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“You good?” Kingston asks as I toss my shirt over my head.
“Yes. Let’s see what he has to say.” I step into my shoes and follow them both to the car. Rufus stands at attention with the back door open to the limo. I can’t help but wonder what he possibly knows about this situation, if anything. I have a feeling he probably knows much more than he’d ever let on.
Rufus nods at Beau as he ducks his head to get in first. “Iris.” He does the same for me and I’m sure Kingston, too.
I watch the scenery blur by as Rufus drives us away from the beach house and in the opposite direction of my grandfather’s mansion. Lowering the privacy window, I start asking questions. “Rufus, where are we going?”
“Your grandfather asked me to take the three of you to meet him. We’re only about five miles out. Be patient, my child.”
Oh fuck. Seriously? After everything, they want to pull an unscheduled stop, then tell me to be patient? Have they met a pissed off woman before? Telling me to be patient and not giving me answers is not the way to go about this. “Rufus. You know mebetter than that.” I remind him of my anxious nature, knowing he won’t give me anything more than he already has. He’s loyal to my grandfather, as he should be, but it still irks me. I sit back on an exhale, crossing my arms and irritably bounce one leg until the limo is slowing in front of an old barn.
Great, I’m getting flashbacks of my stay at the cabin with Beau, and unfortunately the time there ended up in us running for our lives until we came up with a half-assed plan. It failed and now I’m feeling a full circle moment I’m not thrilled about.
We’re all moving out of the limo, eager to get this little show of my grandfather’s started. I have questions I need to ask, and I plan on making him answer every one of them.
“My sweet Iris, welcome.” My grandfather greets me at the door and guides me through the main doors of the barn, straight up to a man whose vision has been blinded by a hood and his freedom has been stripped as he’s tied to the chair he rests in. His head hangs low, making me wonder what all they’ve done to him before we even walked through the door. The guys come to stand near me, Kingston one step ahead to guard the front with Beau one step behind, always watching my back. These two would die for me without a blink, and the thought acts to aide my uneasiness.
“I’ve brought you a gift, my dear.” My grandfather leans towards the man and yanks the hood off, revealing my father in a semi passed out state. It’s as if he’s just coming around from a drug-induced coma and I find it ironic how I don’t feel the slightest bit of sympathy for his condition. He deserves whatever my grandfather and his men have done to him… even more so what they’ll do to him after this meeting is over.
“What do you want me to do with him?” I ask, not knowing what he expects me to do. I’m past the point of wanting any contact with my father because he doesn’t deserve to breathe the same air as me, after what he’s done to my mother. Even if I askhim about it, it’s obvious he’ll only lie to make himself appear better. I don’t trust him as far as I can throw him and I’m glad I’m not alone in facing whatever this is.
“He’s here for you to avenge your mother’s death. I’ve ensured he will be coherent in the event you have anything you’d like to say to him.” I swallow hard, both Kingston and Beau standing at my sides, fully alert. I catch them both scanning the barn for any additional surprises that might be planned. Their support gives me a boost of confidence and a sense of strength that might be dangerous.
I walk around him, taking in all of the knots and the positioning of the torture tray to his left. I’ve seen this exact set up before, at the cabin when I walked in on Beau after his own bout with torturing a man who deserved to die. I let my eyes lock with Beau’s for a moment to let him know I notice it, too.The coincidences.
My father begins to cough, his face scrunched in pain and guilt. I should feel something seeing him like this…but the only thing swimming through my veins is anger and disgust. I’m long past being empathetic and understanding; this man ruined my life.
“I saw what you did.” Beau strolls behind my father as I begin to interrogate him, yanking his head up so he’s forced to look at me.
‘Wh-what?” His pathetic attempt to speak up is quickly shifted when Kingston shoots forward, punching him in the jaw.
Kingston leans in close, wearing a grin full of malice. His almost-pretty face is less than an inch from my father’s blood splattered, shocked expression. Beau continues holding him in place, further driving home their point. “If one tiny lie comes out of your mouth, I’ll slice your fucking throat and let you bleed out at her feet.”
My father’s eyes blink rapidly, the awareness of his death looming in them. The glint of fear fills his stare like a silent scream of panic, giving me chills while at the same time egging me on.
“Why did you do it?” I demand, my voice echoing through the mostly empty space.
He blinks again, his hesitation obviously proof of guilt. If I didn’t already know the truth, I’d damn sure realize it now. “Sh-sh-she was holding me back. She wanted to divorce me and I couldn’t let that happen.” His admission sounds like it makes perfect sense to him. As if he had every right to murder my mother because she wanted to leave him.
“What did you do to make her want a divorce?” His eyes shift both directions and Kingston quickly slides his knife from behind his back, placing it against his neck. No need for the torture table when I have my guys with me, and after their bout in hell, I know they want payback for themselves as well.
“Nothing,” he utters, and Kingston begins to slice into his flesh, Beau holding him tightly in place as blood begins to trickle down his neck. My father screams as the knife slowly trails across the column of his throat, the skin easily giving away. His garbled echoes of pain fill the barn, yet, not at all deterring the guys from seeing this through.
I pin my attention on both Kingston and Beau, their expressions lit with an eagerness to kill. They’re in their natural element, as if they’ve done this a hundred times together and I realize there’s so much history they share without me. My heart breaks a little witnessing them like this, but at the same time knowing they’re willing to doanythingfor me is somehow endearing.
“Stop,” I yell and Kingston freezes in position, proving to me even though they look like they’re psychotic killers, I’m actuallythe one with the power here. Somehow the knowledge makes me love them a little more for it, too.
“He’s lying to you,” Kingston seethes, eyes lit with murder. He’s hungry for my father’s blood; at the same time he’s protecting me from the one true monster I’ve always had in my life.
“I know he is.” But I’m not ready to have this image run on a loop through my mind until the day I die. I don’t want to take any chances of my regret being aimed at either of them. I’d rather watch my father rot behind bars for what he’s done to my mother than take the chance my grandfather or one of these other guys won’t use this entire thing to get Beau and Kingston for a crime. That’s something I could never live with. I don’t trust any of them enough to take the secret of a murder to their grave. And, if I’m being honest with myself, I’m not sure I trust my grandfather at this point, either.
I begin pacing, replaying everything in my mind while the guys hold him in place. “Iris, this is absurd.” My father manages to put up a tiny fight just before the video of my mother dying begins to play behind him. “I didn’t mean to hurt her.”
His lie makes me scream out in anger. A rage I’ve never felt before begins to burn straight through me, lighting up absolute insane thoughts. The chaos is both suffocating and intoxicating at once, giving me more strength than I normally feel.
“Turn him around.” I toss my hand up in frustration before watching Beau and Kingston yank him around to position him so he’s facing the video of himself. It’s the same one we’ve all seen over and over and it makes me sick inside. I wonder if he even knew this video existed before now because he instantly starts wailing and muttering more nonsense as it plays on. “It looks to me like you meant it. How am I supposed to take this information?” I pace back and forth in front of him, the light of the screen shining on me, shadows flashing over me at the sametime. After all, he doesn’t really need to watch it…considering he was there.
He lived it.
