Page 105 of Ruthless Protector

Tilly shook her head.

Fuck.

I held Tilly tightly to me, and strode through the room. The others were there now as well, cuffing Trent, getting him ready to carry out. I kept Tilly’s face against me, shielding her from it, though she’d probably seen a fuck of a lot worse the last few days in this place.

“You did so good, Tils, so good.” I talked the whole time, reassuring words, not just for her, but for me was well, holding her tight the whole way.

Where are you, Willa? Where the fuck are you?

26

Willa

I jumped at the sound of the door opening and closing, scuttling back stiffly, until my back hit the vanity. My body was tight and ached from being on the cold tile all night, but the adrenaline pounding through me washed the pain away quickly.

I shot to my feet when footsteps grew closer.

A man filled the doorway, with flesh-colored lips and unusually pale eyes. “You are a pretty one, aren’t you?” he said. “I’ve thought about you in this room since the poker game.”

Donny. Jethro’s business partner.

It was him. Donny had killed all those women.

“What are you going to do to me?” I said, voice cracking on the last word.

He moved into the room with me. “I won’t be doing anything to you,” he said. “But we need to get you ready.” He had a long, white piece of fabric draped over one arm.

I stared at him, my skin crawling. “Ready for what?”

He moved to the door and hung up what he was holding, what I now realized was a sheer robe, on the back of the door.

When he turned to me, his eyes were empty, hollow of emotion. “You’ll find out soon enough.”

Jethro. He had to mean Jethro.

Oh God. I needed to get out of here. Now.

“There are guards just outside the door, and we’re being watched. Whatever you’re thinking, don’t bother. You won’t make it two steps out the door.” He strode past me and started filling the tub. “Let’s get you ready.”

Jude

I shoved Trent’s head back in the bucket of ice water, longer this time. He came up spluttering and cursing, crying.

Shoving him against the wall, I got in his face. “No one will miss you if I wipe you from the face of the earth.”

I was done playing. I’d been done playing thirty minutes ago. For a sniveling piece of shit, he’d held out longer than a lot of guys, which told me one thing—he was more afraid of the fucker who had Willa than he was of me. I needed to change that. “If you think I won’t take off your fingers one at a time and feed them to you, you’re mistaken. I’ll do whatever it takes to get the information I need, but when it involves the people I love, there is no limit to the depraved shit I’ll rain down on you, motherfucker.”

He saw it then, the truth to what I was telling him. I watched him break before my eyes. About fucking time.

“Who has Willa?”

He jerked his head from side to side. “I-I don’t know.”

I shook him, hard.

“I just get the girls. I just…I get the girls, and he gives me the drugs I need.”

Christ, this was bigger than we realized. “You work for the sicko who’s killed all those women?”