3. Lex
LEX
The man standing across from me looks nothing like the adorable man with the shaggy light brown hair and pouty lips I just met in the waiting room.
No, he’s easily over six feet and must outweigh Rory by fifty pounds.
His thick hair is dark and his face is all harsh angles, where Rory’s face is soft and welcoming, but they have the same bright green eyes.
I can tell he’s nervous because I’ve been reading people for years, but to the average person, he would seem completely in control.
“Thank you for meeting with me today,” Brendan says.
“Have a seat.” I gesture to the chair, and he sits. “What can I do for you?” I give him my best soul-searching glare. The one that makes grown men piss themselves.
He takes a deep breath and I already know what he’s going to ask me for. All of the men who come to me want the same thing. Money or for someone to die.
“I want revenge.”
“Not justice?”
“Fuck justice.” I feel the corner of my lip twitch up. “I want the men who hurt my brother to pay for what they did to him.”
“Tell me more.” I keep my tone neutral even though the thought of the man I just met outside hurting makes me see red.
“He was attacked by three monsters who were almost twice his size. Their families had enough money to buy a not-guilty verdict and bury the case so the media didn’t get a hold of it.”
Interesting.
A family with that kind of influence must be powerful indeed.
“I don’t have that kind of money to compete with them.” He pauses. It must be incredibly hard for a man like him to ask for help.
I raise a hand to stop him. “You’re a doctor?” I ask, even though I already know all about him.
“Yes?” He sounds wary.
“You’ve worked in the emergency room?”
“I have, but I’m a primary—”
“Can you set bones?”
“Yes.”
“Have you ever stitched a knife wound?”
“Yes.”
“Removed a bullet?”
“I have.”
I nod and grin. I think I’ve found myself a new doctor.
“I’ll help you. In exchange, you will be our on-call doctor. Meaning if I call, you will get here and do what needs to be done. No questions asked.”
“Done.”
That was fast. He really cares about his brother. I stand to shake his hand. “We’ll have them disposed of by the end of this week.”
“Not that,” he growls. “Death is too good for them.”
A slow predatory smile crosses my face.
“What did you have in mind?”
“An eye for an eye.”
“Perfect.” Making a split-second decision, I offer, “You and your brother need a vacation. Why don’t you leave next week?” He seems confused until he realizes that I’m giving him an alibi. “How does Florida sound?”
“Perfect, actually.” He sounds wary.
“Don’t worry about the cost. I want you to get your brother everything. It sounds like he deserves a lot of spoiling.” I try to smile at him reassuringly, but I’ve been told my smile is more frightening than my glare.
“I appreciate the offer, but we couldn’t possibly—” Now I glare at him, and he knows I’m not fucking around. “He’ll be over-the-moon excited.”
Letting up on the glare, I hold out my hand, and we shake.
“Give Judy the names of the men and your personal information on the way out.”
“Thank you, sir.”
My hand grips his tighter, and I hope he takes it for the threat it is. “As soon as you get back, I call and you answer. Got it?” My words are a command, not a request.
“Anytime. Thank you, Mr. Hart.”
“Boss,” I correct.
“Boss.” He nods and strides out of the door. I pick up my phone.
“Yes, sir,” Judy answers.
“I need you to plan a VIP trip for Doctor Byrnes and his brother.”
“Right away, sir.”
“Make sure to include everything, and remind the doc I said get his brother everything.” I think he’s going to need a reminder to do that.
“Of course, sir.”
I hang up the phone and turn on the monitor, bringing up the lobby feed. I see the exact moment Brendan tells Rory about the trip. He squeals and jumps into his brother’s arms.
I’m glad that I made him so happy, but I wish I was the one to tell Rory. To get what I’m sure was a radiant smile and a hug. Why I would want that, I don’t know.
“Vacation? Really?” Mal asks with a smile in his voice from his post by the door.
“They need an alibi.”
“Uh-huh.” He doesn’t believe me. “I’m glad he wanted to get even. You want me to call Tag? He’ll love this assignment.” Mal pulls out his phone with a chuckle.
“No.” I watch Brendan wrap his arm around his brother and wipe a tear from his cheek.
I’m going to personally make sure that everyone who hurt him pays.
Mal nods his head, but I don’t think he understands why I’m so interested in getting revenge for Rory.
Hell, even I’m not sure why I want to get my hands dirty.
“Did Liv find anything?” She got me the information on Brendan, but we were surprised when all we could find about the court case was that it was a not-guilty verdict.
It didn’t even say what the charges were.
“She said his case was buried in the police files. She had to get into the police chief’s personal computer to find anything.”
I nod. Powerful families indeed.
“She sent it to your email, but it’s rough. Three men attacked him on campus. It was brutal. Honestly, Rory’s lucky to be alive. Four broken ribs, a broken jaw, twenty-seven stitches—”
I cut him off because I can’t stand to hear anything more right now. I’m pissed, and there is no ready outlet for my rage.
“What about his attackers?”
“Mitchell Watts, Tanner Krohn, and Chad Hudson. Son of D—”
“David,” I growl.
David Hudson is a big-shot businessman who stays on his side of the town, and for all appearances, the right side of the law. Look closer and you’ll see he’s not that different from me. I just don’t give a fuck about appearances. I pay the right people so I don’t have to.
“Seems like they raised a bunch of bored entitled brats. This isn’t the first time they’ve been accused of assault, but never to the extent they hurt Rory, and there’s no mention of rape.”
“Rape!” I shout and swipe everything off my desk.
How dare they hurt anyone like that? Especially a kind boy like him.
“Yeah.” Mal winces but keeps talking. “That’s why he needed twenty-seven stitches. To repair the damage they caused to his—”
I growl, and Mal shuts up.
They won’t be able to commit rape after I’m done cutting their fucking dicks off.
“You want me to look into the jurors as well?” he practically whispers.
“Anyone involved in this shit show, I want to know.”
“Yes, boss.”
Brendan said he just wanted revenge on the three men who hurt Rory, but that’s not enough. They need to pay. They all need to pay.
“Don’t worry, boss. We’ll get ‘em.”
I swallow hard and unclench my fists, my anger receding at the thought of what I’m going to do to them.
Mal hands me a tumbler full of bourbon, which I throw back and then launch the glass at the wall. It shatters into a rather satisfying rainfall of glass shards.
“Need another?”
I shake my head, and then there’s a knock at the door.
“Enter,” I growl.
“Hey, boss.” Numbers’ gaze flicks around the mess in my office. “I heard we had a visitor today, but judging by the state of your office, things didn’t go well.”
My anger rises again.
“No, that went fine. We have a new doc,” Mal jumps in.
“Then—” Numbers stops suddenly, and I’m sure Mal is giving him the “shut the fuck up” look. “That’s good, because Phil’s been complaining about the stitches Chef gave him. To which Chef brandished a cleaver and told him she could ‘fix it.’”
Chefs, man. They are an angry breed.
Mal gives a low whistle. “She’s the one who feeds us. I wouldn’t want to piss her off.”
“Me neither. Who was that with him?”
“His brother, Rory. He was attacked, and the doc asked for them to pay,” Mal fills him in quickly.
“No wonder he looked so nervous out there. He’s just a tiny slip of a thing.”
“He’s stronger than he thinks,” I add.
“And how do you know that?” Mal smirks.
“We spoke in the hall.”
“I hope you didn’t scare him too bad,” Numbers teases.
I shrug.
“But I doubt he knew who you were,” Mal adds.
“You’re in his corner now, so he has no reason to fear you.” Numbers shrugs.
“I’m sure his brother didn’t tell him anything about your meeting,” Mal points out.
“Other than the trip to the most magical place on earth?” Numbers looks over at me with a grin.
“They need an alibi,” I say again, and how did he find out so fast?
“I’m sure they’ll have lots of fun.”
After seeing that scared look in Rory’s eyes, the idea of him smiling makes me want to do more for him to chase away the demons. I almost laugh out loud. I’m worse than any demon in hell.
“You okay, boss? You’re smiling,” Mal teases, and I glare at him.
“He deserves something nice.” I shrug, and Mal just stares at me. I growl, and he grins. He knows me better than anyone else. “Don’t fucking analyze me.”
“Now you’re getting testy.”
“Leave it,” I order, and he puts up his hands in mock surrender.
“How about some good news?” Numbers says in an overly cheery voice. He drawls on about money and productivity and new shipments.
Personally, I hate all of this shit, but I need someone to make sure we’re staying profitable, and I need to check in so they all know I’m looking.
I trust Numbers. He’s been with me from the beginning, just like Mal. He’s smart as hell and probably could have gotten a more respectable job, but he makes more money with me than he ever would in the private sector; plus, he’s my friend.
I wonder if Rory has any close friends. I know he has his brother. Maybe I should find a way to help him.
Like paying off his college tuition or his medical bills. I bet those are enormous. Those—
“All of your warehouses have been burned to the ground, and our records have been seized by the police.”
I look up and flip Numbers the finger.
“He’s joking,” Mal tries, and I nod. Of course he’s joking.
“I guess I never realized how boring talking about making millions of dollars is,” Numbers says, and my gaze moves back to him. He quirks a teasing eyebrow and grins.
“Sorry, but you bore me to death.” I fake yawn. “What were you saying?”
“That’s mean. I don’t want to repeat myself cause you were off in dreamland.”
Mal laughs. “You do seem distracted today, boss.”
“One of my men was just stabbed,” I say seriously, but neither of them is buying that excuse. “Fuck off and get out.” I wave my hand and dismiss them.
“Yikes, he’s in a bad mood,” Numbers says loudly as they walk out the door.
“Say that louder so he has a reason to kill you,” Mal says.
“Nah, he needs me, but you don’t do anything around here.”
“Are you serious?”
I grin at the way they bicker like a married couple, even though Numbers has been married for years.
His wife makes the best cheesecake.
It’s a nice place, in a nice neighborhood, but Tanner’s security is shit.
Oh no, he’s got a doorbell cam.
I stroll up the sidewalk like I don’t have a fucking care in the world, because I don’t. All it’s going to catch is a large figure dressed in black walking up to his door and opening it.
I can admit I’m pretty old-fashioned, and I fucking hate technology, but I also understand the need to adapt or die, so I’ve got one hell of a tech girl.
She proves her worth once again as I hold my phone to the electronic keypad and the door opens with a soft beep. Then all of the lights go out in the house.
Perfect.
I walk up the stairs on quiet feet and into Tanner’s bedroom. He’s sprawled across the bed on his back, completely fucking naked, and his dick is standing straight up.
Having good dreams, Tanner?
Well, get ready for one helluva nightmare.
I grab both his hands and zip-tie them together. Fucker doesn’t even wake up. So I tie his legs together too, but I need him awake before the fun can begin, so I take a piece of duct tape and slap it over his mouth.
He tries to sit up with a shout, but I hold him down.
Tanner looks around frantically, and his eyes widen even farther when he sees me. He starts mumbling like a mad man, but I can’t hear anything, and even if I could, it wouldn’t matter.
I read Rory’s police reports, and I am going to make sure he suffers more than Rory did.
Now, where to start?
I lift my bat, and Tanner struggles even harder.
Four broken ribs.
I bring the end of the bat right into the center of his chest twice and smile at the sounds of Tanner’s muffled screams.
Then I take the bat right to the corner of his jaw.
Broken jaw.
My mind conjures up the image of Rory from the police report. His eyes were swollen shut. A quick hit to his nose and the blood spills all over his taped mouth and neck. I might need to take the tape off so he doesn’t suffocate before he gets the full experience.
Ah well, he’ll figure it out.
“I saw the pictures.”
Tanner’s watering eyes fill with fear.
Rory was black and blue all over.
I was so pissed I broke my first bat beating the hell out of my desk. Mal had to get me a new bat—and desk.
So I take the new bat and cover Tanner’s entire body with bruises.
The dull thud of the bat and Tanner’s cries mix in a beautiful soundtrack that have my dick chubbing in enjoyment.
Violence always gets my libido racing. Maybe after this I’ll go find a tight wet pussy to bury myself in. Only, that idea has my dick flagging.
That’s odd.
I love fucking.
Must be Tanner’s fault.
The sick fuck has me so mad, so after one last hard swing that might have broken his right hand, I drop the bat.
I can admit that I’m not looking forward to this last part, but it’s a huge part of the revenge his brother wanted, and what Tanner deserves.
Honestly, after reading the report, I was sick.
Me, a hardened criminal with years of torture, maiming, and murdering under my belt, was sick.
Rape has always been a hard line for me.
I’ve killed my own men for doing it, but this is different and definitely not for my pleasure. So I roll him over.
He’s been whimpering and quietly crying, the fight gone out of him too fast. I’ll bet he’ll fight back now.
I take the lube from Tanner’s nightstand and slick the bat up.
Not for his comfort, but I’ll never get it in without it.
I press the bat against his hole, and I was right, Tanner fights to get away from me, but he’s not going anywhere.
I lean over him to whisper in his ear like a lover. “Don’t worry, baby. I know you like it rough.” And with that, I shove forward… hard.
It takes a few tries, but we get there.
Serves him right.
Fucking rapists.
And I can admit, my lips twitch up as I use his phone to take a picture of him. Broken and crying with a bat shoved up his ass.