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Tony ripped the filthy rag from Chad's mouth.

Chad exploded into a fit of choking coughs, spewing broken teeth and bloody foam down his chest. He stared at me with wild, animal terror. His whole body shook. The chains rattled overhead. The stench of piss hung thick in the air.

"Mr. Moretti! Please!" Chad's voice cracked. Tears and snot ran down his face. "I didn't know she was yours! I swear! If I'd known, I never would've touched her!"

I stood. My shoes splashed through the pooled water.

Walked right up to him. Raised my hand. Tapped his swollen, bleeding cheek with the flat of the blade. "I'm not the one you should be apologizing to, Mr. Wellington. I just want to hear one thing."

Without warning, I drove the tip straight through the nail bed of his left pinkie.

"AHHHHHHH—!!"

The scream tore through the slaughterhouse.

Chad convulsed. Veins bulged in his neck like earthworms. Tears and snot poured uncontrollably.

"That day in Hoboken." I gripped the handle, twisted it half an inch deeper into the meat. My voice was cold as permafrost. "What happened? Don't waste my time. You get one chance."

"I'll tell you! I'll tell you!!" Chad shrieked, eyes bulging, voice shredded raw. "I threw money at her—told her if she'd sleep with me I'd give her ninety grand! She refused! Said she'd rather die than let me touch her, so I told her about her mother in the hospital needing her to save her life! Then she... she fell apart..."

My fingers clenched.

"Her mother?"

"Yes! Yes!" Chad sobbed, terrified the blade would slice his throat any second. "Her mom had a heart attack—St. Mary's Hospital—needed over eighty grand for surgery! Ruby didn't have it! So I... I thought I could..."

Before he could finish, I drove my boot into his gut.

Chad screamed, curling into himself.

My heart plummeted. Ice flooded my limbs.

"And then?" My voice was poison.

"Then I tried to rape her, and she fought back and I..." Chad blubbered, snot running into his mouth. "Mr. Moretti, I was wrong, I'm an animal! I shouldn't have done that to her!"

The silver knife broke clean in half in my fist.

The steel blade sank deep into my palm. Dark red blood welled between my fingers, dripping onto the filthy floor.

I didn't feel a goddamn thing.

A Category 5 hurricane detonated inside my skull.

That freezing, dim shithole apartment in Hoboken. Hundred-dollar bills trampled across the floor. Her hoodie collar ripped to shreds. That pale face with the bright red handprint across it, blood at the corner of her mouth, teeth sunk into her bottom lip...

And the check I'd thrown at her chest. That sentence I'd delivered like a death sentence.

"Take the money and get the hell out of my sight."

Jesus Christ.

What the hell had I done?

While I thought she was weighing her options, putting a price tag on her body, she'd been backed into a corner by her dying mother, her best friend's betrayal, and a piece of shit trying to rape her. And I—the man who swore he'd protect her, who promised nothing bad would ever touch her—had driven the poisoned blade straight into her heart at the worst possible moment.

I staggered. Nearly collapsed into the filth.