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I quickly free her, and as she brings her hands to her chest, I can’t help but notice the way the rope has cut into her beautiful skin. Anger swells in my chest, and I push harder against his wrists, feeling the bones crushing beneath my boot.
Rae grabs one of my shirts and pulls it over her head, and the moment she’s clothed, I see a wave of determination flash in her eyes, and with that, I have my answer. She’ll be taking control from here on out.
A grin pulls at my lips as she meets my eyes. “There’s my girl,” I murmur before pointing to the knife laying far too close to her father’s hand. “I bet you’d have the time of your life with that.”
She grins right back at me. It’s nothing like the usual grin I get from her every time she looks at me; this one is different. It’s broken and sad, while also filled with a wickedness that makes my gut twist. But if this is what she needs, I’m more than happy to give it to her.
Realizing there’s no longer just one threat in the room, Michael glances at his daughter, and as she strides toward him and scoops the blade off the ground, his eyes widen. “Wha . . . What are you going to do to me?” he demands, suddenly no longer seeing her as the timid child he abused for years. She’s a woman with a score to settle, and he can see it in her eyes, she won’t stop until justice has been served. “I’ll fucking kill you, girl.”
Rae goes on her merry way, twisting the knife in her hand as though it’s always belonged there. “Two years you violated me,” she says, spitting the words like they’re poison on her tongue. “I was terrified, night after night, hiding in my closet, shaking with fear. You held me down and tore through my virginity, crushed my bones, and slammed my face into the ground. You were dead to me a long time ago, father. I was more than happy to try and leave the past in the past, to move on with my life the best way I could, but you just had to try and prove some sick point, but you failed to realize that I am not the same little girl you destroyed. I’m a woman now, and I have far too much to lose to allow you to come in here and steal it like a thief in the night. Don’t be fooled father, you will not leave here alive, even if it means I have to spend the rest of my life rotting behind bars.”
Rae starts to circle him as he bleeds on the ground, her finger resting against the tip of the blade, trying to figure out her game plan.
“I won’t miss you,” she says. “I won’t mourn you. I won’t grieve. I won’t even care, but you can fucking bet that I’ll stand right here in Ezra’s arms and watch the life fade out of your eyes, and I’ll be happy because, for the first time in eight years, I’ll truly be free.”
As if trying to catch me off guard, Michael lunges for Rae, but I squeeze the trigger again.
BANG! BANG!
One bullet through the hip, the other a direct hit through the ribs and lung.
He gasps for air, and while he’s already beginning to bleed out, at least he won’t be able to move when Rae takes her sweet revenge. “Go for it, baby. Make Axel proud.”
A fond smile pulls at her lips, and as she looks down at her father, she flips the knife in her hand, catches the hilt in a firm grip, and with a battle cry, she slams it down with everything she has, castrating her father in one easy strike.
Michael screams as Rae tears the knife out of him and stumbles back until the backs of her knees hit the bed. “Holy fuck.” She blinks in disbelief, but that determination returns, and she springs toward him again, clenching her jaw, and like the perfect little maniac I’ve always known she could be, she gets the justice she’s owed.
The blade plunges deep into Michael’s chest, over and over as she releases years of fear and finds justice for the sweet girl he destroyed night after night. She sobs as the blade comes down, letting all the rage fly free, and even after he’s long gone, she keeps going, desperately needing to get it out of her system until she physically can’t keep going and sags to the ground.
Rae looks up at me, and while there’s a newfound freedom in her eyes, there’s also a deep strain, and I don’t hesitate to go to her. I toss the gun aside, ignoring every safety rule Hardin ever drilled into me in my desperation to get to my girl.
I scoop her off the ground, taking her away from her father’s corpse to where she can’t see it. I hold her to my chest, and we both crumble to the ground. I keep her locked in my arms as her tears run their course. “You’re okay, baby,” I murmur into the silence of the room. “He won’t ever hurt you again. He’s gone.”
She sobs on my shoulder, and I gently rock her back and forth as my hand roams over her back. “He took me right back to that house. I felt like that terrified little girl again. And then . . . He recorded me like I was some kind of sideshow. I’ve never felt so humiliated and ashamed. Nobody will ever be able to look at me again without seeing what he did to me, without thinking I’m dirty.”
“I promise you, Rae. Nobody will ever think that,” I tell her, hearing the familiar sound of sirens in the distance. “They’ll know you’re a survivor. They’ll know that you didn’t allow him to destroy you, and what’s more, they’ll find hope in your strength. You’re beautiful, Rae. You’re a fighter, and he did not destroy you. He didn’t ruin you, and he sure as fuck didn’t make me think any less of you. You’re the strongest woman I know, and thanks to your determination and strength, he will never be able to hurt you ever again.”
Rae buries her face into my chest. “I thought he was going to kill you,” she cries. “He said if I put up a fight, that knife was going to be for you.”
“Don’t worry about me, baby. As long as you’re still breathing, nothing could ever take me away. Not a knife, not a bullet, not even your deadly wit. You’re stuck with me, Raleigh Stone. I’m not going anywhere.”
My lips press to her temple, lingering there as I hold her with everything I have, and even when my security team finally barges through the door, I refuse to let go.
Hardin takes the gun off the bed, and it doesn’t go unnoticed when he wipes my fingerprints off it before doing the same with the knife. He takes one final look around the room before walking around the edge of the bed and kneeling down. “Okay,” he says, his sharp gaze flicking between mine and Rae’s. “This is what’s going to happen . . .”
An hour later, I stand under the shower in Dylan’s hotel room with Rae tucked tightly in my arms, her face pressed against my chest. We’ve spent the last hour giving our statements, saying exactly what Hardin told us to say to be able to claim self-defense, and with the live stream of Rae being raped, it wasn’t long before the cops were satisfied with what we had to say.
“I killed him,” Rae whispers into the silence of the bathroom. “I killed a man. I didn’t realize I could be a monster like that. What I did—”
“You didn’t kill him. I took the shot, that’s on me. You don’t have to bear the burden of that. The shot through his ribs is what killed him. What you did . . . That was demanding justice and taking what you were owed. You’re not a monster, Rae, and what you did wasn’t anything you should be ashamed or fearful of. You did what you had to do, what so many other women who’ve been in your position wish they got the chance to do.”
“I stabbed him, Ezra. I took that knife and castrated him, and I lost control. I don’t even know how many times I stabbed him.”
It was twelve. I counted every last one of them, but it’s not something I think she needs to be aware of, not yet anyway. I’m sure she’ll eventually find out though. There’ll be all sorts of documentation to go along with this, and I’m sure this is only the beginning of the investigation. We’ll be questioned until we’re blue in the face, but for now, I’m just glad they’re happy to give Rae a moment of peace to come to terms with everything that just went down.
“It’s okay. We all lose control. It doesn’t make us any less human.”
“How can you be okay with this? How can you stand here and hold me and tell me I’m not a monster? What if I lose control around you? What if we get into a fight one day and there’s a knife on the kitchen counter? You should be terrified of me.”
