Chapter
25

“Oh where, oh where did my Ashlyn go? Oh where, oh where can she be? She got taken from me by this cunt I know. Oh where, oh where can she be?” I sang as I came out of my bedroom and danced my way to the stairs.

Poor Sean. He was none too happy, tied down to a chair in the center of my living room, just like my Ash, a bright-red spot just starting to fade to purple on his cheek.

“Caesar, let me explain,” he started.

I sniffed the air. “Something smells like bullshit.”

He closed his eyes and hung his head.

“Oh no, have the balls to look me in the face, you fucking sniveling little shit. You gave her to him. Gave her to fucking Lorcan.”

Blood. My voice sounded like spilled blood and hell. I stomped down the stairs in my thick, steel-toe boots and walked to stand in front of him. He’d taken her away from me—my Ash. I cocked my head and watched him. He slowly raised his eyes to meet mine and our gazes locked. All these years, he and I. When I got out of the joint, I’d been so angry still, so dark, and he’d reeled me in. Bought pussy for me, food, and gave me a bed to sleep on. He helped me to not be a crazed fucking animal on the streets but a ruthless businessman who feared no one.

Sean had stood beside me with his Ivy League pedigree, complete with secret societies and blue blood. He did filthy fucking shit at my every command and nursed me to health when that darkness swallowed me and I sank too far in the depths. When I made my first million, I gave him half of it. What was his response? He invested it back into my business and quadrupled my return in six months. And then he’d created his own business. But he didn’t stop there. No. Sean then made sure I got a forty-percent cut of every dollar he made. Not because I asked him, but because he wanted it clear from the start that he worked for me and not against me. That he’d never turn his back on me.

This was the man I was prepared to kill. For her.

Because she’d begged me. Because she’d cried out for me until she couldn’t cry out anymore.

Hell, because she probably was in so many fucking pieces, only my fucked-up ways could bring her back. I sighed. He fucking ruined it all. And I just didn’t understand why.

“Why?” I demanded.

“Because you were changing. Messing up deals, killing someone just because they touched her? You killed Trace, Jason, and that bitch because of what they did in the past. You’re losing your shit, Caesar. I stopped a war by giving Ashlyn to him. He hasn’t attacked since.”

“And that excuses what you’ve done?” I asked. Did it? Just a year ago, I probably would have told him “hell yeah.” I’d have laughed at the stupid fucking bastard doing shit for a woman. I would have thanked him for fixing my shit.

But this was Ashlyn.

Things were different. She made it all different.

“I did what I’ve always done for you. I’ve protected you.”

“No. You played bitch to your emotions and touched what you never should have.”

“She’s a pet, Caesar. A fucking pet. She never should have been more than that.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, Sean. She was never a pet.”

I blinked as things clicked into place. Twisted shit that didn’t make sense but was true nonetheless.

“You know what she is?” I asked. “Hm? The light to my shadow. You can’t have one without the other. I’m her fucking shadow, Sean. The fucking undesirable, dark, violent side of her. And that’s the side you woke up.”

Clarity. Such. Fucking. Clarity.

He blinked up at me, not understanding. I couldn’t give him anything else; I didn’t care to. He would just have to see it soon enough.

“What did he do to her? Let’s see, shall we?”

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and played video number one, then two, making sure Sean could see them. His eyes widened as he saw Ash on the screen and what they’d done to her.

“He was supposed to kill her. It never should have been like that,” he said.

I clicked my tongue at him. “Yeah, well, every action, Sean, has an equal reaction. You’re going to feel it all. Franco? We got anyone on board for playing with the ass?” I asked, never taking my eyes off Sean.

Franco cracked his neck. “One. We’ve used him before. Thought you might like to have him on hand. Say hi, Collin.”

A big fucker with a shock of red hair and blue eyes grinned and raised his hand. “Hi.”

Fuck yeah. I loved my new second in command.

“Now that we got that out the way. Bring me my tools.”

Franco did as I asked, and I wrapped my hand in a thick towel before gripping Sean’s hair and wrenching his head back.

“I did it for you,” he said.

“And I’m doing this for her.”

I punched in square in the mouth. And I didn’t fucking stop. Not when blood sprayed and pelted my neck and shit. Not even when the towel around my fingers became soggy with blood and he gurgled. I tilted his head down so he could spit blood and teeth to the floor and just switched to underhand punches. Twenty. I counted twenty teeth on the floor. Not enough. He had twelve more to go.

“Knife and pliers. Hold his fucking mouth open.”

I used him. He fed the need to assuage my anger. His gums split open as I jabbed the knife in and dug around his molars. He squirmed and screamed, but I didn’t stop. I cut the thick chunks of his gums surrounding his last remaining teeth and threw them on the floor. They smacked with a wet, squishy sound. By the time I put my pliers in his mouth and yanked the first fucking molar out, loosened by all my cutting, he passed out on me.

“Get the doctor here. We’ve got a long night, and I want him awake for all of it.”

Horse cock—that was what Collin had. The fucker had a dick large enough to satisfy a mare in heat. I looked down at my bloody forearm and back at Collin. Yep, same fucking size, and that massive piece of equipment sawed back and forth into Sean’s torn-up ass. Collin had stroke game; I’d give him that. Franco and the others stood off to the side, flinching with each of Sean’s whimpers, and the doctor look green around the gills. But he was there for medical care and to keep Sean wide awake.

My Ash had to take it, so would the fucker who’d made it happen.

“Where is she, Sean?” I asked.

Collin stopped fucking him for a few seconds to let Sean catch his breath. “I don’t know.”

Same answer he’d been giving for the last seven hours. Probably was the truth. I squinted at him. “Who took out Dahlia?”

He spat blood and groaned as Collin rolled his hips. “My guy who does my drop offs. While she was in with Lorcan, they went to her place and cut all her brakes on her other vehicles. A day later—”

“I can guess. She picked one of the doctored cars, and wham! She got hers. What about the team that took her and Ash to Lorcan’s place?”

Meeting anyone on their home turf was never a good idea, but I figured I wouldn’t have a choice in the matter. Lorcan wouldn’t be at home waiting. That would be too easy for me to find him. No, he’d stay close to his charge and work her over. But he’d leave some of his army to waylay anyone breaking in. I didn’t want to go to Lorcan directly if I could come around the side. Everything he held sacred was going to be obliterated, that was assured, but I needed to work smarter, not harder. I’d want to fold in everything I took from him, and to do that, I needed to go up the totem pole right.

“I got rid of them. Didn’t want any loose ends.”

The fucking over-achieving bastard. He always did a good job.

“Franco, get on with Dahlia’s people. We’ve got an in on how she came up dead. And we can send the lovely Mr. Collin here to make sure they get the message.”

“Caesar. Please. Just kill me,” Sean said,

I went cold, everything in me freezing at once. “What did you call me?”

Sean didn’t answer.

I flicked my head at Collin and he rammed viciously into Sean’s ass. “I said what the fuck did you call me?”

“C-Caesar!” he screamed.

“You don’t call me by my name. You’ve lost that fucking right. You know what? I’ve got something better. Franco, bring me my filet knife. Collin, proceed.”

Sean screamed as Collin fucked him once more, hard and rough. Franco brought me my knife, and I approached the locked duo with murder in my eyes. I put the blade to his back and dug in. Paper-thin waifs of his flesh peeled away. So smooth and neat, they barely bled for minutes at a time. He screamed, Collin moaned, and I laughed. Like a fucking loon, I cackled and flayed the bastard until Collin started jerking like he was having a seizure. “Gonna fucking come in that tight ass.”

“Whoa, Kimosabe. I’ve got prime real estate right here,” I told Collin, pointing at the mangled flesh on Sean’s back. Collin grinned and bucked a few more times before he jerked his bloody dick out of Sean and spilt the milky good shit in the mess I’d made.

“Franco, I need the salt while you’re at it.”

“He’s dying, Caesar,” the doc tossed in.

“That’s the idea, Doc. But I want that fucker burning even before he reaches Hell.”

I literally poured salt in the wound. What a pretty scream Sean made before he passed out. Even better than the sound the blade made slicing through the muscles of his throat. Good riddance, bitch. I was not nearly done yet. Everyone who had a hand in fucking her up was going to answer to me.

I’m coming, Ash. Just hold on.