She cried harder than I knew was possible.
Butthen, she had eighteen years of hurt to get out of her system.
Chapter 29
Fox
When Cora’s sobs began to die down, I gently pulled her away frommy tear-soaked shirt.
“Baby girl, we’ll talk some more, but right now, I need to get you out ofhere. Nash will take you home while I deal with…things.”
Her eyes were red raw, but filled with exhaustion. I scanned over thedarkening bruise on the side of her face, barely managing to contain how fucking furious I was at Freddy.
“Deal with things? As in my dad?”she said, resignation in her tone.
I frowned.“Cora, he hurt you. And he wanted to sell you again-”
“I know,”she said, stepping back, and dropping her arms from aroundmy waist to wrap around herself.“I know what has to happen, and I…”She paused, closing her eyes as if whatever she was about to say was causing her the greatest pain she’d ever experienced.“When I came to after he knocked me out, and I found out he was trying to sell me a second time, I realized he would never change. He stopped being my dad, and becamea stranger whojustwanted to hurt me.”She opened her eyes, this time the pain had been replaced with determination.“I want to see him one last time. I want him to knowthathe can’t hurt me anymore.”
I swallowed, doing my best to reign in my anger at hearingthatFreddy had not only hit her, but had knocked her out.“If that’s what you want, baby girl. But I’m not leaving you alone with him.”
Thatwas non-negotiable. I’d let her say what she needed to say toFreddy so she could get some closure, but no fucking way was I going to let her be alone with him.
She chewed her lip before nodding her agreement.
I took her hand.“Let’s go. The sooner we get this over, thesooner the world will be a better place.”
Cora gripped my hand as if she was afraid I’d disappear as I led herback to the room where Nash and Diaz were in a heated discussion. Nash’s entire body slumped with relief when he saw Cora, only to tense again when he clocked the bruise on her face.
“Where’s Freddy?”I asked before Nash could demandthathe got apound of Freddy’s flesh like I was sure he wanted.
“Carter!”Diaz called. A beat later, one of his men appeared.“Take Mr.Fox to the cell.”
Carter nodded.“This way, Mr. Fox.”
“We won’t be long,”I said, meeting Nash’s furious gaze.“When we’redone, I need you to take Cora home and get a doctor out to check her over.”
“Yeah, course,”Nash said, his features softening as Cora gave him atight smile.
Following Carter through a door and down a flight of stairs, Coratucked herself into my side. When we reached another door, he pulled a set of keys out.
“He’s restrained,”Carter said, unlocking the door.“He won’t causeyou any problems.”
Cora’s heart pounded wildly against my arm where she was clingingon.“You sure you want to do this, baby girl? You don’t have to.”
She swallowed, looking from me to the door. Taking a deep breath,she exhaled before loosening her grip.“Yes, Daddy. I want to do this.”
Thank fuck.
She called me Daddy again.
“I’ll wait out here and take Ms Clarke back to Mr. Carson when you’redone,”Carter said, taking guard outside the room.
I pushed the door open and stepped in first, making sure Freddy wasindeed restrained. A small gasp echoed around the small room when Cora followed me in.
Freddy looked up from where he was chained to a chair in the middleof the room. Dried blood had crusted on the side of his face from a wound on the top of his head. His nose had been broken and was resting at an odd angle, bruises forming under his eyes, and his bottom lip was split.
He looked the same way he did the first time I met the cunt.