Chapter 32 #2
Before the man on the phone says anything, he bursts out in a deranged cackle. “I have your solution wrapped up in a nice, pretty bow,” says the man who was talking to my papa, his voice more erratic now, more playful, like he knows this man well. He’s not scared of him like he was of my papa.
“I’m listening,” comes the other person, their voice a dark growl.
“The Stryker brothers have a girl staying with them. She belongs to a very wealthy Italian family who are offering a million dollars to get her back. I took on the job, but only problem is, I can’t be seen in their territory, and the only way to get close to her is through that fucking club, The Raven’s Nest. She’s dancing there. ”
“Hmm. You want me to use my membership to get access to her?”
“Yeah, get close to her, pay for a lap dance or some shit. Slip her a sedative and get her out of town to me. I’ll do the rest.”
“I want fifty percent,” the other man growls.
Even more sickness fills me. Tears well in my eyes as hopelessness overwhelms me. They’re talking about me like I’m a thing. Not a human with feelings.
“Done deal. Whatever happens to her while she’s out of it can be the icing on the cake.
I just need her alive and on a plane by the end of the week.
We both know you have been waiting for this opportunity to seek petty revenge on those fuckers for what they did to your brother.
What better way than stealing their girl from right under their noses?
” A bitter laugh comes down the line that has me gagging, then Mal stops the recording.
I dry-retch, trying to focus on the desk in front of me to stop from actually vomiting my breakfast all over Jagger’s office.
My head spins, and Asher is right there, supporting me, rubbing my back gently.
But nothing will take this feeling away.
Nothing ever. How could anyone be so cruel?
“What the hell did you do to this guy?” I whisper into the now very silent room.
“I’ll let Jagger explain that one,” Mal mutters back as he closes the recording.
But Asher just stares back at me, his eyes filled with pain. “I’m so sorry, little princess. You have to know we won’t let either of them get their hands on you.”
I gape back at him. I’m trying to find words, but sickness is overtaking any part of my brain that can form a sentence. My papa has sold me out to the worst possible evil, and he doesn’t even care. All I’m good for is leverage in his next business deal.
“You can see why we had to let you hear this for yourself,” Mal offers, his face kinder now.
“Because Jagger has already made the decision that I won’t be going back to work,” I mutter.
Asher’s eyes are filled with sympathy. “Not until we catch the second guy, anyway.”
My eyes go wide, and a strange new feeling comes over me. “You have the first guy?” I swallow the lump in my throat.
Mal presses a button, and the large glass window across from us comes to life.
I can make out a room, a concrete space that’s mostly empty with just a chair in the center.
A man sits slumped over, his hands bound to the arms of the chair.
A jade-green snake tattoo slithers its way from his wrist up to his concealed biceps.
This is why Jagger was in such a rush to get down here this morning.
Also explains what happened to Asher’s fists and why he has blood all over his shirt.
They have beaten the shit out of this guy.
From the way he’s head is hanging low, he looks half dead already.
I glance at Asher. Part of me didn’t think he had it in him. He’s so carefree, so playful most of the time. “You… What are you going to do with him?”
“Get some answers about the mystery man he was talking with. That fucker has a membership at Sloane’s club and is out for revenge on us. A very dangerous combination when lots of innocent women are at risk.”
Through the window, Jagger walks around behind him, pulling his head back by his hair. “You ready to tell us who the fucker you made a deal with is yet?” his voice booms through the room, sounding scary as all hell.
Cruz moves abruptly, slamming the man across the face with his fist. Blood flies, splattering over the mat they have laid down under his chair. They have this set-up all planned.
I shriek and cover my face, not wanting to see the horror show taking place in front of me.
Asher’s arms wrap around me tightly. “You have to understand, princess, there is only one way to deal with scum like this.”
“You’re going to beat him to death.” I sob, unable to help the tears that have now taken over.
I want to say violence is never the answer, but knowing what this man was going to do to me, having heard that conversation, I can’t even be mad at them for wanting to hurt him.
A small, unhinged part of me needs to know he won’t still be out there on the streets to come after me.
A tiny sliver is eager to cause the pain myself.
I have never felt so consumed by a burning rage, it scares me.
“Eventually. For now, the boys are just trying to ease a little information from him,” Mal explains.
As much as my queasy stomach makes me want to look away, I can’t.
My eyes are focused on the awfulness playing out in front of me.
I have to know he’s dead. Cruz grins at the man as he takes up a tool, something that looks a lot like wire cutters.
“What the fuck is that for?” I cover my mouth, nausea threatening to escape.
Asher’s hold on me is strong but comforting as he rubs the top of my arms. Both he and Malachi are watching the horror in front of us like it’s some kind of normal. Satisfying even. “A tool he uses to help loosen their lips.”
I turn in his arms, burying my head into his chest. “I can’t watch this. Please, just tell me when it’s over.”
“Let’s play a game,” Cruz sing-songs. “For every minute you don’t tell me his name, I will cut off another finger.” Metal scrapes along concrete in a way that sends shivers over my skin, like nails on a chalkboard. Cruz must be dragging the tool along the concrete floor, teasing the man.
“Ready to talk yet?” Jagger hisses.
“Never,” the man spits back. Then, a sudden tortured scream comes through the audio.
Asher grips me tighter. “It’s okay, little princess, everything is going to be just fine.
I promise it will be over soon.” He kisses my hair softly, trying to comfort me.
But everything is not going to be okay. Two men that I have come to adore are doing unspeakable things, and I will never be able to unhear or unsee what I have today.
“This man was going to kidnap you, have his buddy rape you, before they shipped you back off to your papa to be traded for marriage. He deserves everything they will give him and more.”
I sob into his shirt, knowing it’s true. “If I keep watching, I won’t be able to look at Cruz or Jagger in the same light again. I don’t care how evil the man is or how much he deserved it.”
He pulls back from me a little so he can take my face in his hands.
He wipes away my tears with the pads of his thumbs.
“Don’t watch, princess. Just keep hugging me.
But I need you to remember my brothers are not the bad guys here.
They are doing this for you. They would do anything to keep you safe. Karma for his sins.”
My bottom lip trembles. “But they are doing bad things,” I whisper, unable to help it.
“I’m not sure how much my brothers have told you about our life growing up, but let me tell you a little story that might ease your mind, Daisy,” Malachi says from behind us. He’s taken a seat at the desk again.
I nod, needing anything as a distraction right now.
“The four of us didn’t go to school much.
We grew up in a strip club and brothel run by our father, so there wasn’t much time for education.
Our father didn’t see the value in it when he already had life plans for us.
Ones that didn’t involve book smarts. Our dear sweet mother did, though.
She did her best to get us there, and when we couldn’t, she called on a friend of hers to help fill in the gaps.
Miss Honey. She was the sweetest lady I had ever met.
” He smiles softly as if remembering the woman.
“Another minute. You ready to talk yet or do I take your thumb?” comes Cruz’s light and fluffy voice, interrupting Mal’s story as he toys with the man.
I cringe, trying to keep my focus on Asher and Malachi. “I don’t think I want to know where this story is going,” I say, already feeling the sad ending on its way.
Asher shakes his head sadly, and I know I don’t.
Another horrendous scream comes from the man. “Fuck you… you… you’re all going to pay for this,” he mutters, gasping in pain.
“Oh, yeah?” Jagger’s laughter fills the air. “Who’s going to make us? We both know if you don’t talk, you’re not getting out of this place until you’re tiny chunks of pig food.”
The man howls again, and I know Cruz has gone rogue and taken another finger.
“Miss Honey was the smartest. She knew everything from math to science, and she loved to read. She would bring us books. Well, me, the others didn’t partake in reading unless they really had to. But I did, and she opened up my mind to a world I never thought possible.”
I stare back at Mal, liking him more and more by the second. He’s different from his brothers and comes across as less damaged or something. More normal. If there is such a thing with these guys. But I see how genuine he is in his eyes, and I like it.
“One night she was leaving our club after dropping off some work for me, and she was attacked before she could get in her car. Two of them raped her, hurt her so badly she bled out in the back alley and wasn’t found until the next morning.
The whole awful thing was caught on our dad’s crappy video surveillance.
” The pain in Mal’s eyes is still so obvious.
She was more than a teacher to him, she was someone special, and even after all these years, he still lives with the hurt of what happened to her.
Tears leak from my eyes, and I sniffle, trying to stop the pain that’s now lodged in my chest for him. “Why did you tell me such a sad story?”
“Fucking serpents,” Asher spits out, anger lacing his voice. “That night changed everything for us, princess. It wasn’t long after that our mother was killed brutally and the four of us agreed we wouldn’t let that shit slide in this town.”
“This is our town. We fucking own it, and this is what happens when slimy motherfuckers think they can destroy the peace,” Mal growls, bitterness dripping off his every word.
I blink back at the two of them, feeling their hurt.
They have all been through so much growing up here like this.
It’s terrible. Where I was sheltered from my reality, they had it thrust in their faces constantly.
They were forced to grow up quickly and deal with the reality they had been born into.
Maybe I’m only just now learning I have to deal with mine.
“I’m so sorry that happened to your teacher. It’s heartbreaking.”
“It is. But now you know. Everything we do is for the right reasons, even though it might seem violent to a sheltered little princess like you. It’s about keeping order and protecting what is ours.
At any cost. And these boys have decided you’re one of us, so that includes you.
This cunt will die for ever thinking he could mess with you.
” Mal sneers, but it’s not at me. He’s moved closer to the window and is staring at the man. His hate is for him.
More whimpers and cries of pain from the man next door, and I realize Mal must have turned off the sound while he was telling me that story, and now it’s back on in all its disgusting glory.
“O-okay, I’ll talk. I’ll talk, just get this crazy son of a bitch away from me.
” He snorts, his words disjointed over the sound of his cries.
“Name?” is all Jagger barks back. He sounds so cool and collected in the face of such violence. It’s unnerving when I know such a different side of him. But it’s not like I didn’t know it was in there. I knew from the first night I met him he had this dark side to him.
“Silas Vance,” the man splutters out.
Asher looks to Malachi, confusion registering on his face, like he knows the man and he’s the last person either of them expected it to be.
He picks up his phone and dials a number.
“Paige, I need you to take a VIP off the list immediately, a Silas Vance. If he tries to get access to the club, get security to hold him until I get there. Do you understand?” She must agree because he disconnects the call almost as quickly as he made it, his eyes coming back to me.
He wraps his arm closer around me as he breathes me in.
“No fucker is getting his hands on you.” He kisses the top of my head.
A gunshot rings out through the speaker, and I can’t help the gasp that comes from me.
I spin around. The man is slumped over in the chair, his head a bloody mess.
My stomach rolls. There is so much blood, it’s a cloud of crimson.
I try to stop the spinning in my head, but it’s no use.
The room goes blurry. Asher’s hands grip me tightly. Then it all goes black.