Chapter 30 – Elias
F uck, my beautiful Sage is tempting me.
I want to sink deeply inside her and force this piece of shit to watch.
It’s going to happen, but I need him in pain first. I need him on the brink of death so he can witness hell on earth before facing the devil himself.
I give Sage one more quick peck on the lips before releasing her and walking back to the asshole. He grunts and jerks around, doing whatever he can to escape the binds, but he’s not going anywhere.
I rip off the gag so I can hear his screams for what’s about to happen. His hands are bound behind his back, but I need them in front. Instead of untying him, I swiftly lift them up and over his head, the sickening crack of his arms dislocating from his shoulders echoes throughout the room .
Sage’s gasp is drowned out by Chase’s guttural scream. Spit dribbles down his chin and tears streak down his cheek.
I glance at Sage, and she stares at him wide-eyed.
Not yet scared.
She appears more in awe than anything else.
That’s good.
His arms hang limp in front of him. He might have lost feeling in his hands because of the dislocation.
I guess we’re about to find out.
I pick up his bound hands and isolate his middle finger. His nails aren’t too long, but it’s just enough for my pliers to take hold.
“Chase, Chase, Chase,” I goad. “This is only the beginning. Relax... enjoy your breaths while you can.”
I jerk my hand up. Chase’s high-pitch cry lets me know I did some damage.
Fingernails are notoriously difficult to remove. It’s not a one and done process.
I’ve managed to dislodge his nail off the bed just enough to get a better hold with the pliers.
“You’re going to give me some information, Moonlight.”
“Fuck. You,” he slurs, more spit pouring from his mouth.
“That’s Sage’s job,” I say and rip his fingernail the rest of the way off .
Blood pools out and drips down to the ground.
I move on to the next finger.
“I need all the names and addresses of your men, including anyone who knew about Sage.”
We thought we had caught everyone, and we managed to capture a few more this past week, but I’ve been underestimating this fucker. He proved he was deeper into his attempted crime syndicate takeover than we thought. I want to be sure we have everyone this time.
He still didn’t have the numbers compared to me, but it was a nice effort.
When Chase doesn’t say anything, I rip the nail off his pointer finger.
“I’ve got eight more to go and then we can move on to your toes. After that, I’ll start removing your fingers. I’ve got all the time in the world. You can tell me now and maybe I’ll spare some of your little piggies.”
I stomp my boot down on his bare foot, hard enough to possibly break something.
“Oops.”
Chase clenches his mouth, suppressing his scream with a groan.
Still, he doesn’t say anything.
Guess he’s going to make this difficult.
I finish one hand, and the fucker is holding strong.
This isn’t working .
I turn and walk back to the table where I have my torture devices laid out and set the pliers down.
“What’s wrong?” Sage asks. She’s looking a bit queasy, but she’s doing great keeping it together.
“I need a new… incentive.”
Picking up the plastic bag, I give Sage a wink and return to Chase.
“No. NO!” He shakes his head frantically and jerks around in his chair again.
Idiot. That’s only going to wear him out quicker.
“I need names,” I say. “Give me names, and I’ll let you breathe.”
He clenches his jaw, grinding his teeth.
“Very well.”
I slip the bag over his head in one slick move and pull it tight. The sound of Sage’s gasp is once again silenced by the crinkle of the plastic and Chase’s choking as he struggles for oxygen.
I wait until his fight starts to wane before removing the bag.
“Names?”
“Fuck you,” Chase wheezes.
I put the bag back over his head. This time his fight dies quicker. His body is likely overworking to stay alive.
“Names,” I say the moment the bag is off his head.
Chase huffs and puffs and greedily takes breaths while I allow it .
Yet… he still hasn’t learned.
He says nothing.
This time, it takes less than a minute for him to reach the brink of passing out.
When I remove the bag, I don’t say a word, only lifting a brow.
“Okay!” he rasps, his voice full of spite.
I call for Jax, causing Sage to jump at the sound of my deep voice in the quiet room.
When he walks in, I motion to Chase who begins rattling off ten names and addresses of the remaining men and women who were working with him.
I instruct Jax to gather a team to find them and turn them over to the FBI.
I could kill them, but we found a few of the people helping Chase had been blackmailed.
Chase preyed on their vulnerability. They were forced to do bad things, and that doesn’t automatically mean they should die.
I’ll let the FBI deal with it, that way they can owe me.
I also confiscated Chase’s phones and laptops and handed them over to Phil. He’ll make sure any mentions of Sage in texts or emails will be removed. He’ll be able to scrub any record of Sage and Chase being married as well.
Phil will then scour Chase’s correspondences. I need information on every lowlife scum he made transactions with. He was selling to some powerful assholes. People who have money and connections who are desperate and sick enough to buy humans to use for whatever fucked up fantasy they have.
If Chase is smart, his client list will be hidden, or in a secure location.
I’ll know soon enough.
When Jax is gone, I turn to Sage.
“Tell me what you want to do to him.”
Chase’s head whips up, and he narrows his eyes at Sage.
“Bitch,” he spits and snarls.
“Don’t you fucking talk to my wife like that.”
“Wife?” Chase says uncertainly.
“I told you this when I captured you. Did you forget?” I ask. “Sage and I are married.”
Sage holds up her left hand and flashes him her diamond.
Chase scrunches his face in disgust. “Whore!”
Did he learn nothing? I guess the lack of air made him dumber.
I cock my hand back to punch him, but Sage beats me to it. His head wrenches to the side, and blood spurts out of his mouth and nose. A huge gash is left behind from the engagement ring. Pride swells within me for her using the diamond like a weapon... but I also worry she’ll damage it.
She doesn’t look concerned—not that it matters. I could always buy her another one.
“That’s for hitting me,” Sage says, pivoting on her heel and walking over to my torture table. Her eyes travel over the knives, and I expect her to grab one, but instead she picks up the thin bladed scalpel.
My cock jerks at the sight of her holding the tool.
She whips back around, smiling like a deviant queen ready to let her true nature come out to play.
Fuck, she’s beautiful.
When she’s back standing in front of Chase, she puts the tip of the surgical knife to the corner of his mouth.
She secures her hand on his shoulder, in the dislocated spot, and Chase lets out a wail.
Fuck she’s amazing.
A natural. No instructions. No hesitations.
She’s a woman who knows what she wants.
“This is for controlling me.”
She slices and the skin peels apart.
“This is for threatening me.”
She moves the knife to the other side and slices again.
“This is for threatening my parents.”
She slowly, expertly, sinks the thin blade into his eye.
Goddamn I want to put a baby inside her so fucking bad.
She leaves the scalpel embedded in his eye and turns to face me.
Shit, she’s crying.
“Oh, babe.” I open my arms.
She wipes her cheeks and falls into my embrace.
“I’m fine.” She laughs through her tears. “That was really fucking cathartic is all. ”
“I know. I know,” I say, petting her silky hair. “It’s like a rage room... and I know you have so much more rage to show him.”
I release her and clutch her chin, claiming her lips with a gentle kiss that leaves me wanting more.
But we’ve got work to do.
“Please,” Chase mumbles when Sage rips the surgical knife from his eye.
Thick blood seeps out, mixing with the streaks from the cuts in the corners of his mouth.
“Now that we have names of the low-level idiots working with you, I need names of clients. Anyone who bought human beings from you, you piece of shit,” I say as my beautiful, vindictive wife starts slicing little cuts all over Chase’s chest. Not too deep, but enough for the wound to sting with pain and slowly leak blood.
When he doesn’t answer, Sage walks over to my tool table and picks up a knife, then proceeds to stab him in the thigh.
“Tell him.”
“Fucking cunt!”
Sage extracts the knife from his thigh only to stab him again on the other side.
I groan at how sexy she is right now... but at the same time, Chase is losing a lot of blood, so I need her to slow down, or he’ll die before we get answers .
I grab Sage by the throat and graze my lips over hers. “You’re doing such a good job, Ma Chérie. But you’re going to kill him if you keep at it.”
She shyly looks away and giggles. “Sorry. I got excited.”
“I know,” I say and kiss her.
Her vengeance tastes so good.
I release my stabby little queen and turn to Chase. He glares at me, and I relish it. He hates that I have the woman he lost. He hates that he was caught. He hates that I’m more powerful than him.
“Here’s what’s going to happen,” I begin and take out the knife Sage left in his thigh.
I press my palm down on the wound to stop it from bleeding.
“You’re going to give me names or tell me where to find the list. The longer you hold out, the longer I’ll keep you alive.
I’ll bring you to the brink of death, then patch up all your wounds, let you heal, just so Sage can come over here and stab you all over again.
You think this isn’t that bad? That the plastic bag was child’s play? Just wait until I bring out the water.”
Sage says ‘oooo’ beside me. “What can you do with water?”
I don’t look away as I forcefully clutch Chase’s chin so he can look me in the eye.
“There’s always waterboarding.” I shrug. “Or... I could fill a pot and put it on a portable burner.” I point to the ground. “I’ll stick his feet in the water while it heats up. Slowly, his feet will cook until the water is boiling, and the skin melts off.”
Sage gags.
I glance at her over my shoulder and grimace. She has her hand over her mouth, but waves at me to keep going.
God she’s perfect.
Despite the grotesque threat I just described, she hasn’t let that scare her away.
“So... what will it be, Chase? Your client list or your feet boiled off your body?”
His skin is covered in a sheen of sweat, his chest rising and falling rapidly. He’s lost a lot of blood, and I’m surprised he hasn’t passed out yet.
“It’s on a drive,” he says between breaths. “At my bank. Safety deposit box.”
When Chase gives me the name of the bank, I pull out my phone and text it to my men. Getting access to it won’t be easy. Phil might have to dig up dirt on the branch manager. I could also go the legal route and call my FBI contact for a warrant. I’ll worry about that later.
When I put my phone away, I turn to Sage.
“What do you want to do next? He’s likely going to pass out soon because of blood loss.”
Sage chews on her bottom lip while thinking and the moment a vindictive smile spreads across her gorgeous face, I know exactly what she’s about to say.
“I want him to watch. ”
Chase slowly lifts his head. He narrows his one eye and snarls.
There’s some fight left in him after all.
“The man Percy and I partnered with is going to find you, and he’s going to kill you… and your families. He’s powerful and—”
“And he’s next,” I say, turning my phone around to show Chase the text I just got from Phil.
He managed to hack into Chase’s burner phone and get the man’s name.
Some billionaire prick.
The top funder of this operation.
Chase’s one functional eye widens.
I backhand him, his head whipping to the side in a loud thwack. He spits blood on the ground, aiming for me, but he’s too far away for it to reach.
I shoot a text back to Phil to gather the evidence and send it around to news outlets and my contact at the FBI.
They can have him.
All we want is Chase.
He’s my gift to my wife.
“Take control, Reine,” I say, tucking my phone away. “Show this fucker who he gave up.”
Her eyes widen. “Take… take control?”
I clutch Sage’s chin.
“Order me around, Ma Chérie.”