“There’s an entire set up.” He pulls off his mask and uses his arm to wipe the sweat from his forehead.
“He was prepping?”
“Looks like it. You should take a look.”
I sigh. “Let’s handcuff him.”
Sebastian bounds Rich’s hands behind his back. When he’s done, I hoist the piece of shit over my shoulder and make my way down to the basement.
The second we clear the low ceilings, I’m face-to-face with a similar scene I saw almost two weeks ago, but this one is still clean. Four wrought iron beds spaced out along the back wall, with a pair of handcuffs lying on each bed prepped with clean sheets.
“Fuck, the bastard’s heavy,” I grunt, throwing his body onto one of the beds.
My eyes flick to the sink, then to a metal medical table where a number of tools lay ready to use. Something I’m sure will come in handy for us now.
“Make sure he’s secure,” I tell Sebastian. “I’m going to get Lux.”
“Already on it,” he says. “But hurry, we don’t have much time if we’re going to do this and get out of here before daylight.”
I ascend the stairs by twos. “We got him. Now the fun begins,” I tell the guys through my earpiece.
“Are you heading to grab Lux?” Hayden asks.
“Walking out now.”
As I approach the car, I see Lux’s large brown eyes wide and hungry. And her excitement fills my chest with pride.
“We got him,” I say to her as I open the passenger side door. Lux is covered in black from head to toe, looking incredible but not without a silent fear surrounding her.
Her breath hitches at my admission, but she remains calm. “Okay.”
“If you want to do this, you need to come now before he wakes up.”
Lux hesitates for a second before climbing out of the car. She seems extremely nervous, understandably. Before I can think too much about it, I grab her hand and give her a tight reassuring squeeze. Her eyes flick up to mine and there’s a look there I haven’t seen before.
“I’ll be with you the whole time,” I tell her softly. When she nods, giving me a small smile, I lead her through the house and down to the basement.
I’ve never brought someone else who is basically an outsider into my world before. I don’t plan to have her participate, and my hope is that she will get her satisfaction by witnessing Rich take his last breath.
“How bad is it?” she whispers as we descend the stairs.
“They’ve only set everything up.”
A short gasp escapes her once we reach the bottom, and I give her hand a comforting squeeze to let her know she’s not alone.
I’m focused intently on her every movement as she takes in the chains and medical tools, and finally slides across the room to Rich, handcuffed to one of the beds. I’ve seen my fair share of jarring scenes—as I’m sure she has with growing up her lieutenant father and with writing crime—but nothing can prepare for one you’re connected to.
“We have a present for you,” Sebastian says, standing next to Richard who’s already coming back to consciousness.
Lux stiffens beside me, her grip tightening around my hand.
“What the hell are you doing, Thompson?” Richard spits out when his gaze lands on mine. He eventually notices Lux’s presence beside me and he turns his wrath on her. “And who the fuck are you?”
I almost speak first, but hold back giving Lux a chance a respond.
She takes a few steps toward him, slow but with more confidence than a moment ago. “Don’t remember me?”
His face contorts in disgust as he brings his attention back on me. “You brought a woman into this?”
