Fifteen
Oz
When I stepped into the underground cellar on the Cash property, my thoughts went from the woman I had just tucked into bed while she slept so damn hard that she hadn’t stirred to her younger brother, hanging by his wrists from the ceiling as his feminine-sized feet barely brushed the ground beneath him. Other than one of his eyes being swollen shut, he looked untouched. I wondered briefly what he had done and to who for them to put their fist in his face.
He stared at me through his good eye, and his body trembled. The guy would break easy.
“Do what you want, but don’t kill him,” Linc informed me.
I had known he was here. I’d smelled his favorite cigar the moment I walked down the stairs.
My eyes swung over to where he sat on the stool in the other corner. No one else was down here. I hadn’t expected Bane to be here since he’d had to be away from Halo. After returning from Morrocco, he’d have rushed straight to their bed.
“Why?” I asked, not sure I was going to like what he was about to say next.
If this was an order from Blaise, then I would have to obey. If it was one from Linc, then…well, I might work around that. Accidents happened.
Linc took the cigar from his teeth. “Blaise made a deal with the Feds and got some future goodwill when needed from the US Marshalls if we handed him over alive. But he’s facing ten years in prison and a fine of two hundred grand.”
Fuck. I’d told myself this was a possibility.
I turned back to him, and hatred for the bastard seethed through me.
“I guess I can wait ten years before I watch the life leave your eyes,” I told him.
His eyes were the same shade of brown as Winslet’s, but they didn’t have her almond shape, and they weren’t outlined in her thick black lashes.
“You got your money,” he blurted out. “I’m sorry!”
I took another step toward him as I reached into my pocket for my pack of cigarettes. “For what exactly?” I asked him, then tapped one out into my hand before shoving the rest back where I kept them.
His Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat. “For cleaning the money through you. Samson said it was the quickest and safest way to do it. I shouldn’t have listened to him.”
Taking my lighter, I lit the end of the much-needed smoke, then took a long pull. “No,” I agreed. “You shouldn’t have.”
“I’m sorry. I’ll do whatever you want me to do,” he pleaded.
I waited a moment more, giving him a chance to ask about her. Show some concern for his sister. When he said nothing, not even a mention of her, I walked up and slammed my fist into his good eye. His body jerked, and he groaned, but I’d expected more from the power of the impact. He didn’t wail.
Grabbing his chin, I squeezed it to the point of breaking his jaw as he whimpered. I blew smoke in his face, then let go of him. I stepped back and took another swing. This time, the crack of his bones got more of a cry from him. Blood spewed from his nose. He spit the blood pouring into his mouth, but he still wasn’t begging and sobbing. The fucker’s pain tolerance was higher than expected.
“I’m waiting,” I told him.
He spit more blood, staring at me, his eyes full of fear, then asked, “Wh-wh-at f-f-for?”
I was gonna have to hit him again. The rage that rolled through me as he continued not to give one fuck about Winslet when she’d worried so damn much about him was taking over. Normally, I’d have a hard time punching a guy this damn weak and small. I would put him in some form of torture device and walk away while he died slowly. This selfish bastard, however, had triggered my temper.
“What for?” I repeated. Disgust with him laced in my words.
Blood dripped off his chin still, but the gushing was done. His one eye, which wasn’t swollen closed yet but hurt enough that he could only squint, widened some with confusion. Motherfucker was going to cause me to punch him to death. Which honestly wouldn’t take that much.
Stalking back over to get in his face, I lowered my head to look him dead in the eye. He winced but stood still as he prepared for whatever I was about to do next.
“For you to ask about your sister, you fucking piece of shit,” I snarled, fisting my hands to keep from grabbing his head and snapping his neck.
That would not go over well with the boss. If I did kill him, it was likely I’d follow this bitch to hell shortly after. Blaise Hughes wasn’t someone you disobeyed.
“Winzy?” He said it like a question. As if she were the last thing on his mind.
My hand shot out, and I grabbed him by the throat and squeezed hard as his one open eye bulged.
“Easy,” Linc barked.
I let go of him, shoving him backward so that he swung, while I took long strides away from him before I wrote my death sentence. My hate-filled eyes shifted to Linc. The way he studied me, as if he wasn’t sure what was wrong with me, didn’t help the fury that continued to build.
Taking the knife lying on the shelf where it was kept, I spun back to look at the man. “Yes,” I said, feeling on the verge of feral.
“Wh-what about her? You let her go. He”—his beaten face turned in Linc’s direction—“said she was back at her apartment.”
Clamping the cigarette between my teeth, I didn’t take my eyes off him when I asked Linc, “Did you tell him because he’d asked or because you thought he wanted to know?” If it was the former, then some of this rage might ease.
“I thought he’d want to know.”
Perry’s face moved back until he was looking at me again. He then eyed the blade in my hand.
“She worried about you. Asked about you. Was fucking terrified that we’d kill you,” I told him. “Yet you knew we had taken her. I had taken her, and you did nothing to save her.”
He gulped again. “She was innocent. I knew you wouldn’t hurt an innocent woman.”
I raised an eyebrow. “You knew?” I asked. “Did you know who we were? Who had taken her? Who you had stolen from?”
He said nothing as his body shook and his bloodied bottom lip wobbled. “Yes.” His one word no more than a whisper.
Taking the tip of the blade, I ran it down his cheek slowly. He closed his eyes, breathing fast and quick.
“And you thought that the Mafia had morals? That we wouldn’t harm a female?”
His breath hissed as I broke the skin over his bottom lip and opened it for him, watching it ooze red.
“TELL ME!” I roared when he didn’t respond.
“I knew,” he said, struggling to talk with his damaged lip, “you wouldn’t hurt her because of the way she looked.”
My brows drew together. “You bargained your sister’s life on her pretty face saving her? Did you consider that one of us could have taken that hot little body and raped her?” The thought of anyone doing that, however, did not help my current state of mind. It only pushed me closer to the crazy line.
He said nothing.
I sliced down his other cheek in one violent strike, which caused him to cry out and jerk against the ropes.
“DID YOU?” I shouted in his face.
He closed his eyes, and a tear rolled down, turning pink, mixing with the blood, then finally a watery red as it fell from his chin. “Possibly.”
If I hadn’t been so close to him, I wouldn’t have heard it.
The tremor that coursed through me made everything around me begin to slowly fade as my vison tunneled. Some lethal beast broke free inside me with a slaughterous craving as I raised my hand that held the knife.
I heard something in the background, but I didn’t care. Every thump of my heart urged me to take his life. Pulverize him until he was no longer recognizable. He didn’t deserve the lungs in his chest that allowed him to breathe. I could cut him open and take them out with my bare hands.
The loud shouting as arms wrapped around me from behind managed to bring me back. My vision cleared, and I heard Linc’s voice as he demanded I calm the fuck down. I blinked, then focused on Perry, who watched me as blood came from the new wounds across his chest. They were in the form of an X . Slashed one way and then the other. I was holding the bloody knife, but I didn’t remember doing it. The cuts weren’t deep enough to be deadly. He would only be scared. Permanently.
“Fucking hell!” Linc said, sounding relieved that I was no longer swinging my blade. “What the hell, Oz? I’ve never seen you lose your shit like that. You need to leave. Cool down. This is done. He’s being handed over in the morning, and now, I need to call Doc to come stitch his ass back together tonight.”
I nodded, and he dropped his hold on me. Not sure I trusted myself to look at the fucker hanging there and not finish what I’d started, I turned and walked out, leaving my weapon on the shelf as I went. I didn’t say another word, and I didn’t stop until I was almost to the Escalade I’d taken to Louisiana. I’d not taken the time to drop it off and get my Hummer.
Stopping when I reached the driver’s side, I placed both my hands on the window, my palms flat, and dropped my head, taking several calming breaths. I stayed that way until my heart stopped racing and the unhinged feeling was completely gone and no longer lurking on the edges.
What the fuck had happened in there? I didn’t know. I was always laid-back and calm when it came time to torture someone. My emotions never came into play. Hell, I hadn’t known I had any emotions so intense and deranged.
I needed sleep. I needed to go home. Get a shower and sleep. That had to be it. I was sleep-deprived from this week. Then, tomorrow night, I would get drunk and fuck. Several times.
I would feel like myself again.
“You want to tell me what that was in there?” Linc’s voice called out.
I dropped my hands and turned around to face him several feet away. The tip of the cigar in his mouth was the only light out here, except the moon.
I shrugged. “I’ve had little sleep this week.” I gave him the only excuse I could think of.
He took the cigar from his mouth. “Not buying it. What is going on with you and the woman? You fuck her?”
My body tensed, and that new, disturbing shit inside me started to stir again. “Nothing is going on. I never touched her,” I snarled. Except the time I’d slammed her against the fridge. And tonight, when I’d carried her inside her apartment and tucked her in bed.
“You sure? Because I thought you wanted revenge on Perry Gerard for funneling his fake money through you to the tune of four million. But you didn’t say anything about that. You wanted to take his lungs from his chest because you said he didn’t deserve them, all because he didn’t seem to care about his sister’s well-being.”
I hadn’t realized I’d said that out loud. Jesus, I needed to go to bed.
“Like I said, I’m past the exhausted point.”
Linc put the cigar back in his mouth, holding it between his teeth. “Uh-huh,” he replied, not looking convinced. “Just make sure you and your dick stay away from her. She’s gonna end up questioned by the Feds. He deposited five grand of his play money in her checking account last week. When they trace it back to her, she’s gonna have a spotlight on her. We don’t need that shit. Not after this.”
He started back into the woods to return to the cellar, and I watched him go.
The idea of Winslet being pressed by the Feds, having to undergo their form of interrogation—I wasn’t going to let that happen. Guessed sleep wasn’t coming for me after all. I had to go handle one more thing.