Page 25 of Vow of Vengeance (Destruction & Vengeance Duet #2)

"Move, what ?" I prompt her, watching the confusion turn slowly to irritation when she realizes what I'm asking for. "Basic manners go a long way, little bird. You want me to move, you can either make me or you can ask nicely."

"Are you serious?" She snaps. "Now is not the time for your games."

"I didn't say anything about games. But if you want to play seven minutes in heaven, we can send Khan on his way..."

I don't know why I'm riling her up. Maybe because I know that her irritation is blunting her panic, maybe because I get off on how easy it is to get a reaction out of her, even now when she's surrendered to me so wholly.

"Declan," she says softly. "Please move."

I do, wrapping an arm around her waist and hefting her against me so that she yelps in surprise when I move her out of the closet with me.

Our flashlight beams against the floor betray no sign of anything other than a wooden subfloor, like someone forgot to install the same linoleum they used out in the back room. But Soren falls to her knees and feels around on the ground until she makes a sound of victory.

A moment later, there's a heavy sound as a door falls open on its hinges, collapsing down into a dark space. When I shine my flashlight on it, I see the narrow stone steps that descend into darkness. She glances at me with an I told you so smirk and then steps forward, prepared to go down there.

"Behind me, or you go to the car and wait. Khan will keep you company, I'm sure."

A single look at his face assures me he'd be happy to get the hell out of there. Something tells me he won't be following us into the darkness.

Soren clenches her jaw but steps aside, gesturing dramatically for me to precede her.

"I'll keep a look out up here." Khan says as I angle the flashlight down, trying to see where each step starts and ends. They're spaced a little too far apart to be normal, and as I make my way down them, it's clear the reason why.

The narrow corridor is unfinished, the rock on either side of me crudely carved away rather than smoothed out. This clearly isn't a finished basement. It feels more like a storm cellar.

I move slowly so that Soren can find her footholds based off my proximity, so that I'll be here to catch her if she stumbles.

"See anything?" Khan calls after us, as if we've even had a chance to look around us.

But when we get to the bottom, we do get a chance to look around. Not that there's much to see.

The roof is low over my head, intensifying the claustrophobia tickling the base of my spine.

The lights of our cell phone bounce around the barren room as we both search for anything of note, anything at all.

Our phones don't illuminate much, so I find the light- a single, bare bulb hanging from the ceiling just over my head.

Soren turns behind me, searching the walls for a light switch. But there is none, because the electricity down here was very clearly not professional. The swinging bulb I can reach out and touch is proof of that.

Reaching up with the bulb in one hand, I find the socket and twist it in, glancing away as the light floods the space.

"What the fuck?" Soren whispers.

I have to blink a few times to clear the dark spots from my vision as I turn to her, wondering why we're whispering now. But the look on her face is horrified, and it says all that I need to know.

I follow her gaze to the chair in the corner, the foot holds in the air that tell me exactly what kind of examination table it is. I've never been to a gynecologist myself, and the one I took Soren to didn’t look like this, but I'm not a fucking idiot.

I watch her press her hand over her mouth, like she's trying to combat a wave of disgust. And I don't fucking blame her. A quick glance at the thing shows it's been modified with thick straps to cross the center, and I think anyone with half a brain could guess what they're there for.

My mind flashes back to the photos and video clips I found when I searched for Soren's husband, the obviously fucked up things he was into. And he did them right here.

"Come on," I tell her, wrapping an arm around her back to try and guide her away from the corner before the horror can settle any deeper. "Let's explore the rest of the room."

Soren wrenches out of my grasp so fast you'd think my touch has burned her.

"Don't touch me." She gasps, bending over a little to try and catch her breath.

"Ren..." I reach for her, to ground her, but she slips away from me with betrayal in her eyes.

It's not betrayal for me, but it's fresh all the same. Knowing what her husband did, seeing it on film, and seeing where he did it are all entirely different things.

I watch her carefully as she approaches the chair, looking at it like she may find some sort of clue as to where her best friend went.

But if Marissa was here, she isn't anymore. She may not be anywhere anymore.

The concrete ground is stained russet in spots, some larger than other, and I don't have a single doubt what that blood is from.

"Dec-" She chokes, shaking her head.

Soren was married to a fucking monster.

She slept beside him every night for years.

It's going to take a long time for her to contend with that fact.

"Come on," I tell her, wrapping my arm around her again, firmer this time. And this time, she doesn't jump away from me but lets me lead her away from the torture setup. I don't let go of her as we walk the room and look at what else remains in the space.

It's not much.

The only stuff down here is too big to have been brought down that staircase, and similarly too big to be taken back up it.

There's a barren table, knotted and covered in watermarks and scuffs, a single twin mattress in an opposite corner of the room, and an empty galvanized steel trough in a third.

The fourth corner appears to be empty, but as we approach, I notice the slip of rope hanging from the ceiling. .. a noose.

"Declan- " Soren's voice is small and somehow distant. I feel surprisingly faint, until I look down and see her ashen face and parted lips. "I can't- "

Breathe.

She can't breathe because she's hyperventilating.

"Come on, little bird. Let's get out of here."

I'd throw her over my shoulder and carry her if I could, but the ceiling is too narrow to ascend the stairs with her in my arms. It leaves no doubt what that steel trough is for. Victims who came down here certainly didn't walk out on their own, and there's no way they were carried out whole.

Fucking hell.

I've hated Tony as long as I've known him, but I never would have guessed he'd be involved in something this sinister.

As I shepherd her to the stairs, I catch sight of it. The camera in the center of the room, stationed behind the lightbulb. It hangs down just enough to catch a panoramic view of the room. As it pans to follow us, sensing the motion, I realize we've actually just had a hollow victory.

But it's one I'll keep to myself as Soren practically crawls up the steps like she's forgotten how to get her limbs to move.

We didn't find Marissa down here, but now I know where the photos and videos of Vin with his victims came from. I can track the videos back to this camera and probably hack the video logs.

If Marissa was down here at any point, I'll find out.