“No.” I heave a deep breath.
“Let her live, but make it a painful one.”
I turn to Rose, who is sobbing, dashing away her tears with her fingers.
“I’m sorry, Rose. I won’t let you be like her.”
She nods, accepting I am right, her head low, her shoulders slumped.
The three brothers share a moment and Julius stands, his gaze connecting with his brother Simeon. “Who wants to escort the ladies out of the room?”
I shake my head.
“We stay. Do what you must, but don’t kill her.”
Morgan begins to howl as Simeon seizes a machete from the box, and as he approaches, he cuts her other hand clean off. Her screams echo around the room as Julius retrieves a hammer and smashes it against her right knee. Joseph takes it from him and smashes the second one and she passes out with the pain, still bound to her chair.
The guards stand silent as one by one the brothers claim their wives, and as we walk out of the room, I don’t look back.
CHAPTER 48
JOSEPH
Tiffany is in shock. They all are and as we head back to the hotel in our respective cars, I hold her shaking body against mine the entire time.
“What just happened?”
She sobs in my arms. “What have I become?”
“You are still the same person, Tiffany.”
I attempt to reassure her. “You are compassionate, loving, and attempting to deal with the fact that not everyone else is.”
“But I allowed my anger to make me a monster.”
“By doing what, exactly? Cutting her hair?”
I pull her in a little tighter.
“You watched something no woman should ever see. We all deal with pain differently, angel. Morgan’s life was spared, and don’t believe for one minute that she will become a better person for it. She will want revenge, and her idea of that is crueler than yours.”
“She will come after us?”
Fear shivers in her words.
“She may try, but I’m guessing she won’t have much of an army left.”
“Why not?”
“Because she created her downfall.”
“I really don’t understand you, Joseph.”
“Not many do, sweetheart.”
I kiss her head softly, wishing like hell she hadn’t seen that. She now lives in a world she shouldn’t. Tiffany and her sisters should never witness the carnage our life offers as another day at the office. Blood, torture, retribution are merely the tools of our trade, and the three sisters really don’t need to come to work with their men.
“What happens now?”