Page 150 of Avenging Azalea

I stepped back and tried to wrap my brain around the sheer amount of abuse that Fawn had suffered at the hands of this man. She never complained, she never told me, she refused to let me in until recently. Instead, she’d buried it and slapped a smile on her face, happier to be in the hands of my dangerous family than with her stepfather.

If I had known…if I had an inkling of what had transpired…Neil would’ve been hanging in here three years ago. He got three years, but his reckoning had come.

“Nathaniel?”

“Yes,” my brother’s voice was steady, and I appreciated that.

“I need you to record this,” I said.

“Recording started,” Nathaniel answered.

Laying the knife down, I grabbed the electric hand saw, and Neil thrashed in the chains. They rattled with the ghosts of all those who had hung here before him. The fast-moving blade hummed to life with the flick of a switch, and Neil screamed louder.

“I’m going to ask you a question, and you’re going to answer without hesitation. If I’m not satisfied with what you tell me, then I’ll start cutting off body parts. I’ll start with something small like your fingers and toes, but then I’ll move on to your ears, nose, and then…”

I stepped closer, letting Neil see the level of depravity swimming around in my eyes.

“I’ll castrate you and skin you alive.”

Snatching him by the throat, it took all my self-control not to snap his neck and be done with this, but I needed to know. I drew him closer until we were nose to nose and nudged the saw against his cock.

“I wouldn’t test me, Neil. I’m not feeling very understanding.”

“I’ll tell…I’ll tell you. Whatever you want to know…please don’t…please,” Neil rambled as piss started to leak down his leg.

Stepping back before I killed him too soon, I played with the saw, switching it off and on. My dark heart smiled with every flinch.

“I want the names of everyone who used Fawn as payment?” His eyes bugged out. Fawn had already told me, but I wanted to compare the names. Make sure none were missed. Not a single person who touched Fawn would continue breathing after I found them.

“What are you going to do?”

“I gave you very detailed instructions. Strike one.”

Neil yelled and tried to yank away as I grabbed his ear and pulled it away from his head. In one quick move, I sawed the top half off and held the bloody piece out for him to see as he screamed.

“The fact that you worry immediately for these men and have no shame for what you did to your stepdaughter is very telling in the kind of man you are, Neil.” I couldn’t believe this piece of shit. “What I do is not your concern. Now. Give. Me. The. Names,” I commanded.

When he begged for his life instead of naming his accomplices, I moved to his hand and started the saw. The noise echoed along with his screams when I grabbed his baby finger.

“Judge Harry Sheridan. There was a bookie named Andre, just Andre. Ryan Elliot, some business guy from Texas,” Neil began to unload.

Every name cut deep. My heart ached, and my stomach churned.

When he stopped talking, I stood there staring at him. Sixteen names. Not only was Neil a bottom-feeding piece of opportunistic filth, but sixteen other men didn’t care enough about a young girl to walk away, to say no, to be disgusted. Worse, I already knew it was the same names Fawn had given me. She remembered each and every one of her attackers. My heart broke all over again.

Their names were tattooed on my brain, and all of them would pay for touching Fawn. I didn’t care about the cost. Whether it was political, financial or destroying family alliances…they would all die.

“That’s it?”

He nodded. “Well, and Cesare, but you know what happened then.”

No matter how many days I had left on this planet, I would never understand men like Neil.

I looked at Nathaniel, and he signaled to cut the recording. The little red light in the corner turned off, and Neil relaxed until I turned on the saw.

“What are you doing? No. No. No. Stop…please stop, don’t do this.”

“Did you stop when Fawn begged you to stop?”