“You’re gonna kill a president?” Dagger calls out, his words slurring. “Good luck explaining that to your clubs.”
Mason laughs, and Dagger begins to struggle, as if it’s just dawned on him that he’s not living past tonight.
Dagger screams when Mason shoots him point-blank in the kneecap and smiles even wider. This is a side of Mason I’ve never seen. A very dark side that I understand more than he knows.
Mason grips Dagger by the collar and drags him behind us up the steps, leaving a trail of blood in their wake. “You’re gonna be fish food, you fucking sack of shit,” he tells Dagger and deposits him by the front door.
Mason heads back to the pickup and returns with a struggling Libby, who keeps crying out that she doesn’t want to die.
“Go to the back room. You aren’t watching this,” Aiden tells me, flipping the lights on as we enter the cabin.
“Set me down, please,” I tell him coolly.
Once I’ve steadied myself on my feet, I breathe deeply and take a seat in a chair. “I’ll stay right here,” I insist. “I’mgoing to be the one to kill him.”
Mason glances at Aiden then at me. “No,” he says with determination.“You can stay, but you won’t be the one to do it.”
Aiden nods. “Agreed, but aside from killing him, Mia, whatever you need to do, I’ve got you.”
I nod. The idea of making Dagger squeal like a fucking pig settles something deep within my dark and stubborn soul. I can’t wait to see Dagger die. I hate him.
But I’mangryat Libby. I move slowly across the room to where Libby is tied up. She plotted to kidnap me, and fuck only knows what she would have done had they gotten me back to whereverhomeis. She had a choice and chose wrong. Forwhat? Some obsession with Dagger? “You were going to help him torture me?” I ask. “I thought you were my friend! Dagger is using you!”
Libby looks at me, her white T-shirt covered in dirt, her makeup smeared down her face, and her eyes wild. “I love him,” she cries. “He said you need a sister, one who will love you the way your sister can’t anymore.”
I almost feel sorry for her, until she speaks again. “It’s not your fault she was a dirty little slut who was going to rat on my man.” She doesn’t have the chance to speak another word before I cry out and strike her throat hard with the outside of my hand, right against her carotid artery. Her head falls forward, out fucking cold. “No fucking mercy for her. She’s just as fucking guilty as he is,” I say coolly to Aiden and Mason, who are staring at me in surprise.
That’s right. I’m more like both of you than either of you fucking know.
Chapter 56
Aiden
Mia grabs Libby’s face and holds it firmly in place. “Tell us everything, or I’m going to start pulling your teeth out too.” Dagger and Libby are tied to chairs, side by side in the open space.
“Please, I don’t want to die,” Libby cries.
Mia smacks her across the face, and fuck, I’ll never get sick of seeing her beat someone’s ass. “You should’ve thought about that before. Now the only thing you get to decide is how you die. Quickly?” Mia holds up the pair of pliers we just used to pull out Dagger’s teeth. “Or slowly?”
“Please… If I tell you everything, will you let me go?” Libby asks. She’s a sweaty wreck, mentally exhausted from watching Dagger suffer. She was already weak after Mia fucking knocked her out, and now she’s knee-deep in trauma.
For two hours, we’ve used pliers to pluck Dagger’s teeth, snap his fingers, and slowly yank every single fingernail as he’s fucking wailed, floating in and out of consciousness.
I don’t like to hurt women. It’s something I avoid at all costs if I can, but Libby is going to die, either by my hand or Mason’s. You don’t threaten a president’s ol’ lady and watch him torture a man to death, then live to tell the tale.
Mia doesn’t bother to answer. She just forces Libby’s jaw open, and I wonder if she’ll actually pull one of her teeth out.
“Okay!” Libby cries. “Please… I don’t know anything about your sister, only that Dagger said she had to die because she was a rat.”
Mia clenches her jaw.
“How long have you been with Dagger?” I ask Libby, tapping Mia on the shoulder. “Go sit down,” I tell her. “You need a break.”
She nods and heads over to sit with Mason on the sofa. I watch her chug water.
“For months off and on,” Libby answers, “and then you came.” She looks up at Mia. “This is all your fault—”
“What did Dagger have you do?” I ask, cutting her off. I don’t give a fuck about Libby’s feelings.