Ruthless Angel (Gods of Ravencrest University #5)

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

CLOVER

The next few days passed in a blur. The guys waited on me hand and foot, catering to my every need. Even Daire who I knew would rather be choking me while fucking me senseless.

I’d told all three of them about everything that happened to me while I was Brady’s captive. They’d been taking it easy at home with me, but I knew they were ready to get back out there and look for him. Desmond had people working on finding Brady and his pals. Every time one of their phones went off, the guys jumped.

So far nobody had spotted Brady. Desmond would be sending men to the auctions going forward while he put together a plan to take the whole thing down. Once he found out who was the driving force behind it all, everything would crumble.

We were lucky to have Raina’s dad on our side. When the Angels told me that he’d pretty much forced them to work for him, I’d been surprised. Also relieved. Maybe now they and the Gods would find some common ground. Achieve some kind of peace.

They would never be friends. I knew that. Being allies would force them to work together. To share a goal. That had to be a good thing. Raina and I both wanted them to leave the past in the past. For us.

We were having a chill night eating pizza and watching the latest Deadpool movie when their phones went off. All three of them.

“Holy shit.” Cash shot to his feet. “They got a lead.”

“What’s going on?” My gaze bounced from one guy to another.

“Desmond’s guys found one of Brady’s men,” Blaze explained. “He just picked up a prostitute, a woman who gathers info from her clients for Desmond. We have an address.”

Daire turned off the movie, shoving his phone in a pocket. “We’ll drop you off with Raina. I don’t want you to stay alone.”

“No.” I stopped all three of them in their tracks with my refusal. “I’m coming with you. I want to be part of this. I deserve to be part of this.”

Daire started to argue but stopped himself. “Are you sure? We’re going to kill him, Clover. It won’t be pretty.”

“Good. Those men hurt me. They kept me as a prisoner and tried to sell me. I want to make them pay.” It scared me a little that I was perfectly fine with being part of a murder. I’d been so freaked out after accidentally killing the man in the park with the Sinners. This was different.

This was vengeance.

“Only if you’re sure about this,” Blaze said. “Go get changed.”

Since I came home, I’d been thinking about Brady, Pete, and Derek. About how I wanted to hurt them the way they’d hurt Blaze and me. They deserved to know suffering. They deserved to beg and plead and then die horribly.

They’d changed me. They’d awoken a dark side that I didn’t know I had. Or maybe they’d created it. All I knew was that I wanted to be there when they took their last breaths. Maybe then the nightmares would stop.

I hurriedly changed into black sweatpants and a black hoodie. As I ran back down the stairs, I pulled my hair into a ponytail. The guys waited by the front door. Daire slipped a magazine into a handgun before shoving it into the front pocket of the gray hoodie he wore.

“Ready?” he asked. His searching gaze told me that his simple question had a deeper meaning.

“Absolutely. Let’s find this bastard.” I was the first one out the door and in the car. A deep rooted need to see this through drove me.

“Nobody get too trigger happy,” Cash instructed as he drove. “We need to torture Brady’s location out of him before we kill him.”

“I’ll be happy to.” There was a wickedness to Blaze’s tone I didn’t often hear. He cracked his knuckles, his knee bouncing in anticipation.

“What do I get to do?” I asked. “I want to be part of this.”

Daire gave my ponytail a gentle tug. “Whatever you want to do. Want to cut his balls off? Slice his throat? Feel free to get creative.”

“But don’t feel like you have to do any of that,” Cash added. “Don’t force yourself to do anything you don’t want to do.”

Blaze turned around in his seat to face me. “Let it come naturally. You might be surprised how you feel in the moment.”

I appreciated that they hadn’t tried to talk me out of coming along. They’d treated me with care since I’d come home. While that meant the world to me, I wasn’t a breakable object. Being taken by Brady had shown me how much I could take. Tonight I would discover how far I was willing to go to even the score.

We pulled into the parking lot of a chain motel. Other than a man wandering around like he was too high to know where he was going, the parking lot was empty of people. My heart picked up the pace. This was it.

The guys checked their weapons. I hadn’t wanted to carry a gun. I still didn’t trust myself with them. What I did have was the pepper spray I always carried now and a small switchblade that Raina had gifted me. That would have to do.

We got out of the car, a strange silence coming over us. Blaze hung back with me while Cash and Daire took the lead. They wanted to enter first in case the guy had a weapon.

As we approached a door at the end of the row on the ground level, Daire violently kicked it open. I sure hadn’t expected to find Derek cuffed to the bed with a half-naked brunette woman on top of him.

She looked up like she’d been expecting us. Hopping off Derek’s nude body, she grinned. “He’s all yours.”

Derek gaped at her as she slid back into a small black dress. “What the fuck? Did you set me up, bitch?”

“Sorry, sweetie,” she said, not sounding sorry at all. “It’s just business, you know.”

She gave me a wink on her way out, sashaying from the room. Blaze closed the door behind her.

Derek’s frantic gaze landed on me and he began to thrash hard against the cuffs holding him. “I didn’t do anything to her. It was Brady and Pete. I barely saw her.”

That part was true. Didn’t change the fact that he was involved in the transport of people against their will. He still participated.

“Doesn’t matter. You were there. That puts you on our hitlist.” Cash rounded the bed to stand next to Derek. “Now, let’s get started, shall we?”

Daire stepped up on the other side of the bed. He wasted no time slamming a fist into Derek’s face. “Where’s Brady?”

“I don’t know,” Derek shouted, bracing for another hit.

Blaze shook his head, leaning on the end of the bed. “This is not a good time to lie, my dude. Covering for Brady won’t save you. It will guarantee that we torture the hell out of you before we kill you.”

“I really don’t know.” Derek twisted and writhed. He wasn’t going anywhere. “After we ran into you guys at the hotel the other night, we all went our separate ways. Brady said it was safer that way. I haven’t seen him since.”

Shoving away from the bed, Blaze picked up Derek’s pants from the floor, fishing his phone out of the pocket. Using Derek’s face to unlock it, he scrolled through. “Let’s send Brady a message and see what he has to say.”

“In the meantime,” Daire cut in. “Let’s get started making this scumbag sorry he messed with our girl.”

Daire slammed his fist into Derek’s face repeatedly until blood gushed from his nose and lips. There was nothing Derek could do but take it. He begged and pleaded for mercy. He started to make so much noise that Cash grabbed his underwear from the floor and stuffed it into his mouth.

“Shit.” Blaze threw Derek’s phone on the floor, crushing it with a heel. “Brady knows something is up. I asked him where he’s at and he replied telling me to go ahead and kill Derek. That he knows nothing.”

Disappointment flitted through me. Getting rid of Brady’s friends was one thing, but it was really Brady I wanted. He needed to pay.

“Brady can hide. We’ll still find him. For now, we’ll settle for you, dickhead.” With a vicious grin, Daire wrapped both hands around Derek’s throat and squeezed.

I watched with growing excitement as his eyes bulged and his face turned red. My feet moved, bringing me around the side of the bed next to Cash. I realized then that I held my knife in one hand. I didn’t recall taking it out.

Something shifted inside me, putting me in a strange headspace as I brought the knife down. Right onto his torso. Daire let go of his throat, giving me the joy of hearing his muffled screams as I carved into his chest and stomach.

The blade glided through his flesh so smoothly. So easily. When I finished, the word pig covered him from neck to groin in giant letters. Blood oozed from the wounds, holding me entranced.

“He didn’t touch you, did he?” Cash asked, eyeing me closely.

“No, he didn’t.” Derek hadn’t been there when Brady and Pete touched me. Brady had done the worst. He deserved to suffer the most.

Dangling his own knife over Derek’s face, Daire said, “Good. Then I guess we don’t need to castrate him. Might be fun though.”

Derek’s muffled cries grew louder and more frantic. Tears spilled from his eyes to stain the old motel pillow beneath his head. I felt no sympathy for him.

“He doesn’t know where to find Brady. No need to drag this out and risk getting caught. Let’s end this now.” Blaze reached to take the bloody knife from my hand. He went to the adjoined bathroom to clean it before bringing it back to me.

Daire pressed his gun to Derek’s forehead. “Might want to look away, Angel. It’s going to get messy.”

I couldn’t. I didn’t want to. Seeing this through meant something to me.

“I’m good,” I said with a shake of my head. “Do it.”

Daire held my gaze as he pulled the trigger. Blood sprayed, hitting both of us. The warm splat against my skin was shocking. I couldn’t look away from the mess that was Derek. So bloody and horrific, yet I felt nothing.

“Come on, Rainbow. Let’s get you out of here.” Sliding an arm around my shoulders, Blaze steered me toward the door. After double checking the parking lot, we headed for the car.

Cash and Daire followed, taking care to close the door as they left the motel room. I kind of felt for the person who would end up finding Derek.

I got into the car, sliding into the back with Blaze. One down. Two to go.