Page 81 of Ballistic

I knew those eyes. Had studied them long enough to be certain I’d never mistake them.

Nicoleta stared back at the camera, her amber eyes bloodshot and filled with tears. She pleaded with the pigs to release her, the sounds of her begging scraping along my spine like glass. A lamb bleating at the approach of predators.

A nauseating dread settled deep inside my gut.

One single emotion outweighed every other—grief. Soul-crushing, heart-wrenching agony.

The world spun around in my periphery. Fast. Too fucking fast for me.

I bent forward, and vomit poured out of my mouth in a burning torrent of acid. Round after round, I emptied my stomach onto the pavement.

Straightening to a stand brought me to a dizzying state of suspension and disbelief. Like a nightmare from which I couldn’t wake. I lifted the phone in time to see one of the pigs kick the anchor that yanked her backward into the water. The scene blurred as my eyes filled with tears, while the two pigs stared over the edge of the dock, presumably watching her sink into the depths.

No, not my Nicoleta. Not my girl.

The only fucking ray of sunlight in my life, eclipsed by a lie. A crime so heartbreaking, it was a wonder she hadn’t been locked up for insanity.

A cold black rage palmed the back of my skull, and my hand balled into a fist at my side. An ache blossomed deep inside my chest, and rubbing my hand over it did little to abate the numbing effect that spread to my limbs.

I opened my mouth and let the fury rip through my chest on a string of curses, in a voice that didn’t sound like my own.

Fury for Nicoleta.

Fury for the men who’d violated her and left her for dead.

I dropped the phone and punched the brick wall, wishing both those bastards were in front of me right then. Blood stained the bricks as I punched and punched, while slivers of pain shot up into my knuckles.

Adrenaline pumped through me in bullets, whispering temptations in my ear. The devil, no doubt, asking me to sell whatever was left of my soul to kill the only man left alive who’d hurt her. Down, down, deep into the darkness I fell, letting those thoughts pull me under with the waves of misery that hooked my stomach. The same darkness that’d once sent me on a bloody rampage after Livvie’s murderer.

I’d sever every finger that’d touched Nicoleta, and make him pay in ways that no god would find redeemable.

I paced back and forth, rubbing my skull, until the only answer I could come up with was to kill Kenny Robichaux myself.

* * *

A dog barked off in the distance somewhere, as I climbed through the window, just as I had earlier in the night, to the dark bedroom inside. Scanning to my right brought Daniel into view, where he sat on the bed, his sister nowhere in sight.

“Hey, Daniel, remember me?”

Tucking his knees into his chest, he nodded, before lowering his head. “Yew da boogie man.”

“I’m not. I promise I’m not going to hurt you. Can you tell me where your daddy is?”

“Him sleeping in my sistew’s woom. I’m not allowed to seep in der when him sleeping wif her.”

Spasms of pain struck my skull as I gnashed my teeth and swallowed back violent waves pulsing through me begging to unleash hell. “I’m going to go talk to him.”

“Him won’t wake up.”

Fucker better not have died in his drunkenness. I’d just have to torture what was left. “I’m gonna go have a look, okay?”

The boy nodded and followed me down the hall, to the room with the closed door. With slow and careful steps, I set my hand on the hilt of my gun and cracked the door open. On a small mattress, Kenny lay passed out, curled up beside a little girl, who couldn’t have been more than five, or six. Her light brown hair lay matted and snarled, like it hadn’t been brushed in months.

Only Kenny wore a pair of browning underwear, while the girl lay naked. The scene stirred another round of vomit that I choked back, gripping the doorframe to keep from losing my shit.

The little girl sat up on the bed, her big blue eyes flitting between mine and the boy’s.

I turned to Daniel and knelt down, setting my hand on his shoulder. “I want you and your sister to get dressed, okay? I’m going to take your daddy to the hospital, and I know someone who can look after you while I do.”