Prologue #2
For the time being, I take advantage of the quiet ride and close my eyes. I don’t sleep, there’s no way I ever could with this much rage burning in my veins, but something tells me I’m in for a long night.
Mac has barely started to slow down when Aurora opens the door and sprints to the front door of a run-down house.
“Fuck,” I grind out and run after her.
“Duffy!” she screams at the top of her lungs, and from deep in the house comes a growl that sounds pained and feral.
“Rory!”
I barely reach her when she’s on the move again, to a door next to the stairs, and she runs down faster than I think is safe since there’s no light at all except for a tiny window in the far wall.
And for the second time today I feel my heart turn to stone.
The boy is beyond battered, and he too is tied up, but with chains. He fights against them as hard as any man I’ve seen, and breaks down crying when Aurora reaches him, kneels in front of him, and wraps her arms around him.
She doesn’t cry, she just holds him.
“I’m okay, I’m okay,” she repeats while Duffy just shudders and cries.
I can’t tell his age, not in this light, not even when I get closer, but I can see how skinny he is, how many bruises are on his face and his body.
Yeah, I’m for sure going to enjoy making James pay for this.
Duffy’s eyes snap up to me when I step closer, a snarl curving his upper lip, and he looks like he’s ready to tear off the wall if I do one wrong thing.
I can’t blame him.
I debate how to free him. The chains are looped around bolts on the wall, and a lock the size of my fist is holding them together.
I take out my gun and shoot before Duffy or Rory can protest or even begin getting worried.
“Don’t you fucking hurt my sister!” He’s shouting at me before he realizes what I did, and I’m grateful he doesn’t immediately attack when his arms fall to his sides.
“I’m not going to hurt either of you,” I tell him. I put my gun back in its holster and raise my palms. “But I am going to hurt your father.”
“Who are you?” he demands.
“I’m Eian Dempsey, I’m—”
“You’re Ronan’s son.” I scowl at the interruption but nod and let it pass this time.
“Yes.”
“Dad’s talked about you a few times.”
“You can be sure whatever he said about me is a lie,” I say mildly. “Where’s your mother?”
“She left,” Aurora says matter-of-factly.
“All right, then. Pack up anything you want to keep. You’re coming with me.
” I see Duffy about to protest and hold my hand up again.
“I’m not going to allow you two to live here by yourselves since I’m going to kill your father as soon as I get home, so you’re coming with me.
You’re going to meet my father and then take a shower and sleep.
And no one is going to hurt either of you ever again. ”
That is one promise I intend to keep even if I have to go against my father.
He let this happen and there have to be consequences.
But when Duffy stands on shaky legs, he surprises me as much as Aurora has when he demands. “I get to kill him.”
“We’ll see,” I murmur, then turn to walk up the stairs.
It’s been a tense half hour at home.
On the quick drive over I found out that Aurora and Duffy are fraternal twins and just thirteen fucking years old. I brought them right to Da’s study and basically just gestured at them then asked him what the fuck?
He told me to show the kids to the guest bedrooms then come back, and when I did, he didn’t say a word, just led me outside to the bunker.
On the walk over I interpreted his silence correctly and told him everything that happened from the time I arrived at the brothel til now, and I even included Duffy’s wish.
To his credit, I can tell how hard it hit him to know how much damage James has done to his children and to our business, but that’s easily fixable.
“You’ll get the brothel sorted,” he says when we reach the trap door to the bunker.
“Of course, Da.”
“Good, now let me do the talking.”
That’s the usual way things go, so I don’t know why he has to remind me, but I nod anyway and follow him down.
Blake is standing before the two naked men tied to metal chairs, and he nods at Da who doesn’t spare him a look, just mutters, “Leave.” And Blake follows the order immediately.
That’s the way it is with Da. That’s why this is so fucking wrong.
He grabs the bucket set off to the side and dumps the cold water over both men to wake them up.
They startle, shout, ask questions, though James clearly knows Da better because a look of resignation mixed with fear settles in his eyes after only a minute.
Da only speaks when the other one finally shuts up too.
“I’m going to ask you questions.” He points at the stranger with his gun then looks at James. “For every sound you make you get a bullet.” James nods quickly—he understands he’s in deep shit. “What’s your name?”
“Alejandro.” The man’s voice trembles, and I get an insane amount of satisfaction from seeing him cowering now.
“Who do you work for?”
“The Juanes cartel.” He wouldn’t tell us that if he thought he was going to get out of this alive.
“Why did James sell you his daughter?” We don’t need to ask what he was doing, the situation I walked into speaks for itself.
“To pay his debt.”
“What did he owe you for?”
God, I’m really glad he didn’t ask how much, because that would probably just send us both into a fit of violence we wouldn’t come out of until these two motherfuckers were in pieces.
“Cocaine mo-mostly,” Alejandro stutters.
“What did he do with the cocaine?”
Alejandro shrugs as much as he can. “I don’t know. I just wanted my money.”
“You’re not getting your money,” Da says simply, then moves on to James.
He doesn’t ask him any questions, just leans down to rest his hands on his knees and stares at him. I wonder what I would even ask. I don’t think I need to know anything except that this piece of shit sold his daughter and tortured his son from the looks of it.
We take care of our men and their families. We do damn well for ourselves and spread the money around. There’s no reason why he should’ve been in the position where he needed to sell Aurora to anyone.
So yeah, Dad doesn’t need to ask.
And I guess I should’ve known Dad was going to choose the better option . . . cruelty.
“Your son is going to kill you,” he murmurs softly, and there’s only fear in James’s eyes now. “Eian, why don’t you get the boy and teach him a few tricks while you work on this piece of trash?”
“Yes, Da.”
I don’t think I’ve ever been happier to follow an order.