Chapter 160: Chapter 162: The Monster Unleashed
The warehouse looked exactly like something from a crime thriller....abandoned, isolated, surrounded by chain-link fencing that had seen better days. Aria sat in the back of Damien’s car, her stomach twisting with anxiety as they pulled up to the rusted metal entrance.
She’d asked to come. Needed to see Victoria’s punishment with her own eyes. Needed to witness the woman who’d tried to destroy her finally face consequences.
But now, sitting here in the cold February evening, she wondered if she’d made a terrible mistake.
"Are you sure you want to see this?" Damien asked from beside her, his hand warm on her thigh. "I can handle it alone. You can wait in the car."
"No. I need to see it. Need to see her face consequences." Aria looked at him, at the man she loved, and saw something in his eyes that made her shiver. Something cold. Remote. Dangerous.
This wasn’t the Damien who made love to her tenderly. This wasn’t the man who held her while she slept or brought her breakfast in bed.
This was the CEO who’d built an empire through ruthless business practices. The man Richard Blackwood had trained to show no mercy.
This was the monster she’d always known existed but had never truly seen.
"Let’s go," she said, trying to sound braver than she felt.
The inside of the warehouse was worse than she’d imagined. Harsh fluorescent lights cast sickly shadows across concrete floors stained with god-knew-what. The air smelled like rust and oil and something else....something that made her medical training kick in.
Blood.
And then she saw Victoria.
Aria’s breath caught in her throat.
Victoria Ashford....always so perfectly put together, always so polished and pristine....looked like she’d been through hell. Her designer dress was torn and filthy. Her hair hung in matted tangles around a face swollen and bruised beyond recognition.
But it was her hands that made Aria’s stomach turn.
Victoria’s left hand was pinned to a wooden chair arm with what looked like a railroad spike driven straight through her palm. Blood pooled beneath it, dripping onto the concrete floor in a steady rhythm that echoed obscenely in the empty space.
She was conscious. Whimpering. Tears and snot running down her battered face.
And standing over her, hammer still in hand, was Marcus.
"Oh my god," Aria breathed, her medical training warring with her shock. "Oh my god, what did you...."
"Aria." Damien’s voice was calm. Too calm. Like this was a business meeting instead of a torture chamber. "I’m glad you’re here. Victoria and I were just having a discussion about boundaries and consequences."
"Damien...." Aria started toward Victoria instinctively, her doctor’s oath screaming at her to help, to stop the bleeding, to remove the spike before she lost the hand entirely.
But Damien’s arm shot out, stopping her.
"Not yet. She hasn’t earned your mercy yet."
"She’s injured! She needs medical attention! That spike could have severed tendons, damaged nerves....she could lose function in that hand permanently!"
"Good," Damien said, his voice absolutely arctic. "Maybe that will help her remember not to type defamatory articles about you again."
Aria stared at him, truly seeing him for the first time. The coldness in his eyes. The complete lack of remorse. The way he looked at Victoria’s suffering like it was just another item on his to-do list.
"Please," Victoria sobbed, her words slurred from what looked like a broken jaw. "Please, I’m sorry, I’ll do anything, just please make it stop....."
"Marcus," Damien said conversationally, "I believe we discussed what happens if she begged before completing her apology."
Marcus picked up another spike.
"No!" Aria lunged forward, but Damien caught her around the waist, holding her back with strength she couldn’t fight. "Damien, stop this! This is insane! You can’t...."
"Can’t what, Aria? Can’t punish the woman who tried to destroy your reputation? Who orchestrated a smear campaign designed to make people think you slept your way to a position you earned through merit?" His voice was soft against her ear, conversational, like they were discussing the weather. "Why should I have mercy on her when she showed none to you?"
"Because this is torture! This is...." She struggled against his hold, watching in horror as Marcus positioned the second spike against Victoria’s right hand.
"This is justice," Damien corrected. "This is what happens when people ignore my warnings. She defied me, Aria. Multiple times. I told her to stay away from you. I showed her evidence that could destroy her father. I gave her every opportunity to walk away. And still...." His grip tightened. "Still, she came after what’s mine."
"Damien, please!" Victoria screamed as Marcus raised the hammer. "I’ll apologize! I’ll do anything! Just please don’t....."
The hammer came down.
The spike drove through her palm with a sickening crunch of bone.
Victoria’s scream was inhuman.....raw and primal and filled with agony that no amount of money or privilege could protect her from.
Aria felt bile rise in her throat. Felt her knees go weak. Felt everything she thought she knew about the man she loved crumble into dust.
"Stop," she whispered. "Please, Damien, make him stop."
Damien looked at her, and the smile on his face was something she’d never seen before. Cold. Cruel. Absolutely devoid of humanity.
"Why should I, Aria? She kept on defying me despite all my warnings. Her father couldn’t keep her in check, so I have to teach her a lesson myself. Isn’t that reasonable?"
The casual way he said it....like he was explaining a business decision rather than torture....made something inside Aria break.
"This isn’t you," she said desperately. "This isn’t the man I love. The man I love is intense and possessive but not....not this. Not cruel. Not a monster who tortures people in warehouses."
"Then you don’t know me as well as you think you do." He released her suddenly, and she stumbled forward, catching herself on the edge of Victoria’s chair.
Victoria looked up at her with eyes so full of pain and terror that Aria’s doctor instincts completely overrode her fear.
"I need to remove these," she said, her voice steady despite her shaking hands. "She’s going to bleed out or develop sepsis. The damage to the nerves and tendons.....Damien, if we don’t get her medical attention immediately, she could lose both hands."
"Then maybe she’ll learn to keep them to herself."
Aria spun to face him, and for the first time since she’d met him, she was genuinely afraid. Not afraid he’d hurt her....but afraid of what he was capable of. What he’d done. What he might do again.
"Who are you?" she whispered.
Something flickered in his eyes. Something that might have been pain. But it was gone so quickly she might have imagined it.
"I’m the man who loves you enough to destroy anyone who threatens you. I’m the man who warned Victoria multiple times and she ignored me. I’m the man who doesn’t make empty threats." He moved closer, and Aria had to force herself not to back away. "And I’m the man you chose, Aria. The man you moved in with. The man you said you loved. This darkness was always part of me. You just chose not to see it."
"I....." She looked at Victoria, bleeding and broken. Looked at Marcus, expression blank like this was just another day at work. Looked at Damien, the man she loved, and saw a stranger. "I need to help her. Then I need....I need space. I need to think."
"Space," Damien repeated, his jaw clenching. "You mean you’re leaving."
"I mean I need time to process what I just saw. To understand...." Her voice broke. "To understand if I can love someone capable of this."
For a long moment, they just stared at each other. Then Damien nodded sharply.
"Fine. Help her. Marcus will take her to a private clinic.....one that won’t ask questions. Then he’ll put her on a plane to London. She’ll never bother us again." He moved toward the warehouse exit, then paused. "But Aria? Running from this doesn’t change what I am. Doesn’t change that I’d do it again in a heartbeat if someone threatened you. So take your space. Take your time. But understand that when you come back....if you come back....this is what you’re accepting. All of me. The monster and the man."
He left without looking back.
Aria stood there for a moment, trembling, before her training kicked in. She turned to Victoria, who was barely conscious from pain and blood loss.
"Marcus, I need medical supplies. Sterile gauze, antibiotics if you have them, morphine...."
"The boss has everything prepared in the back room," Marcus said, his voice neutral. "I’ll get it."
As he walked away, Victoria’s eyes focused on Aria’s face.
"I’m sorry," she whispered through broken teeth. "I’m so sorry. Please....please help me. Please."
And despite everything... despite the attempted frame-up, despite all of Victoria’s vindictiveness....Aria’s oath as a doctor wouldn’t let her walk away.
She worked to remove the spikes in order to clean and bandage the wounds and to also administer morphine that would dull Victoria’s screams, and in that moment, all she could think about was the cold smile on Damien’s face.
The casual cruelty. The complete lack of remorse.
The monster she’d just seen unleashed.
And the terrifying question: Could she love him anyway?
