Page 12 of Desperate Victory

Thankfully, we didn’t have to wait for answers much longer. The door opened to let Bodhi and Adam in, along with Liam and Rome. I was surprised the others weren’t here yet, but I didn’t doubt if they were on their way.

Rome paused to stare at the man on his knees, as did Bodhi. Adam swept me from head to toe, then Ezra. His eyes narrowed at the bloodied knuckles, but Ezra’s stare was so bland, I almost laughed.

Liam though, he came straight to Em and I loved that for her. “Hellspawn?” Then he wrapped her into a hug and I drifted closer to Ezra and Adam, rubbing a hand down Ezra’s arm to offer him comfort. He snaked that arm around me and pulled me to him.

Letting them take care of me was how I took care of them. Like Emersyn, Ezra shook a little. His trembling wasn’t fear.

It was rage.

Rage that he pointed wholly at the man on his knees.

“How do we want to do this?” I asked because I really didn’t want any more blood in Bodhi’s place. I rather doubted he would mind, but…

“Soundproof room.” Bodhi seized Karagiani by one arm and Pretty Boy took the other. They hauled him through the apartment with all of us following. Instead of the research room he’d opened from his office, the soundproof room was located on the other side of the downstairs guest room.

It was small, plain and utterly unremarkable save for the plastic sheeting on the floor, and the large eyelet screwed into the ceiling. Well, those and the entire shelf full of sharp and rather menacing looking devices.

“You know,” Ezra said. “I’m really starting to like you, Bodhi.”

“I grow on people,” Bodhi answered as they secured Karagiani to the eyelet. It meant loosening his restraints, but he wasn’t going anywhere. A grunt of pain escaped the man as they pulled his arms higher.

No sympathy existed within me.

“PPG?” Bodhi said and I shook my head. That nickname was amusing, if it bothered Em, Trouble would never have used it. But the tense air around her lightened and the source of the nickname gave her room to breathe.

I would never find fault with that.

“He worked for my uncle,” Em explained and she had the attention of everyone in the room. “The day I was taken back… he was there. He stopped the one guard who sliced my wrists, but he wasn’t my friend. He made that very clear.”

Every word came out stronger than the last.

“Did he hurt you, Ivy?” Pretty Boy’s question belied the intensity in his glare.

“Not directly.”

Well, that was one point in his favor.

Not that it was going to sway much.

“So, you didn’t hurt her directly,” I said, meeting Karagiani’s gaze and holding it. “But you were ready to assault me the minute she recognized you.” The temperature in the room plummeted. “I want to know why.”

Chapter

Four

EZRA

Dolion Karagiani worked for Bradley fucking Sharpe. The bastard uncle who tortured Emersyn for most of her life. Karagiani was there when the guy tried to kill her by cutting up her arms. He was there when Sharpe held her prisoner at his home.

Frankly, I didn’t give a fuck if he’d actually struck her not. Complicit with the torture made him guilty in my book. My knuckles burned where I’d punched him and the bones in my hand ached. My chest took the worst of it though. I was pretty sure was gonna bruise, where he’d slammed his foot into my breastbone.

As much as I wanted to rub at the spot, I didn’t. Awareness of Adam’s observation swarmed over me and he wasn’t the only one watching me. Lainey hadn’t moved far from me since she’d wrapped her arms around me in the living room.

With Karagiani strung up to the ceiling, she leaned against my side. The weight of her a comfort I barely understood that I needed. The rage inside me seethed like a stormy tide crashing against the rocks.

I wanted to gut the man with fish hooks and spread out his entrails so he could stare at them while he died. The bloody image was so visceral, I curled my hand into a fist.

Milo and Bodhi were the two closest to him, along with Liam’s twin. I was surprised Liam wasn’t up there but he’d planted himself at Em’s side. Or rather, at her back. He wrapped around her, a dark and dangerous cloak of violence ready to strike with prejudice.