Chapter 33

Killian Savage

Pierce's sheriff's car skids to a halt outside that kid's home, and I grip the dashboard on the passenger side to keep from putting my forehead through the glass due to the force of the stop. No sirens. No flashing cherries. The last thing we want is attention drawn to us.

Josiah Cruise. I saw his picture. I saw his social media, his known addresses, his love life, which doesn't and didn't exist. Tegan told us all she knew about him too. How he had a thing for Tori, how they thought it was innocent. She blames herself, which she shouldn't. He doesn't look like he'd do anything like this. He looks like a simple kid. A young man who received the highest honors in high school back on the coast. A nerd maybe, but a breeder? And for this long?

This had to have begun when he went through puberty. When he could actually conceive a child, and right around that time, the first woman was taken, and his father disappeared from his practice.

It makes me sick that this could happen. This child conceived children while he was in high school against the women's will. And the worst part? No one knew. No one had a clue. Those of us who knew something was going on blamed the father. We never thought of looking for a son. What kind of person would allow his son to become this?

A weak-minded man.

Regret fills me because I should have tortured the father further. I should have tried harder to get answers back in New York because, if I had, this never would have happened. They never would have fled to Fairview, and Tori never would have been taken. But there is no greater service than a man protecting his child. I just wish I had had that same opportunity.

The whole way here, I hoped that we wouldn't be too late because, the whole time we were researching the kid, I couldn't help but think of our time together and how, not once had she had her period. I've had kids and a good woman. I know a woman's cycle, and Tori had to be close to her ovulation.

I clench my teeth because, even though she hasn't been with Josiah for a full day, he could have already bred her. Bred. Raped is more like it, and that thought alone makes me want to punch the man next to me.

Instead of doing just that, I grab the door handle and kick it open with more force than necessary. I'm going to get my girl back. I'm going to save her, and then …

Cole's words filter through my head, the ones about murder, about going to jail for it, and how that would affect Tori. Even though I want to kill them both, I can't do that to Tori because, after thinking of the worst of the worst, I realized one thing: I love her more than I thought I did. It had all snapped into place the longer Cole's observation settled. All those confusing feelings and emotions had perfectly assembled until all that was there was this dire need to never let her go. To get her back and never let her out of my sight. My heart had beat faster, and my skin had covered in a slick sweat when the realization struck – by the time I get to her, she could be a completely different Tori, and the last thing she'd want to hear is that I love her.

So, instead of going in there myself, snapping their necks, and grabbing my girl, I'm going to do this by the law. She'd want that, no matter the state she's in. I know what it's like to lose the people you love, and I won't give the universe an excuse for Tori to endure it even if she ends up not wanting me.

Pierce hops out of his car as two other cop cars squeal up to the property. I slam the door at the same time Pierce does and get a good look at the four walls that house hell. It's a simple farmhouse, white with a rock garden. Two stories high. Sheds dot the small acreage, and a small barn sits off to the left. Even though it's twilight, chickens roam about and peck along the ground, and inside the house, filtering out to us is the sound of a crying child.

The sound grates on my nerves because I know exactly how that child was conceived. And I know that somewhere in that house, women are being held, one of them mine.

The other cops climb out of their cars just as fast as we did. Their guns are out of their holsters immediately as they head in our direction.

"How are we doing this?" I ask because I have plenty of ways that I want to do this.

Pierce pulls out his gun and turns to face me. Over the roof of the car, he says, "You're going to stay here."

"The fuck I am," I growl as I thump my fist on the roof .

"Killian!" he says. His using my first name since the first time we met is enough to give me pause. "You're too close to this!"

The child crying in the house immediately stops at Pierce's shout, and we all freeze and glance toward the house. Through one of the windows, a man stands. A man I recognize. His face is scarred to hell from what I did to him, but I'd know him anywhere.

His expression is one of shock, and the next second later, he disappears back into the depths of the home.

"Move!" Pierce shouts to the other cops, and they begin rushing toward the house. "Stay," he adds to me with a point of his finger toward the ground.

I growl, and every muscle coils. And then Pierce is gone, leaving me fucking alone outside.

It takes me all of three seconds to spit, "fuck that," and race toward the house. Over my dead body will I not see Tori for myself. I can't leave it in the hands of people I don't know nor trust because, for all we know, the bastards will kill everyone inside before they allow us to arrest them.

As soon as I get inside and reach the living room, I find the father pressed up against the far wall by Pierce. He's cuffing him, reading him his rights, while the children around us sob with wide eyes and fingers in their mouths. One cop is trying to move them to the other side of the living room, but all they want to do is watch on as their grandfather is arrested.

The kids range from at least four years old to the toddler in the playpen. There are four of them, and it's enough to give me pause. The breath rushes out of me as adrenaline courses through my veins. In seemingly slow motion, I turn back toward Pierce and the scar-faced bastard.

My feet move before I instruct them to, and before I know it, I have the father's collar in my fist and my face inches from his. "Did you kill my family?" I promised them revenge, and even though I can't directly give it to them, I can put a face to their death.

The father's eyes are wild as he searches my face. Even though I wore a mask to each and every job, I know he knows me. I can tell by his wide expression, by the stench of fear that causes perspiration at his temples.

Pierce looks back and forth between us but keeps him pressed against the wall.

I grit my teeth and spit out, "Did you kill my family?"

The father begins to stutter, and I look on as Pierce grabs his back and shoves him harder into the wall. "Answer him!" he demands. "Or I swear to god, I will make your life a living hell even while you rot in jail."

I blink, surprised that Pierce is backing me up, but recover quickly by gripping the father's jaw and forcing him to look at me once more. "What he'll do to you is child's play," I rumble dangerously. "Try another night with me."

What I said must be enough because I hear a little whimper starting at the back of his throat. It's almost as satisfying as the cries I had planned to yank out of him back when this was just about my family's revenge.

With his face all smooshed in my grip, he utters, "No," to me.

I roughly let him go because I had a feeling that one man couldn't pull off my entire family's murder. Not this fool, not by himself.

As Pierce yanks him from the wall and passes him to a cop, I start stomping through the house. "Savage!" he hisses after me.

I don't listen. I keep marching through the short hallway until I reach the kitchen. I have every intention of finding his bastard son. All I can see is red. All I hear is the blood rushing through my ears. All I feel is every nerve lit on fire.

Pierce grabs my arm and comes to stand before me. I hadn't realized I'd been heaving for air until he presses a palm to my chest. "Calm down."

"Get out of my way."

"You don't even know where you're going. We haven't found the son, the women, or Tori yet."

"You searched the house?"

"One of my men did, yes." He removes his hand and rubs the back of his neck.

"The upstairs and this floor?"

His eyebrows raise at my condescending tone, but he gives me a curt nod.

"And the basement?"

By his expression, he hadn't thought of the basement. I growl under my breath as I stomp through the kitchen and head toward the dining room. I hadn't seen a single basement entrance in my short time here, and the only place left that I haven't searched is the dining room.

Highchairs and booster seats are tucked in a corner, and I kick them aside as I thunder by, Pierce close on my heels. I find a door here, right in the middle of the dining room wall, and I know without a doubt that it leads to a basement.

I don't wait for Pierce's instruction before I open the door. I'm greeted with a set of steep stairs that disappear into darkness. The stench of a normal, damp basement stuffs its way up my nose, and it only fuels me to begin taking the stairs two at a time.

As soon as I reach the bottom and my eyes adjust, I stop and get a good look at what I just walked into.

"My god," Pierce whispers behind me .

I swallow thickly because, even though it's dark, along one wall are two very pregnant women. They're dirty and covered in an even dirtier blanket. Chains are attached to the wall, and their length disappears under the blanket.

"The police," a woman's voice says across from me. I swivel my gaze and squint into the deep shadow that is that space. A woman sits there – same chains, same blanket as the others – but if she's pregnant, she's not showing yet.

Pierce steps around me and heads to the pregnant women first. "Who has the key," he says softly to them while he tugs on one of their chains.

I look straight at the woman across from me because I'm no fool. Next to her is a chain with no one on the end. An empty spot. Tori's spot.

I step farther into the basement, clenching and unclenching my fist to keep my fear at bay. "Where's Tori? Where's the Lillian?" Because I know wherever they are, they're together, and god knows what hell is going on, and only angels know what she's enduring.

The woman lifts her arm and points to another section of the basement. A door stands there that I hadn't seen until this very moment. Like where she sits, it's in a dark pocket of the basement.

I immediately head to it, and lifting my foot, I kick it open.