Chapter Twenty-Six
Ididn’t know what was more frustrating. Knowing that she was still so sure that fucker was alive, or having to speak to those bastards myself. How the fuck did it end up being about me reaching out to them?
I stared at my phone, at the number I’d been given by Micro, whose words were, and I quote, ‘you wanna talk to those fuckers, do it, but keep me out of it’. I wanted to keep ME out of it too, but unfortunately that wasn’t going to be possible.
I leaned on the kitchen island, my phone lingering in my hand as the screen dimmed again.
All I had to do was make the damn call. Glory was in the shower after a rough night, and I was about to wade into fucking nightmare territory of my own.
Those two fuckers were the kind of people you don’t want to owe favours to, and this would be yet another we were racking up.
“Fuck,” I groaned, tapping my passcode in again, and tapping the button to call them. It rang four times, enough that I was thinking maybe I could just say they weren’t in, but of course…
“Not sure you’ve got the right number, bruv.” Ugh. Definitely one of them.
“What made you assume it was a man calling? Or do you call women that too?”
The bastard chuckled. “Do you want me to tell you your real name, and address, and god knows what else? Of course we always know who’s calling us… Henley.”
Jesus fuck. What didn’t these assholes know at this point?
“Well, I guess in your line of work it makes sense to know these things, even though it’s creepy as fuck. That’s actually why I’m calling.”
The bastard chuckled again, and I gritted my teeth at the sound. There was nothing pleasant or friendly about it.
“You wanting a job, bruv? I could definitely use another enforcer to beat people up. Not sure you’re gonna scare them much though.”
Asshole. “Which one of you am I speaking to?”
Another chuckle. “Samuel. Would you prefer Seb? I could get him for you. He’d like that.”
“No!” I remembered that fucker was even worse than this one. Jesus. They were both dicks.
“He’ll be touched that you remember him so well. Wanna get to the point though, bruv? I was on my way upstairs to fuck Cass.” The fuck?
“Do you just tell people anything… no, forget I asked. I really don’t want to know. Look, about the asshole you guys uh… helped us with.”
He cleared his throat, lowering his voice. “Not a convo for the phone, bruv.”
“No, I just wanted to ask-”
“Be at the address I’m texting in two hours. Bring your girl.”
The phone went dead and I cursed out every swear word I knew, even some I made up by stringing others together. What the actual fuck? My phone buzzed and the address came through that I read once, then again and shuddered. Not there. God no.
“Everything okay?” I jumped, my phone flying from my hand and skidding across the counter.
“Henley?”
I grabbed my phone before it could slide off the counter and flipped it off with the other hand several times.
“Ah. You called them.”
“How did you guess?”
“And?”
I shoved the phone in my jeans pocket and cursed again.
“And he wouldn’t talk about it over the damn phone. We have to meet them. We have to meet them there, at that fucking place. In two hours.”
Glory gasped, both hands covering her mouth, but I could hear the muffled ‘oh god no’ from behind them.
“Oh god yes. Why the hell do we need to go there? It’s some kind of power trip for those fuckers.”
“I’m so sorry. I should have just called Lenore. I just… she’d already told me, and I didn’t want her to think I don’t trust her, and I was sure she’d just… this is my fault.”
I stepped around the island and tugged her into my arms, hugging her tight for my own comfort as much as hers.
“Definitely isn’t. It’s all them. Fucking psychos. I’ll drop Micro a message to say we’re going there, you know, just in case we never come back.”
The place was just as chilling as I’d remembered it, even in the bright midday sunlight, and those two fuckers were standing there, leaning against a black Range Rover, with matching smirks on their faces.
“Fancy meeting you here, bruv.”
I had no idea which of them was speaking, because they were both as vile as each other, so I tightened my grip on Glory’s hand as we approached, our helmets in our free hands.
“Why did it have to be here?” I asked, casting a grim look at the unnerving structure behind them.
“Just in case this gets nasty, bruv. At least we won’t have to drag you very far.”
Glory gasped, stepping back and trying to tug me with her.
“He’s just being a dick, take no notice of him,” the other twin bastard said, “we were coming here anyway to deal with other shit. Or rather, our boys are.” He gestured behind us, and that’s when we realised two other guys were approaching us from behind. The two biggest guys.
“Nice. I only wanted to ask you a question, Samuel? Seb? I have no idea who’s who, but we could have done this easily on the phone. I’m not an idiot. I know how to keep my cool.”
The guy on the left straightened up from his comfortable lean and gestured to his brother.
“Yeah, but Seb’s got zero cool, so he’d probably start talking about murder and cutting people’s nads off with pinking shears, see.”
The other guy burst out laughing, nodding vigorously. “Makes pretty patterns innit.”
Jesus fuck.
“Look, we just wanted to know what happened to… you know, where he went.”
They exchanged a look, and those fuckers behind us both chuckled.
“What, you think we have him on ice for photo ops? He’s gone.”
Glory sighed and leaned her face against my shoulder blade.
“She okay?” Samuel, the first guy, asked softly, and I shook my head.
“Not as easy as knowing he was going to die, I guess. He’s still terrorising her in her sleep.”
They exchanged another look, as the other guy, Seb, eased up off the car too.
“He’s gone. In bits and never to be found. You can trust us on that. People don’t leave this place alive.”
I tugged Glory around in front of me so I could hold her, and she buried her face against my chest. Apparently she needed me to do the talking for her, and that was a burden I’d carry for her. Hell, I’d carry them all.
“She just needed some kind of visual-”
“We don’t take pics of what happens in there, bruv. It’s a crime, innit.”
One of the big guys stepped around us and folded his huge arms.
“What’s up, Deano?”
He nodded at us, and Seb shrugged.
“I broke both his legs for him.”
The other guy joined him beside me. “After we broke all his limbs, we cut off some of his fingers and stuff. That’s when Danno got in there with his knife.”
Samuel chuckled. “He would have done a Nige, but the fucker didn’t have tats. Who the hell doesn’t have tats these days?”
“He said they’re for thugs,” Glory mumbled, turning her face to speak.
“Aw, Deano, Tone, you guys are thugs, apparently.”
They both laughed, and seriously, this was going on for far too long. It was like some kind of comedy skit, only I wasn’t finding it funny, not at all.
“So there’s nothing you can show us that she can walk away having seen?”
They all looked at each other.
“No evidence of murders, bruv. That’s crime 101. You do the killing, and you make them disappear. After Danno carved him up for a while, he bled out, and that’s when he was dismembered and disposed of. I promise you, he was in more pieces than a jigsaw puzzle.”
Seb snorted. “Meat puzzles, we call them. Especially if-”
“Oh god! Don’t tell me anything more!” Glory blurted, burying her face in my chest again.
“Was it enough,” Samuel asked, his voice low and gentle, despite him being a big brute of a fucker.
He waited for Glory to look at him, and he raised his eyebrows.
“He’s very dead, love. We all helped him die, and it was a thing of beauty. He’s gone. Never coming back. You need to start kicking him in the nads in these dreams, and telling him to fuck off, yeah?”
She giggled, tucking her face against my chest again. I had no idea how he’d made her laugh, or why he’d even tried, but I was strangely grateful for it.
“We done? There’s a fucker in there who’s not getting any deader.”
Samuel, as it turned out, was not as bad as I thought, while Seb was clearly just a prick.
“Yeah. Thanks.”
Seb smirked. “Make sure you remember how accommodating we were, bruv. We might need a hand with something later.”
Why did that thought send a chill down my spine?
“You want a deal on glamping, I can make that happen.”
“Glamping? What the fuck is that? Is it a kinky thing? If so, I’m in.”
“Perv. It’s posh camping, innit.”
“Sammy, I’d love to know how you know that, bruv.”
We were backing away as they bantered with each other, but both pairs of disturbing dark eyes suddenly fixed on us again.
“Go live your lives. We call, you answer. That’s how it works.”
Jesus fuck. We got the hell out of there, but suddenly we were on their speed dial, and I didn’t like it one bit.
Glory
The ride home was wonderful. I was really getting to love how it felt to be wrapped around Henley, while we roared down roads, leaning around the bends, and rushing at speed when it was clear.
When we stopped, it wasn’t at home, it was at the building site that was apparently their clubhouse.
As soon as we were both on solid ground again, Henley led me in the direction of a hut that was off to the side of the ongoing building, which was unbearably loud with whatever the hell they were using powertools to do.
I couldn’t see what they were doing, but clearly our destination was the office.
“Pres?”
A voice yelled from inside, and Henley led me inside.
“Afternoon, prospect. Hi Glory, how’s you?”
I grinned at Micro, the President, who I’d liked the instant I met him the other day. There was something so calm and easygoing about him.
“Hi. I’m good. You? I don’t know why we came here, sorry.”
Micro laughed, pointing to the two chairs opposite his desk in the cramped space, and gestured to a coffee machine beside him.
“I’d be lost without this thing. You want some?”
Once we both had a steaming paper cup in hand, he leaned back in his chair.
“So? How did it go?”
Henley groaned. “Well, apparently I’m on their speed dial now for when they need something… ‘bruv’.”
Micro snorted, but he didn’t look at all surprised.
“Those fuckers are desperate to have us at their beck and call, but it’s so not happening. So, did you get what you needed from them?”
They both looked at me, and I lifted a hand, because I knew what I’d been told, but it wasn’t the same as seeing it, was it?
“They went into disturbing detail about the torture they put him through, and how very dead he is… but it’s not like they had physical evidence to show us, so… I don’t know. I want to believe them, want to believe he’s gone, but it feels like he isn’t.”
Micro rubbed his jaw thoughtfully, his eyes leaving us as he pondered something, and we waited for him to speak.
“Pres?”
He nodded. “They detailed what they did? Was it bad?”
I grimaced. “Awful. Broken limbs and cutting him up, and whatever a Nige is. What the hell is that?”
Micro rolled his eyes. “The only Nige I know of is that snarky fucker who does their tech stuff. Their version of Grease. Anyway, it sounds like there’s no way your ex survived any of that, or even some of it.
Remember, there was a whole group of them there wanting a piece of him, and letting him survive would put them at risk too.
I think we know enough about them to know that wouldn’t happen.
” He hesitated, tilting his head at me. “Is it enough? It’s not like I know of anything else that could help, but, I mean, can you start to move on now? ”
Wasn’t that the million dollar question? I could, couldn’t I?
“I plan to try,” I said finally, because it wasn’t a yes or a no, but somewhere in the middle.
“You have to know, if he ever popped up anywhere, we’d know, and we’d kill him again, but he’d have to be Lazarus for that to happen. Or Rasputin. I dunno. The fact is, you’re safe, and you have a pretty big family now to back you up.”
Family. He was talking like I was one of them, but I was just a woman starting to get to know one of their prospects in the biblical sense. Was it enough? The way his words warmed me inside made me think it might just be.
“Thank you, Micro. I appreciate that. I guess I just need to put my focus on our future now.”
“Lissa’s always there too,” he said gently, “I mean, she’s fixing all of us, so don’t doubt her powers.”
I nodded, and next he turned to Henley, a brow lifting arrogantly.
“What’s happening about this night out you’re planning for us, prospect? You want time off your sentence, you need to start delivering.”
Henley groaned. “It’s in hand. I’ve got a place, a brilliant place you’ll love, and I’m just working on the finer details.”
“Get on with it, yeah? This club needs some time hanging out where we’re not all wearing hard hats and trying to fucking build a clubhouse. They’ve been falling out with each other like you wouldn’t believe. Like there are that many ways to build a fucking wall, I dunno.”
I laced my fingers through Henley’s and cupped our palms together. I wanted to offer him support like he’d done for me.
“It’s in hand, and it’ll be amazing,” I promised Micro, who grinned at me.
“I don’t doubt it, love. Well, off you go, unless you want to be put to work.”
We got out fast, because when someone threatens to make you help with building work, you leg it.