Page 46 of Vow of Vengeance
She can't breathe because she's hyperventilating.
"Come on, little bird. Let's get out of here."
I'd throw her over my shoulder and carry her if I could, but the ceiling is too narrow to ascend the stairs with her in my arms. It leaves no doubt what that steel trough is for. Victims who came down here certainly didn't walk out on their own, and there's no way they were carried out whole.
Fucking hell.
I've hated Tony as long as I've known him, but I never would have guessed he'd be involved in something this sinister.
As I shepherd her to the stairs, I catch sight of it. The camera in the center of the room, stationed behind the lightbulb. It hangs down just enough to catch a panoramic view of the room. As it pans to follow us, sensing the motion, I realize we've actually just had a hollow victory.
But it's one I'll keep to myself as Soren practically crawls up the steps like she's forgotten how to get her limbs to move.
We didn't find Marissa down here, but now I know where the photos and videos of Vin with his victims came from. I can track the videos back to this camera and probably hack the video logs.
If Marissa was down here at any point, I'll find out.
twenty-two
Soren
Neitherofushassaid what I'm thinking.
And to be fair, I'm thinking a lot of things. Things that I wish I could cut out of my brain as if they never existed at all. But doing so feels wrong. Looking the other way feels like another betrayal to everyone who was affected by what Vin did to them. It feels somehow like my responsibility to sit in this pain, to hold it for the ones who can't hold it themselves.
My mind can fill in the gaps for what each thing we found down in that cellar was intended for, and each of them is horrifying, and disgusting, and depraved.
And most horrifying of all is the fact that there was only the stairs and the hidden door... no other entrance, no other exit. There was nothing down there except for things that were arguably too large to have been brought down the steps. One could argue that the table was put together downstairs, but the steel trough and the nightmare fuel exam chair sure as fuck weren't brought down in pieces, which means they were brought in before the subfloor was put in... back when I was makingplans for the decor of the bar and grateful to have something to keep me busy.
It was supposed to bemybar,myplace to control, to have something all my own for once in my life.
I didn't mind when it turned into more of a gathering spot for the guys. I didn't complain when they started to do business out of the bar and brought people around who made my stomach twist just by looking at them. I didn't even complain when things around the bar started to get tense and we had to put Pete on security so that no one would drop by and pay me a visit while I was alone there. In fact, once I got sick, it was nice to have the help around the bar, as I spent so much time being down in one way or another that it made running my business solo impossible.
But now, having seen what was literally under my nose that whole time, I know the truth.
The bar was never mine.
It was a front, a ruse.Iwas a ruse.
Am I complicit?
Did Vin take his wedding ring off when he raped and tortured women? Did they look at that ring and wonder what sort of monster could be married to a monster like him? Did he murder them himself? Clearly there's only one way out of that basement, and it's not by walking out. Was my husband a murderer? Did he wear his wedding ring when he dismembered bodies in that steel trough and then wash the blood down the drain before coming home to crawl into bed with me? My sham marriage to my pretend husband seems like it was all just a trick, designed to keep me complacent and cover for his sins.
The air doesn't feel right when we step outside. It's too thin, doesn't have enough oxygen. I feel the ground tilt beneath me but I don't want to draw any attention to myself. I'm fine.
"Tony knows now that we know." Declan says. His words sounds strange, like they're spoken from outside a bubble, like I'm in a cloud that no one can penetrate. I stop walking to turn to him, because I heard what he said, but I don't understand. "You keep your distance from him, okay?"
I open my mouth but no sound comes out. No words come to mind. The world feels like it's been put on pause— or rather, likeI'vebeen put on pause while the world moves around me.
Declan frowns. "Ren?"
"I-"
He grips my cheeks suddenly enough that I blink, focusing now on how close his face is to mine.
It's a gorgeous face. Tan and handsome and full of concern.
"Listen to me." He says, the tip of his thumb breaking from his grip and stroking my lips slowly. "We will find her. I promise you, one way or another, we will find Marissa."
