By the time I reach the doors of the dining room, I’m crawling, shooting any asshole who tries to stop me. I look around, finding Jackson and Mark, both covering me, and I get a nod from Jackson who’s hidden behind a pillar as bullets fly around us.
Inside the dining room, I shut the door with a resounding thud. I find my target, the man who stole Autumn, bound to a chair waiting for his judgment, but I lose all my fucking cool the moment he looks at me with satisfaction in his expression.
The wound in his shoulder is still seeping blood, and I realize it won’t be long before he bleeds out. But that’s not good enough because I want to see him suffer. I want to see the pain in his eyes when he’s taken to jail, spending his life being tormented by assholes on the inside.
“If I didn’t want to see you suffer with a lifetime in prison, I would kill you right now.” I make my way closer, keeping my ears pricked for any more goons attempting to enter the dining room, but my focus is on Christopher.
“I waited for you, and I knew taking her would bring you right to me.”
“Here I am,” I tell him, chuckling as I stop inches from his face. “But there’s nothing you can do to me now because I have my girl, and you’re going to rot.” Placing my hands on the arms of the chair, I lean in, my sneer inches from his. “And I’ll be the one to put you away. My father got you, and you couldn’t handle it.”
“Your father was nothing more than a pawn. But your mother was the star. Did she tell you how much she loved me?” His words slam right into the middle of my chest, and the shock of his admission must be written all over my face because he grins. “Oh yeah, your mother was in my bed every fucking night while your daddy played the good guy. You can try to break me, but you never will.”
The door slides open behind me, and it’s only then I realize the noise from outside, the violence that echoed around me has stopped. I turn to find Jackson.
“Ready?”
“Your mother was my whore.” The words from Marlin send me over the edge, and I quickly lift a heavy glass jug as I bring it down on his face with a loud crash of bone and glass. I revel in the blood that spurts from his face, and even as he grins, I know I’ve got my penance. It will never be enough for what he put my girl through, but for now, it will suffice.
“Fuck you.” I turn and walk out, making my way through the house to where I know Autumn is.
Christopher Marlin will get what’s coming to him when he’s put away for life, for multiple life sentences where he’ll be answering to men three times the size of me, and he’ll no longer be the one in charge. And that’s what makes me grin.
As I reach my girl, I offer her a small smile before lifting her into my arms once more and walking through the exit, feeling her gaze on me. I look down at her, and the soft yellow glow from the house illuminates her pretty face. Her eyes blink in the muted lights of the evening sky, along with the harsh spotlights of the house we found on the lower end of Long Island that held more than fifteen young women.
After all this time and all the pain we’ve been through, she’s mine. When we reach the car, we find a couple of the team standing by. They allow Autumn into the backseat where I settle beside her. Hastily, she nestles in my arms, and as much as I wish this were real, I know she’s only fighting the fear that’s taken hold of her. When she realizes what’s happened, I have a feeling my girl is going to pull away from me. Jackson warned me that he’s seen this before.
My world falls apart the moment the SUVs pull away from the building. She scoots into the corner, and I’m left alone, trying to figure out just what’s happened. I don’t blame her, and I’m not angry, but the hurt that stings my eyes makes me realize she’s been through more than I have ever thought about. And in that moment, I realize I’m raging inside rather than on the outside. I’m not breaking down the house we found her in; instead, I’m tearing through the walls of agony I’ve lived with for so long, being without her. But even in these moments of pain, I feel helpless because I see her flinch with every movement or touch.