Chapter Nineteen
Falcon
The cells we had set up underneath the auto shop had that distinct scent of motor oil, sweat, iron, and stale blood.
No one other than the patched members knew this place was down here, and no one would ever expect that twelve feet beneath the shop was this room, meant for answers and vengeance.
Concrete walls surrounded us, a single bulb swung from the ceiling, casting the room in a glow that was both too dim and too bright.
Two tables were pushed together to form one long table, and it was covered in all the tools this kind of job required.
James St. John III hung from the ceiling with a rope circling his wrists, his arms twisted behind him at a weird angle while blood dripped from the wound Viv had inflicted to free herself.
His expensive shirt had been sweated through hours ago, leaving him in nothing but a white undershirt stained with sweat and blood.
Despite his clear disadvantage, he still wore a smug grin that I was eager to wipe away.
“How’s the arm?” Up close I’d seen exactly what Viv had done, she’d cut him right down the center of his forearm, likely causing nerve damage.
His smug grin disappeared quickly. “It’ll heal,” he said with forced confidence.
“Keep tellin’ yourself that.” I turned my back to him because we had a fucking objective here, to get answers first. I couldn’t let him goad me into killing him before we got what we needed, so I needed to get my shit together.
I told myself this was for TJ and Viv. The truth would let them be free and give us a shot at a real life.
I looked around the room at my brothers.
Diesel leaned against the wall with his arms folded and his eyes narrowed, as still as a statue.
Rocky sat in a chair with his leg raised on an overturned crate because the stubborn fucker refused to be anywhere else.
Hawk, Gio, and Sniper stood in the shadows watching. Emotional support.
I leaned my head from side to side until my neck cracked, rolling my shoulders as I turned to face St. John.
He wore a smile and that, in turn, made me smile. If he wanted to play it that way, I was happy to inflict as much pain as possible. “This shit is such a fucking cliché, I expected better.” He shook his head, disgust written all over his face.
“Luckily for us, we don’t give a fuck about your expectations. Now Dr. St. John, I have a clichéd question for you. Do you want to do this the easy way or the hard way?”
He shrugged. “Surprise me.”
“Happily.” My gaze went to the hammer and then the crowbar on the table before I met his gaze head on. “What happened to Alexei Petrov?”
He barked out a laugh. “Predictable. Boring.”
“Was it really just a routine surgery gone wrong?”
His grin widened. “Vivian is something special, isn’t she?” He shook his head. “Boring in bed but beautiful and brilliant.”
“I think she just needed someone to show her what damn good fucking is like.” His eyes flashed anger just as I knew it would. “Did you kill him?”
“Can we get on with this interrogation. I’m bored.”
I laughed. “You think you’re so much better than everyone else.
So special because you’re a fucking doctor,” I began and ran my hand over the worn handle of the hammer.
“But every person I’ve had hanging from these ropes starts out arrogant because they think there’s something after this.
” I wrapped my hand around the handle and circled him before I stopped in front of the good fucking doctor.
Fear flashed in his eyes, but it was gone just as fast. “Killing me won’t stop the Russians.”
“It doesn’t have to,” I answered with a menacing smile. “Now, what happened to Alexei?”
“Fuck you. She’s mine goddammit and when she gets sick of your biker bullshit, she’ll come back to me.”
“Maybe,” I conceded even though I hated the fucking thought of her leaving me at all. “But I have it on good authority she’d rather live her life on the run than be with you again.”
More anger flashed in his eyes but when I raised the hammer, the fear replaced it instantly.
“You don’t want to answer? Fine.” I pulled the hammer back and brought it down on his right kneecap, the crack echoed in the room.
“Oh fuck!” he screamed. “You fucking psychopath! What the hell is wrong with you?”
I didn’t flinch. “Answers, St. John. I need answers. Now.”
He continued to shout his pain and his displeasure, making a big fucking spectacle while I watched. “You’re just going to watch,” he asked my brothers behind me. “What the fuck?”
“Answers,” I said calmly. “The only way out of this is answer my fucking questions. What happened to Alexei?”
He stared at me as if his thoughts alone could cause me harm and I stared back, un-fucking-moved “You’re sick.”
“Maybe. Alexei?” I knew he wouldn’t answer me, not yet. He was the kind of asshole who didn’t learn his lesson until it was too late, so I would have my fun while I got my answers.
“Giving up so easily?” he smirked when Gio cranked the wheel that would lower him to the ground. “You should really work on that.”
I watched that smirk, waited until it twitched with unease when he realized this wasn’t over. “Have a seat, Doc.”
Before he could comply, two of my brothers were there, pushing him onto the chair and strapping him to it. “What the fuck? Is this some kind of torture chamber bullshit?” His eyes widened and real fear was finally settling in.
“Misha Rublev ring any bells?”
“Fuck you,” he spat the words at me.
“No thanks, you ain’t exactly my type.” I walked behind him, stepping up to the table to drop the hammer and pick up the pliers. “There’s probably time to get that arm checked out,” I told him. “You might even get to be a doctor again.”
“I will always be a doctor.”
I laughed and shook my head. “You’ll always have the title, but not the prestige that comes from saving lives or fixing noses, or whatever the fuck it is you do.” I didn’t wait for a response. “What happened with Alexei?”
He laughed again. “Vivian having a hard time accepting it, huh? I told her to come back to me, and I’d make it all go away.”
I looked over my shoulder at Diesel who gave me the go ahead to act. “Okay.” I held the pliers in my hand, placing his middle finger between the jaws and squeezing tight while I bent it until it cracked.
“Son of a bitch!” he cried out.
“That doesn’t sound like an answer,” I said calmly, before taking his index finger and snapping it in half. “Alexei?”
He shook his head furiously, and honestly, I was fucking impressed by his refusal to speak.
And pissed. “I can do this all day until you tell me what the fuck I want to hear.” He refused to talk after eight fingers were broken and mangled, which meant it was time to step it up. “Did you mean to kill Alexei, or did you use it to get Viv back?”
St. John clenched his jaw tight against the pain and looked away. “She either comes with me, or she’ll run from them forever.”
I wanted to shove those fucking pliers into his goddamn eye, but I didn’t. Instead I picked up a serrated knife and twirled it in my hand. “There’s another option,” I told him, poking his flesh with the tip of the knife.
“No, there isn’t.” His breathing was labored, and he was sweating like a motherfucker. He was tough, but nobody was that fucking tough.
“You think I’m scared of a knife?” he laughed.
“You know,” I began a little louder. “I always wondered what it was like to be a doctor.” I swallowed down a shaky breath and did what I had to do. “How it felt to stick your hands inside a body and just know what all that shit does.”
“Interesting.” The fucker didn’t know when to quit. “Oh!”
I rammed the knife into the forearm Viv had already damaged until the tip hit the metal arm of the chair, and then I twisted it as St. John wailed in pain. “Yeah, it is interesting but what I’m more interested in is what happened to Alexei.”
“Stop! Please, oh fuck, just stop!”
I kept going. “You haven’t answered my question yet.” I felt sick to my fucking stomach, but this was it. This asshole had tortured and traumatized Vivian enough for a fucking lifetime and this was my chance to get him to pay for those sins.
“Okay, I’ll answer… please… just… stop. Please.”
I stopped twisting the knife and pulled it out. “Talk.” I threw the knife down and waited. “Right fucking now.”
“Okay,” he panted. “Okay.” He shook his head as if that one move could take away his pain. “It was simple really. My position at the hospital made it easy to make a small change to his medical records.”
“Who ordered you to do it?”
“Nobody,” he tried for a laugh, but his pain was too great. “I knew who he was. Hell, Vivian was probably the only one who didn’t know who he was. I knew his death would put her in the crosshairs of the Russian mob.”
“And in your mind, she would be so scared she’d come running to you for protection?”
He nodded, looking away not out of shame but embarrassment. “Except she wanted nothing to do with me, so I told them she was careless, reckless, and had killed him.”
Rage consumed me whole in that moment. He was so matter of fact about ruining a woman’s life. He didn’t care. “You know that she’d rather face the Russians than be with you again?”
He shrugged. “Then she’s a dead woman.” I grabbed the hammer and slammed it down on the back of his broken hand. “Fuck!” he screamed. “Why’d you do that? I’m telling you what you want to hear.”
“Because you make me fucking sick.” I took a deep breath. “So you’re not even working with the Russians?”
“No.” He shrugged again. “Not really, but I love vodka, caviar, and leggy blondes. Same as Misha. We’ve become friends.”
Friends. This motherfucker. “Okay then, I’ll give you two choices here, Doc.
Stay here with me and die a slow and very, very painful death.
I’m talking days. Or you leave Vivian alone for however long you have left on this planet and spend the rest of your life trying to stay ahead of the Russian mob. ”
His head fell forward in defeat, and I knew in that moment I’d won. It would give me nothing but pleasure to spend the next few days punishing him until he begged for death, but this way would get Viv out of harm’s way.
“Is there room to negotiate?” he asked.
I shook my head.
He looked past me to Diesel and Rocky. “None?”
“None,” I assured him.
“Give me a head start. That’s a fighting chance and I’ll leave Vivian alone. She’s not worth this shit anyway.”
I smirked. “She is, but it would’ve been smart had you realized that before all this.” I picked up a rag and wiped his blood from my hands.
“You’re a psychopath,” he accused.
“Remember that the next time you even think about her or my son. What I did today is nothing compared to what I’ll do to you if this shit isn’t over. And Dr. James Thomas St. John II. And Victoria Elyse St. John.”
Fear, real and genuine, flashed in his eyes at the thought that I might go after his parents. “You wouldn’t.”
I nodded. Let him think that I had no fucking morals just like him. “Oh, I absolutely would. Just so we’re clear, I didn’t name her, but Edith St. John might not be safe either.”
“She’s…” he started and stopped, shaking his head. “You wouldn’t.”
“Find out if you want to, but I wouldn’t advise it.”
“Yeah, okay.” He nodded through his tears and the snot bubbling out of his nose. He was a disgusting fucking mess. A man defeated. “I’m already gone,” he assured me.
I turned back, knowing Slate was back there somewhere. “We got all that?”
“Yeah, we got it.”
The bloody rag fell from my hands and I took a step back and then another. The urge to see Viv washed over me and I needed to get the fuck out of the dungeon. Needed to get away from the blood and the carnage, the man I wasn’t sure I’d recognize after what I just did.
“Take care of him,” Diesel ordered behind me. “Hey, Falcon, wait up.”
I slowed my steps, but I didn’t stop. I couldn’t. I needed to get the fuck out of there and see my woman.
Now.
“You okay?” He clapped my back once we were outside.
I shrugged. “I don’t fucking know, man.”
“It was a lot,” he said. “Shit got pretty intense back there, but you handled it.”
I nodded. “I had to. You think this’ll get the Russians to back off?”
“Yeah, I think so. We gotta hand him over though.” His jaw pulsed at the idea of letting St. John out of our cells alive but it was the only way. “I’ll have Slate send over the confession first and see if that satisfies them. If not, they can have him.”
I nodded. “And then what, clean slate with those assholes?”
Diesel sighed. “I don’t have an answer for that shit yet. Just go see your woman, get yourself right and we’ll talk about the rest tomorrow yeah?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Sounds good, Prez.” I turned away, dragging my body towards the clubhouse in my desperate need to see Viv. To set eyes on my son. I needed to see the reasons I went to that dark, savage place tonight. Needed to hold them tight and remind myself that everything I did was worth it.