“Why buy my old house?” Micah asks. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
“I’m sure it will once we dig further into the USBs they found,” Holden responds. “Charlie said he had big plans, and it involves Gray.”
“Is Gray in danger?”
“Possibly,” Axel answers truthfully. “He said he wasn’t worried, though.”
“Well, I am. I’ll talk to him. Do I need to be on the lookout for anything else?”
“Fuck,” Holden exclaims. “They have pics of Evander and Mateo’s old house too. How much do you want to bet Sarah Koval also bought that one?”
“It was a guy who looked at Van’s house. Blonde, blue eyes, and creepy as fuck.”
“Brady,” Chelsea gasps. Nolan sends a picture of Brady to Micah, and I can hear him talking in the background. He confirms it was him but said a woman bought it by the name of Sarah Koval. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know, but I think it’s time we got some answers,” I say. All my guys nod in agreement, and I hug Chelsea. “Stay up here. I never want you to see me like this.”
“Okay,” she says softly. “Come back to me.” I don’t even need to ask what she means. I have to shut a part of myself off to turn into the monster that tortures people.
“I’ll always come back to you.”
Les leads us down into her secret chamber, and Brady is hanging by his arms from the ceiling. I feel the rage bubble to the surface and shove it back down until we need it.
“I’ll leave you to it. Make that asshole suffer for what he did to her.”
“Thank you, Les,” I say genuinely. “For being there for her.”
“She’s one of us now, and we’ll always be here. She’s going to need all of us now more than ever when she kills him. But in a way, I think it will be cathartic for her.”
“Me too,” I agree. That’s the only reason I’m okay with this now. Chelsea needs to do this to fully let go of the past.
Les leaves the room, and we turn as one to Brady. “Let’s do this,” Axel says.
I switch off the human part of my brain and walk to the table to get an ammonia capsule. I hand it to Axel, and he snaps it under Brady’s nose. He jerks awake and tries to hide the fear in his eyes when he sees Axel. “Took you long enough,” Brady sneers. “What’s your plan now? I’m not telling you shit.”
“I call bullshit,” Axel says calmly, pulling his knife from his sheath. He twirls it around his fingers and, without warning, slices Brady’s shirt open. “You fucked with Chelsea, and if you know anything about us, you know we can’t let that slide. Before we’re done with you, we’re going to have you crying for your mommy.”
“Oh wait,” Sean laughs. “She hates your psychotic ass too.”
“I’m psychotic?! You have me tied in a fucking basement!”
“There’s a difference, though,” Cole says, circling around him with a crazy smile on his face. “We protect the innocent. We don’t hurt them.”
“You guys think you’re some kind of fucking heroes, don’t you?!”
“Not heroes,” I cut in. “Saviors.”
Axel walks behind Brady, and Brady’s straining his neck, trying to keep him in his line of sight. “Where’s Charlie?”
Brady laughs. “You think he didn’t teach me how to withstand torture?”
“Maybe,” Axel says casually. “But he didn’t teach you to withstand us.” Axel looks at me and points to Brady’s back. “Right here?” I nod, and he makes the first cut from Brady’s left shoulder diagonal to his right hip to match the one on Chelea’s back. To Brady’s credit, he doesn’t scream, but he bites his lip hard enough to draw blood. “Where’s Charlie?”
“Fuck you!”
Cole rips the belt from his pants and smacks the buckle on his hand. “Where the fuck is Charlie?” Brady spits right in Cole’s face, and that crazy look that he usually hides so well rises to the surface.
Cole uses his shirt to wipe it off. “You dumb motherfucker.” He walks behind him. “Where’s Charlie?” No answer. Cole flings the belt so the buckle catches right where Axel cut. It’s the same thing Brady used to do to Chelsea to make sure the cuts never healed, leaving her scarred. This goes on three more times before Brady’s scream finally echoes around the basement. I soak it in and roll my shoulders back.