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His voice grated, and I wanted to bury my fist in his mouth to see if that would shut him up. While he continued, Riley and Gianna conferred. There was much head nodding and whispering until they finally stopped and stepped away from each other.

“Hollis, would you bring my bag here, please?” Riley asked her fellow Hound. She’d placed it on the floor.

“Sure will,” he replied.

“Rocco, would you bring my bag that you brought from home?” Gianna asked her brother.

“You got it, sorellina , little sister,” he said.

It didn’t take them long to return with the bags.

By then, we’d moved outside. As they rummaged inside, we were asked to move Tobias to stand between two thin trees surrounded by much taller, thicker ones—larger than saplings but not sturdy adult trees.

They worked in silence, attaching ropes to each of the small trees.

They asked for help, pulling them over until the tops almost touched the ground and were anchored there. One person couldn’t do it.

I knew what they had planned when they bent the first tree. I flinched, thinking it would be a horrendous way to go, but I wasn’t about to say anything.

“You think this scares me? I’ll be brought back on the day of reckoning.

God will reward me. It’s natural and pure for a man to command a woman.

And brothers sharing the same woman is righteous.

That child would’ve been raised in the right way and not bound for hell no matter which one of us fathered it,” he ranted.

Gianna froze. She gave me a helpless look, and I saw the tears.

Not only had Amelia suffered at the hands of one monster, but two.

Tobias just admitted he had raped her, too.

Gianna reached over and removed a knife from her bag.

She moved over to stand in front of Tobias.

After placing the blade at his throat, she hissed.

“Say one more word about women’s place, God, or how you and your fucking sicko brother touched Amelia, and I’ll cut off your cock and shove it down your throat.”

Tobias glared at her through narrowed slits. When he didn’t say anything, she walked off.

“Would someone tie his arms to those two trees? I want them spread apart as far as they’ll go,” Riley directed.

Ciaran and I came forward. Tobias tried to fight us, but he was no match. We made short work of it, then got out of the way. We waited to see what the women would do next. Then, Tobias shouted more.

“Oh dear God, make these whores see the error of their ways. And save them from the fires of hell only if they submit as they should, as Amelia ultimately did.” As he finished, he smirked at Gianna.

Both women came at him with knives. I didn’t see where they got the second one.

Within a minute, they cut and removed every stitch of clothing he wore.

He was standing in the cold night air, naked, with slashes all over him.

Gianna crowded into him until she was a scant couple of inches from his face.

“I made you a promise, Beecham, and I never break them,” she said sweetly.

Then in a flash, she latched onto his cock, stretched it out, then swung the other hand in a chopping motion. He screamed in agony when the knife bit into the base of his cock. As men, we all flinched and had to prevent ourselves from clutching our cocks and balls.

As Gianna sawed through it, Riley came forward, kneeled, and said quietly, “I think his balls need to come off, too. His cock isn’t nearly big enough to choke on.

” Riley sawed through his balls. By then, every man was bent over and clutching himself.

He was our enemy, but we could still feel empathy for what had been done to him.

Tobias kept screaming as blood poured down his legs to soak into the ground.

However, those screams were abruptly cut off when Gianna shoved his cock into his mouth, and right behind her, Riley crammed his balls in.

Riley shoved the heel of her hand up under his jaw to keep him from spitting them out.

As he choked, both women flipped over their knives to the serrated edges, which they used to saw through the rope holding the trees bent.

Seconds before they cut all the way through, they moved back.

The fibers continued to fray until they finally snapped.

This released the trees to fly upright. When they did, it ripped his arms and legs off.

Parts of his body flew everywhere. Fuck, that would be a mess to clean up and make sure to find all the parts, I thought.

However, I didn’t reprimand her. It was gruesome, yet it felt warranted.

Who knew how many other women they’d done things to over the years?

I highly doubted that Amelia was their only victim.

I walked over to Gianna, took the bloody knife from her, wrapped her in my arms, and held her as she sobbed into my chest. As I comforted her, I heard the hum of engines. The cleanup crew was here. We’d have to pay double for this one, but it would be worth it. It was time to go home.

???

The past two weeks have been busy. After ensuring that things were cleaned up in Chokoloskee, body-wise, I paid the owner for the damages to his house caused by a wild party that had gotten out of hand.

The owner was happy, though, because I was more than generous, and he would be able to do a significant renovation.

And he could brag about how he had an O’Sheeran in his house, which he and his friends had destroyed. We returned home two days later.

We weren’t sure the danger was gone with the death of Tobias.

There was the rest of the Glades Defense Force to contend with.

And we had to assume some knew where their men went that night and who they were after, at least the one who was friends with Tobias.

And after discovering that they were people willing to murder and rape innocents on command without evidence that the targets deserved death, we wouldn’t allow them to prey on others.

The Hounds were in between jobs, so they returned to Chokoloskee last week, and they found the members of the militia, all seven that were left, gathered at their clubhouse or whatever you called it.

They were hatching a plan to find the people who took out their men and Tobias.

They had no physical proof, but they knew they were dead.

From the snooping done before dispatching them, it seemed that no one knew who the people Tobias went after were.

But they were determined to find and kill them. Glover had been right.

It was all over the news the following day when a gas line ruptured, resulting in a massive explosion at the headquarters of the Glades Defense Force.

The authorities were unclear if all members had been killed.

It was under investigation, but authorities were saying there were no signs of foul play, so it appeared to be a horrible accident.

Alistair and his people knew what they were doing.

Gianna had been slightly subdued since our return.

I was worried that what she did to Tobias, while more than earned, was preying on her mind.

However, whenever I asked if she was alright, she said yes.

I’d asked Siv, Cara, and Aisling to have a ladies’ day with her and see if they could get her talking.

After they returned, Siv told me that Gianna was trying to talk to her family about modifying her work for them.

She explained to the girls that she knew she couldn’t do the same things she did in the past—chasing fugitives and bail jumpers.

The office work wasn’t an issue, but she was worried about how to broach the subject of the rest with them.

I knew it would be challenging, and it reminded me of what Daid said about an anamchara having to adapt and change so much to be with us.

I never wanted her to feel that she gave up too much to be with me.

I’d have to ensure I made it as easy as possible for her.

And I didn’t have her making all the changes and compromises.

Siv also told me to ask her about her first day with Presley as her bodyguard.

I was wary, but all my sister would say was to ask, and then she laughed.

I waited until after dinner to bring it up to her.

We were stretched out on the couch. The fireplace was burning, and we were relaxing together, listening to music.

She was enjoying a glass of wine, and I had a whiskey.

We talked over dinner about her day with the girls.

She said it was incredible. They invited Aurora to go on a spa day with them.

Both Aurora and Aisling raved about their pregnancy massages.

The group had done the whole facial, massage, manicures, pedicures, and body wrap.

I started the conversation by bringing up the spa again.

“I’m glad you had a good day out, leanbh . And you enjoyed all the different treatments.”

“Oh yes, I could do that every week. It was that wonderful, though I’d soon go broke.” She chuckled.

“Technically, no, you wouldn’t. I can afford it.”

“Rian, I’m not wasting your money that way!”

“It’s not a waste of money if you get something out of it, which you did. You’re more relaxed and glowing. I’ve been worried about you since we returned.”

“You don’t need to be. I’ve been thinking of how to tell my family that I won’t be working with them as much.”

“I’ve been thinking about it too. We should work on it together.”

“Maybe, but not tonight.”

“Okay, not tonight. Oh, by the way, how was your first outing with Presley? Did you two get along alright?” This had been the first time Gianna had left the compound.

She’d been introduced to Presley briefly upon our return but hadn’t gotten a chance to spend significant time or converse with her.

I hoped I hadn’t made a mistake in my choice.