Chapter 16
NORA
Bee and I lean against the wall as we watch the Wraiths beat Burres. They know exactly where to make it hurt without causing too much damage.
“What a sight,” Bee breathes happily.
I chuckle; she’s not wrong.
We don’t have a roof on the QD yet, so we can’t hang Burres up while the men work him over. Instead, they form a circle around him, bouncing him from brother to brother using their fists.
I have to admit, it looks more effective than stringing him up. He sobs after the first punch. Fucking weak-arsed pussy. I bet he doesn’t give a fucking scooby about the girls who pleaded with him not to sell them.
“It is a fine sight,” I agree as Nickel punches Burres in the kidney, pushing him towards Brass, who punches him in the stomach.
Blue delivers the next punch.
I love this club. They’ve filled a hole I didn’t realise I was empty when I left the army.
Coal lets them take out their anger on the man for ten minutes before he looks over at me with a raised eyebrow. “Nora, you think he’s ready for you?”
“Sure. Strap him to the table, and I’ll get my stuff.”
Moving to the wall, I open the cupboard and survey my tools. We have electricity and water running in here, but not much else.
We need to make sure the cleanup is easy. Bottles of bleach are lined up against the back wall, and we’ve covered the entire floor with plastic.
I select the truth serum from my stash, but first, I want to see how much information I can get out of Burres before I use it. I only have a little left, and I’m not sure when I’ll be able to get more from the Skulls.
After perusing my torture devices for a few minutes, I decide that tonight is a good night for the Pear of Anguish.
It’s similar to a modern-day speculum, but not as sleek.
One end is pear-shaped and opens like a flower when you turn the screw.
It can be inserted into all sorts of interesting places.
Tonight, we’re going to use it for a bit of waterboarding.
The table I designed can be turned over, or we can stand it upright. I knew what I needed, and Cross, Iron, and Brass built it for me in the workshop.
Behind me, the brothers are strapping a crying, snivelling Burres to the table, ignoring his cries about us having the wrong man and paying whatever we want if we let him go.
“Ready for you, Nor,” Nickel says.
“Thanks, honey,” I reply, turning with my tray of goodies.
Placing them on a wheeled trolley, I push it over to the table and stop beside Burres, who's now silent with fear. I stare at him for a minute, looking him up and down. Gone is his polished facade, replaced by a snivelling weasel.
“Please,” he whispers, “you have to help me. You have the wrong person. I can pay. As much as you want.”
Raising my eyebrow, I look at Bee. “You think he let the girls who asked for help leave when they begged?”
Bee walks over to the other side of the table and looks down at the snivelling man with disgust. “Doubt it. Men like him are bullies.”
“See? My friend agrees with me,” I say conversationally, returning my attention to Burres.
“No,” he whimpers. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Bee looks at her tablet. “You are Andrew Miles Burres-Winston, yes?”
I pick up a knife from my tray and stab him through the fleshy part of his thigh. “My friend asked you a question. Are you Andrew Miles Burres-Winston? Answer her, or I’ll stick you like a pincushion.”
“Yes.” He nods.
“See? That wasn’t so hard, was it?” Bee shakes her head at him. “You’re the CEO of several companies, on your fourth marriage, and you have no children. Is that correct?”
I raise my knife.
“Yes, that’s me,” he hurriedly answers.
“Well, then.” Bee smiles happily, patting him on the shoulder. “You are the right man.”
“No, no, I’m not. I don’t know why you’ve kidnapped me. If it’s for money… a ransom, I’ll pay you whatever you want.”
“Oh, don’t worry about that.” Bee waves a dismissive hand. “We’re already draining your accounts and funnelling money to various charities. What we want from you is information. My friend here is very good at torture.”
She leans forward and whispers, “I’d answer her questions pretty sharply. She doesn’t have much patience for human traffickers, but you more than anyone else. See, you trained Lloyd, and he sold her sister. You’re in for a world of hurt.”
Bee stands as he whimpers, patting his shoulder with mock sympathy. She gives me a wink. “Have fun.”
I love my friend. She always injects humour into these situations, which is off-putting for those we want to extract information from.
Picking up the Pear of Anguish, I hold it up so he can see it clearly and slowly turn the screw to open it.
“I don’t know a Lloyd,” Burres whispers.
“Really?” I tut and raise an eyebrow, turning the screw the other way so the device closes. “You don’t want to lie to me, Burres. You lot never learn. We can find anything when we follow the money. And we’ve got the best of the best on our side.”
I pause for emphasis. “So you see, we know we have the right man. Besides, Lloyd squealed like the rat he was. Right now, the authorities think you’ve done a runner, so nobody is looking for you. And this place is very remote, so you can scream as loudly as you want. Nobody will hear you.”
Leaning over him, I hold his gaze. “And you are going to scream, that I can promise you. Every time you do, I want you to remember each woman, man, and child you’ve trafficked over the years and think about how their screams went unheard. But my friend is right. I want information.”
I turn to select the head strap from the tray and secure his head to the table, making sure he can’t move. “But first, I’m going to make you scream.”
His scream becomes a gurgle as I insert the pear into his mouth.
“A little unfair of me, I know,” I say as I unscrew the bolt and the pear widens. “But I’m sure some of their screams were silent too.”
When the device is completely open, stretching his mouth wide, I use my knife to cut his clothes from him. Leaving him naked on the table, I toss the garments onto the plastic to be burned.
“Well, that’s not a pretty sight,” Brass complains.
“It’s really not,” I agree, standing back and looking at the pale, pasty body on the table.
“Do you need a hand?” Coal asks.
I look at the brothers, leaning casually against the wall. Bee has her face buried in her tablet, ready to take notes once we get to the truth serum stage.
I hesitate for a split second before I look at Nickel. He’s seen me do my thing, but that was before he made me his. Will I see disgust in his eyes?
No. All I see is love as he holds my gaze and blows me a kiss.
Happiness bubbles through my bloodstream, and a wide smile breaks over my face. He understands me. He sees me.
Returning my attention to Coal, I reply, “No. It needs to be a woman who humiliates him.”
Coal tilts his chin. “Fair enough, but take a break when you need to. We’re here for you.”
“Thank you, Coal. And thank you all for welcoming me the way you have. I’ve missed this, and I don’t mean the torture. I mean everything else.”
He lifts his chin again, letting me know he understands.
Turning back to Burres, I make shallow cuts all over his body. His muffled screams are music to my ears as Bee reads all his transgressions aloud from her tablet. And they’re plentiful.
When I’m done with my knife, I pick up the salt and rub it into every cut I’ve made until he passes out.
“You want us to wake him up?” Brass asks.
“Nope. This should do the trick.” I walk to the sink and fill up a stainless-steel jug. I won’t need a lot of water for this part.
Carrying the jug back to the table, I pick up the remote and hand it to Cross. We’re all gloved, so I don’t worry about transferring blood to Cross, and the control is wrapped in plastic. Clean-up will be easy enough, although we’ll still wipe everything down with bleach once we’re done.
“You’ll have to turn him pretty sharpish so he doesn’t drown, but I want him to know what it feels like when you can’t breathe.”
“Huh, a simplified version of waterboarding,” Iron says, impressed. “I like it.”
Amused, I shake my head. “I won’t do this for long. Then we’ll question him. The truth serum will work quicker with him in this state.”
“We’re not in a rush,” Coal assures me. “Do what you have to do.”
I begin to pour the water into Burres’ open mouth. He jerks awake, and Cross turns the table so the water runs from his mouth onto the floor. I don’t want to kill him yet.
When I think he’s done, I nod at Cross, who turns Burres back over.
I lean over his head to meet his frightened eyes. Seeing his terror fills me with satisfaction.
“Welcome back.” I grin at him before pouring more water into his mouth.
I step back as he chokes. Cross turns the table again. The brothers step closer, interested in what I’m doing.
I repeat the process twice more until Burres is completely disoriented. When Cross turns him back over, I pick up the syringe I filled earlier and inject the truth serum into his neck.
And unscrew the Pear of Anguish, removing it from his mouth.
“Ready, Bee?” I ask.
“Ready. Ask away.”
We made a list of questions in Church, and Burres is forthcoming with all the answers.
I ask my final question. “Any other trafficking we don’t know about, and do you have names?”
“Babies,” he mutters. “Selling babies.”
His words chill me to the bone, and I sense the shocked tension in the room.
“What do you mean, selling babies?” I ask, my voice dangerously quiet.
“Take… women. Breed. Sell,” he mutters before passing out.
“Fuck,” echoes throughout the QD.
Someone is breeding women and selling their babies.
“Can you get more out of him?” Coal asks, coming to stand next to me.
“I’ll try, but he’s nearly done,” I warn.
“Do what you can, darlin’,” Nickel says. “He may not know much more, but that’s never stopped us before. We’ll find out somehow.”
“Nickel’s right,” Copper agrees. “Whatever you get is better than nothing.”
“These motherfuckers,” Cross growls, pacing up and down. I’ve never seen the usually stoic, quiet brother like this. “Babies? Fucking babies? What sick fucker does shit like that?”
“Statistically, it’s usually women,” Bee says softly.
I meet her gaze. She’s not wrong. Men don’t get involved in selling babies. But women? Yeah.
Copper wraps an arm around Bee’s shoulders and pulls her into his body. This will hit them hard. They rescued their son, Noah, when he was put up for sale.
“Do what you can, Nora,” Nickel says, coming towards me. He presses his lips to the side of my head. “We’ll find a way to stop them.”
“We will,” Brass agrees. “It’s what the Queens Wraiths do. We punish those who harm innocents.”
The brothers nod as one, and shouts of “Wraiths” fill the night like a battle cry.
I pick up the smelling salts when silence settles again and hold them under Burres’ nose. “Tell me about the babies.”
He doesn’t know much, but he gives us a name before his heart gives out.
It’s something.
Every IT person on our team will be looking for information on someone called The Nanny. Not a straightforward task, considering how common that term is. But I have faith that they’ll find them, even if it takes years.
Brass, Bolt, and Iron offer to clean up the room, and I accept. However, cleaning my tools is my job. They understand and are happy to work around me while I bleach and clean every speck of blood from them. I use luminol last, then a UV light to check that they’re spotless.
It’s early morning by the time we finish, and the sun is lighting up the morning with a pink, cleansing glow.
Nickel is waiting for me as I climb the stairs out of the QD, holding a black bag for my clothes. I follow him around the back of the van, stripping and shoving my coveralls, t-shirt, and leggings into the bag before dressing in a tracksuit.
We don’t say one word. It’s one of the many things I love about my man. He knows I need time to decompress. I’ll talk when I’m ready.
Nickel walks away and hands the bag to Blue. He stacks it with the others in a trailer on the back of a golf cart that Thea sometimes uses for the trip to the clubhouse from her home. Then, he drives towards the cidery, where I know they’ve got an incinerator.
Nickel turns back to me and holds out his arms. I walk right into them, sighing contentedly as they close around me. He holds me for a minute before sliding an arm under my legs. He lifts me and strides towards our home.
Burying my face in his throat, I whisper, “Love you, Nickel.”
He turns his head to skim his lips over my forehead. “Love you too, Nora. More and more each day. Let me take care of you, darlin’. You’ve been strong enough for one night.”
“Okay,” I agree.
Tears fill my eyes, and I don’t stop them from falling. They wet his shirt as I try not to think of all those innocent babies and the pain their mothers must be going through.
Nickel steps into our home and heads straight for the shower, turning it on and letting it heat as he strips us.
I can’t seem to stop crying now that I’ve started.
My tears fall onto his shoulders as he kneels to remove my tracksuit bottoms. The tears continue to fall as he guides me under the spray and fills his hands with shampoo.
He gently washes my hair, then my body, leaving no spot untouched.
Not once does he tell me to stop crying.
When we’re clean, he holds me to him as the water beats down on us.
Finally, I feel like I can breathe again, and my tears dry up. I tilt my head and look into his eyes. All I see is love, affection, and a bit of sadness.
“Will you make love to me?” I whisper.
“Anytime, anyplace,” he responds with a soft smile, wiping my cheeks with his thumbs.
A smile tilts my lips as I stand on tiptoe and seal my lips to his. We don’t bother with towels. Nickel lifts me and walks us wet and naked to our bed, where he kisses me until I’m breathless before he slides his hard cock inside me.
Wrapping me up in his arms, he holds me close, rocking his hips slowly as he moves within me.
It’s exactly what I need—soft, sweet, and gentle.
Nickel swallows my breathy sigh as I come in long, drawn-out waves, pulling him along with me.
There will be time to pick it all apart and make sense of the information we’ve gathered over the next few weeks. Time to plan what we’re going to do next.
One thing I know for sure is that I’ll be resigning as a sniper for the Skulls. I want to stay home with my new family, with the man who claimed my heart by storm in a single night.
I’m sure my family is smiling down on us from wherever they are. This is all my parents ever wanted for me… to be happy and loved. I hope they know that I am.
I’ve found happiness in the most unlikely place, with a man I never saw coming. But he’s mine, and I’m his, for however long we have on this earth.
Exhausted from the day, we hold each other tightly and drift into sleep.