Chapter 20
CHAPTER 20
BEAST
I wipe the sweat from my brow, and shake out my aching fist. I’d left Rayo in the care of some of my men as soon as he came into the compound. I knew I had to play it carefully, make him sweat before I could begin my interrogation. Not that my men didn’t work him over a little given the black eye he was sporting when I walked in.
He’s the closest we’ve got to an inside track on what Las Rosas Negras are planning, and we needed all the advantages we could get. If I can force some information out of him, then we’ll have the upper hand here.
But, in reality, there’s another reason that I’m in here with him, and not leaving this interrogation to one of my men. There’s a reason I have Thor on the door, watching to make sure we’re not disturbed. Because Rayo is a name I recognized, the moment I heard it. And I want to make him pay for what he did to Bella.
I catch my breath as I take a step back, and Rayo spits out a mouthful of blood onto the floor. I know it’s not even close to the pain he let Sheriff Grimes inflict on Bella, but it’s a start. There’s some satisfaction in knowing that I can make him pay for at least some of it, though I know I’m far from done with him yet.
“You ready to talk yet?” I snarl at him, grabbing him by the collar and yanking him roughly toward me.
He grins up at me, teeth smeared with blood, and shakes his head. “I’m never going to talk,” he shoots. “You think it’s that easy to get me to betray El Serpiente?”
I let go of him again, shoving him back down into the seat. He’s tougher than the others we’ve had in here. The Las Rosas Negras we’ve picked up before have always been quick to spill everything they know. The only problem is, it’s nothing more than what we already have. But Rayo? Rayo’s further up the food chain. He’s got something we can use, I’m sure of it. And I’m not going to walk out of this room until I know we have it.
I swing another punch at his jaw, slamming my fist into him and sending his head snapping backward—but it still doesn’t wipe that fucking smile off his face. He knows he’s gotten to me, and he knows I’m still smarting over all the shit his men put my Bella through, not to mention Harley, and I’m not doing a good job of covering it up.
“Tell me what you know,” I growl, pushing my face closer to his, locking eyes with him and daring him to defy me again. Thor is right outside the door, ready to take over when I get tired, and he’s even more brutal than I am.
Rayo shrugs again, like he doesn’t have a clue what I’m talking about. I snarl with irritation, and turn on my heel, pacing the floor in front of him. I should have known he would be tough to crack. He’s clearly got some kind of power in the organization, and he wouldn’t have survived this long if he didn’t know how to keep his mouth shut. That tattoo on the inside of his wrist, the black rose, taunts me as my mind races, trying to find some new approach to this. There must be something that he has, something he won’t lose, something he won’t risk that I can put on the line to force him to give us what we need.
“They call you Beast, right?” Rayo asks, his voice a little scratchy.
I turn to him, narrowing my eyes, not answering.
“You know that a serpent can end a beast with a single bite, don’t you?” he taunts me. Bruises are starting to form on his face, and his split lip oozes with blood, but he’s still grinning up at me like he’s just thought of the funniest thing in the world. I spit at his feet, grabbing him by the hair and dragging his head backward.
“You think that means anything to me?” I laugh in his face. I know if El Serpiente thought he could take me on, he would have done it by now. He would have tried to take me down, but he hasn’t. He knows he isn’t as strong as he thinks he is, and I can take anything he throws at me. A flash of annoyance crosses Rayo’s face, as though he thought that would be enough to really piss me off.
“He’s going to wipe you off the face of the Earth,” he protests, as I let go of him and begin pacing again. “Nobody will even know the Ruthless Kings existed. You, your men… Bella…”
I stop dead in my tracks. I don’t want him to know he’s gotten to me, but I hate hearing him even say her name. I turn to him slowly, and that grin returns to his face again.
“Oh, yeah, I remember Bella,” he continues, twisting the knife, even as his hands are bound behind his back. “You think I’d forget a pretty little thing like her?”
“Shut the fuck up,” I warn him, my voice dropping dangerously low. I feel the adrenaline rising in my system, fists clenching, ready to swing for him again.
“How do you think she would feel, being handed over to us again?” he mocks me. “You remember that, right? You remember what she went through? What Harley went through.”
Rage starts to cloud the edges of my vision, and I take a deep breath. I can’t let him get to me. This is just his way of trying to get me to break and give up on him. It’s like some part of him enjoys pushing me like this, even though he must be well aware of how much danger he’s in right now.
Or maybe he just doesn’t give a fuck. Maybe he’s already given up. And maybe he just wants to cause me as much suffering as possible before he goes out.
I’m not going to give him the satisfaction. I turn away from him and open the door, stepping outside, where Thor is waiting for me.
“You get anything?” he asks.
I shake my head curtly. “Don’t think I’m going to either,” I reply. “We don’t need him. Take him out.”
Thor nods, and I turn to head back to my office. My fist still aches from the pummeling I gave Rayo, and it’s gone some way to making me feel better about how I failed Bella and Harley before; I know it’s far from retribution, but I’ll have that soon enough, and taking out a member of Las Rosas Negras is at least something.
I wash up in the bathroom, cleaning the blood from my hands, and stare at myself in the mirror for a moment. I look old. Older than I ever thought I would get. I know a lot of that has come in the last year or so, since Bella and Harley were taken from me. I won’t be able to rest until I know I’ve taken revenge on the people who harmed them, and until I’ve made sure I’m certain nothing like that will ever happen to another young woman. To anyone at all, really. I have to bring an end to Las Rosas Negras—it’s my life’s mission.
And killing off Rayo is at least going to give me one less of them to worry about.
I slump down into my chair, reaching for my phone, planning to shoot off a message to Blue to find out how things are going in Mexico. But before I can, there’s a knock at the door. Glancing up, I see Bella standing there, hands clasped in front of her, a nervous expression on her face.
“Can I talk to you?” she asks, smiling slightly. I nod, get to my feet, and close the door behind her. I can tell when she wants privacy, she doesn’t need to spell it out for me. I can read her.
“Something wrong?” I ask with concern. Ever since we got her back, I’ve been watching her like a hawk, making sure she’s been settling back into life here as easily as she can. I know it can’t be simple for her, navigating the mess that those bastards put her through, but at least I can keep this place steady and solid for her.
“No, nothing’s wrong,” she assures me quickly. With everything that’s happened, it’s normal that my mind would jump to the worst case scenario, even if there’s no reason for it.
“I think you should sit down,” she tells me, nodding to my seat. I pause for a moment, then do as I’m told. Not many people get to give me orders, but she’s one of them.
She takes the seat opposite me, and pauses for a moment before she speaks again. I can tell whatever she’s got to say to me, it’s big.
“Bella, you’re worrying me,” I tell her bluntly. “What’s happening?”
“I…” she begins, and she stops, gathers herself, closes her eyes, and then opens them again. She grins at me. “I’m pregnant.”
I stare at her for a moment, trying to wrap my head around the enormity of the words that have just come out of her mouth.
“You’re…?”
“I’m pregnant,” she repeats again, as though making sure I heard her right.
“You’re pregnant,” I repeat after her, and the words finally begin to sink in. I let out a delighted laugh.
“Bella, that’s amazing news,” I tell her, and I get to my feet to give her a careful hug. I plant a hand on her belly, but there’s not much of a bump to feel yet.
“How far along?” I ask.
“Stitches said around four months,” she replies, her voice bubbling over with excitement. “I can’t believe it.”
“You have no idea how much I needed to hear this, Bella,” I tell her, shaking my head. It’s amazing news. In all the mess that has been happening recently, this is the one bright spot I needed—the one sign that not everything is going to shit.
And another fire under my ass to make sure Las Rosas Negras are dealt with, and soon. No way am I going to let her bring our baby into the world if I’m not completely certain I can keep them safe. I have to make sure they’re wiped off the face of the Earth before any of them so much as find out about the pregnancy, or I know that Bella is going to become a target again, and, this time, so will her child— our child.
I push those thoughts down. She doesn’t need me to think strategically right at this moment, she needs me to be happy for her, with her, and I am.
“Have you told Harley yet?” I ask, and her face drops slightly.
She shakes her head. “No,” she admits. I don’t envy her the task of breaking the news to Harley, not that I won’t be there to take some of the heat. I doubt she’s going to take it well. Probably going to see it as another member of the Kings who’ll be at risk if we don’t play our cards right.
“That’s okay,” I tell her quickly, shifting her mind away from that. The last thing she needs right now is stress. She needs to stay healthy, for our baby.
“You should get some rest,” I add, and she shakes her head at me, chuckling.
“You know I’m not an invalid, right?” she reminds me. “I’m just pregnant. Plenty of people go through pregnancies every day without having to go on bedrest?—”
“I’ll be damned if I let anything get in the way of you having a healthy baby,” I tell her. “You need anything, you let me know, okay? We’ll make sure you’re taken care of.”
“Thank you,” she murmurs, and leans in to give me a hug. I squeeze her back, holding her close for a moment. And remind myself just how important it is that we take down El Serpiente and his men–for good.