Chapter 22

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

ASHER

M y girl stands at the front door of this house that contains three of the men who violated her. She looks numb. There’s no expression on her face just an emptiness as she looks up at the door. I don’t pressure her—I just wait calmly by her side. She exhales and her hand touches the doorknob. There’s no hesitation now and she just walks in. Jax is standing in the hallway waiting.

“I did what you asked—the first one is in the basement.”

“Do you have the names of all of them?”

He shakes his head, “No, we need them to tell us.”

She walks down the stairs into the basement and locks eyes on the first guy.

“His name is Jay,” Jax says as he follows us downstairs.

The guy struggles with his bindings tied to the chair. His eyes meet hers and I swear to god the fucker smiles under his gag.

I move past her, pulling the gag from his mouth and punching him so hard that his chair falls along with him. She walks over to me, placing her hand on my arm. Shaking her head in silence. Jax and I pull him up and step to the back of the room, letting her take over for now.

HARPER

“Do you remember me?” I ask.

“Should I?”

“Is this the game we’re playing?”

He laughs, “You just look like one of the many whores I’ve dealt with.”

I nod, pacing.

“I remember you—you gave me this.” I point to my black eye, now nearly completely gone.

He laughs coldly like the whole thing is amusing to him. “Did I? I don’t remember.”

“See, Jay, we have a problem, and it’s as simple as this. I’m trying to find everyone involved in that room. You can help me out here. But if you don’t remember, then you’re no help at all, and I’ll have the guys behind me shoot you in the face.”

I hear Asher move behind me and his gun clicks. I don’t dare look at him. I need to keep myself numb, and if I look at him, then I fall apart and I can’t have that.

“You’re Harper,” he blurts out.

“Good, I’m glad you’re getting your memory back. We wouldn’t want to kill you too early.”

“I talk—you let me go?” he asks, suddenly realizing how serious this is.

I pause in front of him, placing my hands on his arms tied to the chair. “No. You talk, and I don’t make this incredibly painful for you. I don’t torture you for hours the way you did me. I don’t cut you up to a point where even your own mother doesn’t recognize you.”

“There’s no way you could do that. You’re just some scared little girl trying to get her power back. Newsflash darling, we took it, and you’ll never get it back.”

I nod and Asher walks over. I whisper in his ear. “Leave me with him.”

Asher pulls me to the corner with Jax. “That’s not going to happen, Harper.”

“I told you to leave me with him.”

“And I said no.”

“Asher, if this is what she wants…maybe we should….” Jax interrupts.

“No. I don’t care; I’m not leaving.”

“Fine, just don’t interrupt me.”

I walk away now, incredibly angry that he couldn’t do the one thing I needed him to. Making my way to the back of the basement, I see something I need and grab it. I see Jax tense. I’m starting to understand who I need to be to get through this and the truth is I see how Asher blames himself for changing Brooke, I didn’t want him to see me change too.

“Part of getting my power back is using my voice again, Jay,” I say his name so mockingly I don’t even recognize my own voice. “I can speak, but what if you can’t…maybe that’s it… maybe since you won’t answer my questions, I’ll just take away your voice, leave you to die here in pain, unable to talk, unable to speak, screaming with no sound till you eventually die.”

I place the bottle of bleach on the table in front of us.

I watch him swallow. “You wouldn’t do that; you need me to tell you things.”

“Actually, I don’t, or did you forget you were with friends this evening?”

He shouts one of their names and I hear them shout back, their voices muffled, and he stops.

“That’s my little brother, let him go. He doesn’t know anything. He just did what he was told to.”

“Get him,” I say over my shoulder.

He fights against the binds as one of the guys runs up the stairs to retrieve his brother.

“Okay, here’s what’s going to happen. You’re going to tell me the names of everyone in that room and how to find them, or I’m going to pour this down your brother’s throat in front of you.”

I hear a loud tumbling and look around. A guy who is bound in rope has been pushed down the stairs and as I watch him roll to the bottom, I hear Jay cry out. He can’t be any older than me, but I remember him. I remember his eyes.

“Please don’t hurt him, I’ll tell you anything.”

I laugh, shaking my head because it’s actually quite funny. This piece of shit actually cares about someone other than himself. Asher grabs his brother and pulls him up, forcing him to kneel beside me. He locks eyes with his brother. “How old are you?” I ask him.

“Nineteen,” he says, sniffling, his eyes wet with tears. He’s afraid, as he should be.

“Same age as me. Did you know that when you raped me?”

He shakes his head. “Please, we didn’t have any other choice. Deke took us in—he gave us a home.”

“Shut up, Lee,” Jay shouts.

I nod and Asher shoots Lee in the leg. He crumples over, howling in pain, screaming out in agony. I remember when I screamed like that, and they showed me no mercy. I nod again and Asher shoots him again, this time in the shoulder. He screams again, but I feel nothing.

“The point is to talk, or did you forget? Interrupt again and I start pouring bleach,” I say to Jay.

I lean down on the floor, looking at this guy screaming, the blood pouring from the holes in his body. I should feel something, but there’s nothing but emptiness. “Here’s the thing, Lee, you’re going to die for what you did to me. You made that choice.”

“He would have killed me; he would have made Jay do it.”

“Sometimes there are no good choices, but there’s still a choice. You made the wrong one, so here’s what’s going to happen. I’ve told your brother that you two are going to start giving me names of everyone in that room. Then you’re going to tell me how to find them. If you don’t… well, let’s just say that’s not a choice you want to make.”

“I’ll tell you everything I know—please just let my brother go.”

I look up to Jay who interrupts me yet again. I warned him already. I do as I said I would, fulfilling my promise and unscrewing the cap of the bleach, walking over to his brother and pouring it over his face. He tries to keep his mouth closed, but he can’t breathe, and as the bleach pours down his throat, his screams of agony become almost unbearable. I watch him choke on the fluid that’s burning him alive. Blood comes pouring out. He coughs it up, along with his screams. It’s too late for him, so I just continue to pour until the bottle is empty. He stopped screaming a while ago, which means I’m just pouring it over his bloody corpse now. I toss the bottle on the floor and look back at Jay.

“I told you no interruptions.”

Jay is sobbing, watching his brother’s dead body on the floor, still gurgling as the bleach dissolves him from the inside out.

“Just kill me, please,” he sobs.

“Tell me who was in that room, and I’ll let you join your brother. If you don’t, I’m going to leave you here with his rotting body. His face will collapse, his body will bloat, his skin will fall away like ashes, and the maggots will come to take him. And you will watch every single moment of your brother decaying in front of you until you finally starve to death after smelling his decay for months.”

His eyes meet mine. “You’re a sick bitch.”

“I am what you made me.”

“Will you kill me if I tell you what I know?”

I nod, “If you beg me for it.”

He sniffles, “I’ll tell you.”

I click my fingers and Jax brings me a notepad and a pen.

He spends the next few minutes listing names, every single one of them who were in that room, who took their turn. Gives me addresses of places they hang out. I write every single one down.

“You did good, well done. Now, where can I find Deacon?”

“I don’t know, we’re blindfolded when we’re taken there. Only his lieutenants know where he lives.”

“They’re on this list?”

“Yes.”

“Which ones?”

I place a star next to the names. I’ll save them for last—I want them to know I’m coming for them.

“The guys upstairs?”

He shakes his head. “They’re both new. They don’t know anything.”

“Jax, will you kindly get our other guest please.”

“Wait, you only have one?” he asks as he nods, and I just smile.

“One of them works for you,” he says quietly.

“He’s my best friend. He sold you out—he sold your little brother out knowing what we would do to him.”

He curses and I walk over, pulling the gag back into his mouth.

The other guy is brought downstairs and shoved to his knees next to Lee’s body. He screams and I laugh. “Wow, considering what you guys put me through, you’re actually pussies. He’s dead. He can’t hurt you, but I can.”

The guy looks up and sees me. His eyes fill with dread as he realizes who I am.

“What’s your name?” I ask him.

He barely stammers out his name, “Jas…Jasper.”

I look down at the list and cross his name off.

“Goodbye, Jasper.”

I pull the gun from my jeans, remove the safety, and shoot him in the face until the clip empties.

I hear Jay scream faintly in the background. The problem is my heart is pounding so hard it’s the loudest sound I hear, everything else is just background noise.

I look over to Asher. He knows what needs to be done.

I walk over to Jay.

“You’ve been very helpful, Jay…it’s time now to beg.”

His eyes look up at me, horror reflected back at me, but he seals his lips.

“I’ll never beg you.”

“Then you’ll watch them both rot in front of your eyes.”

“You’ll kill me anyway.”

“Perhaps you’re right.” I bring the gun up, shooting his hand, leaving it a bloody mess. I aim again, doing the same to the other hand, followed by both his kneecaps. His screams are empty; he knows it’s the end, but I’m not ready for it to be over.

“Hmm, now, is that enough blood loss to kill you slowly…”

I tilt my head, aiming the gun to his stomach as he shrieks and screams. I let another shot ring out, shooting him again, hoping I avoided major organs. I don’t want him to die too quickly.

I walk around the back of his chair, pushing it down so his eyes are looking at his brother’s cold, dead ones. I lean down between them.

“This is a bad way to go…bleeding out slowly. You know it takes twenty-four hours for a body to start rotting, starts smelling, after three days the decomposition smell is unbearable.”

“Please, please just kill me, please I’ll do anything.”

“Too late.” I stand up tossing the gun to Asher and walking up the stairs. I hear both Jax and Asher follow me. The door of the basement shuts and all I hear is the soft sobbing of Jay as he understands his fate.

“Baby… I don’t think we should leave him like that.”

“Don’t tell me you feel sorry for him.” I turn to Asher.

“I watched my sister decompose, or had you forgotten? I know Jax told you Harper. No one, not even shit like him, deserves that.”

“I don’t care, Asher. I don’t care,” I say coldly.

He turns to Jax, and Jax turns to head back downstairs. I hear a shot ring out. By the time he comes back up, I’ve already walked out of the house.