37. Knox #2
“Oh? Which time?” she mocks.
“The alley. He was only ever supposed to scare you. That’s all.”
“Well, congratulations on a job well done. It’s plenty scary having internal bleeding, having your ribs so badly broken that you can feel your lungs scraping up against them, threatening to puncture,” she says, grabbing a fistful of hair from the back of his head and wrenching it so that he has no choice but to look up at her.
“It’s plenty scary choking on your own blood, wondering if you’re going to spend your last moment bleeding out in a filthy alleyway. ”
He continues to make excuses, that is, until she presses the knife back to his lips, this time with the edge, splitting the skin.
“Rest assured, Bash. Everything coming to you is well earned.”
He’s crying, yanking his feet and arms frantically, but the bindings don’t give an inch.
He can barely flex his feet, and his hands remain pinned to the chair’s armrest. And Sebastian can see this isn’t a shakedown.
She isn’t just scaring him into leaving her alone and maybe getting some spoils along the way.
“Please, Anna, you don’t want to do this. You’re a good person,” he’s sobbing, giving her pause.
She releases the grip on his hair, looking at the knife in her hand as if she’s really seeing it for the first time.
“You’re right. I am.”
A modicum of hope flickers in his eyes as she lowers her mouth to his ear just before she purrs, “And I do.”
Without hesitation, she slams her hand down on the end of the armrest, and one, two, three heartbeats pass before Sebastian can process what’s just happened.
The shock doesn’t last for long as the pain finally registers and he sees his pointer finger roll away from the rest of his hand as Anna lifts the knife.
To no one’s surprise, Sebastian’s screams fill the warehouse, but the cold expression on my girl’s face never falters, even as blood pours out of the injury.
“How clumsy of me.” She grabs his middle finger and pulls it ever so slightly to the side, revealing she sliced into it as well, nearly three-fourths of the way. “Let me help with that.”
She begins tugging on it, and those screams morph into the kind of cries you’d expect to come from an injured animal. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever heard from a human, and a cough comes from behind me, sounding like someone might get sick.
Probably Michael. He can stomach a lot of things, but hand injuries, for some reason, aren’t one of them.
Amid those cries, Sebastian can only manage one word, again and again and again. “ Please!”
And all the while, there she is. My little femme fatale.
Anna stops before tearing the finger off completely, opting to all but climb into his lap.
She grips his jaw with her blood-soaked hand, her mouth coming so close to his that it looks like she might kiss him.
“That’s the thing, Bash. Unlike you, I’m not afraid to do my own dirty work.
You think you’re in pain now?” She lets out a low laugh, more befitting of a demon.
There’s even a serpentine quality to her voice.
“Oh, honey, this is only the beginning. I’m going to be removing every one of your goddamn fingers so that you can never use them to pick up a knife or a gun or your precious Montblanc to write another fucking check to your goons.
Then I’ll be taking that silver tongue of yours to make sure it can never spew any more of your lies and manipulations again.
” Her grip tightens on his jaw, and she brings the knife so close to his eyes that the blood from it catches his lashes.
“And then I’ll be prying out these to make sure I never, ever have to feel them on me again.
The last thing you’ll ever see in this world is my face smiling down on you as I carve what’s left of you into a useless husk incapable of wiping his own ass.
When I’m done, you won’t even be able to tell anyone what happened to you. ”
Sebastian is blubbering, but somehow Anna manages to make out some of what he’s saying.
“I’m sorry, can you repeat that?” she taunts.
“I’ll tell everyone,” he chokes out. “If you let me go, I’ll tell everyone what I did; I’ll get Francesca and the others to recant their statements. Sue me for defamation. I’ll plead guilty!”
“And what? I’m just supposed to take you at your word that you’ll follow through? Besides, I know better than anyone how your family operates. Even if you admit to hiring someone to attack me, you won’t be seeing the inside of a jail cell, let alone prison. How is that justice ?”
“Even if the case got settled out of court, you’d be worth millions!”
“I don’t want your fucking money.” Anna stands back up, lifting the knife again over his hand.
“I’ve got dirt on Lillian Blackwood!”
Now, that earns everyone’s attention, though we all do our best to hide it.
“What kind of dirt?” she asks, almost looking bored.
“Real estate fraud.”
“And how do you know this?”
“You don’t make bedfellows with these kinds of people unless you have your own leverage. I didn’t think she’d pull anything to screw me over, but I wanted something on her just in case.”
Anna presses the tip of her blade into the skin just below his eye, hard enough that a thin trail of blood begins running down his cheek. She twists the knife, looking for all intentions like she’s going to slice up, but she stops at the lash line, grinning. “Well now, look who just became useful.”
By the time the Lambo pulls up to the warehouse, we’ve gotten the details from Sebastian’s dossier on Lillian. Now, it’s just a matter of getting the actual evidence. That’s where Moretti comes in.
He’s the first person Sebastian has seen in here not wearing a mask or lurking in the shadows, and the latter looks at him like he’s God. Even more so when Sebastian notices the three-piece designer suit. He believes he’s met someone of his echelon, someone who’s come to save him.
That bubble quickly bursts when Moretti introduces himself.
Yeah, even a dipshit like Sebastian is familiar with the mafia family’s reputation.
“Here’s the deal,” I say, pointing from him to Moretti. “Once I’m done with you, you’re going to get my friend all of the evidence you have on Lillian Blackwood. Then, and only then, his men will get your ass cleaned up and dumped at the closest hospital.”
“Cleaned up?” Sebastian sputters, looking between his hand and his discarded finger. How cute. He still thinks there’s a chance of it being reattached.
Moretti snorts. “Yeah, there’s a thing called DNA evidence, dickhead.
Just in case you decide to get cute and start talking to the police, we’re not about to let you go waltzing into the hospital looking like a Field Day for the forensics lab.
There’s going to be a lot of scrubbing and some chemicals.
You’re not going to enjoy it,” he says, eyeing the many open injuries.
It seems he has just as much a flair for the theatrics as his cousin, because Moretti leans back against the nearby table, plucking up one of the scalpels Anna was looking at earlier.
“Don’t make the mistake of believing we’re stupid.
You think that as soon as you get to the safety of the hospital, you’ll be able to sing like a canary and that your family will protect you.
But that’s the thing. You’ve got connections in high places.
You think that makes you untouchable. But it’s the people in the low places you need to worry about.
Because I know them all. They’re the people that make your coffee in the morning, that clean your penthouse, that cook your meals, that do all the things your pampered ass is incapable of doing on your own.
You depend on them for everything, and they’re everywhere.
Sure, you can try vetting these people, but they don’t have any criminal history.
They just have loyalty. To me. If you fuck any of us over or come anywhere near his girl ever again, it’ll be open season on you.
You’ll have to eat every meal, wondering if it’s laced with something.
You’re going to have to worry about whether or not the lovely lady at the bar is just trying to get you alone so we can slit your throat.
And you’re going to need some new bodyguards now.
Who’s to say they won’t be one of my men?
There are going to be eyes on you for every breath you draw.
You’re not going to be able to even take a shit in peace. ”
Sebastian nods in understanding, but he only now seems to process what I said before…or the fact I’m not making any moves to untie him. “What did you mean by when you’re done with me? ” He looks back at Anna, pleading. “You said if I gave you what you wanted, you’d let me go.”
“And we will,” I confirm. “But it was you who failed to specify when . Besides, just because my girl’s done having fun doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be allowed to have my own.”
Sebastian turns to Moretti for help, but he just lights up a cigarette, looking bored.
“Don’t worry. I won’t be doing anything to you that won’t heal,” I assure, lifting the sledgehammer off the floor. “Well, mostly.”