Page 857 of Coal Hearts

A single feather erupted.

The wife never stirred.

A notebook and pen rested on Patrick’s nightstand.

Without thinking, I grabbed them and wrote:

I personally watched Patrick rape women and men. He was a member of a trafficking ring called The Jewelry Box. He deserved this fate, but he definitely didn’t deserve you. I’m sorry.

And then, I left.

I headed to the docks, where a private yacht owned by my next victim bobbed in the moonlight.

I climbed onboard.

I found him in the primary suite with someone very unwilling. The girl’s eyes widened as I entered the bedroom. The rapist kneeled with his back to me, his hands spreading her legs while she fought.

Porthole windows lined the bed, twinkling with lights from the harbour. Decadent furnishings made the yacht rich and homey, the colour scheme of nautical blues and whites ready to be bled over.

Holding the blonde girl’s frantic stare, I slinked behind the bastard. Grabbing his hair, I stabbed him from behind. I gutted him over and over, spraying the poor girl with red, all while she squirmed away, her hands bound and mouth gagged.

She watched me slaughter him.

She didn’t flinch as I untied her and helped her into the shower.

She grabbed my hand as I called a taxi for her and whispered under her breath, “I don’t know who you are but...thank you.”

My dead heart tried to react.

To find satisfaction in my extermination.

But I couldn’t.

That part of me had died the moment Ily had taken her last breath.

I had no heart. All I had was a lump of coal.

And I hadn’t done this for her.

I’d done this because I couldn’t live in a world where men like him existed.

And I couldn’t die without taking them, kicking and screaming, to hell with me.

Guiding her to the dock, I stayed in the shadows as the taxi arrived to drive her home.

The captain of the boat woke up as the headlights skimmed the helm.

I smiled and held him at gunpoint.

He wisely skippered me to Europe.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

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Ily

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