, Mr. Tomlin."
"Please, call me Mika. My father is Mr. Tomlin…"
"Okay, Mika…"
When I step outside and turn to close the door, I spot Adrik heading our way, and I hope he didn't get a glance at Mika standing just outside.
The last thing I need is him going straight to my stepbrother about me leaving with him.
I had gotten a big enough lecture from Nyx on the way home from the club.
Eventually, I tuned him out because I was beginning to get a headache .
Mika, on the other hand, was turning out to be a fun companion. He took me to a small bar and grille for a sandwich and fries and had me laughing the whole time. After he told me a little about his family, he asked about my last relationship.
As if right on cue, a familiar face appeared, and although he was saving me from having to lie about Ken, Cale's appearance pissed me off.
"Un-fucking-believable!" I murmur.
Mika turns and looks in the direction that I'm looking in, and he chuckles. "Well, at least I had you longer than I thought I would. Your brother must be pretty busy if it's taken him this long to send his man for you."
"I'm so sorry, Mika. I honestly don't know what Nyx is thinking…"
He held up his hand to stop me and said, "No worries, Saraya. I will talk to Nyx and ask him if I can take you out. Maybe he's old school, and with you being fresh out of a relationship, he just doesn't want to see you hurt again."
I highly doubt that is the case.
I don't say this out loud, of course. I smiled at Mika and tossed my napkin down before pushing my chair back. Mika stood like the gentleman he was.
"Thank you for lunch, Mika. I enjoyed our short time together."
"No, thank you for accepting my invitation,"he said. "Hopefully, next time, it will be dinner without any interruption."
I nodded, but I knew that would never happen.
Not if Nyx had a say in it. After Mika lifted my hand and kissed the top of it, I hurried over to the door where Cale stood staring at me.
At least he had the mind not to make a scene by coming over to the table.
I walked right past him with my nose in the air, so he knew I wasn't happy—not that he cared.
Now, I'm standing in a warehouse where the lapdog dragged me to, staring disbelievingly at my stepbrother. He's lost his fucking mind if he thinks I'm going to throw body parts into a damn woodchipper! I think I'm going to be sick.
"Oh, you will, Saraya. Do you want to know why?"Nyx asks after my resounding "Like fucking hell, I will!"
"I don't care what your reasoning is, Nyx. I will not take part in this man's murder!"I try backing up, but I bump into a hard chest .
Strong hands grab my arms, ensuring I don't fall, and I assume it's Cale. I'm surprised to see that it's Adrik and I mumble an apology, but he only smirks down at me.
"You may want to listen to his reasoning, Raya."
I scoff, "Nothing he says will make me participate in this, Adrik. I'm not a killer…"
I stop talking because the memory of stabbing my husband repeatedly is still fresh in my mind. Yes, it was in self-defense, but I still killed him, regardless. That's why I'm standing here now—in the presence of my stepbrother, who despises me.
"Maybe we should just let her watch the video,"Adrik states as he looks at Nyx.
"She needs to learn to take my orders and obey them as expected. I shouldn't have to give her a reason why. It's the least she can do after all I've done for her recently. It's not like I'm asking her to be the one to cut the body part off. Although, I do hear that she's good with a knife."
Nyx smirks as he delivers his little spiel.
Why my lady bits jump to attention as he does so, is beyond me.
I'm past wanting my stepbrother at this point, or so I keep telling myself.
He's been nothing but an ass since I arrived.
Yeah, he's still hotter than fuck, but he's got the personality of a porcupine and a vicious disposition like a shrew.
"Come here, Raya,"Amara calls out to me, but I only glare back at her, which makes her snicker.
As if in slow motion, the butcher knife the psychotic woman has in her hand comes down, taking the guy's hand clean off. He screams a second later and starts struggling against the restraints.
Mara picks up the hand and walks over to the woodchipper as she keeps her eyes on me and says, "I took this hand because it's the one he used to grab his eighteen-year-old victim while she was out celebrating her birthday."
My stomach churns as I watch her throw the hand into the chipper, thanking God that I can't see it come out the other end. Mara then returns to the guy and grabs his face.
"What else did you do to the girl?"Mara asks him as she holds the knife to his neck.
The guy sings like a bird, telling us precisely what he did to his victim.
"I took her when she stepped outside to make a phone call. I had been watching her and her friends all night. It was the perfect time to nab her. So, I reached out through the shadows and placed my hand over her mouth, pulling her back into the alley.
I punched her, making her dazed so I could get her into my trunk. I then took her to my favorite spot. That's when I fucked her for the first time." He stammers through it all.
"Don't you mean that's when you raped her?" Mara sneers. "A young fucking girl who hasn't even begun living yet!"
"I know, I have a p-problem," he stutters.
"Go on. Finish telling everyone what you did to this poor innocent girl."
"A-after fucking her the f-first time, I held her down with my knee and I fisted her…"
"Where did you fist her?"Mara bares her teeth at him.
"H-her ass…"
Nyx walks over and hands Amara something and she grins up at him lovingly.
"Thank you, babe."
Nyx smirks and shakes his head before stepping back.
I don't let the endearment get to me this time because I'm too jacked up on adrenaline at hearing this asshole.
Instead, I keep my eyes on Mara as she puts a glove on and shoves her fist up the guy's ass.
He howls in pain, and I smile for the first time.
"Talk while I fuck your ass, motherfucker."
"T-there isn't much more to t-tell. I then s-stabbed her in the side and fucked her a couple more times.
I covered my cock in her blood and forced her to take me into her m-mouth…
AGH! I-I then choked her as I fucked h-her again, and that's when s-she died!
"He screams with the ending of his story, and I see Mara's arm, up to the elbow, buried inside his ass.
"Then what did you do?"Mara asks as she removes her arm and fist from his ass.
"Please… I'm sorry!"the man cries.
"TELL US WHAT YOU DID NEXT!"
"I-I then took her corpse to where I-I've buried other b-bodies and fucked her again."
When he gets to the part about fucking the corpse, I run to the wastebasket, and everything I ate today comes up. Anger rushes through me the moment my stomach settles.
"His dick," I snarl .
Mara quirks her brow and says, "Excuse me?"
"Cut off his fucking dick!"I grind out.
My ex-best friend grins and he pleads with her. He looks so fucking pathetic right now.
"He's been killing women in our town for months,"Nyx's voice rumbles next to my ear. "I don't kill needlessly. We aren't the bad guys, Raya."
I try to even out my breathing but it's hard when Nyx is so close to me, and I can smell his intoxicating scent. Mix that with the sound of his raspy voice, and my body reacts, lubricating itself more than I'd like it to. I do the only thing I can do—step away.
Amara has the fucker's dick in her hand as she jerks him off. "It's easier to cut it off this way. It doesn't matter how scared they are, it always gets hard,"she explains when I look at her questioningly.
As soon as it's hard, Mara grins at the man and his eyes widen in horror as she holds the butcher knife up for him to see. It comes down and slices through the phallus with no trouble, taking it clean off.
I remove the handkerchief from Nyx's breast pocket in his suit and go over to pick up the disgusting body part. When I go to toss it into the chipper, Mara stops me.
"No! I need that."
Not even wanting to know why, I hand it to her, and she shoves it into the guy's mouth, cutting off his screams. She then removes her overshirt and uses it to tie it around his head, keeping his dick in his mouth.
"Ah, so much better."Mara muses, "Now, where were we?"
"I believe the other hand is next," I tell her.
My stomach still feels sick, but I just think about that poor girl and her family, and then I see Ken's face in front of me.
I see his fist swinging at me, and I see him holding me down every time he wanted to fuck me, not caring where we were at.
He once fucked me while he played poker with his police buddies.
He got a kick having them watching us, but he never once let anyone touch me.
Stanton was the only one who ever had that permission the night my innocence was taken, but never again.