Page 106 of Restitution

“What was?”

“She wanted your father,” he says, choking on his own slobber. “We watched him for years, and then we watched you. You were twelve.”

Jesus.

“I already know I was fucking twelve. I saw all the surveillance photos.”

“That’s when we first got the idea,” he says, gasping for air as more crimson spills from the blade.

“Idea for what?” Kade asks, tightening his grip on Archie’s hair and making him wince.

“To use you. You looked like your father, and he was untouchable for us.”

Aria covers her mouth, and Luciella scowls at the screen. “What the fuck?” she snaps.

“When she finally got you to our place, pretending she’d help with your father’s case, she slipped you something to make you pass out. I had no idea she wanted you for sexual reasons.” He licks his teeth like the vile man he is. “I can’t say it wasn’t enjoyable though.”

Kade has had enough. He pulls a grenade from his bag, and his eyes stare into the camera. “Watch your husband die, Bernadette.”

My eyes widen as he grabs Archie’s jaw and pries it open, his gloved fingers curling around his top and bottom teeth and separating them with force. His gums split first, and blood pisses from his mouth, then the bones crack at his jaw, so it’s wide enough for Kade to jam the grenade into his mouth.

Luciella turns away, grimacing. “I can’t watch this.”

The fact that I can watch it and feel no remorse or even a touch of sadness for the monster speaks volumes as to who I am now. Before, I’d have been mortified and felt ill. I’d have been gagging into a bag and calling Kade vile.

But they’re the vile ones.

Archie’s eyes are filled with panic and agonising pain, but for once, I want Kade to keep going. I think Aria does too, but at the same time, she doesn’t want to watch her son do this.

It’s live for the entire world to see.

Aria turns to a guard. “Unlock that damn door.”

“No can do, ma’am.”

“I own this house,” she replies, her patience non-existent. “My stepson just died, the man I love might be dead, my husband is living in a hotel room and my son is in the middle of slaughtering someone on my lawn. I will not stand here and donothing. Open the door before I fire you.”

He stands taller. “No.”

Everyone turns when a shot is fired, and on the screen, Archie clenches his teeth over the deadly metal of the grenade as Kade shoots him in the kneecaps. His sadistic laugh echoes around the room as Archie falls to the grass. It should cause shivers to go up my spine and make me as horrified as his family, but I’m proud of him.

Archie has abused him since he was a teenager, causing unimaginable pain that’ll stay with him forever. He has nightmares about everything that happened while he was with that horrible family, but I think what that man did to him has impacted his psyche the most.

Archie silently begs for mercy, the grenade still lodged in his mouth.

“This man and his wife are responsible for years upon years of corruption and death…”

Kade speaks to the camera, and my heart stutters at the silvery-blue eyes blazing right at me. He starts reeling off names. The dead and the taken. Children and their ages. Who pays who and the connections Bernadette has that keep her on her pedestal.

“In the file I’ve sent out, you’ll see twenty-eight locations all over the world. Those organisations hold over two thousandmissing children and adults. Act fast. Dispatch every unit you can to rescue them.”

He mentions four prime ministers, two presidents and various other world leaders who have their hands in the underworld. He talks about the files that have been released worldwide to every news station, law-enforcement organisation and social-media platform, explaining how everyone else can access them too, if they dare to look.

He knees Archie under his chin, knocking him on his back, the grenade somehow still in place.

“I was nineteen when they first abused me. I was threatened to do things or my family would be targeted. I was trained to kill mercilessly and fuck like a monster, and they ruined my life in the process. My name is Kade Mitchell, son of Tobias Mitchell, and I will not be fucking silent anymore.”

My mouth opens with a gasp. Aria releases a rushed breath, and Luciella closes her eyes and turns away.