Quintessentially Q

Now all I cared about was smashing every single f**ker who hurt women. Who hurt my woman.

Gone was my act. This would be the first time I’d fully let myself go, and I didn’t want witnesses. I planned to savour the kill. Drag it out, taunt my prey until he begged. And then, when they could no longer speak from such agony, I’d dispatch them with no mercy.

“Frederick has taken Alpha team to round up the remaining ass**les while Beta squadron has found over twenty girls in numerous rooms.”

Tess coughed, wheezing loudly in my arms. My heart lurched at the sound. It wasn’t good. She was sick. Her pallor and fever scared me shitless.

Franco muttered, “She’ll be fine. We just need to get her home.”

Home.

A place where I used to be free, but not anymore.

The moment Tess walked into my life she owned me. I would never be free again. I never wanted to be free again. If Tess thought she’d leave me by killing herself, she’d hate me for eternity when I kept her alive.

Footsteps sounded behind us. Franco and I turned to face the crowd of people as they arrived from the corridor. The cavernous factory floor with old rusty machinery and decrepit conveyor belts welcomed both traffickers and slaves.

Frederick ushered in the malnourished and dirty women. They blinked when they came closer to me.

Franco murmured to the girl in his arms, “Can you stand on your own?”

The girl took a while to reply, and even then it was a vacant nod. Franco settled her on her feet, making sure the blanket covered her.

The girls all came to a stop, clutching each other’s hands, looking frantically around the room.

Now his arms were free, Franco strode toward his team who had guns trained on the ten or so traffickers who moved forward in a mixture of hatred and guilt.

When the na**d ass**le who’d raped the blonde girl walked past, Franco slapped him around the head. I’d never seen such a black look of rage in Franco’s eyes. He’d always been so good at hiding it, but I guessed tonight was a first for all of us. He would kill and love it and I’d let him. There were enough for both of us to sate our murderous hunger.

Violence was permitted when such f**kers existed as these.

“Where do you want them?” Franco asked, looking at me with anger glowing in his eyes.

I jiggled Tess in my arms, positioning her higher all the while I itched to go and finish what I promised.

Surveying the best place for a massacre, I pointed with my chin. “Line them up over there.” Directly in the middle of the factory floor, with the conveyer belt to their backs and spray-painted windows to the front. No one would see and at two a.m. in the morning, I doubted anyone would hear. But just to be sure.

“Gag them. All of them.”

Franco smiled tightly. “No f**king problem.”

I stayed frozen with a fitful, unconscious Tess in my grip while Franco ordered everyone onto their knees and directed his team to stuff old packing material into their mouths before sealing with duct tape.

“Take the women outside,” I ordered one of Franco’s men. They shouldn’t have to see this.

The man nodded and motioned for the women to leave. They shuffled away, looking over their shoulders, seeing their kidnappers for the last time.

Once they were gone the na**d ra**st tried to stand and fight. “You won’t f**king get away with this. People will come and slit your throats in your sleep. They’ll put a bounty on your head.”

Franco pushed him back, almost forcing his fist inside his mouth as he stuffed him like a Christmas turkey. “We’re counting on it, you dickshit. The more of your kind we can cull the better.”

The man in the blue shirt and jeans—obviously the f**king ringleader—said softly, “You’re making a huge mistake, my friend. Just take your girl and go, but leave the rest with us. I’ll pretend this never happened and I won’t tell the Wolverine a thing.”

My hands clenched around Tess. This was the bastard who ordered every diabolical thing that’d been done to my woman. I trembled with ferocity, forcing myself not to break Tess’s fragile form.

“You’re not my f**king friend and I will take my girl and leave, but I’m not leaving you alive.” I took a few steps closer. “The Wolverine is already dead. Just like you.”

A woman whimpered; my heart hardened to rock. Her long black hair was tangled, her cheeks stretched with the duct tape over her mouth. A woman involved with trafficking women? I couldn’t think of anything more traitorous. She’d be the first to die.

Some men cried, some moaned, others pleaded, warbling around their gags, but it fell on deaf ears.

Not one of my team held any compassion. We were there to do the human race a favour by obliterating such evilness.

My jaw clenched. It was time to get dirty. Time to bloody my hands in honour of the woman who owned me.

I moved toward Frederick. He gave me an understanding nod as his eyes fell on Tess.

Her head lolled like a floppy doll against my shoulder. I couldn’t bear the thought of putting her down. But I had no choice.

Frederick made eye contact, asking silently to take her.

I looked away, wanting so badly to kiss Tess and make everything disappear from her mind. I wanted her to wake up whole and undamaged. But I would never live with myself if I didn’t kill every last bastard. I had to relinquish her…for now.

Slowly, I angled my body toward him. Frederick moved closer, brushing my arms with his as he readied himself to take her weight.

“Wait,” I snapped.

Frederick didn’t say a thing, stepping away. I rolled my neck, centring myself.

I cleared my throat, facing the men and women who made their living stealing the lives of others. Police hadn’t punished them. Karma hadn’t cared. But me? I cared a shitload, and they were about to get their just rewards.

“See this woman?” I held Tess higher, raising my arms like she was on a pyre ready to burst into flames. “You did this to her.” My eyes glazed recalling the fighter, the amazing woman who captured my heart, and not the flightless bird in my arms. My voice came thicker, roughed with hatred. “You stole everything from her. You stole her entire life not once but f**king twice. I don’t know what goes through your head. I don’t f**king want to know. I’ve always classified myself as a fair man even though every day I battle black desires. I see the satisfaction such a trade can bring. I see the temptation for money and the dark call of lust. But what I don’t see is how you lost so much of your humanity that you let yourself give in. You sicken me. You disgust me, and I promise no one will care when you rot in your unmarked graves.”

The line of ten or so men squirmed on their knees, testing the ropes around their wrists, working the gags. The woman hung her head, but kept glaring at me with black evil. She was a true psychopath. No feelings or sense of right and wrong.

I motioned to Frederick to take Tess. He came forward and opened his arms, easing them beneath mine. My body ripped into pieces as Tess’s gentle weight transferred from my arms to his. He cradled her with such compassion I suffered a bolt of hot green jealousy.

I lashed out, clamping my fingers around Tess’s arm.

Frederick froze, watching me carefully. “She’s yours, man, I get it. She’ll always be yours. I’m just keeping her safe for you while you avenge her honour.”

It took everything I had to relax my grip and nod.

I held out my hand to Franco, who stood to my right. “Give me the pliers, Franco.”

Frederick sucked in a breath and stepped hastily back, cradling Tess’s head on his shoulder. Immediately Franco obeyed, passing over the tools used to break my woman’s finger.

I stalked forward until I loomed over the line-up of traffickers. The psychopath woman stiffened—too stupid to be afraid. “Cut her ropes and stand her up.”

Franco obeyed without question, slicing through the binding. Grabbing her long black hair, he hoisted her to her feet. Her nostrils flared above her gag and the first sign of fear glimmered in her gaze.

Franco wrapped his large arm around her shoulders, keeping her in place.

I inched closer, tapping the pliers in my hands. “How does it feel to be a traitor to your own sex? Do you enjoy it?”

She glared, tilting her chin in defiance.

Smiling coldly, I placed the pliers in my pocket and reached to my waistband. I pulled free the knife I’d used to kill the Wolverine and his son. The hilt felt righteous in my grip, urging me on. Using the tip of the exceedingly sharp blade, I sliced through the duct tape. She flinched as I nicked her and a small line of red appeared.

I had to hear her reasoning before she died. I had to understand what drove people to such things.

Spitting out the burlap sack, she hissed, “Go to hell, ass**le. I see you for what you are. You think because you wear a fancy suit you are different to us. You’re lying. You’re the one who wants to hurt and sell women.”

Not the answer I wanted.

I backhanded her. Her head snapped sideways and she stumbled.

Frederick moved further away, protecting Tess in his arms.

“Do you believe in redemption, cunt?” My voice was detached, killer-cold, precise.