Page 47 of Wreck and Ruin

“I can’t say I’m in the mood for whatever depraved bullshit that spews from your fucking mouth. I’ve been otherwise occupied, if you can’t tell,” I retort, and my eyes shoot straight to Airlie’s, needing to reassure her that everything will be okay.

Her expression is a mix of fear and uncertainty, solidifying that I have to make this quick. She’s seen enough death to last a lifetime, today alone. And as much as I’d love to prolong the priest’s torture, my girl needs medical attention.

“Oh, on the contrary, Ren, or is it Ezekiel? I can’t be sure. You are a liar, after all,” he scoffs as if he isn’t the fucking worst of humankind.

Maybe he knows a little more than I thought. I don’t remember Airlie saying my name before, and that can only mean that he’s either done his research on me or he has been spying on us. Nothing would surprise me at this point with these people.

I step forward. The only thing on my mind right now is how good it will feel when I finally beat his face to a bloody pulp, and he’s lying lifeless on the floor with the rest of them. Whatever he says is irrelevant, knowing the things he’s done to my girl and to the countless other innocent victims whose lives he’s destroyed. Whether or not there are survivors when all of this is over, their lives have been scarred and ruined. Because to survive is to be forced to live the remainder of their days with his face burned into their memories.

A life sentence far worse than any prison.

“Cut the shit,priest. You don’t get to call me a fucking liar when you lie to yourself, and everyone, else each day that you wake up and hide beneath that collar. Besides, we both know how this ends, so why don’t you save your breath while you’ve still got it,” I seethe, contempt coursing through my veins. The wordpriestfeels like poison in my mouth as I stare up at the man who hurt, no,abused,the woman I love.

“I knew she’d be safe out there with you. I was only hoping that your relationship would move along a little faster than it had, in the physical sense, but unfortunately, it didn’t. It would have been nice for her to have fallen pregnant. At the very least, it would have earned back her keep.”

Heat pricks my ears as I am consumed by the hatred I feel toward this scumbag.

How fucking dare he speak about my girl like that.

“Speak of her again, and I will force your entrails down your throat,” I threaten, my words like promised venom, but he remains nonchalant, taking another step.

“Actually,boy. I will say whatever the devil I want. Not even you, brave or not, will stop me. I do not take orders from the likes of you. And to be perfectly honest, I’m not so interested in talking to you, period. It’s her I want.” Before I can respond, he stares down at Airlie. Not a hint of remorse for what he’s done flashes across his face. He doesn’t care about anyone or anything.

He’s sick.

Twisted in the worst way imaginable, and there is no God strong and powerful enough to fucking save him.

“Her mother and I were acquainted before her stay here at Atlantara. And if it weren’t for that good-for-nothing Titan King, we would never have met at all, would you believe it? But alas, she died in the end. Tragic, really.” His beady eyes form into slits as he says Titan’s name, only smiling when he speaks of Airlie’s mother’s death.

He will die for this.

How the fuck does he know Titan, and what does that have to do with Airlie’s mother?

I decide to humor him. For no other reason than for Airlie to get some sort of information about her mother. “What does Titan have to do with it?” I question, feigning indifference, as his dark, narrow eyes scan the tapestries hanging on the stone.

“Titan is Airlie’s biological father,” he says matter-of-factly, then brushes it off as if he didn’t just drop a bomb on both Airlie’s and my life.

He walks over to one of the tapestries and pulls it off the wall with two hands, revealing a floor-to-ceiling window that overlooks the dock. Bright, blinding light fills the room, forcing me to squint as my eyes adjust to the onslaught.

Well, this is brand new information. Titan told me fucking none of this. I never questioned Titan’s motives regarding all thingsThe Royalbecause any other reason, other than the obvious, didn’t matter to me. Taking down the biggest human and sex trafficking ring on the planet was motivation enough for me, so I didn’t need convincing.

To top it all off, if this is true, it means that I am in love with my boss’s daughter. Boss, as in, the head of the fucking mafia.

Making Airlie a mafia princess.

Does Titan know about this? Surely he can’t.

If I live through this, I’m a dead man.

I’ll climb that mountain when I get to it, but for now, Airlie is the only thing that matters to me. If I kill the priest right now, she might never know the truth of how she came to be, and I can’t deny her that. I know what it feels like. The never-knowing. And this is her only chance to question the priest before I rip his jaw off its hinges.

My eyes scan Airlie’s wide, vivid, aquamarine ones, her expression filled with agony, but I detect a hint of hope swirling around in them. I can hear her words almost as if she spoke them to me out loud.

She has a family.

Life is a long, long, lonely road when you’re forced to live it on your own, and despite Airlie not being alone anymore, now that she has me, I want nothing more than for her to be happy and experience a family she deserves. I only hope that’s what comes of this.

That thought is what persuades me to question Grimsby further.

---