Chapter 560

Nathan

I couldn’t stop the rage from simmering just beneath the surface as I made my way through the darkened forest toward the confinement pit. No one knew I was here—I was coming under the cover of night, my hair and face concealed by a hood.

But I had to come. I couldn’t stop thinking about Dan and Montgomery, and I needed to see them.

I needed to see them suffer.

Every step took me closer to the men responsible for so much pain and suffering—not just to Olivia’s mother, but to countless other innocent women as well.

The thought of what they had put Giselle through, robbing her of her memories and her very identity, made my blood boil.

I didn’t remember much of Olivia’s mother from childhood; most of the time I had known her, she had been sick with cancer and in and out of the hospital a lot. But I remembered the tears streaming down Olivia’s face at her funeral, the dull look in her father’s eyes.

And I remembered the way that their family had begun to crack.

Knowing that all of this was done purely for a man’s pleasure made me angrier than words could even begin to describe. It was disgusting, selfish, deplorable. Before, I had considered only leaving Dan and Montgomery in confinement for ninety days before letting law enforcement take care of the rest.

But now, I wasn’t so sure.

By the time the tall chain link fence that surrounded the area where the pit resided finally came into view, I could feel the anger thrumming through my veins like a living force. Taking a deep, steadying breath, I pulled open the gate and stepped inside.

The pit was little more than a deep, rectangular hole in the ground, its sides constructed of solid concrete and heavily reinforced. A steel grate covered the top, affording the only natural light to filter in from above. There was no shelter, no reprieve from the rain and the cold.

I had always hated this place. I had always seen it as barbaric, but now, it was my favorite place in the world. To see sick men like this suffer, helplessly, just as they had made countless women suffer, would have been enough to bring tears of joy to my eyes had I not been too angry to feel any sense of satisfaction.

Taking another deep breath to steel myself, I stepped up to the edge of the pit and peered in. Two huddling masses caught my attention below.

Dan was on his feet the moment he saw me, his expression a mixture of hope and desperation as he rushed over to the grate.

“Nathan! Oh, thank god…” He clasped his hands together as he peered up at me with wild, pleading eyes. “You’ve got to get me out of here, man. I can’t take another day in this pit. I’ll do anything, just name it!”

I said nothing, merely holding his gaze with a hard, level stare. “Pathetic,” I heard my wolf hiss in the back of my mind. He was a shell of his former self already, and it had only been a few days.

“Please…” he added in a softer tone when I didn’t respond. “You know me, Nathan. We’re friends, right? I never meant for any of this to happen, you’ve got to believe me.”

A harsh, mirthless chuckle escaped my lips. “Friends?” I shook my head slowly. “You’re delusional if you think we were ever friends, Dan. I don’t make friends with soulless predators who exploit and victimize innocent people.”

His face contorted with a combination of anger and wounded pride. “I’m not a predator! Everything I’ve done has been completely legal and aboveboard. You can’t keep me locked up like some kind of common criminal!”

“You forfeited any right to humane treatment the moment you decided to destroy lives for your own twisted gratification,” I countered, my voice low and edged with disgust. “What you did to Giselle, to all those other women in your ‘program’... it’s unforgivable.”

A flicker of uncertainty crossed his features then, as though he didn’t even know who I was referring to. “Giselle…?”

“Clarissa,” I spat out. “You don’t even know her real name, do you? Of course you’d only remember the name that you decided to give to her when you stole her and forced her to be with you.”

For a moment, understanding dawned in his eyes, quickly followed by what looked like the faintest trace of shame. But it was gone in an instant, replaced by a simpering smirk.

“Ah, yes...Clarissa,” he finally said.

“You don’t have any shame, do you?” I hissed.

“What shame is there to have?” Dan shrugged. “I cured her of cancer. I fixed some of her… imperfections. I gave her a life that many women would kill to have.”

“If so many women would kill to have it, then why did you have to kidnap a sick woman to fulfill your fantasies?”

Dan shrugged again. “I’m not the one who chose her for the program,” he said. “I simply met her there. And frankly, I did her a service by pulling her out and making her my wife. She never had to bed any other men. Just me.”

I felt bile rising in my throat at his thinly-veiled insinuation, at the utterly depraved way he spoke of Giselle—of Olivia’s own mother—like she was some kind of commodity to be acquired and exploited.

In that moment, it took every ounce of restraint I possessed not to reach through the bars and strangle him with my bare hands.

Instead, I focused on the huddled, silent figure slumped against the far wall. Montgomery hadn’t so much as twitched since I had arrived, his back turned as though he were trying to shut out the entire world.

“And what about you?” I called out, watching for any reaction. “Got anything to say in your defense, Montgomery? Or are you just going to sit there feeling sorry for yourself, you monster?”

Nothing. Not even the slightest acknowledgment that he'd heard me.

With a weary sigh, I turned my attention back to Dan, who was still watching me with thinly-veiled desperation in his eyes. For a moment, I almost felt a pang of dark satisfaction at seeing him brought so low, stripped of his wealth and status and power.

Almost.

“I’ve decided that I’m going to give you two a bit more time down here to ponder the consequences of your actions,” I said, my voice hardening once more as I straightened and adjusted my jacket. “In fact, I think you’ll be staying here. Indefinitely.”

Dan’s eyes went wide with panic. “No! Nathan, wait, you can’t—”

But I had already turned on my heel, striding back toward the gate as his cries of protest echoed through the silent forest.

“Please, don’t leave me here!” Dan called after me. “Don’t leave me with this monster!”

I didn’t turn back. I merely smiled as I stormed away, his begging slowly fading into the background.