Cherry, I got it,” Jude replies quietly, stepping forward and placing a soft kiss against my lips before pulling back.
I fight back the tears and ignore the look of longing in his eyes. There is no going back from this. He stands on one side of the law while I’m firmly on the other.
“No, nooo, where’s my wife, you fucking bitch?” Zodiac screams.
Jude walks over to him, pulling off his robe and revealing jeans and a white T-shirt underneath with his badge hanging around his neck. Kai goes rock solid behind me, so I reach my free hand up and rub it soothingly over his arm.
“You’re going to arrest me?” Zodiac spits incredulously.
“You bet your sorry fucking ass I am. Gemini bought everyone in this room temporary immunity, and in exchange, we get you.”
“You fucking cocksucker. Where is my wife? I want my lawyer,” he bellows.
Jude turns to face me and Kai, a look of sad resignation on his face.
“Everyone is free to leave. I only came for Zodiac,” he tells me softly.
“I knew you would come. That’s why I left Thomas out there waiting for you with the robe and the wheelchair. Everything that happened tonight was recorded. I’ll send you the footage—”
Zodiac’s screaming cuts me off.
“I want my fucking wife or so help me God,” he spits. I pull free from Kai and walk over to Zodiac, nodding at Leo, who moves into position.
“I’m afraid that’s not going to be possible at this time and you really have nobody to blame but yourself.”
I nod toward Leo, who pulls the hood from the figure sitting in Gemini’s spot. The figure he thought was Wyatt. With the hood gone, Estelle’s dark brown hair tumbles down over her shoulders. Her eyes are swollen shut and her face is bruised from the beating I gave her, but she looks peaceful, almost as if she’s sleeping, or she would if it wasn’t for the fact that part of her brain is splattered all over her face.
Zodiac roars, trying to get to her, but Jude pushes him to the floor and pins him down with his knee against his back.
“Viddy?” Jude looks at me with questions in his eyes. Yeah, he would never have given me immunity if he knew about this.
“She was as much a part of this as he was, so don’t look at me like that. She held down her kid sister while her husband raped her over and over again. But then she got a taste for it. She got off on the power of being his wife. I might be a monster, but Zodiac and Estelle are as evil as they come. These guys,” I swing my arm around to encompass everyone else in the room, “are my family and I’ll protect them at all costs, so don’t expect me to be sorry because I’m not.”
He looks at me, a dozen things running through his eyes.
“He sanctioned my death. Excuse me if I have zero fucks to give. If he hadn’t fired his gun, his wife would still be alive and in a fancy prison cell of her own.” I shrug callously. He might not like it, but it’s not my problem.
“Everyone clear out. Cops will be here soon. Your family members who were in the cargo hold are being returned home as we speak. I’ll be in touch,” I call out to the room and watch as they all nod and clear out, my men following suit.
Taurus stops as he passes me. “Thank you,” he acknowledges.
“You’re welcome.” I smile, and I mean it. He turns and leaves without a backward glance until the only people remaining with me are Kai, Jude, and a hissing Zodiac.
“Everything else you might need on him to make this case airtight is up at the ranch, including enough drugs to get him for distribution.” I look behind me at Kai, who can’t take his eyes off Jude’s badge.
“Was it all a lie just to get to him?” Kai asks Jude, his voice void of all emotion.
“To start with, but it hasn’t been that way for a long time. I wanted my brother in my life, but you refused to see Zodiac for who he really is.”
“Maybe if you had told me what you knew—” Kai snaps, but I place my hand on his chest to stop him from lunging.
“You wouldn’t have believed him, Kai,” I tell him softly. “You had to see what he was truly like, yourself.”