"You're sure you're ready for this?" My dad leaned against the desk with his arms crossed, eyeing me as I tossed my sweatshirt to the side and changed my shoes. The last thing I wanted to do was get them dirty while I was dealing with Dante and go home to Sadie covered in blood. I think she at least understood why I had to do this, but that didn't mean I had to blatantly shove it in her face. She was already uneasy, and all I could think about was ending this as fast as I could.

"I'm fine." I clenched my jaw, preparing myself for what was to come. Alex and Ro were down in the tombs with Dante already. Generally, we handled matters like this at the ranch or stockyards, but this required a little more care than normal. Dante was first on my agenda, but that wouldn't take me long. He was already so insignificant to me that I had considered just putting a bullet in his temple and calling it good. It couldn't be that easy though. He had betrayed me in the most personal and gruesome way possible and every time I thought of how Sadie must have felt when she saw him there, I wanted to rip him to fucking shreds with my bare hands. He had to be made an example of. And what better way to send a message than to include my men in his punishment? They'd get their own revenge, and be warned off of crossing us in the process. I only wanted a few minutes with him myself and then all of my guys who wanted a go at him would have the chance. He was one of their own, their brother and friend, and when he turned on us, each and every one of them was just as fired up as I was. He wouldn't last through the night.

I was planning to save all my energy up for Herrera. Even though I knew the purpose of it, torture had never been my favorite part of the job. This time though, I was looking forward to it. I thought a little bit of time might dull my need to him suffer, but all it had done was give me time to come up with the most creative and effective ways of causing him pain. And it wouldn't be over quickly. I'd take my time with him, draw it out for days, making him feel every twist of the knife. I'd push him within an inch of his life and let him recover just so I could do it all over again, inventing a creative way of torture for every single way he'd wronged our family in the last two decades. For the Sorentos, for my father, for Adam, for Sadie. I'd make sure he regretted it all. Herrera would begging me to kill him by the time this was all over and when it was finally time, I'd be glad to.

"He'll still be here in a few days, Brandon. There's nothing wrong with taking your time with Sadie." My dad said, still trying to talk me out of this. he thought I was rushing into it, but of course he wouldn't flat out say.

"Sadie is home resting, I think we both need this time." I gritted my teeth. I hated being away from her, but it was honestly the best thing for both of us for me to end this, and I couldn't do that if I never got started.

My dad scratched his head, realizing he wasn't getting anywhere. "Okay. Let me know what I can do. I'll see you in a little while."

I nodded, taking a deep breath. I knew my father wanted to join us, but he was really making an effort to step back and let me work and I appreciated that. I had expected him to hang on to the very end, but the transition so far had been smooth.

I pushed all other thoughts out of my mind and headed down to the tombs. The building that housed all of this was off from the main house, but it had been enforced with sound proof walls and all kinds of extra security so that no one could just wander in. They had to know exactly what they were doing. It was almost completely empty down here, Herrera and Dante being our only prisoners. I didn't have too big of plans for Herrera today, I wanted Dante out of the way first.

Dante was sitting in the middle of a cell, tied to a chair. He was already bloody and brushed and his head hung against his chest. I hadn't seen him in weeks, not since I knew that he had been a part of all of this, and he looked absolutely pitiful. Alex was on one side of him, standing over a table with different tools on it. Ro stood on the other, his arms crossed, glaring harshly at him. They'd already roughed him up pretty good, and I was starting to see the remorse overtake Dante. He probably had no idea what he was getting in to by working with Herrera, and if his transgression hadn't involved my wife, a sliver of my heart may have felt sorry for him.

"There he is." Herrera chuckled from the cell across the aisle. "What took you so long Brandon? We've been having a party down here."

I clenched my jaw, determined to ignore him. The confidence this guy still had was disgusting. I didn't want to gratify him with a reaction but fuck did I want to bash his scull in. It was taking every ounce of strength I had to control myself and not attack him right now.

"You're not going to talk to me? After all we've been through?" He gave me a sinister grin. "Hey, how's Sadie? The baby?"

One mention of our baby was enough to send me over the edge. I reached through the bars, grabbing onto Herrera's neck and slamming his face against the gate. "You're an absolute monster, you know that?" I slammed him into the bars again, sending blood form his nose and lip sputtering in all directions. I thought I would be able to compose myself a little bit more but all I could see was my rage. Herrera was absolutely trash and didn't deserve even another breathe. "Does it make you feel better to beat up on defenseless women? You're so tough you couldn't even face me like a man? Had to kidnap my wife and leave her for dead?"

"Sadie got what was coming to her." He mumbled.

I snatched a pair of brass knuckles off the table by Alex and slammed them into Herrera's jaw, dislocating it. "You're going to pay for this with every last breath in your body, do you understand me? I'm going to make you suffer in ways you never even thought were possible." I slammed him against the grate harder this time.

"Brandon." Alex cautioned, putting his hand on my shoulder. The good thing about working with my brother was that he could always tell when I was on the edge and was there to reign me back in.

I let go of him, and Herrera stumped back, coughing and rubbing at his neck.

I lost my cool for a second, but I did my best to compose myself and turned my attention back to Dante. They were such a stark juxtaposition. While Herrera seemed to be hellbent on fighting it until the very end, Dante had seemed to accept him fate. He was quiet and somber, and hardly looked up when I entered the cell.

"Look at me." I kicked the bottom on his chair, knocking it to the side slightly. Dante grunted but kept his eyes at the ground

I bent down in front of him, grabbing his chin and forcing him to look at me. His eyes were completely empty when they met mine.

"You won't even look me in the eye after everything you've done?" I smirked. He really was pitiful.

"Brandon, I'm sorry..."

I still had the brass knuckles in my hand and landed a sharp punch right in his gut. "I don't want to hear your apologies. There's nothing you could say that would make any kind of difference to me. You helped that bastard come after me and my family and as far as I am concerned, you're already dead."

"I swear to fucking God, I had no idea she was pregnant Brandon. He told me we were just going to take her and keep her at the house until you came for her. I had no idea..."

I reared my fist back, slamming it into his jaw and knocking him right over. He fell to the ground, still fastened to the chair. He groaned, as his head hit the concrete of the floor.

"I don't give a fuck what he told you Dante. I'm the one who took you in when you had no one else, who gave you a second chance and an opportunity, and you threw it all away. And for what? Because you felt like you should have a bigger job?"

He didn't answer. His abstinence only irritated me more. I grabbed a pillow case that was filled halfway with rocks and beat him over and over again with it until his face was unrecognizable, totally blinded by my rage.

"You know what, Dante? I actually liked you. You had raw talent and I thought you had a hell of a lot of potential, but you had a lot to learn. I trusted you. All of my men trusted you. And it turns out you were just another power hunger gang banger. You have no idea what it takes to make it in this world, but I was willing to put the effort into you and if you would have just hung around, you would have made it. And instead, here we are." I kicked his ribs, slamming my foot into him over and over again. Dante started coughing up blood and crying out in pain. With each kick, I got more and more discouraged. It wasn't nearly as gratifying as I thought it would have been seeing him in such pain.

I glanced towards Alex and Ro who were waiting for some kind of direction. Grabbing a hammer off of the table, I bent down so I was right in front of him again, rolling him over so he could face me. "The one thing I can't get over is how Sadie must have felt when you showed up that day. She was probably terrified when Herrera took her, and then you show up, and she probably thinks you're there to save her. Is that how it happened?"

"Brandon, please..." He moaned, shaking his head.

"That's not what I asked you." I slammed my boot down onto his throat and cutting off his airway. He started violently coughing.

"Yes! Yes! That's what happened." He stuttered. "She thought I was there to help her. And then she told me that you'd never let me live for what I'd done."

"Well, she was right about that." I swung the hammer back, landing it against his mouth. The sound of cracking teeth rang thought the air. "You know what? You're not even worth my time. I don't want to waste another second thinking of you. But I'm not the only one you hurt with your betrayal."

I dropped the hammer to the ground, letting out a heavy breath. "I'm done with him. Bring the guys in."