Epilogue
It was a clear night. August was in full swing, and the air was thick and muggy.
Nate crept around the perimeter of a lone house in the woods.
It was small and had been maintained and used often throughout the years.
Nate knew this because this is where he took the women. This was where he took Alex.
Her rapist.
Dominic Burton.
He was a United States Congressman from Virginia. He was rich. His family was powerful. And he thought he could get away with anything he wanted.
It started seven years ago with Alex. Burton had been tired of his normal sexual conquests.
He had resources, so he knew he could get what he wanted.
His first victim had been a sex worker. Burton had paid for her pimp to have her for a couple of days.
He had to pay extra when she came back to keep her mouth shut.
That’s when he knew he had to change his strategy.
He met a schmoozing businessman at an event, who had been bragging about his daughter in an attempt to get them together.
Burton was older, but Russell Thorn was desperate to get in the right circles.
If his daughter were dating a man like Domnic Burton, Russell could have access to those circles. Burton had other ideas, though.
He proposed the sinister idea of taking Alex for a few days, no questions asked.
Russell could go through the motions of filing a missing person’s report, but he knew she’d come back after the few days were over.
For this, Burton would help get Russell in touch with the right people.
Nate figured Alex’s father had to know what would happen to his daughter, but he agreed anyway.
He was a fucking bastard. He had been charged with keeping his daughter safe, and he had thrown her to a wolf for his own personal gain.
Burton hadn’t liked the amount of clean-up he had to do for this incident to go away.
Russell Thorn wouldn’t talk because he would implicate himself, but Burton decided to go a different route and choose women who wouldn’t be missed.
He also decided not to let them go afterward.
There were at least twenty missing women Sally could connect to Burton.
She assumed there were more. This was what she could piece together.
She was only able to get this information because a human trafficker had been killed in Ohio, and his data and contacts had been retrieved.
Law enforcement wouldn’t be able to crack a lot of the coded language the trafficker used, but Sally did. Nate was forever grateful.
“He doesn’t have a woman here,” Sally said in his earpiece. “He’s prepping for the next one. You won’t have to worry about a rescue, and you’ll have a lot of time with him.”
“I don’t need a lot of time,” Nate growled.
“Oh?” Sally questioned. “I assumed you were going to torture him for a while.”
“He’ll get what he deserves, but it will be done efficiently. This is unsanctioned, and I’m not getting into trouble. I just started my new job. I’d like to keep it.”
“Noted.”
“I’m sorry I can’t help you more. The loss of your suit must be hard.”
“It’s fine, Sally. Believe it or not, I don’t need a super suit to effectively do my job. I just need you to make Alex’s parents’ lives as shitty as possible until the day they die.”
Nate wasn’t keen on killing Alex’s father—or mother. He knew her mother was complicit in covering up what had happened. She had also been terrible to Alex when she had been trying to heal. Nate had told Sally to make their lives miserable. She had gladly agreed.
“The Thorns are about to be audited by the IRS. Apparently, there is no record of them filing taxes for ten years,” Sally said gleefully.
“Excellent,” Nate said.
“I have a schedule of catastrophic events. Don’t worry, Nathan. I’ll keep them busy.”
“I know you will. Now, let’s focus, so I can kill this guy.”
“Radio silent.”
He had Alex’s rapist in his sight. The man was going to die the most horrendous death possible. Nate would make sure of it.
Circling the house once, he headed to the back door.
Nate had identified where Burton was in the house by glancing through the windows.
None of the curtains had been drawn, and it had been easy to see that Burton was putting away heavy-duty cleaning supplies in a storage closet.
Nate assumed the man would have used those for his next victim.
However, there wasn’t going to be another victim.
Nate listened closely. He heard Burton come into the kitchen and then leave again. That was Nate’s cue.
He kicked open the door in one swift movement, moving to the storage closet Burton had been placing items in. Burton had heard him and was moving around the corner to see what was going on. Nate easily pistol-whipped the guy with his Sig Sauer P229 Legion and then kicked the man as he was falling.
“What th—” Burton began to say, but Nate was on him instantly, choking him with one hand, the Sig at his temple.
The man struggled underneath, but Nate held strong.
It looked like Burton worked out based on his physique, but there was no functional strength there—and no stamina.
Nate was easily able to keep him subdued with just his bodyweight, the threat of his gun, and his tightening grip on the man’s throat.
Burton’s body slowly went slack as the man passed out.
Nate made sure he was truly out of it before grabbing a set of zip-ties from his pack and getting to work securing Burton.
There was a set of exposed beams in the living room.
Nate was able to haul Burton carefully and attach him to the beam so that he was hanging down by his hands.
Nate felt exhausted after moving Burton’s deadweight, but it was worth it.
Burton was in the perfect position for torture.
It took approximately fifteen minutes for Burton to wake up, and in that time, Nate had been working diligently to prepare. By the time Burton opened his eyes, Nate was all set.
Burton groaned. When he realized he was hanging from the beam in his living room, zip ties digging into his wrists since his feet couldn’t touch, he began to yell.
“What the fuck!”
“Yes. Fucking is what got you here in the first place, Dominic,” Nate replied dryly.
Burton’s eyes widened, and he suddenly became silent. “You thought you could get away with raping and killing all those women, but it will eventually catch up to you. It’s time to face your fate.”
“I didn’t…I wasn’t—”
“Save it.” Nate waved his hand. “I know exactly what you’ve been up to. The rapes. The murders. You hurt the woman I love in the most horrendous way possible. You will die for that. Even if you hadn’t, you will continue to brutalize other women until someone stops you.”
“I have money. Gah! Shit! I have…I have—” Burton began to negotiate while simultaneously wiggling around from the beam and howling in pain.
“The only thing I need from you is to die,” Nate said and grabbed his special tools from his pack.
He took out a pair of pliers and a knife, smiling devilishly as he glanced up at Burton.
“What are you doing with those?” Burton asked hesitantly.
“You’ll find out soon enough,” Nate replied, standing and making his way over to the other man.
Burton began kicking and wiggling again. Blood was dripping from the zip-ties cutting into his wrists.
“Stop that,” Nate ordered.
“Fuck you.”
Without hesitation, Nate jammed the knife right into Burton’s right thigh. The man howled in agony.
“I said stop.” Burton kept screaming, so Nate twisted the knife. “Stop. It.”
The man finally went quiet, though he was breathing hard. Nate immediately tugged the knife out. Burton began screaming again.
“I’ll cut your tongue out if you keep at it,” Nate said. Burton whimpered. “I see you’re not so high and mighty when you’re not the strongest one in the room. Can’t pick on the helpless, can you? We’ll make sure you won’t ever be able to use that tiny dick on anyone again.”
“What?” Burton screeched.
Nate snapped the pliers open and shut and stepped forward.
He grabbed at the man’s belt, undoing it, and yanking Burton’s pants and underwear to the floor in one swift motion.
Nate was right about the tiny dick. Burton began screaming.
Nate didn’t bother trying to shut him up.
At this point, he wanted to hear the man in agony.
Staring darkly at Burton, Nate said, “This is for Alex,” and moved the pliers toward the man’s genitals.
That night would be carved into Nate’s mind forever—not because of the savage torture he performed but because of the justice that had been served.
When officials found the body, they had a hard time identifying him.
Mostly because Nate had also lit him on fire.
Sally had kept the heat off Nate, and Nate had been able to move on to a new chapter in his life, one in which Alex could finally be free from her past.