Page 108 of Coercion

I want this to be personal.

I want to deliver every cut, every bruise with my own hands. I want to feel every moment of this, remembering how I hurt my wife, and how this fucker hurt her more.

The room he’s in is bare, cold, with a perfect stream of light coming down from the skylight.

I prowl around the edges, keeping to the shadows. I can see in his eyes that he still thinks he can beat me.

I want to kill that hope, I want to beat it out of him, break him the way he broke my wife.

I pick up a wrench, feeling the weight of it, as I take aim, he seems to brace himself and as the metal crunches against his bone, he lets out a more than satisfying groan of pain.

But it isn’t enough.

It will never be enough.

I could hold this man here, could torture him from now until the very end of time and it would still not grant Ruby the justice she deserves.

‘He wanted me to seduce you.’

Ruby’s words repeat in my head. That he planned this, he forced her to be his spy knowing exactly what I would do when I found out.

He sent her off like a sacrificial lamb, not giving a fuck what happened to her.

I guess the only fuck up was Levi dying along the way.

But then, was that really a fuck up? If Ruby was taken off the board, then Gunnar was perfectly positioned to take over.

I grip his jaw, pushing hard against the pressure points. “Where you behind it?” I ask. “Did you make it look like Levi had a stroke?”

He laughs back, and all the saliva and blood collecting in his mouth makes a gurgling sound.

“Finally figured it out?” He spits. “Wondered what took you so long. I even left you the evidence to find…”

The phone. The fucking phone - he did that on purpose. He left it like breadcrumbs for me to follow.

Fury explodes in my head.

He wanted me to do it. He wanted me to attack Ruby.

He wanted me to think that she was the traitor because then she’d no longer be a threat, and I, in turn, wouldn’t have any cause to fight him for Head of the Family.

Is that why Jace did what he did, why he made sure I’d act?

My fist slams into his face, I feel the crunch of my own knuckles as I make impact and while some part of my brain says I’m being stupid to be using my bare hands, I need this pain, I deserve this pain.

I’ve been a fucking idiot.

I’ve been a complete fool.

And it’s Ruby who’s suffered because of me.

His head swings back, I swear his neck almost snaps but he grins back at me. “You really thought she was something, didn’t you?” He taunts. “The way you looked at her, you fell for the stupid whore…”

He can’t finish his sentence before I’m swinging for him once more.

“How does it feel, Preston, knowing I broke her in, I had your wife first?”

“You’re going to pay.” I spit, reaching for the wrench. “For every bruise, every cut, every moment you took from her.”