Page 148 of The King of Hearts

“Why?” This from Cassio.

“Those men didn’t deserve to breathe air for what they’ve done. I took care of it for them.”

“You could have come to us,” he replies.

She lifts her hand and uses the back of it to swipe hair out of her face, leaving a streak of red behind on her forehead.

“I know, but I wanted to do it on my own. I needed to.”

She looks from one brother to the next, something silent passing between them. I know it’s shared memories of her time when she was kidnapped and kept in Henry’s basement.

Neither says anything else after that. Alexander keeps quiet too, having heard the conversation and adding nothing to it. Healmost looks like he’s not surprised at the news of Savina being the infamous Butcher. Maybe he’s not, and he’s known this whole time.

I keep my eyes on Savina. The top half of her body is covered in blood and other bodily fluids. Streaks of it run down her arms, her hands are solid red, and there are splotches of it dotting her face and neck. I’m sure the lower half of her body that I can’t see looks much the same.

As messy and gory as she is, if we were alone, I’d bend her over the table with a half dead Aiden and fuck her so hard she’d feel me for days afterward. I’m tempted to kick everyone out and do it anyway, but I restrain the impulse.

Savina cranks the pulley again, and there’s a loud crack that goes along with the mechanical click. The scream that comes out of Aiden’s mouth is piercing, and more blood oozes from the fully broken skin around his ankles. You can see the insides of him now; bones, sinew, meaty tissue, tendons. It’s enough to make a grown man gag, but each person in the room watches with blank expressions. Not a disgusted look in sight.

This goes on for another forty-five minutes. None of us speaks, the only sound in the room is Aiden’s cries that slowly move to whimpers because he’s losing blood faster now, and his body is giving up. The last shot of adrenaline Savina gave him an hour ago has already worn off.

Blood puddles on the floor and completely covers the slab of metal beneath Aiden’s body. He’s no longer moving, but his chest still rises up and down, albeit slowly and labored.

Savina drops the filet knife she was using to carve off chunks of Aiden’s flesh and goes to the table of tools. I smile at the new tool she grabs. With her hips sashaying back and forth, looking more beautiful than I’ve ever seen her, even covered in blood and gore, she comes to me. She holds up the bone saw, handle first.

“You know what I want,” she says, voice loud and clear.

I take the tool and drop my head to kiss her blood-smeared lips. “Whatever my Vicious wants.”

I don’t spare the two men a glance as I walk around the table to the same spot Savina was occupying. She takes my place against the wall between her father and brother. I look over Aiden’s body and meet my sister’s eyes.

We haven’t gotten the chance to get to know each other yet. Mostly that’s because of Lili. Understandably, she’s extremely reserved, and I don’t want to push her. The only brother she had that she knew of until recently put her through hell and back. Theo obviously knew of the abuse, and through Aiden’s tortured confessions, we discovered that his wife, Sandra, knew as well. Apparently, Theo’s new wife, whom he’s been married to for a year, is just as revolting as he and Aiden. It was her idea to allow Savina to carry our child to term and then keep the baby for themselves.

That bitch will get what’s coming to her soon.

“You mind if I wrap this up?” I ask Lili.

She takes a step back and flips her hand in the air. “By all means.”

I set the bone saw across Aiden’s thighs and grab the filet knife Savina discarded. My brother also informed us that he and Theo hired Shane Ballot to kidnap Savina several weeks ago. Just for that alone, I press the tip of the knife in the hollow of his throat and push it down slowly, making it as painful as possible. Although the man is ninety percent dead, he still finds the energy and will to let out a final scream. It’s cut short when I hit his trachea. Soon after that, he goes deathly still. His heart is probably still pumping sluggishly, but it’s the last few beats of a dying man.

“I’m going to hazard a guess,” I hear Alexander say, “that the missing people from the island and mainland are Ryker’s doing.”

I’m not sure where he got that idea from since I haven’t started removing this maggot’s heart yet, but I’ve always felt that Alexander was exceptionally intuitive. He’s probably suspected for a while that I’ve been behind the disappearances and has kept quiet about it.

It wasn’t posed as a question, but Savina still answers. “Yes.”

Bishop mutters a curse.

“Did they deserve it?”

I pause in my ministrations and lift my head. “Yes.”

Alexander regards me for a moment and tips his chin in a nod. “Where are the bodies?”

“Same place as Theo.”

He doesn’t reply, and I go back to what I was doing. It’s not long before I pluck Aiden’s heart from his chest and hold it out to Savina. She’s already grabbed a bag from somewhere and holds it open. I drop the useless thing inside, and she cinches it shut.

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