Chapter 45 Ryder #2
Les raises a brow. “You think this is all I came with?” she asks. I know she’s bluffing, but she says it with such confidence, even I believe her.
Dex fires off two more shots, taking the last two guys out. “I’m sick of hearing his voice,” Dex rumbles, making Les laugh.
“Look what you did, Spinner.” She shakes her head sadly. “You pissed off the giant.” Les draws her Glock faster than I can blink, shooting Spinner in the thigh and making him scream in pain. “Shut him up!” she yells at Gage.
Before Gage can even move, Ghost lifts a big, booted foot, smashing it into Spinner’s face and knocking him out cold. “Motherfucker,” he growls before looking up at Les. “That was entertaining.”
She shrugs, tucking her Glock away, and we do the same. “What can I say? All kinds of fun seem to follow us around.” She walks over, pulls up the chair at the table, and sits down. “What did he say before we got here?” she asks, and even Ghost’s guys are eyeing her warily.
“He kept asking where Xander and their shipment were.”
“Did he message anybody while he was here?” Les asks.
“No,” Ghost shakes his head. “He was about to before you guys barged in, though.”
Les turns to Micah and Dex. “Make sure there isn’t really anyone outside. I think he was bluffing as hard as me. If it’s clear, bring the cars up.” They nod, get the keys from Gage and me, and set off outside. She turns back to Ghost. “You need to lay low.”
Ghost casts uninterested eyes over an unconscious Spinner. “What about him?”
Les grins. “He’s coming with us.”
Twenty minutes later, we’re finally back at the house.
Dex, Gage, Micah, and Les are tying Spinner up downstairs with everyone else, all pretense of a civil conversation going out the window.
Holden hightailed back to his office, and I don’t have time to check on him no matter how much I want to; my first priority is Les.
I pull open the door to the wine cellar that will take me to the hidden basement; they took Spinner in through the secret door in the garage.
I catch Leo in my peripheral vision and turn around.
“Where are you going?” I ask, and he gives me a look that calls me stupid forty times.
“With you.”
I shake my head. “You don’t need to see this.”
That sets his teeth on edge. “I’m going with you,” he repeats.
I shut the door back and step into his space. “Do you know what’s about to happen?” I ask, and he just looks at me without answering. “We’re going to torture him for information.”
“Okay,” Leo says slowly.
“Some things you don’t need to be involved in, Leo.” This is one thing we might be able to save him from seeing.
“That asshole had something to do with what happened to my mom today,” he grits out. “Quit trying to push me out.”
“I’m not trying to fucking push you out!” I yell and take a deep breath to rein in my temper. “I’m trying to save you from shit you don’t need to see.”
“I don’t need you to save me, Ryder. I’m in whether you want me to be or not.”
I shake my head and pop the door back open. “It has nothing to do with whether I want you here or not.”
I slide the panel to the side and place my thumb on the lock, waiting for it to read it and open the door. “So you admit you still don’t fucking want me here?” he asks. “Fucking figures.”
I stop dead, almost making him run into me. I slowly turn around. “I never said that.”
“You didn’t have to.”
“You remember what I said about not being a little bitch? This is what I meant.” I turn on my heel for the next door.
It also opens with a click reading my thumbprint and the same with the next.
I place my thumb on the next one that will let us into the basement.
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” It pops open, and I wave him to walk inside.
They already have Spinner hanging by his arms over his head, still out cold.
Everyone is lining the walls except Les, Micah, and Gage, who are standing in front of Spinner.
Leo is going to see Les and Gage in a whole new light.
Asshole can’t say I didn’t give him plenty of warning.
I take a spot beside Dex, propping a boot on the wall, crossing my arms over my chest. Leo walks over and stands between Evander and Mateo.
“Should he be down here?” Dex asks.
“I tried to tell him,” I shrug, “Not my fucking problem now.”
Les walks over to the table lined with all her knives, her heels clicking on the floor, and it hits me like a ton of bricks.
We haven’t grabbed someone for her to take out since she started seeing all of us.
We were getting them once or twice a night, every night.
I don’t think she’s done with her crusade, but something has quieted her mind enough to where she doesn’t need to, and my only hope is that it’s us.
Les picks up one of her ammonia capsules and glances at Leo. She sees the hard set of his jaw and shakes her head in resignation before walking back to Spinner. She cracks it open and waves it under his nose. “Wakey wakey,” she singsongs, making Gage laugh.
Spinner groans in pain and slowly opens his eyes. He lost a lot of blood from the wound in his thigh, but she didn’t hit anything vital, so he won’t bleed out. “What the fuck?” he asks gruffly.
“It’s time you answered some of my questions, Jacob.
” She pulls one of her favorite knives from the sheath on the back of her jeans.
It’s the wicked-looking curved one with her initials engraved on the blade, a gift from me.
She runs the knife up his shirt from the hem, slicing it open and exposing his chest. “What’s Viktor up to? ”
Spinner grins with blood caked on his teeth, where Ghost kicked him in the face. “I don’t have to tell you shit, you stupid bitch. You can threaten all you want; I won’t say a word.”
Les rolls her eyes. “Why do men have to resort to name calling when a woman is involved?” She steps closer and runs her knife up his thigh until it’s nestled beside his cock.
“I will cut this shriveled motherfucker off and choke you with it until you decide Viktor isn’t worth it,” she threatens, and I’m sure every man in the room winced; she’s dead serious.
“Maybe if you let me choke you with it, you wouldn’t be such a fucking bitch.” Spinner laughs at his own joke, not expecting the next hit. Gage nails him right in the ribs so hard the chains swing.
“Don’t you ever say that to her again,” Gage says through clenched teeth.
Micah walks to the table and hefts a metal baseball bat off the hooks on the wall. He swings it around, making it whoosh through the air, drops it onto the toe of his boot, then grabs it out of the air when it bounces back up, the whole time still walking back to Spinner. Show off.
“What is Viktor up to?” Les asks again while Micah is walking behind him.
“Fuck you.”
Micah swings the bat like he’s going for a home run, cracking Spinner right in the ribs. You can hear the crunch, and Spinner locks his lips to keep from screaming.
“What is he up to?” Gage asks, stepping back.
“I’m not saying shit,” Spinner replies, pain lacing his voice.
Micah swings at the other side with that sickening crunch; Spinner still doesn’t scream.
He’s going to be harder to crack than we thought.
“Tell me what I want to know, and this all stops,” Les promises. I know she means she will just kill him.
“Fuck. You,” he grits out and then spits blood on the floor at her boots.
“Well, that was uncalled for,” she grumbles, looking down at the blood splatter. “That bullet wound looks kind of bad.” She looks like she’s inspecting it, then looks at Micah. “Exit wound?”
“Nope,” Micah replies with a grin.
“Maybe I should get it out before infection sets in. We don’t want you dying because of something as trivial as a fever.
Am I right?” She hands Gage her knife while she pulls gloves on and then takes it back.
“Hold still,” she warns, knowing there is no way he can.
She slices through his pant leg and looks at the bullet wound again.
“That looks nasty,” she comments before jabbing her knife in the hole.
I look at Leo with Evander and Mateo, the latter are standing stoically with their arms crossed over their chest; Leo looks seconds from puking.
“You stupid whore,” Spinner seethes. “Wait until Viktor gets ahold of that perky ass.” On that comment, she twists the knife, and he finally screams. It’s so loud it echoes off the walls.
She jerks the knife out. “Viktor will never touch my ass,” she says, pointing the knife at him. “Now, hold still so I can get this out.”
She stabs the hole again and starts digging around, Spinner screaming the whole time. His screams finally turn to silence when he passes out. “Well, shit,” Micah mutters under his breath.
“Give him a moment of peace because he won’t get any when I wake him up again,” Les says, wiping her bloody knife on his shirt. She turns to Leo. “You shouldn’t be down here.”
He bristles, immediately standing up from the wall. “Why not?” he challenges. “Ryder still doesn’t want me here. Does that apply to you too?”
She levels him with a look that makes most men piss themselves. She isn’t in the right mindset to be arguing with him. “I don’t have time for your pity party, Leo,” she says harshly. “I didn’t say I didn’t want you down here; I said you shouldn’t be. There’s a big fucking difference.”
Leo steps forward to argue, and Evander clamps a hand on his shoulder, jerking him back. He whispers something to him harshly, and Leo slouches against the wall. Evander must be able to see the murderous look on Les’ face that Leo hasn’t recognized yet.
“Wake him up,” she barks at Gage, and Gage doesn’t even question her because he knows better. He jogs to the table and then back, waving the ammonia under Spinner’s nose. Too many more times and that wouldn’t wake him up anymore.
“Tell me about Viktor,” she grits out as soon as his eyes open.
Spinner shakes his head, and Les tucks her knife beside his cock again.
That knife is sharp enough to cut through his clothes like butter.
“Tell me about Viktor!” she yells, and Spinner flinches at the look on her face.
Finally, realizing he’s not going to win this.
“He’s coming for you,” Spinner laughs hoarsely. “I can’t wait to see you fuckers in hell.”
Les comes to the same conclusion as me; it’s going to take a whole hell of a lot to get him to talk.
We’re wasting our time with this asshole and already know who’s behind all this.
She walks over to the table and exchanges the curved one for one with a straight blade before walking back.
“Marciume all'inferno,” she mutters, then slices clean through his throat.
His head falls back at an odd angle, blood pouring down him.
“Get rid of him,” she orders. “Be ready for the games tonight.”
She slams out of the room, and Dex and I exchange a look.
She’ll be hell on wheels for the rest of the day if we don’t do something.