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I nod. “These helping?”

Nathan’s gaze lands on the bottle in my hands and the remaining colour drains from his face. “My doctor prescribes me those.”

“I can see that. Your kind doctor prescribes you gamma-hydroxybutyric acid. For what, exactly?”

He swallows. “I have narcolepsy.”

I flash my teeth in an almost maniacal way at him, waving my knife in the other hand. “Come on, Nathan. Remember what I said about being honest?”

He grimaces as I lean towards him, watching beads of sweat roll off his head. “You don’t use this for narcolepsy, do you?”

“No.”

“You use this to drug women, don’t you?”

He grits his jaw. “Yes.”

“You used this on, Kali.” I hold the bottle up, the mere sound of Kali’s name coming out of my mouth reinvigorating my earlier rage. “You drugged Kali with GHB, didn’t you?”

“Yes,” he hisses.

His admission reassures me that breaking into his home wasn’t a mistake. That we haven’t taken a risk for nothing. That this piece of shit deserves way more than the fright Patrick and I are giving him.

Patrick clears his throat from behind me and it takes every ounce of willpower to lean back in my chair, and not crash tackle this weasel to the ground.

Patrick comes into my peripheral vision, his phone in his hands. “I’ve been doing some digging on you Nathan. Fraudulent payments, outstanding debts. You haven’t filed a legitimate tax return in four years.”

“Tax evasion. That’s what they got Al Capone on.” I wink at Nathan.

Nathan looks murderous but keeps quiet as Patrick continues. “Putting aside your questionable business ethics, you seem like a genuine piece of shit. Amelia Falconio, Taylor Brown, Chelsea Thorne, Erin McCullough, Ari Adams. Any of these names ringing a bell?”

Nathan’s mouth quirks at the edge. “Maybe.”

“These women were hospitalised,” Patrick forges on, level-headed. “Injuries from suspected sexual assault they couldn’t remember, because they all had GHB in their systems. All after having some sort of interaction with you.”

“There’s no proof I did anything to those women,” Nathan rasps, tilting his chin up at Patrick. I flick the pocketknife in my hand and Nathan glances at it. “But now that you mention it, yeah, I might’ve helped them along a little.”

“You’re a scumbag,” I spit.

Nathan glares at me before sighing. “What do you want?”

That’s the million-dollar question. What Iwantis to beat this guy into oblivion and drop him over the edge of a cliff so no one will have to worry about him again. Much as that thought might bring me temporary satisfaction, it’s not who I am.

Realistically, we didn’t need to come here tonight. Patrick could’ve tipped off his old police colleagues about his criminal activity and left it at that. But it wasn’t enough. Not for me. That might make me selfish, but I wanted to hear the truth with my own ears, see him squirm under my own hand.

“You need to leave town,” I reply. “Immediately. Pack up your shit, get rid of your business and never come back. You’re never to lay a finger on Kali or any other woman without their complete, sober consent.”

Nathan grunts, leaning back as if he’s thinking about his options. “And if I don’t?”

I smile, flicking the blade between my fingers. “I guess you could stick around and find out.”

Nathan’s chest rises sharply. “I’ll leave.”

Patrick nods at that and tilts his head at me, signalling to wrap this up before we test our luck and overstay our welcome.

Begrudgingly, I undo Nathan’s restraints and step away with disgust, tossing the items into my bag. “One word of this to anyone and it’ll be the last thing you do.”

Nathan grunts again, a smirk plaguing his arrogant face. “Whatever.”