A love that never really faded and a love that would never happen again. No matter how this situation was painted, he was a murderer. A stone-cold killer.
And I’d rather die than to feel his embrace.
Chapter Six
Jaxon
I opened the door to the room we kept Brian in. We finally had a doctor look at his wound and stitch him up, but it did get infected.
Whoops.
So now he laid in one of the hospital beds we kept on site, the heart rate monitor beeping to let me know he was alive and well.
Damn it.
He had handcuffs on each wrist, chaining him to the bed. His blonde hair was slicked back, and his forehead shined with sweat as he fought a fever. Damn it; I was really looking forward to torturing him and letting out years of pent of anger. Maybe I could when he healed. He wasn’t going anywhere for a long time.
Not until I had the answers I was looking for.
And I had a feeling he wasn’t going to give them up easily. I had him on camera, recording every move and sound he made, just in case he slipped up and admitted that he was the one that killed Tracy.
“Well, well, well, look who finally decided to show his face,” Brian coughed. “I was wondering when I’d see a friendly face.”
“I know you aren’t looking at mine, then,” I said, sitting it the chair in the far corner away from the bed. I was afraid if I got too close to him again, I’d kill him, just like he deserved but I had to stay calm. I had to look at the bigger picture. I crossed my ankle over my knee and folded my hands in my lap, composing myself in the best way I knew how.
I hated the man in front of me.
With every ounce in my fucking soul, I wished him dead. I remembered when I first met Brian. I had just gotten done with a deal, and the guy fucked me over a few bucks. I was furious, and Brian was walking down the street when he saw me beating the man’s face in. We had been inseparable ever since, and I learned a lot of my ways from him.
And then I introduced him to my sister, and it was the worst thing I had ever done. It was my fault that she was dead because if I hadn’t introduced them, she’d still be alive.
“The felon look looks good on you, Jax.”
My jaw ticked when he called me by a name I hadn’t heard in years.
“The whole tattooed, I just got out of prison look really works. Oh, wait,” he coughed again through a sarcastic laugh. “You did just get out of prison, didn’t you?”
“I’d watch your mouth if I were you, Brian. You’re here, under my roof, and I can kill you whenever I want.”
“Oh, but you wouldn’t do that. You never do anything that doesn’t benefit you. And if you hurt me, that would hurt Quinn. And you wouldn’t want anything to hurt your precious little Quinny, right?”
I stayed silent. He was taunting me. He knew what Quinn meant to me when he took her from me. All these years, she had been lying with the enemy, and she had no idea. “Do you even care about her?”
“Quinn?” he snorted and shook his head. “She’s an easy bitch to target and filthy rich. Did you know that? If it wasn’t for you, I would be on my way to Mexico, four million dollars richer, and Quinn would be six feet under, somewhere.”
I stood slowly, keeping my breathing even and calm as he spoke about a woman, he almost married. I knew about the money transfer he had set up, but I had no idea he had intended to kill her. I wasn’t surprised. He killed Tracy. Why wouldn’t he have killed Quinn? Why now? Why not sooner? It didn’t matter. I was glad it wasn’t sooner, or I wouldn’t have been around to stop it.
I casually strolled to the side of the bed and wrapped my much large palm that was wider than his neck around his throat and squeezed.
Hard.
His face turned red, and he started to gasp. The metal of the handcuffs clanked against the bed as he tried to grab my hand and stop me from killing him. I brought my lips to his ear and sneered a whisper, “You hear that, Brian? You hear your heart beating rapidly as is struggles to keep you alive with the air you have left in your lungs?” The heart rate monitor was beeping viciously, and his pulse kept climbing the redder his face got. “Just a little bit longer and I never have to deal with you again, but you have something I need, and you need to be alive for that.” His eyes started to hood, and his mouth was open, gasping for air like a fish out of water.
I let go.
Damn it.
And he breathed so hard and inhaled so much air, he coughed, sending spit flying everywhere. “You’re crazy if you think I’ll give you a damn thing.”
“Hmm,” I hummed thoughtfully, straightening from my bent position. I took out my phone and opened the gallery, selecting the first photo. “Look at her, isn’t she adorable.” It was a picture of Brian’s three-year-old niece. She had curly blonde hair and big blue eyes. “She is going to be a heartbreaker when she is older.”
“You wouldn’t dare kill a child,” he said, the dip in his voice let me know that he was uncertain. He should be.
I would never kill a child, but he didn’t need to know that. “Maybe,” I said and flipped to the next picture to his sister. She had blonde hair too, like mother like daughter. “Stephanie looks so happy here, Brian. Look at that smile.”
“You are fucking asshole. You better not touch her.” He tried to get free of the cuffs again but it was useless. He had a mad gleam in his eyes and sweat dripping from his nose to his lips from the fever.
My hand flew up and grabbed a fistful of his hair and yanked it back until he cried out. “Why not? You took mine. Sister for a sister, that’s fair, isn’t it?”
“You’d never find her,” he challenged. “I made sure—”
“She lives off the coast of Australia. In a cute cottage, working at a surf shop, happy as a little bee flying from flower to flower.” I drifted my hands through the air to mimic a bumblebee flying through the air. “You were never really that great at covering your tracks.”
“I’ll kill you—”
“If I kill her? Keep that in mind.” I gripped his chin as hard as I could, my fingers digging into his skin to the point I could feel the sharp peaks of his teeth. “I will kill anyone you care about until you confess the truth.” I darted my eyes between his, searching for him to back down, but he gave nothing away. How sad was it that the man had to think about saving his family over his own freedom? “You don’t have long to decide.”
“Where does Quinn fit in all this?” he asked.
This time, I lifted my fist in the air and let it fly against his cheek. Something cracked, and a second later, blood sprayed, and a tooth bounced on the floor until it hit the wall.
“You made me lose a tooth!” he screamed, blood dripping from his mouth and staining his hospital gown.
I held onto his throat again and picked him up off the bed as high as I could until we were face to face. “You don’t get to talk about her. She is not your business anymore.”
“She hates you, you know. There will be no reversing that.”
“There will be if you care about your family at all. Don’t forget about your younger brother, John, and his fiancé Meredith. What about your parents?” I slammed him back against the bed and stared down at him. “Make no mistake, Brian. I am not the same man you used to know. Prison does that to a guy. I’ll kill them right in front of you and not blink twice.” I turned away and ignored the itch I had to kill him and finish it off. It really didn’t matter if I got his confession, but it was something I needed.