Chapter 31
DECLAN
Austin watches me as I walk back and forth in front of him and Hugo. He tries to penetrate me with his hard gaze, and for a moment fear skitters down my spine.
Then I remember who the fuck I am.
I’m Declan fucking Whitlock. No one scares me, regardless of what they put me through. I not only have my brother by my side, but my fiancé too. No one can touch me right now, least of all a man hanging by his fucking wrists from a meat hook.
I stop in front of Hugo, staring up at him as I ask Nico, “Where did you find them?”
“Delaware. Austin’s cousin’s bitch finally gave it up when I threatened to off her kid when I showed her Brent’s body.”
“Where is she?” I ask, wanting to have a conversation with someone that thought it was a good idea to get involved with a blackmailing scheme against me.
“Dead,” he says without emotion.
I hum as Hugo’s face twists in a brief moment of grief. “Don’t worry,” I say, reaching up to pat the side of his face where his ear is still a little wonky. “The kid is still alive. Too bad he won’t have any family left.”
“Fuck you,” Hugo says and spits at me.
Nico walks over and punches him in the gut, making Hugo cough and sputter. “That was rude,” my man growls. “He was giving you good news.”
“Fuck you all,” Hugo curses in a tight voice. “You’ll all get what’s coming to ya.”
“Not from you,” Carter says. “As of now, the only person alive in your family is Brent’s kid. You two already have a death warrant. How does it feel to be the reason your family name disappears?”
Neither of them says a word, they just glare at the three of us.
“What you wanna do with them, D?” Carter asks. “We brought some instruments you can use to do the same things they did to you.”
Both Hugo and Austin’s faces pale, Austin trying to wiggle off his hook.
“No!” he shouts. “Just kill me.”
I roll my eyes. “Did I beg you for death? Did I ask you for any fucking mercy? Fucking pathetic.”
Even though I was in a world of pain the entire time I was his captive, I pride myself on not showing them how close I came to giving up. I haven’t even been in front of him for five minutes and he’s already asking for a quick death?
Not on my fucking watch.
If I’m honest, though, I don’t have it in me to cause them pain right now. My own screams of suffering still thunder in my ears. I don’t think I’ll have the energy to do them in how they should be.
Well, maybe I can do one thing.
“You have a sharp knife?” I ask Carter.
He grins. “Of course, little brother. Kai let me borrow his set.”
“Your husband and his fucking blades,” I mutter, and Carter laughs as he walks over to the corner where the assortment is place. He comes back with a serrated blade that reflects in the low lights.
Looking up at Hugo, I say, “I kinda wanted that ear.”
His face turns chalk white, and he kicks at me, but since his feet are tied, he does nothing more than flail around in his bindings.
Nico grabs his legs to keep him steady, and I grip Hugo’s ear and pull. It tears, the sound setting my teeth on edge, but I ignore it as I bring the knife down and saw the rest off.
He screams and screams, the sound bouncing off the walls.
When the ear is removed from his skull, I hold it up so they can both see. “That wasn’t so bad, right?”
Austin turns to the side and vomits, and I think Hugo passes out.
I toss the piece of flesh to the ground and give the blade back to my brother. I look at him and his face softens. Even if we haven’t been on the same page for most of our lives, he knows me like I know him. “You done?”
“Yeah. I don’t wanna…” I drag my shaky fingers through my hair. “I’m done.”
“Mind if I take a turn?” Nico asks, glaring at both of the men.
I smile and pull him into a hug, kissing him on the cheek. “I was hoping you would.”
He growls and kisses me deeply, until Carter makes a gagging sound. Nico shoots him a dry look, then frames my face. “Gavin once said you were a magician when it came to torture. Mind teaching me a thing or two?”
God, I love this man. I want Austin and Hugo to feel every ounce of what they did to me, but I’m not in the headspace to do it. Nico sees that and will do what I can’t. What would I do without him?
“No problem,” I say and incline my head to Kai’s workstation. “Grab the smallest knife over there and we can get started.”
Nico gives me a quick kiss, then does what I say. I look at Austin and see fear dancing in his eyes. He should have known that if I ever got free, this would be a possibility. Serves him right to be on the other end of this.
I tell Manuel to cut Hugo down and he falls like a sack of potatoes, bonking his head on the concrete hard enough to bring him to consciousness.
He’s still pretty out of it when Manuel ties him to a chair, much how I was.
Nerves dance across my body at remembering what is was like to be their prisoner, but I push that shit away. There’s work that needs doing.
“Now,” I say as I walk around Hugo, grabbing his head and pressing into where I cut him.
He screams, but I don’t let up, “I like to peel off fingernails, but not by force. I like when they come off as one large nail. So take that knife and slide it under the nail bed, wiggle it down and pop! The nail comes off.”
“Fuck you!” Hugo screams. “Fuck you all!”
“Okay, but I’m still gonna cut your nail off,” Nico says with an eye roll. “I’m trying to learn here. Chill out.”
I grin as Nico steps around me and grasps Hugo’s hand. Like I said, he shifts the small blade under the nail bed and wiggles it down. Hugo screams and screams, choking from the force of it. I just smile and watch Nico work.
“Dammit,” Nico grumbles. “Only got a piece of it.”
“Well, try on another. You have nine more to practice on.”
By nail six, Nico was able to get the nail off in one piece and Hugo had pissed himself again.
“I think he’s had enough,” I say. “Let’s do Austin now.”
Austin spent the entire time Hugo was being tortured with his eyes closed, tears rolling down his cheeks. Fuck him. He had no problem watching me get hurt. I should have cut off his eyelids to make sure he didn’t miss a thing.
Manuel cuts Austin down, but he was probably waiting for that. Once he’s on his feet, Austin takes off at a dead run before anyone can stop him.
I shout for Carter to catch him, but he’s already two steps ahead of me, palming a serrated blade from Kai’s collection. He lets it fly and it lands in Austin’s thigh, taking him down to his knees.
Austin cries out and tries to reach for the knife with his bound hands. Nico and I walk slowly over to Austin, and I press my foot on the knife, shoving it in a few more inches. Austin cries and begs, blubbering as he looks up at us.
Nico gets down to his haunches and tsks at Austin. “Where you think you goin’ bitch? We were just getting started. Carter, look to the right side of Kai’s weapons table. There should be a set of garden shears there.”
“Got ‘em,” Carter says with more glee than I’ve ever heard in his voice. “You sure you don’t want something a little more…dull?”
“Excellent idea, brother-in-law,” Nico says, then pauses. “Yeah, I hated that.”
“Same,” Carter grumbles.
He steps closer and hands Nico a blade that looks like it could cut through bone, but with some effort.
Perfect.
Grabbing his index finger, Nico saws through the bone, his face a mask of concentration. Austin screams and curses, trying to wiggle away, but it only makes the pain worse for him.
When Nico succeeds in separating his finger, he stuffs it in Austin’s mouth, making him choke. Austin tries to spit it out, but Nico socks him in the face hard enough to knock out one of Austin’s teeth. “You’ll fucking swallow it or I’ll cut your dick off and make it your last meal.”
I didn’t think it was possible to fall harder for my fiancé.
Nico shoves all the fingers from Austin’s left hand into his mouth and they all end up Austin’s stomach. By the time he swallows his pinky, he vomits blood and bile all over himself.
Nico looks up at me; his head tilted to the side. “Satisfied?”
“Yeah. Thank you.”
Carter huffs. “You’re welcome. Dang, it wasn’t all Nico’s idea.”
“Can you not,” Nico snaps back.
Carter throws his hands up and walks over to Hugo, slapping him in the face to wake him up. He comes to with a groan, then whimpers pitifully when he flexes his fingers.
I get to my feet and stretch, a smile on my face.
My brother comes over and gives me a hug. “You did good, baby brother. Want me to finish them off?”
I start to say yes, then a better idea comes to me. “Nah. They’re still mine. Where’s Gavin? I need him to drive the speedboat for me.”
Carter looks confused, then his eyes reflect mischief. “I got a tranq to knock these bitches out, then we can have some fun.”
“It’s pretty out here this late,” Nico says as he looks out at the ocean. “You can see all the stars.”
“Maybe we can come out here one night alone. Without the fucking audience,” I say, wrapping my arms around his waist and kissing his cheek.
Kai grunts behind us. “You said we could come. Should have just said no.”
“And listen to you complain about being left out? Pass.”
Over the past six weeks that I was healing at the cabin, Kai came over and sat with me a few times.
Our conversations were strained initially, but they got easier over time.
We’re not friends, but we’re not exactly enemies either.
He kept my secret from Carter, his husband and the person he shares everything with. That counts for something in my book.
As time goes forward, maybe we can put our old animosity aside and become closer.
Muted screams cut off Kai’s retort. I look down at Austin and Hugo, who are both screaming behind their gags and pleading with their eyes.
Everyone heard what I did to Cliff, so when Austin saw the boat and guys loading cinderblocks on board, he started trying to scream and yell, thrashing around, and making a general nuisance of himself. I hit him over the head with my gun, knocking him unconscious—just like I did to Cliff.
I went ahead and hit Hugo over the head too.
Now we’re a little further out than where we dumped Cliff. I’ll have to go back and remind Dad that Cliff’s body still hasn’t surfaced, so he knows I’m not as reckless as he once thought.
We all get busy tying cinderblocks around Hugo and Austin’s bodies. They’re both bigger than Cliff, so make sure they’re both properly weighed down.
Once they’re all wrapped up, we step back and survey our handiwork.
“If you took issue with what I did,” I say as I kneel in front of Austin, “you should have used your fucking words like a big boy. Your father stepped out of line and was put down for it. That’s how the game works. A game you lost.”
He speaks behind his gag, and I reach forward and pull it away. “You’ll get yours one day, Declan,” he says in a pain-filled voice. “Mark my fuckin’ words.”
I shrug. “You might be right. But you won’t be alive to see it happen.” I tilt my head. “You wanna go first or you wanna watch your cousin die?”
“Fuck you,” he sneers.
Standing to my full height, I pull out my gun and shoot Hugo three times in the chest. It won’t kill him, just give him more pain as water fills his lungs.
Austin screams in rage, crying and fighting against the ropes as Hugo gasps, looking down at his chest in shock.
“Grab his arms,” I say to Nico. He comes over and hooks his arms under Hugo’s and I take his legs. Together, we heave him overboard. The loud splash makes me smile.
Seeing that his life is almost over, Austin spews all kinds of shit, calling us assholes and motherfuckers, threatening our lives, and trying to curse us like he’s some kind of wizard or something.
We pay him no mind as Gavin and Kai toss him over the side of the boat. We all lean over and watch him sink.
Carter breaks the silence with loud laughter. “Damn, D. That’s fun as fuck. I might have to steal this from you.”
“Make sure you weigh the bodies down well or Dad will have your ass.”
On the way back to shore, Nico and I sit at the back of the boat, my head on his shoulder. “I love the open water,” I yell to him, gripping his hand tight.
“I can do without it. It creeps me out that I can’t see the bottom of the ocean.”
Laughing, I shout, “Imagine how many bodies you’d see if you could.”
His shoulders shake with his laughter. “Too fucking many. Maybe I’ll get over my fears one day. I only feel better because I know how to swim. If I didn’t, you would have made this trip alone.”
“Cruise for our honeymoon?”
“Fine. Only because I love you.”
“Love you too, Nico.”