Chapter 17
Chapter 17
IRIS
T he possibility of my grandfather being behind everything happening to us over the past few weeks, blows my damn mind. King and Beau are almost certain of it and although I don’t want to believe it… the proof is all there. It saddens me so much. I mean, how much loss can one person handle? Am I supposed to pull on my big girl panties and deal with this on top of finding out my mother was strangled to death? How my father is a sick, twisted man full of corruption? I’m not allowed to break, right? But what if I do? Who will stop me if I flip my switch and call for my own taste of revenge…
My grandfather is the one person I had left. My one solid in a world of deceit and manipulation, so finding out how he’s possibly no better than my father turns my insides, making me want to puke from the thought alone.
“Come back to bed, baby,” Beau whispers behind me as he wraps a strong arm around my torso. I need strength right now more than anything, but my thoughts are far too fucked up at the moment to possibly sleep.
“I can’t sleep,” I admit and he kisses the side of my head. He pulls me against his chest, both of us still facing the darkness outside the sliding glass doors. “My mind is twisted up, steadily replaying everything. It’s taunting me.” My lip trembles as emotions threaten to spill over, but I choke them back down. “I feel like it’s about to explode.”
“You’ve seen a lot. Been through it too.” I nod, agreeing with him as he reaches for a blanket from a large basket near the couch. He slides the glass door open, guiding us both outside, while tucking his arm around me.
“What do you think my grandfather wants me to see?” I question, not being able to let it go. I don’t think I’ll ever stop overthinking everything at this rate. When will these people stop putting me through this shit and let me have some peace?
“Who knows. The only thing I can tell you for sure is that King and I will be there next to you for everything.”
“Should I quiz my grandfather about the society?”
He pulls me down on his lap in one of the patio chairs, wrapping me up in the warmth of his body and the blanket at the same time. “Not sure.” He sighs, rubbing the scruff on his cheek while he thinks. “Maybe wait until he shows us more of his cards and then we can decide how to play his game against him. Honestly, we should be relieved knowing he’s a part of the society. If he is… it means he’s been on board with everything that’s already happened. How far will he let the society go to keep his identity hidden if we start showing him signs we suspect him?”
“Good point.” I rest my head back on his shoulder, glancing at the star-filled sky.
“I say we take it one step at a time. With the three of us together, we can do anything.”
“What if they try to split us up?”
“They better have a fucking army with them.” His body tenses up with the thought of it.
“I can’t do that again, thinking one of you are dead. I sure won’t be able to cope if it were ever true.” He shifts my legs around so I’m straddling him in the chair, meeting his serious stare before he begins to talk again.
“We can’t promise to be alive for the rest of your life, Kens… but I can promise to use even my last dying breath protecting you and making sure you know how much you mean to me. King will be the same.”
“I know. I’ll just feel better when this is all behind us.” I lean my forehead against his and allow the tingles of hope to flow through me as the possibility of one day having a ‘normal life’ with these two circles in the distance.
Once I sit back, he moves to stand, locking his arms around me and then carries me inside the house. “What are you doing?”
“Taking you to bed. I’m going to make my earlier threat a reality… Gonna wear your ass out until you’re too exhausted to worry about anything except how you’re gonna walk tomorrow.”
He tosses me on the bed before dropping the blanket and his shorts to the floor. Kingston stirs against my back, tugging me in close before he starts to kiss my neck from behind.
“She’s in her head.”
“Is that right?” Kingston sleepily questions Beau’s sharing of my anxiety. Before I get a chance to explain myself, hands are everywhere, taking my mind off of everything other than their touches. Kingston immediately grips my pussy, fingers eagerly probing and teasing with a purpose. “Tell me you’re still in your head now.” His voice is heavy with the right amount of rasp, making my toes curl from the sound.
I only manage a nod before Beau is on his knees in front of me, holding his cock in line with my mouth. Opening for him, I gladly take their distractions until it’s possible they might’ve come through on their warning. They wear me out until I’m too tired to think of anything past the two men filling my bed.
“Kens, Rufus just showed up. It’s time to go.” I stretch in the center of the bed, naked and deliciously sore in all the right ways as Beau hollers from another part of the house. “I told him we’d be about ten minutes.”
I rush for the shower and do the bare minimum to erase my freshly fucked appearance away before I see my grandfather. I want him to take me seriously in everything I have to say, so I need to look the part.
When I round the corner of the bedroom, Kingston is sitting back on the bed while Beau eyes me from the chair in the corner of the room.
“You good?” Kingston asks as I toss my shirt over my head.
“Yes. Let’s see what he has to say.” I step into my shoes and follow them both to the car. Rufus stands at attention with the back door open to the limo. I can’t help but wonder what he possibly knows about this situation, if anything. I have a feeling he probably knows much more than he’d ever let on.
Rufus nods at Beau as he ducks his head to get in first. “Iris.” He does the same for me and I’m sure Kingston, too.
I watch the scenery blur by as Rufus drives us away from the beach house and in the opposite direction of my grandfather’s mansion. Lowering the privacy window, I start asking questions. “Rufus, where are we going?”
“Your grandfather asked me to take the three of you to meet him. We’re only about five miles out. Be patient, my child.”
Oh fuck. Seriously? After everything, they want to pull an unscheduled stop, then tell me to be patient? Have they met a pissed off woman before? Telling me to be patient and not giving me answers is not the way to go about this. “Rufus. You know me better than that.” I remind him of my anxious nature, knowing he won’t give me anything more than he already has. He’s loyal to my grandfather, as he should be, but it still irks me. I sit back on an exhale, crossing my arms and irritably bounce one leg until the limo is slowing in front of an old barn.
Great, I’m getting flashbacks of my stay at the cabin with Beau, and unfortunately the time there ended up in us running for our lives until we came up with a half-assed plan. It failed and now I’m feeling a full circle moment I’m not thrilled about.
We’re all moving out of the limo, eager to get this little show of my grandfather’s started. I have questions I need to ask, and I plan on making him answer every one of them.
“My sweet Iris, welcome.” My grandfather greets me at the door and guides me through the main doors of the barn, straight up to a man whose vision has been blinded by a hood and his freedom has been stripped as he’s tied to the chair he rests in. His head hangs low, making me wonder what all they’ve done to him before we even walked through the door. The guys come to stand near me, Kingston one step ahead to guard the front with Beau one step behind, always watching my back. These two would die for me without a blink, and the thought acts to aide my uneasiness.
“I’ve brought you a gift, my dear.” My grandfather leans towards the man and yanks the hood off, revealing my father in a semi passed out state. It’s as if he’s just coming around from a drug-induced coma and I find it ironic how I don’t feel the slightest bit of sympathy for his condition. He deserves whatever my grandfather and his men have done to him… even more so what they’ll do to him after this meeting is over.
“What do you want me to do with him?” I ask, not knowing what he expects me to do. I’m past the point of wanting any contact with my father because he doesn’t deserve to breathe the same air as me, after what he’s done to my mother. Even if I ask him about it, it’s obvious he’ll only lie to make himself appear better. I don’t trust him as far as I can throw him and I’m glad I’m not alone in facing whatever this is.
“He’s here for you to avenge your mother’s death. I’ve ensured he will be coherent in the event you have anything you’d like to say to him.” I swallow hard, both Kingston and Beau standing at my sides, fully alert. I catch them both scanning the barn for any additional surprises that might be planned. Their support gives me a boost of confidence and a sense of strength that might be dangerous.
I walk around him, taking in all of the knots and the positioning of the torture tray to his left. I’ve seen this exact set up before, at the cabin when I walked in on Beau after his own bout with torturing a man who deserved to die. I let my eyes lock with Beau’s for a moment to let him know I notice it, too. The coincidences.
My father begins to cough, his face scrunched in pain and guilt. I should feel something seeing him like this…but the only thing swimming through my veins is anger and disgust. I’m long past being empathetic and understanding; this man ruined my life.
“I saw what you did.” Beau strolls behind my father as I begin to interrogate him, yanking his head up so he’s forced to look at me.
‘Wh-what?” His pathetic attempt to speak up is quickly shifted when Kingston shoots forward, punching him in the jaw.
Kingston leans in close, wearing a grin full of malice. His almost-pretty face is less than an inch from my father’s blood splattered, shocked expression. Beau continues holding him in place, further driving home their point. “If one tiny lie comes out of your mouth, I’ll slice your fucking throat and let you bleed out at her feet.”
My father’s eyes blink rapidly, the awareness of his death looming in them. The glint of fear fills his stare like a silent scream of panic, giving me chills while at the same time egging me on.
“Why did you do it?” I demand, my voice echoing through the mostly empty space.
He blinks again, his hesitation obviously proof of guilt. If I didn’t already know the truth, I’d damn sure realize it now. “Sh-sh-she was holding me back. She wanted to divorce me and I couldn’t let that happen.” His admission sounds like it makes perfect sense to him. As if he had every right to murder my mother because she wanted to leave him.
“What did you do to make her want a divorce?” His eyes shift both directions and Kingston quickly slides his knife from behind his back, placing it against his neck. No need for the torture table when I have my guys with me, and after their bout in hell, I know they want payback for themselves as well.
“Nothing,” he utters, and Kingston begins to slice into his flesh, Beau holding him tightly in place as blood begins to trickle down his neck. My father screams as the knife slowly trails across the column of his throat, the skin easily giving away. His garbled echoes of pain fill the barn, yet, not at all deterring the guys from seeing this through.
I pin my attention on both Kingston and Beau, their expressions lit with an eagerness to kill. They’re in their natural element, as if they’ve done this a hundred times together and I realize there’s so much history they share without me. My heart breaks a little witnessing them like this, but at the same time knowing they’re willing to do anything for me is somehow endearing.
“Stop,” I yell and Kingston freezes in position, proving to me even though they look like they’re psychotic killers, I’m actually the one with the power here. Somehow the knowledge makes me love them a little more for it, too.
“He’s lying to you,” Kingston seethes, eyes lit with murder. He’s hungry for my father’s blood; at the same time he’s protecting me from the one true monster I’ve always had in my life.
“I know he is.” But I’m not ready to have this image run on a loop through my mind until the day I die. I don’t want to take any chances of my regret being aimed at either of them. I’d rather watch my father rot behind bars for what he’s done to my mother than take the chance my grandfather or one of these other guys won’t use this entire thing to get Beau and Kingston for a crime. That’s something I could never live with. I don’t trust any of them enough to take the secret of a murder to their grave. And, if I’m being honest with myself, I’m not sure I trust my grandfather at this point, either.
I begin pacing, replaying everything in my mind while the guys hold him in place. “Iris, this is absurd.” My father manages to put up a tiny fight just before the video of my mother dying begins to play behind him. “I didn’t mean to hurt her.”
His lie makes me scream out in anger. A rage I’ve never felt before begins to burn straight through me, lighting up absolute insane thoughts. The chaos is both suffocating and intoxicating at once, giving me more strength than I normally feel.
“Turn him around.” I toss my hand up in frustration before watching Beau and Kingston yank him around to position him so he’s facing the video of himself. It’s the same one we’ve all seen over and over and it makes me sick inside. I wonder if he even knew this video existed before now because he instantly starts wailing and muttering more nonsense as it plays on. “It looks to me like you meant it. How am I supposed to take this information?” I pace back and forth in front of him, the light of the screen shining on me, shadows flashing over me at the same time. After all, he doesn’t really need to watch it… considering he was there.
He lived it.
“You had me followed in Georgia; don't lie to me, we both know it. Did you pay the guy who assaulted me, too?” My father inhales sharply, shaking his head in short, quick repetitions. His guilt is beyond obvious to anyone around. I almost lurch forward with the next bout of nausea swarming over me.
When more darkness from the video than light cascades over my face, I turn to look at what’s changed. “Your key allows you to save a life. Will you choose to use it?” Those eerie words from before are displayed on the wall behind me, only serving to verify our suspicions of my grandfather being involved in the society.
“So, now I get to decide whether to save you or not. Tell me, Father, why should I spare you when you didn’t give the same respect to my mother? In fact, you took her life from her… ripping my happiness from me time and time again.” My options are rolling through my thoughts, none of them close to the perfect answer, but my face must change when I eventually decide, because my father’s cries escalate.
What kind of man kills his wife and has his daughter assaulted? What was his motive and how could either of those be forgiven?
I look to both Beau and Kingston, their focus on me, giving me this gift of revenge to take as I wish. My father’s continued slurred words of nonsense gain him zero sympathy with any of us. He knows his fate. And I know I have to do it. Still not trusting my grandfather after his exposed lies coming to light, I refuse to let Beau and Kingston go down for a set up I can feel happening. The only way to prevent them from that possibility is for me to do it myself.
I pop the key on my wrist, the elastic band stinging enough to remind me of the other option of releasing him. Shaking my head, I quickly come to the realization there are only two people in my life I’d use this key for and this worthless excuse of a father sitting in front of me is not one of them.
“Please. Please listen to me.” My father’s words are finally clear enough to comprehend, even though I ignore them just the same as the blabbering he managed earlier.
It’s the rope I choose from the torture table after gazing over all of my options. The hatred I feel inside is disgustingly ugly and although the thought of killing anyone repulses me, I step next to Beau and twist the rope in my hands. He reaches out a hand, silently asking for me to allow him to do this, but him handling my father isn’t an option for me. Shaking my head, Beau steps back, not enjoying the fact I’m choosing to do this myself, but still giving me his support by standing close enough I can sense his strong, comforting presence.
I wrap the rope around my father’s neck and meet Kingston’s intense stare while adrenaline and pure hatred drive me on to strangle my father to death.
It’s not easy, gripping and twisting with all my might. The choking and gasping sounds send chills over my flesh as the blackness inside me fuels my need for vengeance . My father stole the life from my mother, by taking her air…it’s only fitting I return the favor. My wrists ache, my hands tired and my fingers burning from the hold, keeping steady long enough to watch his face change colors. It turns pink first, then a deeper red, and eventually it morphs into a pop of purple. In the end, it’s blue that finally takes him, his eyes glassy while staring at everything and nothing both at once.
When his head falls forward, I swear I see Kingston smirk with pride.