Chapter 35 West
thirty-five
West
This isn’t a good idea.
My steps echo as I follow Jo downstairs to where Declan is holding Brooks. We only have four hours until we’re supposed to leave to take down Thornfield, and she chooses now to make her final confrontation with the bastard? The whole thing makes my skin itch.
Anxiety swirls through our bond, but I’m not sure how much of it is about seeing Brooks, and how much is the fact that Xavier Bowen called and left her a scathing voicemail last night about how he’s taking Adela back to the asylum, and it’s all her fault.
We all know we’ll stop it from happening, but…it was hard to listen to.
She sighs, glancing over her shoulder at us. “You don’t need to be down here with me.” Her voice is calm, despite the emotions I can clearly feel from her.
Kole, Sam, Hayden, and I all speak at once.
“Of course we do—”
“You shouldn’t be alone—”
“The man’s a rat-bastard—”
“Let’s just kill him already.” Kole’s voice stands out the most, and Jo rolls her eyes.
“You know why we can’t kill him, Sugar Bear.
” We reach the door with the fingerprint scanner, and Jo presses her hand against it.
It lights up and beeps once, letting the door slide open.
We all shuffle behind her as she leads the way to the end of the hall.
“We need him as a bargainin’ chip to keep Addie safe if Xavier figures out we’re makin’ a move. ”
“You know, I still say we should go ‘Weekend at Bernie’s’ on his ass,” Hayden mutters. “Slap a pair of sunglasses on him, prop him up between Daddy-O and the big guy, and nobody will be the wiser.”
“I am actually starting to agree with him,” Kole says, a hint of approval in his voice. “It is not a bad idea.”
“We keep him alive,” Jo all but snaps as we reach the end of the hall. The walls are red, and before I can ponder too hard on it, Hayden gasps.
“Oh, so that’s what Declan was talking about. It really does feel more ominous.”
But our omega isn’t looking at the walls. Nope. She’s looking at the hunched-over figure in the corner of the room.
Brooks.
There’s nothing left of the man who acted friendly until he was behind closed doors. The man who made me believe I was working at an institution that actually helped its patients.
He looks like death, and I’m sure he smells like it too.
Her face goes through many different emotions, but the one that stands out most is…concern?
“Why…” Her eyes dart around the room. Is she worried about him? That doesn’t make any sense. He’s horrible. He experimented on omegas for years. My brows furrow, and I’m about to ask her what’s wrong—but then she speaks. “Why the fuck does he have a bed?”
My eyes widen. Oh.
“Yeah, what the hell?” Hayden agrees with conviction, but when I glance at him, he gives me a “I don’t fucking know” look.
Brooks has taken notice of us now, his broken expression tightening with fear. Even though some sort of satisfaction goes through me at the sight, I have to keep my head. I’m the only one down here not heavily influenced by instinct.
“Siren, even prisoners in jail have beds,” I say gently. And really, it isn’t anything more than that. A flimsy aluminum frame and a thin coil-spring mattress.
“Well he’s not in jail, is he?” she snaps, her breathing growing quicker by the second.
“He’s bein’ held prisoner by the fuckin’ mafia.
He’s experimented on gods knows how many innocent women, he let fuckin’ Banesworth abuse Helaena, he sent me to the Cathedral, he tried to sever mine and Hayden’s bond, he injected me with medications to torture me, and he shouldn’t have the comfort of a bed! ”
Her last words come out a near shriek, her eyes wild with the need for justice.
Having all his crimes laid out like that, and knowing that’s only the ones we’re aware of…I can definitely see where she’s coming from.
Kole’s eyes go dark as he snarls. “Then he will no longer have a bed.”
There’s a sense of finality that takes over the bond as I basically sit back and watch it unfold.
I frown. “Kole—”
Hayden moves over to the control panel on the opposite wall, pressing the button that says “Enter Code.”
Sam stares at the keypad that pops out of the door. “Does anyone actually have the code?”
I try to ignore the way my gut turns at the sight of Brooks scrambling into the corner of the bed, covering his head with his arms.
“Are we really doing this?” I ask, looking around the area at my pack.
It only takes everyone snarling at me to make me realize how stupid my question was.
“Nevermind,” I mutter, quickly going to the keypad.
I try to remember the number Declan entered when he questioned the rat in the next cell over.
“Seven-three-oh-nine,” Sam says the numbers out loud as I enter them, but then the light turns red.
“There must be a different code for each cell,” I muse. “Well, looks like we’ll just have to—”
A voice crackles through a speaker in the ceiling. “The code is two-six-one-five-three.”
Jo’s head whips around to the camera in the corner of the room. “Aidan?”
The speaker crackles again. “Just ask for it next time so I don’t get a security alert. And…keep him alive. You still need him for your plan.” With that, the speaker turns back off, and then Sam is hastily entering the code.
“What are you going to do?” My eyes go wide as the door slides open. I know Aidan reminded them not to kill him, but if Kole loses control, it’ll ruin everything.
My worries are briefly quieted when Sam storms in, grabbing Brooks by the collar and holding him against the wall.
“Kole,” he barks, and in the next instant, Kole is striding into the room.
“Way ahead of you,” the Russian giant growls before he reaches the bed and rips the mattress off the frame. His chest rumbles with fury as he rips it in half with his bare hands.
Damn. I’m really glad he’s only a little manic and completely on our side.
He flings the pieces of mattress out of the cell, the lumps of stuffing hitting the wall in the hallway. Jo wrinkles her nose at the scent but quickly switches to watching with a hardened gaze as Kole lifts the metal frame off the floor and starts bending it.
Holy shit. I know I said it was flimsy, but, like, in terms of metal. I never expected Kole to start shaping it like a damn piece of origami. I just expected him to…move it out of the cell or something.
But, seeing as my packmates are never ones to hold back in showing their love for our omega, Kole continues making modern art out of the frame while Sam holds Brooks hostage.
Before long, the frame is so twisted beyond recognition that it would be impossible for someone to know that it was once meant to be a bed.
Brooks won’t even be able to prop his feet up on it without the metal poking him.
Jo’s gaze holds no mercy as she watches, tucked under Hayden’s arm.
“That doesn’t feel good, does it?” Sam snarls, shaking the beta a little. “Now you know how Helaena felt when you let Banesworth throw her around like a ragdoll. How helpless every patient felt while you ran fucked-up tests on them.”
Brooks opens his mouth, but no sound comes out.
I don’t know if his intention is to scream or to beg for mercy, but it doesn’t matter, because Sam slams him against the wall.
“You do not speak. You are nothing. Nobody. Nothing you’ve done in this life holds any meaning, and nobody will remember you after you die a slow, painful death. ”
“Please—” he gasps, then shudders when Kole throws the bed as hard as he can against the wall.
The beta’s eyes widen in shock as Kole whirls on him, stalking over and grabbing him by the throat. Sam backs off as Kole lifts Brooks higher and higher until his arm is fully extended upward.
“The only reason you are alive,” Kole growls, his eyes nearly black, “is because you are useful for our plan. You can thank Jo for that.”
Brooks’ eyes widen as his feet kick helplessly as Kole waits.
Kole squeezes tighter, making the beta’s eyes bug out.
“Well, what are you waiting for?” Kole snarls. “Thank her. Now.”
“Th…thank…” Brooks’ voice is barely a croak. “You…”
“That was not so hard, was it?” Kole’s grin is malicious as he drops Brooks to the ground without warning. The beta crumbles on impact, and then Sam and Kole are leaving the cell without a backwards glance. They stand sentry outside the cell door, waiting for Siren to make her move.
Brooks cowers in the corner of the room, and I find myself stepping behind her as she approaches him. Not for protection. No, she can handle herself better than anyone, as she’s proven time and time again.
Sam and Kole already proved their devotion by physically solving the problem. Hayden held her through it. Now it’s my turn to support her as she gets her closure.
When she kneels down in front of him, his head shining with sweat as he covers himself with his arms, I place a hand on her shoulder.
Jo has always faced confrontation with the same facade. A honey-sweet voice with words sharper than any knife. But right now? It’s all stripped away, leaving an omega who is finally facing one of her abusers.
Her eyes are dry, but her voice quivers with emotion.
“You are going to die, Walter Brooks.” Her tone is soft, and it has him peeking out at her.
“Not today, and maybe not anytime soon, but you will die. You will pay for every crime you’ve committed.
Every indiscretion. At this moment, my only regret is that I won’t be the one to end your life.
But tonight, that all goes away. Because whatever fate awaits you in the hands of Xavier Bowen?
” A small laugh leaves her, making his face go even paler—nevermind the fact that we never intend for him to actually land in the grasp of the beta he’s so afraid of.
“That shit is ten times worse than anythin’ I could ever think up.
So when we hand you over, you’re goin’ to disappear from my life forever, and I will never think about you again.
” A smile pulls at her lips. “Your actions, your words, every single experiment and test…it was all for nothin’.
And I hope that when it all comes crashin’ down around you…
that it’s my voice you hear, tellin’ you to rot in hell. ”
With that, she stands, and lifting her chin high, she strides from the room. It’s not until the door is shutting behind us and we hear a sob rip out of Brooks’ throat, that she lets herself fall into my side. My arm wraps around her as we step over the pathetic remains of the mattress.
We walk out of the cell block, Hayden, Sam, and Kole behind us, and I can’t find it in myself to regret anything.
No, Brooks is just getting the very least of what’s coming to him.
By the end of the night, everyone else who deserves it will be on their knees at my omega’s mercy.