Chapter 2 #2
Tish struggles and tries to free herself from her binds, but I just roll my eyes at her.
“There’s no use. We’ve got you good. Shouldn’t have ever aligned yourself with Henry. I take anything that involves him very personally.”
She looks at me with pity, like she knows Henry got the best of me. Which is a mistake. Because now I’m going to have to take her ugly eyeballs out of her head.
I won’t even keep them. They’re not that nice anyway.
“Tish, don’t look at me like that. I’ll start with your eyelids and you’ll be sorry.”
Casey lets out a small laugh, and Jax does, too.
“Fuck, I missed you, Bane,” Casey says and then pulls me in for a tight hug.
“Missed you, too. Heard you’re the new head of security for Mikhail. Heard his brother was doing a shit job.”
Casey’s eyes darken. “He’s shit at most things, especially remembering I exist.”
Before I can ask what happened, Anthony reappears a moment later with Kit in tow. I’m glad Anthony decided not to kill him. I quite like him.
“So, he passed the test?”
“There was no test,” Anthony says. “Just a phone call. And yes. He works for Georgiy.”
“So, I can keep him?” I ask, and Anthony nods.
“You can keep the cat.”
I rush toward him, pulling him into a hug. “Thanks, Boss.”
Anthony ruffles my hair with a sigh. “All right. Now, get everything you can from her and then make sure she regrets ever fucking with us. Keep her tongue for me, though. I want to watch her cry when I take it from her mouth.”
“Oh yes,” I turn to her and waggle my eyebrows.
“Enjoy your tongue while you have it,” I tell her, but all she does is try to spit at us.
It doesn’t go anywhere. She still has the rag in her mouth.
But she’s nervous. Pretty soon, she’ll be spilling all the beans about why she thought it would be a good idea to cross the Costellos. I guarantee it.
I turn to Anthony and bounce on my toes. “Okay, now tell me everything you want done, and I’ll make sure I get it for you.”
Anthony looks pleased with my eagerness, and my chest constricts.
I just want to make him happy. Especially after what happened with his boyfriend, Tatum, being kidnapped and hurt by the Aces because of information they got from Henry.
That really was all my fault. I should never have trusted Henry in the first place.
I’m an idiot for letting him seduce and use me. But I’ll get my revenge.
Anthony pulls me aside. “I want to know why she was working with Henry. About the drug distribution they were helping him with. I want to know her motivation for trying to frame me for it, and any other operations he may be planning. And most importantly, find out if she knows where he’s hiding.
I want to know anything you can get about the little shit. ”
I give him a salute. “On it. I’ll make sure she tells me everything.”
“Okay, so, to make them talk, we always start with the fingernails,” I tell Kit after I’ve changed out of my makeshift toga and into a proper outfit for torture. A pair of booty shorts and a midriff.
In my hand is a tool I created myself, perfect for the precise extraction of nails. It took me a few days, but boy, I’m so proud of it.
Kit whistles as he holds it up and examines it. “That’s good to know. So, what do you think about kneecaps? I’ve heard varying things.”
“Oh! Kneecaps are my favorite. For those, I like to use a hammer, or even better, a drill,” I say, picking one up and turning it on with a press of my trigger finger.
“A drill?”
“Oh yes. It makes them squeal. Wanna hear?”
“Uh, usually I just take people out. A little messy, but not like drawn out or anything.”
I grin and let the machine whirl. “Just take them out? No skill, no finesse, no mess. Where’s the fun in that?”
“I guess you should teach me how to have fun then.”
“I most certainly will.”
I move toward Tish, rolling the tray with all my tools on it. Tish’s eyes widen, and I glance back at Kit.
“She wants to talk to see if she can save herself.” I turn toward her and narrow my eyes. “But you hurt my friends. Never had many of those, so I like to keep the ones I have.”
I pull the rag from her lips, and she growls at me.
“You’ll regret this,” she spits, and I sigh.
“Tish, we have all the people that matter in your silly little organization. Most of them are dead. If anyone comes for us, we’ll take them down. You know this. I know this. Even Kit knows this, and he’s only been here like two minutes.”
He bobs his head in agreement. “I do know this.”
She eyes us both, trying to put on a brave face, but I can tell she’s afraid. Can smell it. Fear has a distinct scent.
“You have no idea who you’re messing with,” she hisses.
I pull up a seat next to her, straddle it, rest my hands on the back of it, still holding the drill, and rest my chin on my hands. “Why don’t you tell me then? I’m all ears.”
Her eyes bore into mine. They’re really not that nice. Disposable, really.
“Henry told me about you,” she begins, and I find my lips starting to purse. I really don’t like hearing his name. “Said you were easy. Just a little boy who wanted to be loved.”
I hate that. Hate it so much. My fingers tighten on the drill, listening to it whirl as I reach out and stab it into her upper arm, making her squeal like the pig she is.
“Shut up about him. Don’t say his fucking name! I hate him! When I find him, he’ll wish he’d never been born!”
Her arm is bleeding, the hole I made gushing. I point at her and scowl as Tish’s mascara runs even more.
“Just a big baby,” she says through a cry of pain. “He knew how easy you would be.”
I take the drill and stab it into her thigh, hearing the crunch of bone as I go.
She screams louder, and rage filters through me. I want to cut her apart. I want to watch her writhe while I skin her alive.
But Kit touches my shoulder, grounding me, pulling me out of my fury.
“Bane, you need her alive. Give me the drill before you put it through her eyeball.”
I stare down at it as he pries it from my hand.
“She deserves to die,” I whisper, and Kit nods.
“Yeah, she will. Just not yet.”
I meet his eyes, and he pats my shoulder again.
“You’ve got this,” he says softly, and I take a deep breath as I square my shoulders.
“Now, where was I?” I ask as I clear my throat and try to clear my head. I don’t often let my guests mess with my mind. But Henry is a sore spot for me. He used me, and I fell for it.
I actually liked him, goddammit.
“Tish, you need to start talking. Who’s going after my boss? What are they planning next?”
She inhales sharply, blood spurting from her wounds. “You’ll never fucking find out. I’m not telling you shit.”
“Are you sure?” I hold up the tool I made specifically for fingernails and waggle it in front of her face. “Those terribly done acrylics won’t save you now.”
She spits at me again, and I sigh when I see it land on my shirt. Georgiy would not like how messy she’s making me. I can just hear him now. Blyat, look at you. Filthy, full of mess.
But I’ve never minded a little filth while working.
A lot of filth, actually.
I can get quite messy when I work.
“Just tell me. I’m getting bored with this back and forth. This is the last warning I’ll give you since you’ve always been mostly nice to me.”
“Just know that you and this family are going down. The one in charge wants to watch you burn.”
“So, nothing about Henry, the drug, Pink, the dead bodies being dropped off at Anthony’s places of business?”
She smiles, her mouth bloody.
“Welp, this is completely useless,” I say as I roll my eyes.
With a flick of my hand, I grab a bat from the cart and whack her on the side of the head.
The crack of a fracturing skull resounds in the dank space as she falls unconscious almost immediately.
Blood is dripping down her temple, her breathing ragged, but she’s still alive.
I know how to swing without killing someone.
“Fuck, is she dying?” Kit asks, sounding a little appalled, but mostly impressed.
“Nope. I hit her right in the temple. Knocked her out for a bit. She has a concussion, but she’ll be fine. Maybe it’ll knock some sense into her.”
Kit’s eyes widen as he moves up closer to her, bending down and peering at her bleeding face.
“Wow, you have quite the arm. Did you play sports?”
“No, I’m self-taught.” I flex my biceps so he can get a good look at the muscles there. I mean, they’re mostly there with the right shading and shadows. He reaches out and squeezes.
“Yeah, nice, man.”
“You wanna learn how to hit someone with a bat and not kill them? I can teach you. It’s all about swinging with your core, you know?” I say as I grab onto the cart and wheel it toward the exit. “Shall we talk to the other victims…I mean, guests? They’ve been waiting so patiently.”
Kit peers back at me and nods. “Yeah. They have. And Anthony doesn’t seem like he likes to wait for things.”
“He doesn’t, not when it interrupts his time with Tatum. He gets very grumpy when he can’t fuck him all the time.” I waggle my eyebrows as he comes up next to me. “Would you like to try any of the tools?”
Kit is silent as I move into the next room, finding Jax standing there next to a woman who looks like she could spit fire. She’s tied to a chair and has a rag stuffed in her mouth. Her hair is bright blue, and she has a lip and nose piercing.
I could rip those out with pliers, I think as I take her in. That’s always fun.
“You don’t need to try anything you don’t want to,” I tell Kit as I nod at Jax. “Lookie at this one,” I comment, putting the brake on the cart and moving toward her. “This one has a very nice nose.”
Jax scoffs and then turns his gaze to Kit.
“This is the assassin I heard Anthony talking about?” Jax asks, his eyes sliding over my new friend. He looks…unsure about him, and yet, there’s a flicker of something else. Interest, perhaps?
Oh, I hope so. The two of them fucking would be glorious to watch. Both declaring they’re not gay as they ram into each other.
Fucking wonderful.
“Yes, he’s very accomplished at what he does. The best in his field. Jax, this is Kit. Or Cat, as Anthony may refer to him. Kit, this is Jax.”
They size each other up, and then Jax holds out his hand. “Hey. Nice to meet you, man.”
Kit nods, a blush spreading across his cheeks. “Likewise.”
I can see Jax watching him intently while Kit turns his gaze back to me.
“So, what do we do first?” Kit finally asks.
“Well, I think we could go for something really dramatic to make sure she talks.”
That makes the woman wiggle in her chair. Oh, she’s nervous. She should be. No idea who this person is in the grand scheme of things, but Anthony obviously thought that she was important enough to bring in for questioning.
I will question her until the cows come home.
Or until she bleeds out. Either way, doesn’t bother me as long as I get answers.
“All right, let’s see if she’ll talk without the mess, and if she doesn’t, then we can start on her thumbs.”
The woman starts whimpering, and I roll my eyes. She can cry all she wants. I don’t discriminate. When I want answers, I get answers.
I pull the rag from her mouth, and she blinks up at me.
“Hello, boo. Welcome to my humble abode. Do you like it? I’m making some renovations—”
“I’m not part of this,” she interrupts, and my face falls.
“So rude, really. I wasn’t done talking.”
She shakes her head, swallowing loudly.
“Fine. Fine. You don’t care about me. I get it. Then, if you’re so eager, what’s your name and your association with the Sirens?”
She shakes her head, blinking wildly. “I—I’m just the bartender.”
I make a face. “I don’t believe that at all. I may look dumb, but I’m not. Anthony wouldn’t have brought someone here who is just a bartender. He’d have just murdered you and then set you on fire like everyone else.”
Jax interrupts. “We grabbed her because she was one of the few people in the club after it closed. She was behind the bar and piped up when Tish asked her something. We figured she might know something.”
I turn back to the young woman and arch an eyebrow. “Hm, well then. Again, I’m asking you. Name and association.”
“I—Virgin and I’m just the bartender, I swear.”
“Virgin, huh?” I ask, and Jax snorts.
“Are you really a virgin?” I ask. “I’ve never met one of those before…”
“It doesn’t matter,” she says, almost breathless with fear. “I’m just a nobody. I have no idea what you want or why I’m here. I swear.”
“Um, well, that’s silly. You’re here because someone is trying to sabotage the Costello family, and we want to know why and we want to know who is behind it. Duh.”
“I don’t know anything. I was just hired. Tish just wanted me to stay back and make sure I had stock of all the liquor. That’s what I was talking to her about. I promise.”
I sigh and then nod toward Kit. “She’s a liar. Go on. She’s obviously not going to tell us anything. Start with her thumb and see how she screams.”
The woman’s nostrils flare, her body shaking as Kit takes the tool and places it in his hand.
“You can totally do this. I believe in you,” I say, my heart starting to race. Kit takes a step forward and then another.
“Yeah, I guess I didn’t expect to be learning how to take people apart today. I just figured I was delivering a package for Georgiy and then grabbing something to eat on the way home.”
“I’m the best package.”
Jax laughs lowly, and Kit blushes. “I don’t usually spend time with the victims. I usually just end them. Quickly and mostly efficiently. Sometimes I miss and, you know, they bleed out, but…” He huffs a breath, and I pat his back as he bends down, placing the tip of the tool near the woman’s thumb.
She inhales sharply, and then suddenly her head lolls forward, and she passes out.
“Fuck. Is she dead?” Kit asks.
Jax’s fingers go up to her neck, and he sighs. “I mean, she’s alive, but passed out. Must have some kind of condition.”
“Well, that’s not fun,” I pout, Kit standing up and handing me the tool.
“I guess I won’t get a chance to use this.”
I hand it back. “But we have others. Come on. Let’s go meet them. Jax, you should come, too. That way, you can check Kit out better when he bends over.”
I try to say that softly, but my voice echoes off the walls, and they both turn to me and say simultaneously, “I’m not gay.” Then they look at each other and turn their gazes away quickly.
Well, in my opinion, they doth protest too much.
“Yeah. Yeah. Come on. We have two more people we can interview. Make them talk. Then we can go back to Tish. And I promise, when she wakes up, she’ll be blubbering.”