Chapter Thirty-Six
RIVER
I know he must be able to feel the heat of the tip from the way sweat drips from his temple, and if the way his body is shaking is anything to go by, then he’s scared. Good, he should be fucking terrified.
“You know I’m a firm believer in karma,” I say, my voice cold. “And it just so happens I’m here to help ensure you receive it.”
I press the cigar to his cheek and hold it there. He writhes under my hold and screams like a pussy. The more he struggles, the more my blade slices into his skin. I’m close enough to be hit with the smell of burning flesh. It’s so thick and rich that I swear I can almost taste it.
Pulling it away, I toss it back into the ashtray and study my handiwork.
Richard heaves, his hand flying to his cheek. “You burnt me,” he cries out.
“Hurts, doesn’t it?”
I release him, and he falls backwards and lands on the sofa behind him, his complexion taking on a green hue and his face flushed .
“Now, I can keep this up all night and add a few more of those to the collection. It’s the least you deserve after what you did to Lily.”
There’s a glimmer of recognition in Richards’s expression. I pull off my balaclava and glare at him.
“That’s right, motherfucker. Did you think you could hurt Lily and get away with it?”
The sound of movement behind me makes me glance over my shoulder, and I watch as Jax and Elliot pull theirs off.
There’s no point in any pretence now. Besides, I want him to know it’s us.
“What’s the matter? You got nothing to say?” Jax asks as he stands beside me and pulls something out from the inside of his coat.
He pulls it taut between both hands.
“Do you recognise this?”
I do a double-take at the leather belt he’s holding. Lily’s dried blood still coats the metal of the Hermès belt buckle.
Before he even has a chance to reply, Jax flicks his wrist. The sound of the leather snapping echoes through the air as the metal connects with Richards’s arm, and he lets out a howl of pain.
He repeats the action with the other arm. Richard tries feebly to hide from the blow, but it’s useless. The short-sleeved shirt does nothing to protect his foreman as an open laceration appears, blood oozing to the surface.
“What? Nothing to say for yourself,” I say, reaching for the cigar, pleased to see it’s still smouldering. “How about we give you a matching one of these?” I grab his arm and hold it to the inside of his wrist.
“No, p-please stop. I-I’ll pay you.” He sniffs as tears streak his face, and snot drips from his nostrils.
“You think your money can protect you after what you did to Lily?” Elliot says, his hand brushing over my lower back as he tilts his head and holds his other hand out for the cigar .
I smile and hand it over.
“Lily has what? Three cigar burns?” he asks, his gaze moving to mine.
Richard shuffles away, but Jax stops him with a belt lash to his leg.
“Yeah, that doesn’t mean there weren’t others.”
Elliot strikes out, grabbing Richard by the throat and squeezing. The sight of him suddenly so unhinged, as much as I hate to admit, is kind of a turn-on.
“You don’t understand?” he cries, his hand reaching out for Elliot’s wrist.
“Oh, we understand perfectly. You’re an abuser. A low life, the scum of the earth. A predator.”
Elliot presses the cigar to Richards’s chest, where his collar is open. The smell of burning hair and flesh marries with his scream, his voice growing hoarse.
“And don’t think we don’t know about your proclivities for little boys.”
Richard sputters an unintelligible response as Elliot tosses the cigar back into the ashtray.
He’s a sniffling mess and we’ve not even done half to him what he did to Lily.
Jax flicks the belt, catching Richard on the hip, causing him to cry out again.
Prick.
“Now, tell us. Where is she? Where the fuck is Mia?” Jax’s voice is as hard as a stone, and he has a cold determination that, one way or another, Richard will tell us what we need to know.
“Y-you leave my daughter out of this,” he says, trying to sit up straighter. “She has nothing to do with this.”
I raise my eyebrows and shake my head. “And yet you put a fucking target on her back when you put Lily on the dark fucking web.”
He baulks at that.
“Yeah, we spoke to George. He was easy enough to break, if you know what I mean,” Jax says with a sadistic grin.
If I thought Richard was pasty-looking before, he’s practically green now.
“That’s right, Dicky boy, we know all about your fucked up little enterprise,” I say as I play with my knife, the blade glinting off the opulence of the lights above. “If you think this is bad, you’re in for a rude awakening.”
I lower the tip of my blade to his chin and use it to tilt his face to mine. “This will be like a walk in the park in comparison. When the people you screwed over catch up to you, what do you think they’ll do to you—to Mia?”
Of course, I’m only saying this to get a rise from him. We’ll protect her in any way we can, but we can’t do that until we find her.
“So if you care about your daughter at all, you’ll tell us where the fuck she is right now.”
He squirms under our scrutiny like the pathetic worm he is. When his reply doesn’t come quick enough, Jax lashes out with the belt once more for good measure, striking his arm and leaving a huge welt in its wake.
I thought I was fucked up with the thoughts of retribution that had been circulating in my mind, my need to make Richard hurt becoming a fixation, but Jax bringing the same belt that cunt used to hurt our Lily is fucking genius.
I’m actually a little disappointed Richard doesn’t even have the backbone to try and defend himself and give me more of a reason to make him bleed.
I kick his barefoot hard, scuffing the pristine floor in the process. Whoops.
“Where is she?”
There’s static in my ear right before a voice comes through my earpiece.
“Jackson, there’s something you need to see. ”
He folds the belt in half and points it at Richard. “Keep him here. I’ll go check it out. Keep comms on,” Jax says, passing Elliot the belt as he makes his way below deck, letting Louis know he’s on his way.
“Just had word from Gabe. He says there’s movement, possibly incoming,” Mason says into the comms.
“How far out?” Jax asks.
“Gabe says we have maybe four minutes at the most.”
I glance at Elliot. Fuck, this is about to take a very dangerous turn. I reach into my pocket and pull out some cable ties.
“Wrists,” I bark, causing Richard to flinch. His hands tremble as he holds them in front of him, and I reach out to circle his wrist with the tie, pulling it through hard until his wrists are secure.
“Maybe we should make you walk the plank and see if you can swim with your hands tied,” I say with a wicked grin.
“Two minutes,” Mason says into thecomms.
“What do you want to do, boss?” I ask, confusing the fuck out of Richard, who has no idea what’s going on.
But his reply throws me through a loop.
“Fuck, I found Mia!”