Page 64 of Cruel Vows

He takes off down the hall while I enter the room.

A man with two black eyes, a busted lip, and a broken nose stares up at me from the chair he’s tied to in the center of the room.

I pull the butterfly knife from my pocket, flicking it open. “I hope she did that to you.”

He smirks, one shoulder rising slightly and falling despite the restraints wrapped around him. “She might have. I like them feisty, though. I’ll get her back when I see her next.”

Pacing toward him, I try to keep my temper in check. He deserves to be as scared as she was last night. He should be crying and curling in on himself from the pain by the time I’m done with him.

But when I look at him, all I feel is rage swelling in me. I don’t know that I can make him feel the same pain before I lose all control and kill him.

He deserves it for what he did to my wife.

“You’re never going to put a hand on her again.” I press the knife to the side of his face, dragging a long cut from the corner of his mouth to his earlobe.

He grits his teeth against the pain, laughing when I pull the knife away. “Is that the best that you’ve got? I should have done more to her. Noah just wanted his initials. TheXon her hands and thighs were my idea. I had so many more.”

“Oh good, then you’re going to love the ideas I have for you.” I make a matching cut on the other side of his face, his hot blood staining my fingers.

“I’m sure I will.” He laughs and shakes his head before spitting blood onto the floor. “What can you even do to me? You weren’t there to protect your wife. What kind of man leaves a woman alone in times like these? Noah is coming for all of you, and you knew it, but you still left her.”

The words he says are the same ones that have been playing on repeat in my head since I woke up this morning.

My fist collides with his already broken nose, blood flowing freely out of it.

The man laughs, spitting another mouthful of blood on the ground.

Just as I’m about to hit him again, the door flies open and Aiden storms into the room.

I’m getting fucking tired of him thinking that my property is his own.

Aiden crosses the space between us in two steps, shoving me back. “You weren’t going to tell us he was here. You were going to take care of this on your own even though this is my right!”

“Like fuck it is.” I tighten my grip on the knife. “I’ve been your friend a long time, Aiden, but it’s time you put a stop to this shit. Ellie is my wife. Mine.”

I stand in front of the man, pressing my knife to the top of his cheek.

The man laughs, eyes hardening. “We should have known that the two of you were working together. Noah is going to find out and he’s going to kill you for it.”

With a shrug, I carve my initials into the side of the man’s face. “I don’t give a fuck.”

And with that, I stab the man in the side of the neck, blood oozing out around the blade and dripping down his shoulder. He gurgles, more blood seeping down his face from the cuts there.

Aiden roars, throwing himself at me as Royce charges into the room. Royce grabs him around the neck in a headlock, shoving him down toward the ground.

“You’re only going to start another war.” Royce holds tighter on to Aiden while he thrashes, trying to get free. “This was his right, not yours.”

Aiden tenses for a moment before he relaxes, and Royce drops his hold on him. He glowers at me. “I’m not going to forget this.”

“See that you don’t.” I put the knife down on a small table in the corner, picking up the machete that’s sitting there. “We’re friends, Aiden, but you seem to think that since I married your sister, you can tell me what to do. It doesn’t work that way. It’s time that you start showing me the same respect I show you.”

Aiden seethes in the corner, pacing back and forth like a caged animal. “This is going to change our friendship forever, you know that?”

“You didn’t think that everything would be the same after you forced me to marry one of your sisters, did you?” I take a deep breath, slicing the ropes from the man and shoving him to the floor.

I cut his head from his body as Royce sighs.

Royce stays between me and Aiden. “I think the two of you both need some time to cool off. Aiden, Sean is right about this. If it had been your wife who was attacked, you would have done the same.”

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