The Destruction of Sevyn (The Vengeance of Luther Book 1) Read online

  The Destruction of Sevyn

  Ember Michaels

  Contents

  Title

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Books by Ember Michaels

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  THE DESTRUCTION OF SEVYN

  Copyright © 2020 by Ember Michaels

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and the publisher listed above, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  This is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or purely coincidental.

  Cover designed by Laura Hidalgo of Spellbinding Design

  “Cries for justice are often the bitter laments of the vengeful.

  -Wayne Gerard Trotman

  LUTHER

  Numbness.

  It was all I felt since I got the call a few months ago. My mother’s hysteric screams and incoherent words still sounded in my head almost every day. I heard that distinct sound as I drove back home from school the day after she’d called me. I heard it every night when I tried to go to sleep. And even though she tried to keep a brave face during the day, I could still hear it echoing in my mind.

  The anguish.

  The grief.

  The loss.

  Losing the most important person to you was never easy. How did you say goodbye to your best friend? Your partner in crime?

  Your little sister?

  I popped the tight rubber band against the skin of my wrist in increments of seven. I needed to feel something, anything to remind me that I was still alive physically, because my mind was too far gone. What fucking life was there if my sister wasn’t in it? Time blurred into days, weeks, and months as my family came in and out of the courtroom. I had to watch my mother hold back her sobs of anguish as they displayed the evidence in court…displayed my sister for everyone to see. I listened as Sevyn’s lawyer tried to argue that her and the rest of the bitches in her clique were just engaging in “innocent teenage fun” and blamed my sister for not asking for the help she needed. My family and I had to watch Sevyn’s smug reactions and fake guilt when her incriminating evidence was display for months during the trial. Now, today was the day the bitch would pay for what she’d done—granted that Daddy didn’t buy her a “get out of jail free” card.

  And for her sake, she’d better pray to whatever God she believed in that the jury found her guilty today.

  I exhaled deeply, my eyes darting to the front of the room as the jurors filed back into the courtroom. Five long months of trials and we were finally at the end. The room was so silent that I could almost hear my racing heart, a mixture of anxiety, hope for justice, and unresolved anger swirling around within me. I pulled at my rubber band, adrenaline rushing through me as I popped it against my skin.

  One. Pop. Two. Pop. Three. Pop. Four. Pop. Five. Pop.

  My mom grabbed my wrist before I could pop the rubber band again. She rubbed her thumb across my reddened skin and gave me what she thought was a comforting squeeze, but it didn’t help. Nothing fucking helped if it didn’t bring my sister back.

  “It’s going to be okay,” she whispered, tears sliding along her plump cheeks.

  I nodded, grinding my teeth as I looked over at Sevyn whispering to her lawyer. Once upon a time, she was my sister’s best friend; now she was the bitch responsible for her death. Her family was one of the richest in Miami—the kind of rich that had the right amount of money to make their “problems” disappear. Our family’s bullshit lawyer tried to convince us that we had a strong case, that there was too much evidence that would be hard to ignore. In a way, he was right. There was plenty of evidence—text messages, eye witnesses, forum print outs, and a video. In a normal setting with a normal family, he would’ve been right to say that we would win.

  But I wasn’t fucking stupid.

  I already knew how the trial would end before it even began.

  “Has the jury reached a verdict?” Judge Hyland asked, his tone bored as he adjusted his glasses on his old, sagging face.

  “Yes, Your Honor,” a scrawny man with brown, shaggy hair and pale skin said as he stood up. My fingers twitched to pop my rubber band, my mother’s hand still around my wrist as her breath hitched. The judge waved his hand for the juror to announce the verdict and the juror cleared his throat.

  Taking a look over at Sevyn, I ground my teeth as I watched her. She stared at the juror with tears in her eyes, her future teetering in the air by a few words on the small sheet of paper the juror held. Even from where I sat, I could see the fear etched into her beautiful, perfect features. Her parents held each other, their heads bowed as they sat behind her on the opposite side of the court room. I ground my teeth and focused back on the verdict.

  “We the jury find the defendant, Sevyn Langdon, not guilty,” the juror read from a small sheet of paper.

  Sevyn Langdon…not guilty.

  Not. Fucking. Guilty.

  My blood boiled under my skin as I watched her breathe a sigh of relief, suppressing the shriek of excitement that tried to escape her mouth as she hugged her lawyer. Her family cheered on the other side of the courtroom as my mother burst into tears. My breath quickened, my anger rising as I watched Sevyn, her friends, and family celebrate her “innocence.” She was found innocent while Logan lay rotting in a cemetery because of this bitch. Sevyn would get to go off to college, have a life, have a husband and children while my sister was robbed of all of that. My family had to watch as the very person who shattered our lives celebrated the fact that she’d get a fresh start, the whole encounter swept under the rug as if it never happened.

  As if she wasn’t the cause of what ended my sister’s life.

  My father immediately tried to comfort my mother, his own broken heart showing in the sorrowful expression on his face. It wasn’t fair; it just wasn’t fucking fair that my sister wouldn’t receive justice simply because her tormentor’s parents could afford to buy her freedom. I tightened my hand around my keys, the cool metal digging into the flesh of my palm. Sevyn looked up, her smile faltering a bit when her eyes locked with mine. A flash of guilt passed through her gaze but quickly disappeared when her mother hugged her again. You won’t get away with this, you bitch, I thought bitterly, just as Judge Hyland banged his gavel.

  “Order,” he stated, his voice firm. The courtroom quieted once again, but Sevyn and her family didn’t sit back down. We all turned our attention back to him as he adjusted his glasses once more. “I’m also granting the Langdon’s restraining order request against Oliver Evans, Katherine Evans, and Luther Evans.”

  “Are you fucking kidding me?” I all but shouted, jumping to my feet. “She’s the reason my sister is dead and yet we have a restraining order against us?!”

  Judge Hyland hit his gavel again. “Mr. Evans, settle down or you’ll
be in contempt of this court!” he warned.

  “That verdict is bullshit and you know it! The evidence was there! The witnesses were there!”

  “Mr. Evans—”

  “All they have to do is flash a little money your way for you to turn a blind eye to what that lunatic did to my fucking sister!” I bellowed.

  “Luther, please just stop!” my mother pleaded as her eyes glistened with tears. But I couldn’t. It wasn’t fucking fair that Sevyn got to walk free while we could only return to a house that my sister was no longer in. It pissed me off that Sevyn could go back to her regular life and her family could still see her, love her, and watch her blossom into an adult when my family only had a gravestone to talk to. It wasn’t fucking fair. It just wasn’t fair.

  “Oliver and Katherine, we truly are sorry for your loss,” Sevyn’s father, Micah said from across the courtroom. “It’s unfortunate that your daughter’s mental health was on the decline—”

  “Fuck off, you pompous dick,” I snapped. “It was because of your plastic bitch of a daughter!”

  “Mr. Evans!” Judge Hyland shouted, but I ignored him.

  “She’ll pay for what she’s done,” I ground out, heat flushing my face as I pinned my gaze on Sevyn. “I promise she’ll pay for what she’s done.”

  “Is that a threat, Mr. Evans?” Micah taunted, but the judge hit his gavel once again before I could respond.

  “I’m charging you with contempt, Mr. Evans!” Judge Hyland said and looked over to two police officers standing at a door on the left side of the room. “Get him out of here.”

  “No! Please! He’s just upset right now!” my mother exclaimed as the police rushed toward me. But no one listened to her. The two burly men roughly grabbed my arms and pulled me away from my family.

  I didn’t take my eyes off Sevyn as the police swiftly snapped handcuffs around my wrists. She gave me a small smile, the guilt in her eyes attempting to portray the apology that she couldn’t bring her lips to say out loud. Not that it mattered. No apology from her would bring my sister back. It wouldn’t heal my parents’ broken heart. And it damn sure wouldn’t put out the ball of fire that was now my rage.

  “Don’t worry, son. We’ll get you out,” my father called out as they pulled me away. I nodded to let him know that I’d heard him, allowing the officers to take me away from the court room. Their grip on my arms tightened as we passed the table that Sevyn and her lawyer sat at. The entire room was silent, everyone waiting to see what I’d do as I walked past her. A hint of fear twinkled in her eyes as she looked at me, but I only winked at her as a promise that this wasn’t over. Satisfaction rolled through me as I watched her skin pale before she dropped her gaze to the table, a smirk on my face as I was finally whisked out of the room. This was far from over. She may have beaten the system with her money, but she wouldn’t be able to escape me. None of the fuckers responsible would be able to.

  I’d make sure of it.

  Seven years later…

  “Wakey, wakey, bitch,” I snarled, dumping a bucket of ice cold water on the sweaty man stretched out on the table before me. He jolted awake in a panic, his green eyes wide with terror as he looked around.

  “What the fu—where am I?” He squinted against the light above him and narrowed his eyes at me. “Who the fuck are you?”

  “A blast from the past,” I said, my tone flat as I tossed the empty steel bucket to the side.

  “I don’t fucking know you,” he panted. His wild eyes scanned my form, and I couldn’t help but to grin.

  “But I know you, Hunter York.”

  I watched as his eyes widened. Hunter fucking York, one of the three rapists who were acquitted despite the video evidence of those fucks raping my sister at a party. It was amazing what being rich could do for you.

  “Where the fuck am I?” he asked again, jerking on the chains attached to his wrists. He kicked his legs, jiggling the chains around his ankles. “What the fuck do you want?”

  “For you to atone for what you did.”

  “I didn’t do shit.”

  I tsked. “You and I know that’s not true, Yorkie boy,” I said and shook my head. “Don’t tell me you already forgot about Logan. Seven years wasn’t that long ago.”

  “Logan? I don’t know any fucking Logans,” he scoffed.

  I took a picture out of my pocket and thrust it in front of his face, anger heating my skin. “You definitely know her.”

  His eyes darted between my gaze and the picture, his chest rapidly rising and falling as his breaths quickened. “I didn’t do anything she didn’t want me to do! I was acquitted.”

  “That’s not what a video showed me,” I ground out.

  Fresh anger boiled in my veins. They’d played the video in court, my sister’s screams and pleas for them to stop echoing in the silent room. My family and I had to watch as the three teen boys took turns with her, mocking her pain, her tears, her agony. My father kept a tight grip on my wrist to keep me in my seat, as I was seconds from choking the life out of all three of them as they sat at the defendant’s table with their bullshit guilty expressions.

  His skin paled at the mention of the video and he swallowed hard. “Look, man, I don’t know who the fuck you are, but I was found not guilty. I didn’t do anything wrong!” he exclaimed. I stared at him long and hard before I chuckled. Hunter’s eyes followed me as I took a few steps away from him and pressed the button on the remote I held in my hand.

  “This remote controls those chains cuffed to you,” I said. “And if I push this button, the chains will retract and pull your limbs.” Hunter jerked at the chains again as if it would make a difference.

  “You’re fucking psychotic!” Hunter bellowed. “This isn’t a Saw movie. You’re not Jigsaw, you mother fucker!”

  I smiled. “Oh, I’m no Jigsaw, as this isn’t a game of survival or testing your will to live.” I walked over to him and leaned forward until we were nearly nose to nose. “And unlike Jigsaw, I’m not giving you a choice of whether you live or die.”

  “What the fuck do you want then?” he bellowed, spittle flying from his mouth as he spat his words.

  “The truth, you know, the thing that you, your dickhead friends, and Sevyn failed to tell in court all those years ago.” I pushed the button and the chains slowly retracted. Hunter’s panicked eyes looked around as his arms and legs were slowly stretched. “Well?”

  “I didn’t do anything that your slut girlfriend didn’t want,” he ground out. Slut. That word was thrown around so loosely at almost every single trial of the people involved. Their lawyers painted pictures with a paint brush drenched in lies of my sister being known to date many guys—and even girls, too—trying to make it seem as if she asked to be drugged. As if she asked to be fucked on camera by three guys when it was clear that she wasn’t in her right mind to even comprehend what was happening to her. As if she deserved the bullying, the humiliation, and the shame when the video was posted for the whole student body to see.

  But I knew my sister. She wasn’t the promiscuous girl they tried to portray her as. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to know who helped perpetuate the lie that created that image.

  “My girlfriend?” I chuckled and shook my head. “Do you not remember who I am?”

  “I told you I don’t know you, man. Whatever you’re talking about happened years ago. I’m not that teenager I was back then.” His voice had an edge of desperation, but I couldn’t be fucked to care.

  “Yeah, and I’m not the same man I was before my sister died,” I replied sarcastically. “I guess we all change, huh?”

  “Sister?” He stared at me for a long moment before realization dawned on him. “What the fuck? Luther?”

  I waved my hands along my body. “In the flesh.”

  His mouth opened and closed a few times before he managed to finally find the words to speak. “Th-they said you were dead; that you also—”

  “That I also committed suicide by blowing my brains ou
t? I see you idiots believe any rumor you hear, huh?”

  Hunter’s Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat as he stared at me. A storm of emotions swirled in his eyes. Fear. Uncertainty. Panic.

  “Seven years ago, you got away with the rape of my sister,” I stated as I pressed the buttons to continue retracting the chains. “The justice system failed my family, failed my sister. So since that bullshit judge won’t give us the justice we deserve, I’m going to get it myself.”

  “No, no, no, no!” Hunter exclaimed as his arms and legs were pulled. “Wait, wait, wait. Okay, okay!”

  I pressed the button to stop the chains from retracting and frowned at him. “Okay what? Got something you wanna say?” I asked.

  Hunter panted, his breaths coming in quick as his eyes glassed over with tears. “You don’t have to do this, man. Is it money you want? My dad can give you whatever you want—”

  “I don’t want your fucking money. I have my own,” I scoffed. “But tell me something. What made you and your asshole friends go after my sister in the first place?”

  “We were just stupid kids, man,” he groaned in despair.

  “Even kids know rape is wrong,” I replied, my tone flat. He went quiet, so long that I thought he wouldn’t speak again. “I guess you’re done talking then.”

  “Okay, okay, okay!” he yelled when I pressed the button again. I stopped the chains once again and waited for him to speak. He licked his lips and exhaled deeply. “She told us that your…sister was into it.”

  I ground my teeth, already knowing who he was talking about, but wanted to ask anyway. “Who is she?”