Sean stands up. “Take it back.”
“No.”
“Last chance.”
“Or what?”
Sean leaps over the coffee table. Nolan scrambles over Axel and Chelsea’s lap to squeeze between Chelsea and me. Axel wraps his arm around Sean’s waist when he comes at Nolan again. Chelsea’s laughing so hard that she’s crying, and it’s seriously the sweetest sound I’ve ever heard. “Will you sit down?” Axel laughs. “Stop trying to hurt my boy.”
“Did you hear what he said to me?! He’s going down!” Sean threatens. Sean breaks Axel’s hold, and Chelsea lays her body across Nolan to protect him.
“Stop,” she says between laughs. God, this feels good being with all of them like this. Nolan flips Sean off and then lays his arm on Chelsea, which sets us all off except for Sean, who’s still trying to act like he’s mad.
Sean huffs then stomps over to Kai, and flops on his lap. Kai seems startled for a minute, then just goes with it. “Fine. I’m keeping Godzilla all to myself.”
Kai pushes him to the floor. “Fat chance, asshole.”
Nolan’s phone starts making that noise, indicating that his computer pulled up something. Chelsea grabs his laptop from the coffee table to hand it to him but doesn’t move from her head lying on his chest.Interesting.He punches a couple of buttons, and what I see on the screen makes my blood run cold. We exchange a quick glance, and his face is completely pale. All over the screen are pictures cataloging everything Brady ever did to Chelsea. Every beating or cut, this sick motherfucker took a picture of it.
“Did you find anything?” Chelsea asks, completely unaware of what we’re looking at.
“Ladybug,” I say softly. Her back goes ramrod straight, and she sits up, already sensing that she’s not going to like what she’s going to see.
“What is it?” Nolan silently hands her the laptop, and the noise she makes rips my heart out. She shoves it back to him, jumps from the couch, and runs from the room.
“What the fuck?” Sean says, jumping to his feet. Nolan sets the computer on the table so he can see it, and Sean takes off after her.
“This asshole fucking took pictures?” Kai growls. I can see the look in his eyes, and the normal Kai isn’t there anymore. This is the man that can kill with his bare hands as easy as breathing.
“And videos,” Nolan says quietly. “He kept it all.”
Axel jumps to his feet. “We need to find him. Now.”
“I’m trying,” Nolan answers. “But since he gave that guy his phone, I can’t find him that way.”
“Find. Another. Way,” Axel grits out. He stabs his finger at the computer. “I don’t give a fuck about any promise. He dies.”
“I agree,” I say. “But we need to focus on her right now. Not him. Nolan’s the best. He’ll find him.”
Nolan nods. “I want in on taking him down too.”
Axel collapses on the couch. “This is what we left her with.”
“This isn’t your fault.” All of our heads snap to the sound of Chelsea’s voice. Besides the red puffy eyes, she looks strong standing there with her shoulders pushed back. Sean walks up behind her and wraps his arms around her waist. “I’m so fucking sick of falling apart every time this comes up. It’s time to fully take my life back, and that starts with a bullet in his goddamn brain.” She slaps the laptop closed. “And I want to be the one who does it.”
Chapter41
Chelsea
When I ran to the bathroom, I wanted to fall apart. But I fucking refuse to do it anymore. After my declaration of killing Brady myself, they all are eyeing me warily.
“Stop looking at me like that,” I snap. “I meant what I said.”
“We just don’t want you to regret it, Dragonfly. I know what he’s done to you, and trust me, he deserves it, but you’ll live with his death for the rest of your life.”
I whirl around to face Kai. “He took videos every time he hurt me! And then pictures of the aftermath! He dies by my hand!” I push Sean’s arms off my waist. “And if you don’t help me, I’ll do it by my goddamn self.”
“Wait,” Axel says, standing up. “We didn’t say that. We just want you to think of the consequences.”