CHAPTER 7: People Take Nudes.

Dominic.

The man was wheezing by the time I turned to my surgical table. He already had a broken arm and two broken legs, still he refused to give me what I wanted.

I was currently in the basement of my house, and as I took my sweet time selecting which blade to go with, I heard him pleading with me.

Turning to him, I tilted my head and asked, “Are you ready to tell me who sent you, Cole?”

“I… I don’t know. Please,” he begged.

Smiling, I finally picked up a long thin knife and walked towards the bastard.

His wrists were tied behind him, with one of them sticking out at an unnatural angle. There was a pool of blood under where he sat, and I watched as it dripped slowly onto the concrete floor.

“Who sent you?” I asked again.

He shook his head violently, sweat and blood rolling down his temples. “I—I swear, I don’t know—”

The knife came down fast on his thigh before he could finish the sentence. He screamed, his body jerking uselessly against the restraints.

I crouched in front of him, resting my forearms on my thighs. My voice was low as I spoke. “You set my club on fire. That means either someone paid you, or you did it for the fun of it.”

“I was told not to ask questions!” he sobbed. “I was just a—”

I sighed, standing up again. That was the same thing his partner said before he gave us Cole’s name. I guess I wasn’t going to get answers from Cole either.

But I was sure as hell going to play with him before I killed him. I dragged the blade along his forearm slowly this time, watching his breath hitch as he waited for the pain.

Suddenly , the door opened behind me. I was pissed someone had interrupted my fun, but I didn’t turn.

“Don,” Marco said carefully.

I paused. The tone of his voice told me something was wrong.

“What?” I asked.

He walked closer and held out a phone. “You need to see this.”

I was irritated. But when I saw the screen, my jaw tightened. It was Twitter and I didn’t need to scroll much before I saw naked pictures of Evelyn.

My grip tightened around the phone, but I took a deep breath and turned back to the man in the chair.

He was crying now, begging for his life. But I didn’t hear any of it as I moved the knife across his throat and slit it without hesitation.

Blood spurted out as he gurgled and finally, the screaming stopped. I stepped back as his lifeless body slumped forward. Then I exited the room.

“Clean it up,” I said coldly to the men outside the basement as I handed the phone back to Marco. “And continue searching till we find who hired him.”

They nodded immediately and rushed inside as Marco and I walked out.

***

Minutes later, we were on our way to the house I got for Evelyn.

The car ride was silent at first and I was lost in thoughts, until Marco spoke. “Do you think she posted it herself?”

I didn’t answer. What was I supposed to say when I wasn’t sure myself?

“I mean,” he continued, “the timing is strange. Right after you get her a phone?”

My jaw clenched.

“I don’t know what to think,” I said honestly.

Why wasn’t there a leak before? Why now?

“Do you think she did it for attention?” Marco suggested.

I scoffed. “She’s hiding from her husband. You think she’d suddenly expose herself like that?”

He shrugged. “I don’t trust her. Why would anyone take nude pictures of themselves anyway?”

I rolled my eyes. “It’s the twenty-first century, Marco. People take nudes. It doesn’t make her guilty of anything.”

He didn’t look convinced.

“She’s still a liability,” he said. “And I still think she’s working with Liam.”

That name set something off in me again. I looked away, my fingers tapping restlessly against my thigh.

“I don’t think she did it. Someone else did,” I finally said.

“Well, let’s be honest here. You’re always quick to defend her, but what exactly do you know about her? Apart from the fact that her husband abused her?” Marco asked, and that shut me up. Because it was true.

I didn’t know anything about her.

Anger simmered beneath my skin, and then guilt followed.

I remembered days ago when she had told me she wanted to get a job, and I shut her down. And I didn’t explain the reason to her because it would have made me look weak.

But the truth was simple. Victor’s influence was everywhere.

Any company she sent her CV to would report back to him. Every door would lead straight back to her husband, or worse.

The only man powerful enough to block Victor in the corporate world was Liam Kingsley. And I would rather die than hand her to him.

Honestly, I could have given her a job myself, at the club. But the club was burnt down.

So I shut her down instead, like a coward.

“We’re here,” Marco said, disrupting my thoughts.

***

Evelyn was already pacing when I walked in. And the moment she saw me, she ran toward me.

“Dominic,” she cried. “Oh my gosh, I don’t know what to do. Have you seen it?”

I didn’t say a word, and stepped back when she was about to touch me.

Confusion crossed her face, and then her eyes widened when she realized what was going on.

“You think I did it,” she said slowly.

I didn’t deny it.

“What do you want me to think?” I asked. “Who else would have done it?”

She laughed with tears streaming down her face.

“This is funny,” she said bitterly. “You think I would leak my own nudes? While I’m hiding from my husband? On an anonymous twitter account?”

I stayed silent.

“Why would I do that?” she demanded.

“I don’t know,” I said.

That was when her phone rang and when she looked down at it, relief flashed across her face before she could hide it.

She shook her head at me and turned away, going towards her room.

“Evelyn, wait…” I called out.

She stopped and turned back to me, “What’s there to talk about again? You already concluded that I did it, so…?”

And with that, she continued walking. I tried to follow but she slammed the door and locked it.

I knocked. “Evelyn.”

No answer.

My chest tightened, and that annoyed me because I didn’t know what was going on with me.

Maybe it was just the fact that nobody walked away from me while I was talking, and she had the nerve to do that.

Before I could properly process my feelings, Marco appeared behind me. “Don. The suppliers for the gun shipment arrived early. We need to go now.”

I stared at the door, but it remained closed. So I turned away.

And for the first time in a very long time, I was angry by early supplies.