Chapter 277. An Insane Visitor IV

Chapter 277: 277. An Insane Visitor IV

Quinlan

My feet hit the floors silently, but the woman stirred first. Raven haired with large hazel eyes that landed on me the second I reached the foot of the bed.

I had a finger on my curved lips and the tip of the dagger poised for her neck before she could scream. Mercifully, she shut the fuck up and crawled off the rogue gently, her body trembling with suppressed sobs of terror. The smell of her fear coated the room so heavily, it whetted my appetite.

Excitement coursed through my veins and it was an effort to keep my Lycan from surging forward and ripping out her throat. Quite the debate it had been, trying to convince him not to go on a killing rampage after what we saw.

He was still on edge, still waiting for the moment I fed his rage and bloodlust.

The girl picked her clothes off the floor and fled the room when she thought I wasn’t looking. My lips twitched with amusement and I sat by the rogue’s bed side, peering in his face as he puffed a breath that stank fully of alcohol.

I edged the ashen-tipped blade across his left cheek and slashed him and even line down his skin. Slowly.

The rogue jerked, his eyes splashing wide and though, they’re still unfocused, he was instinctively reaching for his weapon on the bedstand.

"Hello," I hummed. "Did you sleep well? My wife sure hasn’t."

He blinked, eyes focusing, and then his eyes widened with such fear, a chuckled slipped from me. I knew what he saw. The devil in a Brioni black suit, perched by his side with a fanged grin.

He opened his mouth to yell and I filled it up with the dagger, holding it a precise inch away from the back of his throat. "I’m going to ask a few questions and you’ll answer them, oui?"

Swear broke on his forehead and he nodded as much as he could without getting impaled on the dagger.

"Bon," I nodded, licking my lips. "Your wife has been unreachable in the last twenty four hours, hasn’t she?"

His chest began heaving. Beads of sweat began rolling down his neck and naked chest, and his murmuring grew even louder as his eyes widened.

"Not that it matters what happens with her, since you’re more invested in fucking the castle maids at the moment," I tsked thrice, "but the thing is, no one’s heard from your little girl, either, non?" I saw the moment he thought I might have been bluffing. And so I added, "Fifteen. Brash. Lovely face like her mother’s, and a little birthmark shaped like a scar on her left breast--"

He snarled, rage replacing the fear in his eyes only for a moment.

My lips curved. "Rest easy. I’m not into fucking minors. She turned up at one of my establishments. Funny how life works, isn’t it? False ID. Deathly drunk. I gave her a ride home. She thought I wanted something in return and took off her shirt. I handed her a jacket and two tickets." I leaned forward. "They’re on a vacation right now. Sun tanning. Exploring Mexico." I licked my fangs. "You know what’s more terrifying than the Cosa Nostra and the Bratva put together, Bruno?"

His fear rolled off me thickly and my heart raced with excitement, and I exhaled, "La Eme. The Mexicans." I leaned forward. "Now, this could be the best trip your daughter has in her entire life. Or it really could be the last you hear from her. That all depends on your choices tonight, mon ami."

His eyes were red with rage and fear and I saw that he genuinely cared for his family. It made me laugh. I’d never understand people who did bad things and thought they could keep their families safe from karma.

The rogue blinked, nodding swiftly.

"The trial is in two days," I murmured. "You will leave the castle and the protection of the Graham’s quietly. You will stay in hiding. If the Queen or Tessa are alerted to your sudden ’change of heart’ before time, my protection on your lovely wife and daughter will be retracted.

"And on the morning of the first trial, you are going to show up and testify. You will tell the Council what you did, who paid you for the job and how you did it. You will speak nothing but the truth."

He seemed inclined to shake his head. "What is it that scares you more? The Queen? Tessa? Because I assure you, there are worse things out there."

He must have seen something in my eyes, because he swallowed thickly and nodded.

I hummed again, my gaze flicking lower. "Now. Which hand was it?"

His swearing brows married together in utter confusion.

"If I remember correctly," I wondered on it, reaching for his hair, and I gripped it harshly in the same manner he had pulled Maisie’s, yanked it to the side in the same way he did Maisie’s, gripping her hard and rough enough that I was sure he left bruises on her skin. "I believe it was the right."

I reached into my coat and withdrew one of the three gift boxes I’d brought with me.

The first was his. The other two were Tessa’s.

I retracted the knife from his mouth, and turned the blade, handing him the hilt as I tossed the box against his chest.

"What the fuck is this for?" he said, hands shaking as he took the dagger from me.

My eyes crinkled as I smiled down at him. "Believe me when I say I do understand this isn’t your fault. You merely took a job. One that undoubtedly paid you well enough for your services. But your luck ran out the second you touched the wrong woman." I cocked my head at the box. "That box, is for your left hand. You’ll be needing the dagger to cut it off."

"Fuck no," he swore, standing so fast, he stood in front of me, naked as the day he was born. "You’re fucking crazy if you think I’m going to cut off my own fucking hand--"

He’d barely finished speaking when I closed the distance, peering down at him. I saw the blue in my eyes glow as I tilted my head at the smaller man. "If you’re too chicken to do it, and not chicken enough to kill a defenseless woman, I’m sure I could help with that."

I ripped the dagger out from his grasp. "But you’re going to have to be very quiet, oui?"

He was, in fact, not quiet. The sound of his screaming must have woken the entire staff cottage, and at some point as his blood splayed across the floors and walls as I clinically detached his wrist from his hand, he vomited and passed out cold in his puke.

My nostrils flared with disgust as I shut the box and strode out, unhurried. His screaming had alerted enough staff that when I stepped out, there was a group of maids hiding in the corner.

I paid them no heed as I headed for the main building. I hadn’t come for them.

Tessa’s bedroom was always on the topmost floor. And even after her altercation with Maisie several months ago, and House Graham had been rebuilt lavishly by the Queen as what I was sure was a compensation for Tessa’s ’services’, she hadn’t bothered switching rooms.

Fearless, many might call her. Some might even find her daunting. I thought she was downright stupid.

The main house was silent as I made my way inside, and Tessa’s bedroom was just as silent, the door unlocked when I walked in.

The moonlight spilled over her silver hair and vitriol burned hot in my veins at the sight of her sleeping soundly, a soft snore escaping her.

My vision blurred red and I lost my cool, claws jutting out of my fingers. I had wanted it to be slow and painful. I had wanted it to last hours. I wanted to inflict as much pain and suffering as she did on Maisie.

Thus the knife. I was creative that way.

But looking at her, I couldn’t keep the rage at bay, and I crossed the room without thinking, angling my claws to rip her heart out through her back, when she turned around and the sight of a different face greeted me.

It was a maid.

Her eyes widened with fear as she took me in, and tears instantly filled her eyes. I blinked back the haze, my lips pulling back from my teeth in a feral snarl. "Where is she?"

"I-I don’t know," the girl sobbed. "She told me I had to sleep here for a couple of days and if anyone came for her, I just had to lay still."

Fucking bitch.

She had known we would come for her. Any closer and I might have ripped out the girl’s heart.

As if on cue, a cellphone rang not too far away, and the girl reached for it, handing it to me. "I-It’s for you," she stammered.

I tore it out of her grip and pressed it to my ear. The soft sound of feminine laughter greeted me. "Quinn," Tessa purred. "I did think it’d be Jericho. I suppose I am flattered you decided to come all this way for me. Did you like my gift? She’s around the same size and height as your half-breed whore. A little less scarred, though."