Chapter 8
Rue
Never in a million years would I have thought I’d be in a MC clubhouse about to see a man being tortured. Or that I’d be the reason for that man to be tortured. Or that I would’ve found a group of men who I trusted so quickly.
I hadn’t even told Gary what I was up to with trying to find Ryan.
And I’d known him for years. But from the moment I met Overdrive I’d just wanted to let my walls down around him.
I looked into his eyes and I just knew he wasn’t going to do anything to hurt me.
And he wasn’t going to hand me over to the cops.
I hadn’t expected him to take on this little mission of mine as his own, but after telling his brothers my story, I was getting the impression they were all looking forward to helping out.
I wasn’t used to anyone being so eager to help.
Growing up the way I did, I’d learned pretty quickly that everyone turned the other cheek if you even asked.
So I’d stopped. I’d learned to do it all on my own.
Looking around the room, my eyebrows rose.
It was sparse, but obviously set up for this kind of activity.
There was a drain in the floor and a table with all sorts of instruments, both sharp and blunt, on it.
There was a mallet, a shovel, and a large ax in the corner.
I met Overdrive’s eyes and his lips twitched a little.
He could read the shock on my face. When he said they had a space to take Rhino I hadn’t been expecting a literal torture room.
Even though he explained that they helped people, this seemed to be a bit much.
But what did I know? My way of helping people was keeping them alive, not killing their enemies.
I swallowed hard. Could I actually watch a man be killed?
Death didn’t bother me. I saw it nearly every day. I’d become immune long ago. But this?
I wasn’t sure I had any other option. Judging by the look in Rhino’s eyes as he glared at me, he’d have no problem killing me.
“Just stand over there, okay?” OD said in a low tone.
Nodding, I stepped out of the way and watched as he, Relay, Bolo, and Drifter circled around. There wasn’t enough room for everyone so the rest of the guys were out front.
“What do you want with her?” OD asked, motioning to me.
Rhino looked between us. “What’s it to ya?”
“She’s my friend,” Bolo snapped. Then his fist flew out across Rhino’s jaw, sending blood and a tooth across the room. “You hurt my friend. Now answer the fucking question.”
“She was following me.” He spit more blood from his mouth as he shrugged his shoulders, acting like the punch, and loss of a tooth, meant nothing.
“I was following Teddy,” I said. Everyone looked over at me. “He’s a friend of my brother’s.”
“Left Teddy behind before I confronted you,” Rhino said, eyes narrowing.
“I wanted to see what he was involved in,” I replied.
“Why?” Rhino snarled.
“Because…” I looked at OD and he nodded for me to keep going. “My brother went missing in that part of town six months ago.”
“So?” Rhino replied. “Why should I give a shit about that?”
“You involved?” Relay asked, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Nope.”
The bikers all exchanged looks. Relay went over to the table and picked up a hammer. He circled back around to where Rhino could see him. “See, she thinks you are.”
“Who cares what she fucking thinks?” Rhino growled. “She’s the one who started all this by following me.”
“I’m sorry that you’re the victim here. It must be terrifying to be stalked by a woman.
” OD rolled his eyes theatrically. “Whether you’re involved with the disappearance of her brother or not, most men don’t react to a woman following them with suspicion and fists,” OD said, leaning down until his face was level with Rhino’s.
“They sure as fuck don’t stalk her back to her work place and try to finish what they started. ”
“Never said I was a normal guy,” Rhino replied.
“You’re going to answer our questions,” Relay told him as OD moved out of the way.
“The fuck I will.”
“One to five odds,” Flir muttered to himself.
“You ever been tortured?” Relay asked, cocking his head.
“One to seven,” Flir whispered again.
“Those are some shit odds, hardly worth making the bet,” Strike whispered back, nudging Flir with a grin.
The way Rhino’s lips thinned out told me the answer to Relay’s question was no, but he didn’t look thrilled to get a lesson.
“I have,” Relay continued.
My eyes shot to him and I studied the man. There were shadows in his eyes. I’d noticed them earlier, his smiles never quite made it up to them. They didn’t light up with amusement the way that OD’s did.
Relay was calm, his body still as he held the hammer. He seemed at peace. “I was taught by the best,” he continued. “By assholes who were doing their damndest to get information out of me, and later tried to kill me.”
A quick look around showed grim looks on everyone else’s faces, but no surprise. They knew about this already.
“So, trust me, Rhino, you will answer my questions. It’s up to you what kind of shape you want to be in by the end of it.”
Rhino’s jaw flexed as he let that information sink in. “I’m fucking nobody. A grunt.”
“Doesn’t mean you don’t have valuable information,” OD replied.
“I can’t tell you shit,” he sighed.
“You don’t and there’s not going to be much for me to patch up afterward,” Drifter warned him, breaking his silence for the first time.
“You’ll have to kill me,” Rhino replied, “because I ain’t saying nothing.”
No one mentioned that his death was the plan anyway. At least I assumed it was. By the way OD had spoken I’d thought it was. A loud cracking sound broke my thoughts and made me jump.
Rhino howled in pain, staring down at the top of his hand. Relay had brought the head of the hammer down and probably just broke at least two or three of the metacarpals in Rhino’s hand. Those bones were fragile; it didn’t take much to snap them.
I swallowed again. This might end up being too much for me. Seeing people in pain made my fingers twitch. I wanted to help. Even though it was Rhino and he would’ve had no problem dumping my lifeless body on the sidewalk, I still had a compulsion to help him.
“You have anything to do with those kids dying on the streets?” OD asked. “Of others going missing?”
Relay paused, seeming to have no problem letting Overdrive do the questioning as long as he got to do the bashing.
Rhino pressed his lips together, glaring at the men. Another crack, this time as the hammer came down on his left hand, made him scream again and had me cringing.
Relay went around to the table once more and selected something sleek and shiny. It was a long needle.
“Not yet, Relay,” OD said with a shake of his head, “I need him to be able to hear for a bit longer.”
My eyes widened when I realized Relay was planning to use that needle to rupture Rhino’s eardrums. Pursing my lips together, I wrapped my arms around myself.
“You don’t have to stay.”
I looked up at Bolo, he was as big as Rhino was, maybe an inch taller. Shaking my head, I let out a slow breath. “I want to know what he says.”
“OD will tell you everything afterward,” Drifter said from my other side, they’d ended up standing on either side of me without me realizing it. “Doesn’t mean you have to watch this part.”
“This is happening because of me…” The guilt was thick in my throat, making the words hard to force out.
“No,” Bolo said in a low voice. Relay and OD were continuing their work in front of us as we spoke. Rhino’s screams drowned out our conversation off and on. “He brought this on himself by coming after you.”
“He wouldn’t have given you any mercy, Rue,” Drifter said, meeting my gaze.
A loud scream followed by harsh breathing made me look over and I saw that Relay was using a knife to make cuts on Rhino’s skin.
“You might have survived that parking garage,” Kilo added, shifting enough that he blocked my view of what was happening, “but only to be brought somewhere else where he could murder you.”
“Maybe he wouldn’t have,” I suggested, even though my instincts called me a fool. “Maybe he just wanted some answers.”
“You’d be sitting where he is right now,” Strike warned.
A crack and a scream and I watched as Relay began breaking Rhino’s fingers, one at a time, pausing only long enough for him to answer, or refuse, OD’s questions.
“I have no tangible proof,” I whispered. I was starting to shake. It wasn’t that I couldn’t handle blood and gore. It was the fact that instead of helping to fix what was wrong, I was standing by watching it happen to him.
“Come on,” Bolo said, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. The guys knew I’d had enough.
Overdrive’s gaze met mine briefly as Bolo walked me toward the door with everyone else following. There was worry there, but it was soon drowned out by determination. He nodded at his brother, then turned back to Rhino.
I wasn’t sure what I’d done to deserve this kind of loyalty and help from these men, but I was grateful not to be dealing with this on my own.
I would have failed. I’d probably be dead.
Stalking around in the dark with needles filled with Ketamine, I was basically LARPing as a vigilante.
Even if I got through that parking lot attack on my own, what next?
I had nothing. In fact, I was so far over my head I wasn’t sure I would’ve been able to get out of this on my own.
Even knowing deep down that Rhino was somehow a part of this, I didn’t want to watch his torture, or death, anymore. Knowing what he might have done to me still wasn’t enough to keep me in that room.
I sat down at the table with the other bikers and accepted the second glass of whiskey that was shoved into my hand.
Kilo squatted in front of me, eyeing the look on my face.
“I know this is a bit much,” he said. He used a finger to ease the glass of alcohol up to my mouth so I’d take a drink.
“But we need to know everything you do. About your brother. About Rhino. Where you were following him. That way we can get some answers.”
I was completely numb as I relayed everything I knew.
It wasn’t much to go on, other than knowing where Rhino lived and where he’d met the other guy.
Kilo nodded, squeezed my knee, then stood up and went down the hallway to join his friends.
The others started up a lively conversation, filled with jokes, and I wasn’t sure if they were trying to make me feel better, or if what was happening in the back of their clubhouse didn’t bother them.
I eventually decided it was a little bit of both as someone refilled my drink.
I took a hearty swallow, then I did my best to block out what was happening to Rhino and focused on the men around me.