Page 109 of Coercion

He groans, jerking in the chair but there’s nothing he can do to escape me.

I know somewhere in the shadows Nico is watching. I know part of him wants his own revenge right now, after all, Ruby is his god daughter and this piece of shit defiled her for years.

“How many times?” I bellow. “How many times did you touch her? Did you rape her?”

He smirks, his shattered teeth dripping blood down his chin. “She liked being my whore.” He states as if I’d believe it.

I grab the pliers from the side, force his mouth open and start ripping out his teeth, one by one. I don’t need answers from him. I don’t need words.

All I want is pain.

His pain.

My pain.

It doesn’t matter.

Nothing matters.

We throwhis body into the incinerator, and I stand back watching the flames, imagining it’s the very pits of hell swallowing him up.

“We’ll make an announcement in the morning.” Nico murmurs.

“About what?”

“You being head of the Holtz Family.”

I don’t respond. I just turn and stalk away. Like I give a shit about diamonds, about power, about anything.

None of that matters to me anymore.

The only thing I care about is my wife, about earning her forgiveness, about proving that she can trust me, and earning back her love.

Ruby

Ican hear someone moving about, walking about.

I open my eyes as much as I can and my heart thumps as I see it’s not my husband. He’s not the one in my bedroom right now.

He crouches down, narrowing his eyes, brushing back my hair from my face as I hiss in pain.

“What the fuck happened?” Jett asks.

I gulp, shutting my eyes. How is he here? How did he get in? Preston has this house guarded better than Fort Knox.

“He did this, didn’t he?” He spits. “Your husband did this.”

I wish I could say otherwise. I wish I could shout out that that’s a lie, that Preston would never hurt me, but I can’t.

He shakes his head, snarling, before he scoops me up and with the drugs still in my system I can’t fight him.

More pain racks through my body at the way he’s holding me and I cry out.

“I don’t want to...” I begin and he curses, cutting across me.

“Enough, Ruby. He’s done enough.”

He carries me out of our bedroom, down the stairs and my eyes widen as I see the bodies, as I see the people who used to smile at me, who used to fetch me tea, who helped take care of me.