Perfect Ruin (Unyielding #2)(42)

“Raven. Go to the girls,” I ordered.

I didn’t wait to see if she did because I knew she’d do anything I told her. I kept low as I snuck across the warehouse pausing behind a conveyor belt. I nodded to Deck who was approaching from the back of the warehouse.

Jacob disappeared behind floor-to-ceiling shelves, but I saw his feet as he circled around. And I knew exactly what he was doing and where he was headed. Shit. Keeping low and covered, I made my way back to the girls and came out into the clearing just as Jacob grabbed London hauling her up against his chest.

I came up on his left, my knife at my side.

“Let her go.” My gaze drilled into Jacob and my fingers tightened around the hilt of my knife. I was pretty f*ckin’ sure I could kill him before his finger pressed the trigger.

London whimpered as Jacob’s hold tightened.

“In seconds, I can shoot Sculpt’s woman and snap your slave’s neck.”

“Then do it,” I said. I never took well to threats and I was betting he wasn’t going to kill both girls. If he did, he was dead.

Deck was crouched behind a pile of barrels on Jacob’s right. Our eyes met and he chin-lifted to me. I threw my knife at the same time as Sculpt dove out from behind the barrels and took Emily down, protecting her with his body.

My knife sliced through the air and into Jacob’s neck, so close to London’s ear I saw a speck of blood on the outer edge of the lobe.

Jacob’s gun went off, but it was a knee-jerk reaction as his body swayed. London scrambled from his hold and fell to her hands and knees, blood splattered over her face and chest.

Jacob’s hand still held his gun while his other went to his neck, blood seeping between his fingers as he tried to stop the flow around the knife.

He was a dead man any second, but I knew why Deck approached, raised his gun and shot him in the chest several times. It was a man’s need to put bullets in the guy who hurt his girl.

Jacob fell backwards. The gun slipped from his grasp and clattered to the floor.

I strode over, yanked my knife from his neck, wiped the blood off on Jacob’s body then put it in the sheath at my waist. Then I went to London.

She was still on the floor as I crouched beside her. Fuck, I wanted so badly to pull her into my arms, tell her it was over. That the men who hurt her would never touch her again.

But for her, it wasn’t over. It was the beginning of finding her way back from what was done to her.

“Baby,” I murmured.

She closed her eyes, but kept her head down.

I gently put my arm around her and cursed under my breath at how much weight she’d lost. I felt Deck’s lethal stare as he was on his knees beside Chaos.

I turned back to London.

“London.” She didn’t respond and I closed my eyes as a wave of pain went through me.

Fuck.

Fuck.

Fuck.

She spent years with Jacob and Alfonzo and seeing her like this hurt. No, it f*ckin’ killed. Torture had nothing on this. The beauty of what London had always given me—lightness—was gone and that destroyed me.

I helped her stand then guided her over to Deck and the others. I saw Deck run his finger over the needle mark on Georgie’s arm. “Heroin,” I said.

I had my arm around London’s waist, and her head was tucked into my chest. Fuck. I didn’t want to let go, but I had no choice. There was a chance for her without me. A chance to bring the lightness back, the laughter, the sweetness. I was her destruction and I kept falling back into that rift and suffocating her in my darkness.

Deck nodded. “Probably better. Georgie would’ve gotten herself killed with that mouth of hers.” Deck stood. “Police will be here shortly. You better go.”

I peeled London away from me. I hadn’t intended on looking at her again. I should’ve just walked away. Instead, I had to look at her one more time and my heart stopped. Broken. The compassionate, brilliant woman with stubborn determination no longer existed.

Jesus, baby. You need to find your way back. You can’t do that with me.

I had to get out of here. “You need to stay with them. Deck will take you home.”

Her eyes widened and her face paled. Then she did what I never expected. She fell to her knees in front of me and grabbed my leg. “Please. Please take me with you.”

I remained motionless.

Fuck, London.

I’d never cared before. In order to care, you had to give a shit. I didn’t. Now I did and it was worse than any physical pain. It was acid eating away at my insides and feeling like there was no way back from the hell I lived in.

I belonged in the darkness and London belonged in the light.

I sighed and then nodded to Deck. He stood, took two steps then snagged London’s arm and pulled her away from me. Tears streamed down her cheeks, but she didn’t make a sound.

Then I jogged away and didn’t look back.





ERASED.

The word lingered in my head. I became a ghost after ending all communication with London. She was better without me. She was safer.

It had been a year and seven months since I saw her in the warehouse on her knees begging me to take her with me. I pretended it was business as usual, but it wasn’t. What I did had nothing to do with business. It was personal as I became the silent killer.

I killed instead of satisfying any sexual needs. I killed to stop the nightmare of seeing her on her knees. And I killed to ease the pain. Weaving in and out of the sex trafficking industry, I killed those who deserved it.