Page 113 of The King of Hearts

I don’t say anything to his comment and start the process of preserving Joseph’s severed dick. I don’t know why I keep these things. It’s not like I take them out and admire them or anything. They get put in a jar and set on the shelf, and the only time I see them again is when I add another one. Maybe it’s because they represent my power over the people I took them from. The power of the women they’ve hurt. All of my victims are perpetrators of sexual acts against women.

After twisting the lid in place, I put it back on the shelf with the others. Joseph’s brings the total to seventeen. The authorities only know about less than half of them, and that’s only because I purposely left my victims to be found. The rest are resting at the bottom of the ocean, cut into pieces and stuffed into thick black trash bags.

“You’ve got one more,” Ryker says.

I turn from the cabinet, regarding him curiously. “What?”

“To add to your collection,” he replies.

He walks to the living room and picks up a matte black box that’s sitting on an old, rickety coffee table. It’s the same size and shape as the ones he sent when he was playing my devil. He brings it over and sets it on the counter in front of me. With my brows pulled down, I pull the tail of the black silk ribbon, and the bow falls apart.

I crack the lid open and peer inside. A heart rests on a bed of black tissue paper. Beside it is a sawed off dick.

My eyes fly up to Ryker. “Who did you take this from?”

“Manny Stewart.”

“Who?”

“The man from the coffee shop.”

My brows drop. “But I thought he got away?”

“No. Marcelo knocked him unconscious and tossed him in a dumpster to retrieve later that night.”

As utterly perverted as it sounds, my heart warms. Who knew getting a bloody heart as a gift would make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

I lay my hands on his chest and tip my head back to look at him. “You say you’re my wrath and would protect me from anything. That fear isn’t an emotion I need to worry about. But there is something I do fear. It scares me so much my bones rattle with it.”

His eyes turn a molten silver. “What?”

“My family,” I say quietly. “The members of The Raven Group. All the people we’ve helped over the years.” I dig my fingers into his chest, fisting the soft material of his shirt. “You need to destroy the evidence you gathered and contact the person you were going to use to expose our secrets and have them destroy their copies.”

“Baby.” He tucks a piece of hair behind my ear. “I destroyed it an hour after you arrived in my home that first day.”

My brows jump up, nearly touching my hairline. “You did?”

“Yes.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“You still needed to believe it.”

“But how did you know I wasn’t going to back out of the marriage?”

Not that that would have stopped him. He may have destroyed the physical evidence, but Ryker is savvy enough that he could have gathered more. Even if he didn’t have physical proof, he could have gone to the authorities with his story, and it would have been enough to open an investigation.

“Because I knew you would protect your family and everyone associated with The Raven Group at all costs. Even sacrificing yourself.”

“Would you have really exposed us?”

“Yes.” No hesitation whatsoever.

A lead ball sinks in my stomach, falling to the pit of my belly with a hard thunk. “You would really hurt me like that? Sacrifice my family and friends?”

“I’d sacrifice anything and anyone. Haven’t I proven this over and over?”

“I’m part of The Raven Group. I would have been prosecuted along with them,” I tell him, something he has to already know.

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