Charming But Reckless (NightShade Security #5)

Chapter 20

CHAPTER 20

ORION

"Well, well, well," I said, my voice full of malice.

I walked slowly around the man strapped to the chair. He was bleeding from multiple wounds he’d gotten as we pulled him out of that van.

The truck that was supposed to transport Jackie Varr to the next prison facility he would stay in, one that was designed for the more elite crowd, didn’t quite finish the job. Not after I’d come up with a plan to give him the ending he deserved.

It was one of the better plans I’d crafted.

When I pulled Takeshi, Ronan, and Tank aside and told them I wanted to take care of Varr the way he should have been, they were more than happy to help me. Especially since I had jumped in to help them more than once over the years.

Most recently, with both Archie and Damari, I had assisted them in saving their men. Getting revenge would have to be the next best thing for me. There was no going back in time to fix the mess Varr had started.

Tank offered us whatever means necessary to get the job done. He would stay back to help provide a cover story if it was needed.

While I was the one who came up with the idea to blow up the truck, Takeshi helped me narrow down the plan to be effective. And Ronan, knowing that Memphis had the tech skills to coordinate it, found a way to remotely control the truck so we could reduce any possible casualties.

In fact, the bomb was planted on the robotic instrument that he used to drive.

The two guards who were supposed to transport Varr were unconscious in the back room of a restaurant that wouldn’t open for another hour or so. Even when they did wake up, it would take a while for them to realize what had occurred. The sedatives we gave them were strong enough to give us plenty of lead time.

Since the route for the truck was down a mostly abandoned road, Memphis could make all the different traffic lights play just how we needed to prevent any unwanted accidents.

The plan went off without a hitch. We were able to snatch Jackie Varr and move him to another location before we blew everything to pieces.

I knew by now that Arick had to have seen the news. I wondered if he would be thinking of me and putting two and two together. Or if he'd be so shocked at what happened that his mind would ignore the possibilities.

“What do you want?” Varr grumbled as he fought to keep his head up.

Takeshi sat in a chair behind me on the left. Ronan stood menacingly on the right.

I'm sure to him we looked like a bunch of thugs in our all-black outfits with our weapons strapped all over us. To us it was just another workday.

Though admittedly, this was personal.

“Jackie, how could you be so rude? You should always say please and thank you. We spared your life. Or did you forget watching the truck blow up as we drove away?”

Varr dropped his head back, revealing a glare. “You blew it up. I'm not an idiot. What do you want? Is it money? I don't have any. They froze everything.”

I chuckled. “Of course they did. With the evidence we provided them with, they had to take away everything you had. Though now, I'm sure that Olivia will get the money and the business. Hopefully she dismantles it like she said she would. Maybe put the money away for the kids' college fund. That would be a sweet end to the story. Oh, and pay for a divorce lawyer because her husband's a piece of shit. Just like you.”

Varr shook with unfiltered rage. If he had been free, I'm sure he would have attempted to swing at me.

Some sick part of me wanted to let him go just to see if he would. That would be fucking hilarious. The man was so out of shape, I could have blown him over if I really wanted to.

Ronan cracked his knuckles as if he were gearing up to hit him again. Varr froze, his eyes cutting to the other man before turning back to me.

He ignored Takeshi completely — a mistake really. Whether it was because he'd been so quiet and didn't notice him or because he was afraid to look at his blank face, I wasn’t sure.

“Here's what we're going to do today, Jackie. We're going to beat the ever-loving shit out of you. Just for fun. And when we're done, you’re going to beg for death. We might even give you some time in the cells to cool down between beatings.”

“It's more like a cage,” Ronan said. “I made sure to get a small size.”

I shrugged. “Semantics. The point is, you're going to be locked up here and some not so nice people are going to come visit you. They have fun breaking men like you. Men who think it's okay to buy and sell children. Men who find pleasure in the most depraved things.”

Varr still held an air about him that made it seem like he wasn't scared. He needed a reminder he wasn’t in control.

I swung at him, letting my fist land on his already bruised jaw. Pausing for a second, I waited for him to lift his head, then I hit him on the other side as well. He deserved a matching set after all. I knew how fancy he liked to live life.

“You should be scared, Jackie,” I told him. “The people who are coming for you aren't all that nice.”

He spit blood from his mouth and tilted his head to the side. I pulled his hair, forcing his head back all the way. I wanted to watch his face as he realized he held no power here.

This wasn’t the end.

“Get it over with then! If it's so bad, let them have me.”

I squinted at him, contemplating if I should up the ante by playing a little game of my own. I pulled out my phone and pressed the buttons I needed to get a group call going.

“What do you want?” A gruff voice demanded. It was Carver, a man known as “the Butcher”, who’d helped us out not all that long ago.

The other two voices that joined the line were a happily married couple who would probably consider what I was about to offer them a vacation.

“To what do we owe the pleasure of this call?” Dante Romano asked.

His husband Preacher grunted and said, “Yeah, what do you want, Orion?"

I sighed lazily as I stared into Jackie Varr's eyes. “Well, gentlemen, I have a little problem. I was going to see if either of you would be able to help me. There’s this guy here who stole my boyfriend's son to turn him into his own personal sex slave. We already got the boy, no worries. But he bought another one already. We returned him to his family earlier this week. Oh, and our little problem is also connected to those really bad guys we've been hunting down. So I need him dead. While I could get messy, I thought maybe one of you would like to have fun with him first.”

Carver chuckled darkly. “I would have a good time with that one. I call dibs.”

Dante huffed as Preacher laughed. “You can't call dibs. I want in on this. It's been too long since I've shed some asshole’s blood."

Preacher interrupted to say, “You get two for one if you pick us. We can be there sooner than this other guy as well. Whoever he is.

“Name’s Carver. I bet you can figure out how I got it.”

“Yeah, and I'm Preacher because people pray to me right before they die. Big whoop about your fucking name dude. How close are you? If you beat us, then you can have dibs I guess.”

We could hear the sound of keys jingling, which was enough of a signal to let us know that Preacher and Dante would likely be at the NightShade offices in no time. Those two were a mess, but they were fun.

Preacher had been a part of Tank’s long list of informants for years. The two of them had also worked together to help some of our other friends find their loved ones, including Preacher reconnecting with his now husband.

Overall, they just had a connection — a sort of friendship that crossed over into work more often than not.

Carver, on the other hand, while another one of Tank’s connections, was also a bit of a loose cannon. He said he was part of a motorcycle gang who delivered justice anyway they saw fit. As their lead enforcer, he was pretty much one of the sickest men I'd ever met. It was obvious when you saw the aftermath of his work.

Carver said, “Don't worry about how long it'll take me to get there. By the time you show up, I'll already be having my fun.”

The line went dead, making Preacher curse. “Let's go,” he said, then the other line cut out.

I smiled as I looked back up to see Jackie Varr's face had lost all its color. He was the definition of scared.

“Why the long face, Jackie? Don't you want to meet my friends? They are very excited to meet you.”

“You're one sick fucker,” Varr spat at me.

Ronan stepped up to my side. Takeshi rose as well to come to the other, making a perfect mirror. They were letting Varr know they had my back, even if he wasn’t truly a threat anymore.

“I might like a little violence every now and then. Still, the only sick fuck in this room is you, Varr. You chose to live the life that you did. You got caught, and more than that, you lost. Right now, we're going to take turns punching you, but we're going to leave you awake instead of letting you rest. When the guys show up, we'll bring out the cage. You can sit in it for a bit while they argue over who gets to have fun with you. We've got about thirty minutes before they get here.”

I’d told Tank to let them know where we were just as soon as they arrived at the NightShade offices. Though Carver might not need the information. He had a weird sense of knowing where people were. I don't think it's because he's a computer hacker or anything. It was like his intuition led him to the right place each time.

Ronan shook his head and pulled out a set of brass knuckles. “Can I go first? I just need a couple swings. Get this adrenaline out of my system.”

I nodded at him, watching as he made Varr bleed some more.

Takeshi stood off to the side, his posture relaxed.

“You good?” I signed.

He nodded, his hands moving as his eyes stayed on the pair before us. “Fine. Just observing. Don't really need to let out any anger myself.”

I nodded, understanding how he felt. Takeshi was good in combat and had more than his fair share of fights over the years. But he didn't have the bloodlust like we did. At least not to carry it out on his own anyway. Had Archie been involved, then he might have.

This was for me though.

And I think Ronan got involved simply because he had grown far too attached to Sol in the short time my boy had been at the office. Damari had a soft spot for him, which meant Ronan would too.

It was all twisted up together.

Once Ronan was done and stepped back, I moved forward to take in Varr's abused state. Maybe breaking him would be the way to go since he was bruised to high hell and back.

Why shed blood when I can cause pain in invisible ways?

I meticulously went about breaking several of his fingers and toes. I kicked out at his knee. It wasn't enough to break the joints, but it would ache like a bitch while the others had their way with him. I delivered the final blow right as the doors to the warehouse opened.

Carver came strutting in. He was followed quickly by Dante and Preacher. The two of them were scowling at Carver's back.

I was sure there had to be a story there, but I didn't care to know.

Standing to my full height, I shook out my hands and legs.

After crouching while I worked on Varr, they had pins and needles in them.

“I see you all arrived at the same time. Guess you'll have to duke it out,” I called out to the trio.

Carver laughed as he slung a bag I hadn't seen him carrying down on the ground. He opened it up to produce an array of tools with very sharp edges. Dante had a similar bag that he pulled out. They glanced at each other and looked at their weaponry with a shared smile.

“I think my boy just made a friend. Crazy life we lead, huh?" Preacher said.

Takeshi and Ronan took off toward the door, leaving me alone with the three men who would take out my vengeance.

“Whatever you do to him, make it hurt. We've also got a cage you can put him in for a while if you get tired or need to run to get food or something.” I motioned to the device Ronan had grabbed while I had my fun.

All three men nodded at me in understanding. They acted like this was just a normal babysitting gig. Not as if they were about to cut into and tear apart a man who was supposed to be sitting in a jail cell.

If we hadn't kidnapped him, that's exactly where he'd be.

“I'll leave you to it,” I said, half saluting them as I went to meet my brothers at the door.

The entire drive back to the NightShade offices, I wondered how Arick would react to what I’d done. I wasn't going to hide this from him. I couldn’t.

He deserved to know the truth. He needed to feel peace about the fact that the man who had hurt him and his son would no longer be a threat.

The guys remained quiet, letting me work through my emotions as we reached the office and went upstairs. They immediately went to change but before I could go anywhere, Arick came rushing down the hall. He went to hug me, but I held my hand up.

"Blood," I said by way of explanation.

He shook his head, tears in his eyes. “I know what you did. I wish you would have told me beforehand.”

I winced. “Couldn't risk you being a part of it. Didn't want to get caught. Plus, I figured you wouldn't want to stomach it.”

He punched my shoulder. My eyes went wide.

“You jerk. I would have wanted to watch. That man deserves everything he got from you. Is it done?”

He asked, arms folding in front of him.

I shook my head. “I've got three friends working him over. They'll let me know when he stops breathing. They want to have some fun with him first. Show him exactly what it means to be tortured.”

Arick's smile was a bright light. My mood immediately brightened. I leaned forward enough to press a kiss to his lips.

"I'm going to shower and then I'll be back.”

He bit his lip and nodded. "Okay, but when you get back, I need to tell you something too. It's a secret I haven't quite shared with you. Or maybe we should just get to it.”

“Get to it,” I repeated.

He waved his hand. "Go change. We'll figure it out when you're back."

He pressed another kiss to my lips and then went back into the war room. I took off to the showers, my heart full, but my mind wandering.

Arick wasn't upset with me, which was nice. But he'd also been keeping a secret, which had me worried.

Whatever it was, we'd get through it. He wasn't mad at me for kidnapping and killing a man on his behalf. I wouldn't get mad about whatever he had going on too.