Chapter 36
KILLA
He hangs from a hook in a purposeful move orchestrated by Hunter. Only, there’s no chain; his wrists are speared into the hook, his bare feet grazing the ground so he struggles to touch the way Cass did.
Every inch of this motherfucker is open and exposed for us, and I intend to deliver the worst torture to every piece of him.
“You think he’ll bleed out before you’re finished with him?” Slash asks, delivering a piece of apple to his mouth from the knife he used to cut into it.
“Hundred bucks says he dies before we get answers,” Raider says.
“Savage will be pissed,” Slash says. “One-fifty he keeps him alive before completely losing his shit on him.”
Are they seriously taking bets on how long he has until he dies? “You done?” I spit into the dirt.
My eyes latch onto the sledgehammer, and when I lift it, the weight of it has adrenaline surging through me. “This is going to hurt like a bitch.”
Slash snickers and leans back against the wall, slicing the apple into chunks to eat.
I swagger toward Benjamin. “Wake him up!” Morgue steps forward on my command and stabs the fucker in the neck with some drug.
He steps back, and Benjamin gasps frantically for air.
Before he can register what’s happening, I swing the sledgehammer and strike his kneecap. His screams echo off the torture room. A metal unit on the compound that was once a garage used to store our bikes.
I deliver another swift blow to his other knee and watch on in delight when his wrists bleed profusely with the weight of him unable to stand on the ground.
Slash glances up toward the hook, probably thinking the same as me. It’s not going to hold him for much longer. “You wanna borrow my knife?” His eyebrows dance as he turns the handle toward me, and I take it from him.
“Gonna slice and dice the fuck out of you, ya piece of shit.” I grin.
Unfortunately, he doesn’t so much as flinch, which is bad news for him because it only amplifies my need for vengeance.
When I step up to face him, I stare down the man who hurt a little girl in the worst ways possible. A monster.
“You’re gonna wish you’d never been born, motherfucker,” I growl. “How the fuck did you know where Cass was?”
He smiles, and I want to smash every one of his pearly whites out of his perfect mouth, but I know how difficult it is to get answers from fuckers who have broken jaws and an empty mouth. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
I deliver a swift punch to his stomach, causing him to suck in a sharp breath.
“How?” I bellow into the warehouse.
He spits blood on the floor, and when he lifts his head, his eyes dance with mirth. “Her name’s Hayley.”
I flinch at the insanity behind his tone.
“Not anymore.” I shake my head. “We’re gonna wipe every fuckin’ memory away and make new ones.”
“Really? Does she still dream about me at night?” A supercilious smile spreads over his face, goading me. “About me taking her. Over and over again while she cried for her mommy,” he says in a mocking tone.
With an almighty roar, I stab the knife into his thigh and twist it, and he howls before I retract it, only to do it all over again. Satisfaction coupled with anger rushes through me.
“Killa!” Warrior bites out. “Make it last, brother.”
My chest rises with the fury taking over. Moving closer, I slice the open flap of skin from his thigh, and he shrieks. His body shakes uncontrollably, and I think back to the video clip of who I now know to be Noah, then I carve another layer of skin from him, and he howls again.
“That’s it, motherfucker!” My delight ricochets off the walls.
When his screams mellow, I take a step back, not trusting myself to not end his life before I have the answers I need. “Now. Where the fuck is Alisha?” I bellow.
His teeth chatter, and his silence intensifies my anger.
“Where’s Alisha?” I scream in his face and stab at him again.
His head falls forward, and I take a step back; he spits blood at the ground.
“I don’t know an Aaalisssha.” He drags her name out, and I want to gut him for it.
“Hold his head up!” I beckon Morgue, and he steps up behind him, yanking him back by his hair.
“Alisha. Where is she?” I try again.
“I don’t know an Alisha. Don’t you want to know how your girl—”
I cut another chunk of his flesh from his thigh. The blood flows down his leg in a crimson trail.
I swipe at the sweat coating my forehead. “Who are you working with?” When he doesn’t answer, I take off another chunk.
“Who?”
Another piece of flesh, and when I move to take another, Slash steps up beside me and places a hand over my chest. “Use this.” He hands me a blowtorch, and I relish the notion of bringing him the same agony he delivered to my woman.
“I’m about to light you up unless you give me some answers.” I ignite the torch. “Who is the girl in the barn?”
He twists his lips. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he somehow says clearly.
“Why would I want such a pathetic thing when I have Hayley?” Pathetic thing?
So, he’s seen her? He knows about her? My mind races with questions, and when the sound of the door creaking open fills the silence, I pay it no attention.
Morgue moves, dropping his hold on Benjamin, and appears to be blocking the view from whoever entered.
“Killa?” Slash tilts his head toward the door. “It’s Cassidy, brother.”
I freeze, and when Cass steps around Morgue and shuffles toward me, I take in my woman. My T-shirt reaches her knees, her legs are wrapped with bandages, and her face is twisted in agony.
When Stella told me most of the burns are superficial, I was relieved, but still, her suffering as she struggles to move doesn’t help the burning rage I feel inside me.
“What you doin’ here, Cass?”
I tug her toward me, and she bands her arms around me, grounding me, becoming the center of my universe while I breathe in her familiar scent.
“I want vengeance, Killa,” she croaks.
She licks her lips and stares up at me, her eyes are bright, but the dark circles beneath them give away how exhausted she is, and the swelling around her cheekbone is only increasing, infuriating me further.
“I want to see him suffer.” Her steely glare drills into me.
Savage hisses through his teeth.
He’s old school.
He always insists on our women remaining as far away from violence as possible, given they’re in an MC. Our motives are somewhat questionable, but still, a woman torturing someone, or even witnessing it, is somewhat unheard of in our society.
She holds her hand over her full chest. “I’m the one he raped.”
My brothers straighten, and she holds the room hostage with her words. Her trauma is her bargaining tool into the brutality we deliver.
“I’m the one he forced. The one who gave birth to a baby when I was a child myself.
” My stomach rolls with each point she makes.
“The one who had to witness her mama’s demise because I dared to be brave.
” Her chin wobbles. “He took my baby from me and brutally terrified him. Those nightmares will haunt him forever. No mama should have to deal with that knowledge.” She stabs her chest with her finger.
“No child should ever have to go through what he did to him. He cried for me, his mama, to come save him.”
My heart hammers as I think of the torture her and Noah endured.
“I’m the one he tortured mentally, physically, sexually. Me.” Her eyes swim with unshed tears. “I’m the one who deserves vengeance, Colton.”
Her using my birth name has me softening further, and I cup her chin in the palm of my hand.
“Don’t want you being haunted by this shit, baby.” I spit on the floor.
Savage shuffles forward, and my eyes snap to his. “Thinking this closure might chase away some of those demons, brother,” he says, and I bring my gaze back to Cass’s, scanning her face for some form of reassurance.
“Are you sure?”
She stands taller. “I’m positive.”
And I believe every word. She’s never looked so brave, so fucking beautiful.
Cupping her bruised face, I lower mine so only she can hear my words.
“You’re the most beautiful Little Demon to walk this earth, you’re my strength.
You and my boy.” I glance down toward her stomach, and she understands I mean our baby too.
Taking a step back, I clear my throat before pinning my attention on Warrior. “Give her whatever she wants.”
I’m not sure what my little demon has planned, but I’m sure as shit about to find out.