Page 64 of Bittersweet Revenge
He shrugs. “We’ll see. I’m telling you right now, if you hurt him, if you fuck with his life, if you do anything that makes me question your integrity or loyalty to him, you will disappear. There won’t be anything left of you to find.” There’s an icy coldness to Cillian’s voice I’ve never heard before, more intense than he was the first time I showed up at their house.
There’s not a part of me that doesn’t believe him. If he finds out who I am, he’ll kill me. If I do anything to Tiernan he disagrees with, he’ll kill me. I already don’t expect to make it out of this alive, but his isn’t the last face I want to see.
But even stronger than those feelings are the ones that make my spine straighten, make my teeth grind together and my hands fist. “He doesn’t need you to take care of him. He has me now.” At least, until I betray him and kill his father.
“Let’s hope you’re right.” A bartender approaches our table, and Cillian’s whole demeanor changes, now with a light smile. Probably because he wouldn’t have come to the table for anyone other than them. “Two beers. Keep them coming all night.”
“Same as always?”
“Yep,” Cillian replies, and the guy disappears.
“What if I don’t like beer?”
“Then you’re hanging out with the wrong people.”
But I’m not. To the marrow of my bones, I know I’m not. Even though it’s only temporary, I belong by Tiernan’s side.
We’re four beers in, when I run my finger in circles over the top of the mug, now allowing myself to make eye contact with him and ask. “Is he okay? Tonight? What if he needs us?”
Cillian frowns, then sits back in the booth, watching me. “Why would he need us? Nothing is going on.”
“I’m not fucking stupid. Don’t treat me like I am.”
He sighs. “He’s fine. Rory’s checked in with me. If they needme, I’ll go.”
“If they need you, I’ll be right there with you. Otherwise, I’ll have to hit you again.”
I’m surprised when Cillian laughs. “You’re not so bad, New Kid. You have a set of balls on you, that’s for sure.”
And though I shouldn’t, I take his words as the compliment he meant them as, feeling, just for a moment, like I belong.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Tiernan
“Iwant tocut his dick off. Can I cut his dick off?” Rory asks.
Michael starts crying, trying to break out of the ropes that have him tied to the chair as he begs to be let free.
I lean against the wall next to my sister. I’ve spent some time playing with Jensen, of course, but I’ve kept close to her most of the time, wanting to make sure she’s okay.
Rory and I beat the shit out of him until he passed out, woke him up again, and now Rory’s playing with him. Torturing isn’t something I’ve done a lot of—Rory or Cil either—but most of what he’s been saying is all talk. What he wants is to get inside Jensen’s head, and he’s doing it. Sometimes fucking with someone’s mind is worse than any pain you can cause them.
“Sure.” I shrug, which makes Jensen scream and cry even more. “That’s what happens when you rape people.” I squeeze Aislin’s hand, then walk over to Jensen. “When you stick your dick where it doesn’t belong, you lose it. You make me sick.” I spit on his face.
“I didn’t touch her! I wasn’t going to touch her. It was a misunderstanding.”
“What was?” I cross my arms. “What did you do?”
His gaze shoots back and forth between Aislin, Rory, and me. He’s bloody and bruised. It stinks like blood in here too, but we’ve done well confining it to the plastic rolled out beneath the chair.
“Tell me what you did, and I’ll let you keep your dick.”
He wails, and I can’t pretend my stomach isn’t twisted up. Doing this shit always fucks with my head. There’s still that human part of me that knows this is wrong, that knows I should hate this more than I do, the part of me that knows he has family who will grieve him, and I hate that for them, but he doesn’t deserve to be here either. If anyone deserves to die, it’s him.
I hold out my hand, and Rory gives me his knife. I draw circles on Jensen’s boxer-covered groin with the tip. “What did you do? Tell me, or I let him cut off your cock.”
“Fuck…it was dumb, all right? I don’t know why I did it!”
