20. Cassius
CHAPTER 20
Cassius
One of these days, I was going to kill him. I really was. Liam wouldn’t stop pushing me and I was at my limit. That bastard and his fucking tests were going to be the death of me.
Or him.
I slammed the door closed and it automatically locked behind me as I jogged down the stairs to the basement where Liam’s precious omega would never be allowed. It was a huge fucking risk to even have her in this goddamn house, but there was no talking to him when he was like this.
Pausing to check my monitors on the left wall, I could see she was still sleeping while Liam tried to extricate himself from her arms without waking her up. It was almost amusing enough to stay here and watch, but I was too fucking pissed off and worked up to sit still.
My gaze went to Frankie’s screen and she was on yet another interview. We had her disguised as a specialist from HR to help everyone with the shock of Gideon’s death, but eventually people would figure out what was really going on.
At least she looked better after what had happened this morning.
It hadn’t been easy to get her head clear of Lucy’s pheromones. A few suppressants and an air purifier had managed to get the job done, but Frankie’s hands were still trembling when I’d left her at the office to finish Liam’s personal task.
Something was wrong with that one too, but Frankie had refused to see the doctor and there was nothing we could do to make her.
I’d just have to find out everything I could about Francesca Lopez and then follow the trail to the present if I was going to figure out what the fuck was going on with these two detectives.
Satisfied that nothing was going to happen while I dealt with yet another problem for Liam, I walked to the other side of the room and pulled on the metal shelf with motherboards, cables, and keyboards stuffed onto it. I punched in the seven-digit code to the hidden door and the mechanism unlocked with just enough noise they’d hear me coming.
Metal clanged against metal, telling me that at least one of them was awake. Muffled noises filled the vast space, but they weren’t as panicked as I’d been hoping.
Closing both doors behind me, I made sure to leave the lights off until they were secure.
Flicking on the surgical lights overhead, I leaned back against the door and watched Hodge and Miller blink owlishly at their surroundings. They were way too calm given their current situation, but sedatives will do that to a person.
Not that I knew what it felt like, but the closest I’d ever gotten was when someone had slipped me a horse tranquilizer in the same dosage they’d used on the actual fucking horse. Unfortunately for them, my body burned off drugs a lot faster than a horse.
“Gentlemen.” Two sets of eyes landed on me with an impressive amount of clarity.
I didn’t usually enjoy this kind of thing. Normally, I preferred to get the job done as quickly and efficiently as possible, but Liam kept fucking with my head. That was nothing compared to what her scent did to me though.
It took a moment for the two ex-cops to recognize me. The realization hit Miller first and he started shouting, yanking on the chain like a madman. That set off Hodge and the amount of noise these two were making would give me a fucking migraine if I didn’t already have one.
No blood to be seen despite the razorblades I’d placed in the corners of their mouths between their teeth before duct taping them shut. It was disappointing they hadn’t tried to cut through the tape with the blades, but when it came to these two, the bar was on the floor.
“I trust I don’t need to explain why you two are here.” Grabbing the golf club resting against the wall next to me, I strode forward with single-minded focus.
This time, I wasn’t going to let them off easy. An example needed to be made.
Hodge and Miller were bound to chairs bolted to the floor, their ankles cuffed to the chair legs and their arms cuffed behind their backs. Those cuffs on their wrists were chained to hooks in the floor behind them and pulled tight enough their backs arched off the chairs.
It was impossible for them to struggle or get free, but I was still disappointed they hadn’t even tried.
“Valor may not be able to touch a cop, but neither of you are cops anymore, are you?” Sometimes, it was really fucking nice to have the power of Valor behind me.
All it took was one call from Liam to the chief of police’s personal phone and these two had been called in and dismissed on the spot. They’d been forced to turn in their badges and their guns before breakfast this morning.
Now my blood was boiling with her scent in my nose, fucking with my head and telling me the mark of my teeth on her throat would look really nice with Liam’s on the other side. But I didn’t just want to mark her throat .
I wanted to mark that ass too.
What would Lucy look like in one of these chairs, back arched and tits pushed out while I went to my knees to find out if she tasted as good as she smelled?
Swinging the club as hard as I could, the metal struck his knee first, shattering the bone instantly. His scream of pain was muffled by the duct tape over his mouth, but it was still loud enough to make me smile.
Good to see he was making sure those razorblades were doing their job.
“Usually I’m a bit more patient.” I studied the end of the club as the other one pissed his pants. “But this guy I know keeps setting a delicious steak before a feral, starving dog. Resisting that steak is making me a little…”
Cracking my neck didn’t really help ease the tension since it was in every fucking muscle and bone, but the action did ease some of the bloodlust.
“It’s making me a little irritable,” I admitted, swinging the club in the opposite direction. This time, his ribs shattered and the agony of it must have been quite the shock because Hodge slumped forward, head hanging over his lap.
Annoyed he was already out cold, I pointed the golf club at Miller, who was now sobbing so hard that snot and tears ran down his face and neck as he begged me to stop.
“See, I don’t even really like steak. I’m more of a soup guy myself. What about you?”
No response from either of them.
Resting the club on my shoulder, I watched Miller shake so goddamn hard the chains rattled until I was almost positive he’d have a fucking heart attack before I could make him hurt the same way she’d been hurting.
I sighed and went over to the massive toolbox mechanics usually used and opened the top drawer, grabbing the syringe of adrenaline already prepped for this sort of thing.
“Omegas are a temptation. That’s just a fact, right? Alphas learn not to take what doesn’t belong to them, but that doesn’t mean we can’t see it and appreciate it. But what are you supposed to fucking do when someone keeps trying to give you their steak when you know for a fact that taking a single bite will kill you?”
What the fuck was Liam really up to?
Prepping the syringe, I considered all the various options.
That bastard loved playing games. It was nothing new, but this fucking girl was his childhood crush – his first love. Liam was fucking obsessed with her in a way that had me worried I’d have to burn her body to nothing but ash when this was all over.
Or his.
So, why the fuck would he keep trying to give her to me? Was he trying to share her, or was he reminding me I could never have what was his without losing my life? We both know I can’t win a dominance fight against him, but it would be close.
I highly doubted either of us would survive the experience.
And then there were all the girls we’d shared before her – all the ruts we’d gotten each other through so we didn’t accidentally kill someone who didn’t deserve it and to make sure that no one would ever learn just how strong I was.
Me, a nobody who happened to possess the strength to overpower legacy alphas. Maybe it would have been different if I’d gotten the red eyes, but no, mine were a very unsettling shade of blue that Lucy kept staring at as if she liked how cold they were – how they promised her I was secretly taking lives that didn’t belong to me.
Her ability to see that side of me through the mask I wore in the daylight was why I knew she’d find Gideon’s murderer, but it was fucking inconvenient if I were being honest with myself.
Even if she did look like she wondered how much blood I’d spill when I fucked her every time I caught her staring at me.
I injected the adrenaline straight into Hodge’s heart and his eyes flew wide open. The asshole tried to scream but it was more of a moan that sounded straight out of a B-list horror movie.
“Welcome back,” I told him. “It’s rude to fall asleep when someone’s speaking to you, but I’m not surprised no one taught you any manners considering what I saw yesterday.”
Miller’s muffled words made him sound pathetic. They were nothing more than gibberish, but I’d done this enough times to know what he was asking.
“There’s nothing you can say to get out of this. There’s no information from you that I want. Nothing I can’t get on my own. I’m doing this because you pissed off Valor like a bunch of rookies.” Miller’s sobs intensified and I tossed the syringe aside. “Liam Valor commands, and I obey.”
I took a step back and swung the club again, hitting Hodge where his jaw hinged on his skull.
Bones shattered, his jaw dislocating instantly. Part of his skull caved in and his jaw awkwardly hung from his face with nothing but his distended skin to hold it in place.
Hodge started to choke – on blood or teeth, I didn’t know and didn’t care.
“If we’re being honest though, I'd probably be doing this even if Liam hadn’t ordered me to. It would have just been a bit more…complicated. Arranging a cop’s death isn’t difficult, but it is risky.” Ripping off the tape had blood pouring into his lap.
Razorblades and teeth clattered to the floor and I stepped over them to place my fingers on his pulse to see he was still alive, but not for much longer.
I finally slid my gaze to Miller, who looked like he was choking on his own vomit. “That omega has me all kinds of fucked up, and between you and me, I’m not sure how much longer I can be such a loyal guard dog. She just smells so fucking good, and she looks at me like she’d stab me if I tried to kiss her. Do you think she would? I really fucking hope so.”
Shoving my fingers into Hodge’s mouth, I grabbed his jaw and yanked down as hard as I could, watching the bloody slits at the corners of his mouth tear until the whole thing came off with a sickening crack.
“What do you think?” I dropped the bloody mess in Miller’s lap and then yanked the duct tape off his mouth, ignoring the blood gushing down Hodge’s front. “Should I take a bite out of her and see if I get my head ripped off, or should I just leave her alone?”
Miller gagged, but nothing came up. It wasn’t an answer but it was good enough.
“I really don’t know how much longer I can leave her alone when Liam keeps shoving her in my face.”
God, her ass…I was never going to forget what that looked like. Every time she wore pants I’d find my eyes on those curves, knowing what was under the fabric and wishing my teeth had scarred her when he’d lifted that shirt up to show me what I could never have.
What she’d never give me.
Cracking the other side of my neck, I shoved down the urge to take what I wanted and pointed the golf club at Miller again. He flinched, and I was pleased to see he might actually be experiencing the same fear an omega did every time an alpha forced them to their knees before taking what wasn’t theirs.
“You let your partner violently use his pheromones on Lucy Parker. You were an accomplice before you decided to commit the same crime and your disgusting scent clung to her hair and clothes until it made her sick. You should have known better than to mess with anything that belongs to Valor.”
Tossing the golf club away made him flinch again as he sobbed like a little baby. Hodge deserved the fate I gave him, but this one…
I slid the knife from my boot and set the blade under his jaw, leaning in close enough I was the only thing he could see. I was his judge, his jury, and his executioner.
Now I was his god.
“Silence makes you complicit,” I reminded him. “Letting that happen and doing nothing about it is worse in my opinion because it means you’re a coward .”
I took my time drawing the blade across his throat, keeping it shallow enough his blood gushed down his front just like the other one, but it would take some time for him to bleed out.
Just like it had for Gideon and Lucy’s mother.
Blood pooled on the white tile beneath them. It soaked into my clothes and cooled on my skin where it had splattered, but all I could see was the bright red pool of blood that kept getting bigger.
It finally hit the toes of my boots, but I couldn’t bring myself to move, not when I felt frozen in place by the thought of what Lucy would do if she found me right now, looking like this. She’d find out eventually because she was too damn smart for her own good.
But this was for her .
Their bodies would get chopped up into tiny little pieces and sent off to the farm for the pigs to eat or sent to the crematorium. It didn’t really matter to me since Liam was the one who took care of that part.
Maybe he’d come down here tonight and help me clean up like he usually did, but I doubted it. Lucy was changing our lives and I had no idea how far it would go.
I really didn’t like that.
Maybe I should take Liam up on his offer next time because it didn’t seem to matter what I did. Regardless of what choice I made I’d end up dead so I might as well get something out of it.
Licking the blood from my lips, I wondered for the thousandth time if she’d taste as good as she smelled.
Fuck, I was starving .
Maybe I should order some steak for dinner tonight. Soup just wasn’t cutting it anymore.