I didn’t wait to grab Iago and drag him to a chair.
The man was going to admit everything before he died. And he was going to suffer while he did it.
26
Black Out
Delilah
“Dante,” I whispered, rubbing my forehead and opening my eyes to see him standing before me.
I jumped to claw at whoever’s hands were around me, but their arms gripped mine and then my sister’s voice was in my ear. “It’s me. It’s just me. You’re okay. Everything’s okay.”
I winced as I touched my hand to my head. I felt a bump as large as an egg. “Wow, ow.”
Izzy smoothed my matted hair. Her legs were around me; she had me cradled on the floor where I must have fallen when Iago hit me. “Yeah, you’re gonna have a pretty good shiner from that one.”
I nodded but didn’t answer her. I took in the man before me as he stared down at my abuser. Dante’s hands clenched and unclenched. His whole body seemed three times bigger as he stared down at a bloodied Iago. He wasn’t just a wolf here, he was a werewolf, ready to kill, ready to rip apart a man.
I saw him now, for the first time ever, as the man he truly was. A ferocious beast ready to protect, breathing in and out.
In and out.
I breathed with him as his eyes met mine, and the wild in them calmed for just those seven breaths. His piercing emerald eyes closed for a second like he was settling his soul, and then he opened them again and they landed directly on me.
“Cade, get the knife.” His gaze cut back to Iago, and I watched Cade smile as if the ideas flying through his head were lollipops floating by and he was a hungry kid with a sweet tooth. He walked to the kitchen counter and pulled a large knife from a wood block.
I hadn’t had a chance to take in the room—the plush carpeting, the granite countertops, the lights twinkling above us in a low-hanging crystal chandelier. This room on a cruise ship probably cost a fortune.
It would be expensive to ruin too, I thought to myself as I stared at the blood seeping into the carpet below Iago’s chair. It dripped from his pant leg.
Cade handed the knife to Dante as he continued looking on, lost in a reverie we couldn’t pull him from.
Cade said softly, “One of the guys on the police force can get us more essentials if you need them.”
Iago wriggled in the dining room chair. The motion was the equivalent of a mouse in a trap. Nothing worked. The duct tape dug into his wrists; a large hole in his arm looked like it had been cauterized closed. His eyes pleaded with mine as he tried to mumble something against the tape over his mouth.
“Did they touch you?” Dante asked softly without looking at me. His voice was full of pain, like he’d wronged me somehow.
“Touch me?” I asked, my mind probably a bit too fuzzy for questions. I shook it. “It’s fine. I’m fine.”
“Besides the bruising on your face, Lilah, did he put a hand or weapon near you, Lamb?”
Running a hand through my hair and glancing away, I lied. They’d hit me in the elevator, choked me, and beaten me too. I didn’t lie, though, to spare the man’s life but only to soothe my wolf’s soul. “No. They were just angry about the twin swap.”
He growled and stalked toward me. Then he leaned down to whisper in my ear, “Lilah, do you know that I know your body better than you know it yourself?” He touched my hair. “You lie, and still I love that I get to find the lie you’re telling me, just by one movement. I’ve learned them all over the years. It’s how I know they’ve hurt you, how I know I’m going to now make them wish they were dead.”
His warning should have scared me. “Dante, you don’t have to do anything for me.”
“Lamb.” It was a plea, heavy in emotion and from deep in his gut. “Don’t ever do something like this again, you understand?”
My eyes filled with tears as I nodded at him. I whispered, “You don’t have to do this.”
“Do you want me to stop?”
I chewed on my cheek and glanced back at my sister. Her chest was still at my back, her arms still wrapped tight around me, like she wouldn’t let me go, like she was protecting me.
My baby sister.
The one Iago had tried to hurt.
I looked past Dante at the man whose eyes begged for his life.
I’d tried so hard most of my life not to make a mess in other people’s. I’d tried to be perfect. I’d tried not to share my true emotion, my true pain, everything.
“Had it only been me you touched, Iago, I would have told Dante that you could rot in jail.” I tilted my chin as I said the next words. “I would have shown you mercy.”