Chapter Eight – Laina
The disapproval radiating from Mike as he drove us to wherever Lola was keeping the asshole who helped kidnap me this past time was enough to agitate me. He kept his thoughts to himself, but if I had to say, he was thinking pretty damn loudly.
He didn’t think I should go. He didn’t think I should interrogate him with Lola. Maybe he was afraid I’d get a taste for it.
Or maybe he was just being a butthead.
Lola was waiting for me outside of the warehouse, talking to some guy I’d never seen before. She wore a very revealing outfit, almost like armor, and I immediately noticed a skull jaw made of metal sitting on her chest, hanging around her neck from a silver chain. Fang’s work, clearly.
The warehouse was on the waterfront, in a district of the city I’d never been to. Run-down, old, dingy and dirty; nothing was new around here. I bet a lot of criminal activity went on in these parts.
Mike pulled his car beside Lola’s, and as we got out, Lola and the guy stopped whatever conversation they were having. Her blue eyes twinkled in the bright sunlight. “Hey, cutie. Have you ever met Harvey?” She flicked her thumb toward the guy she’d been talking to.
“I don’t think so, no.” I’d heard his name be mentioned before, but never actually met the man. He was cute, though way more clean-cut than any of her other men. Lola liked to surround herself with attractive guys, apparently.
Nothing wrong with that.
“Laina, this is Harvey. Harvey, Laina. Ain’t she just a ball of pastel cuteness?” As she said the last part, she wrinkled her nose at me, like I was some adorable kitten she wanted to cuddle with and take home.
Harvey smiled warmly. “I like the eyes.” Though he wore a suit, he didn’t seem like the typical man Lola would be interested in… unless they were just friends. She did mention she had three boyfriends, but that didn’t automatically mean there was no one else hoping to join her harem.
“Thanks,” I told him, but before I could say anything else, Lola grabbed my hand to study Fang’s contraption.
“This is kickass, girl,” she mused with a grin. “I’m loving it. That Fang does some pretty awesome work, doesn’t he?” I might’ve blushed when she said that, remembering the healing bite mark on my inner thigh, and though there was no way she could know what I was thinking, she still hummed with a smile, like she had her suspicions.
Deciding to change the subject, I asked Lola, “Should we get started?” Every part of me itched to get in that warehouse and see what we were dealing with here.
A starving, piss- and shit-stained man, probably, but beyond that, I was clueless. I’d never seen a tortured man before. Would he be out of his mind by now, or still furious that he was in Lola’s hands?
“You got it, babe,” Lola purred out, throwing an arm around my shoulder—and letting me see the tattoo on her inner bicep. A heel, or maybe a lipstick case? I didn’t get a long look. She tossed a glance to Harvey and Mike. “You gents wait out here, ‘kay? When the delivery guy gets here, do me a solid and let him in, will you?”
Lola guided me into the warehouse through a propped-open door, and I couldn’t help but ask, “You’re expecting a delivery?” Did she mean food, or…
“Yes. In fact, I think you’re gonna love it.” Lola lifted her arm off me and sauntered to the middle of the wide-open warehouse, lifting her mask to her face.
Whatever this building’s purpose was in the past, it was clearly rendered obsolete; even the roof needed some work. Glancing up, you could see the sky through places that had weathered away. The entire warehouse was cleared-out. Any sound made inside it had an echo.
When you lived in the better part of town, surrounded by huge houses, you forgot places like this existed.
The place was dark. Only one pendant light was situated in the center, illuminating our man. His arms were strung up over his head, his clothes dirty and stained with blood and other bodily liquids. Even from far away, he looked like shit, but the closer we got to him the more the scent of how dirty he was assaulted my nose.
He lifted his head when we approached, and when he locked gazes with me, I was a bit shocked to discover I recognized him. He was the asshole who hit me. Twice. I could tell by the way his beady eyes widened when he saw me that he remembered treating me so harshly.
“Looks like today’s your not-so-lucky day, bucko,” Lola drawled out, her voice a tad muffled by her metal mask. She circled him once, then stopped to his left, and when she turned her face toward me, I saw for the first time how hauntingly beautiful she was in that mask. If death had a face, that was surely it.
I tilted my head at the man. “Remember me? Of course you do. You kidnapped me, and then when I mouthed off, you hit me. Twice, if I remember correctly. I have to say, I like how the tables turned.”
Lola’s eyes narrowed in the man’s direction. “You hit her? Poor move, dick.”
“Fuck you,” he muttered, though it was half-hearted at best. His time here had already worn him down. “I ain’t telling you anything.” The dirt, sweat, and grime was so caked onto his skin the top layer cracked on his cheeks as he spoke.
Lola stepped closer to him and ran the backs of her fingers down along his face in a gesture that would otherwise be considered tender—only here, it was a gentle whisper of future violence. “I don’t like to speak for others, but I’m pretty sure the cutie and me are up for the challenge.” To me, she said, “Wait here.” And then, before I could say anything else, she sauntered off.
“Having the Bloody Queen on your side ain’t gonna mean shit in the end,” he hissed.
Folding my arms over my chest, I asked, “And why’s that?”
“In a city like this, it don’t matter who you got on your side. It only matters who’s after you.”
I inched forward, doing my best to ignore the scent of him. “And who’s after me?”
All he did was laugh. A hollow sound, but I felt it in my bones, and I swore to myself he wouldn’t be laughing soon enough. Soon, the only things that would come out of that mouth would be the truth or blood.
Metal squeaking as it moved filled the warehouse’s air, and I turned away from the asshole to watch Lola push a car toward us. This cart must’ve seen better days, much like this warehouse, but once she got close enough, I was able to see the contents of said cart.
A metal baseball bat. Knives of various sizes, including a scalpel. Brass knuckles. A wide variety of utensils that would make torturing this guy easy-peasy.
Whatever attitude the man had died the moment he saw what was on the cart, and I heard him gulp.
“I brought some things that might be fun,” Lola said. She picked up the baseball bat and swung it through the air. “I figured, since you were so eager to join me here today, I’d let you take a crack at him.” She flipped the baseball bat around and offered me the handle.
I took it from her, and the moment I did I nearly dropped it. The bat was heavier than I thought it’d be, and I wasn’t quite ready for it. I lifted it up and studied the other end of the bat. The metal was shiny and new; I didn’t know if it was due to the fact that it really was new or if Lola made sure to clean it after every use.
“The keyword there,” Lola paused for dramatic flair, “is crack. You’d be surprised at how easy it is to shatter someone’s kneecaps. I hear it’s one of the most painful things.” She reached behind her and grabbed a small scalpel from the cart. “Or, you could start small. A thousand little cuts all over his body. The pain adds up. It’s up to you, cutie pie. This is your show. I’m just a side character.”
I didn’t know if I agreed wholly with that; Lola screamed main character energy. Me? I didn’t know if I was at her level yet.
“Is it better to start off small or get right into things?” As I asked the question, my fingers curled around the bat’s handle tighter. “I’ve never tortured anyone before. You’re the expert here.”
Lola set a hand on her hip, thinking it over. “Normally, I’d say dive right in with whatever you’re feeling, but if you want to make it last, it might be better to start small.” In her other hand, she twirled the scalpel around. “Really depends on what you want to get out of it, sugar.”
I debated on it, and while I did so, the man spat out, “You bitches are fucking nuts.”
That got Lola to laugh and say, “You just figuring that out now? Us bitches have always been fucking nuts—you know why?”
She stepped around me, between me and the man, and in the blink of an eye she raised the scalpel to his cheek, just below his eye, digging the sharp metal deep enough to make him bleed. He tried to turn his head away from her, but she grabbed his chin with her other hand and held him steady. The blade of the scalpel was only a centimeter away from his right eye, just below it.
“Because pathetic, wastes of space like you make us this way,” Lola growled out from behind her mask. “These bitches wouldn’t be nearly as fucking nuts if it weren’t for men like you .” The way she said that last part made me wonder if she’d been wronged by a man before, and if it had anything to do with the long scar on her lower stomach.
Lola pulled herself back from him and forced out a hard breath. “But that’s my issue with men. Her issue’s a little different.” Once again, she offered me the scalpel—only now it dripped with some of his blood.
I shook my head, and Lola stepped out of the way. “I just want information out of you.” My eyes shifted to the bat, which I held between us. “And to hurt you a bit, if I’m honest.” I lifted the bat and pointed it at his stomach, where all of those important organs were. “Who hired you and your crew to kidnap me?”
“I don’t fucking know—”
It was actually easier than I thought it would be to raise the bat and swing it at the man’s gut, and the sound he made when the bat hit its mark told me he definitely felt it—and it hurt.
“I’m going to ask you again: who hired you?” When he only glared at me, I hit him a second time in the gut, this time a bit harder.
Behind me, I heard Lola say, “They grow up so fast, don’t they?” I glanced at her and watched her wipe a fake tear from the corner of her eye, like she was proud of me for what I was doing. Strange as it was, I supposed she was all about women and girls taking back their power in this world. For once, it was a man tied up being tortured by a woman and not the other way around.
I lifted the bat to his face, touching his lower jaw with it. “Want to try again, or should we see how many teeth I can knock out first?” I hardly sounded like myself; it was strange, but exciting at the same time.
The man didn’t reply, and I swung the bat away, ready to swing it right on back. The man’s eyes closed the moment I began the swing toward his jaw, and he cried out, “Wait!” Let’s just say the man was lucky I had good reflexes, because someone else might not have been able to stop the bat from hitting his jaw and knocking free some of those teeth.
“Caving already?” Lola questioned with a cock of her head. “See? I told you starving them always makes ‘em weak.”
I moved the bat away from his face and rested it on my shoulder, waiting to hear what this jerk had to say. If it wasn’t good enough information, I wasn’t above making him hurt some more, just to make sure he wasn’t hiding anything else.
“Look, I… I don’t know much,” he said, pausing to groan—I imagined from the pain emanating from his stomach. “We didn’t get a name, okay? We were just told to kidnap you.”
“How did you know where I’d be?”
“We were watching you. Me and the guys. For… shit, I don’t know, a while. We were waiting for the perfect opportunity to nab you, so when you snuck out that night, it was our opening.”
Beside me, Lola said, “So, somebody hired you and your crew to kidnap her, but they let you take your sweet old time? I don’t get it. Why? And did they ask you to kidnap anybody else?” I almost forgot I’d only met Lola because she’d been looking for another missing woman.
“No, we didn’t take anybody else. We had to lay low after the botched assassination attempt. Hawkins security went crazy after that.”
Hearing him say so off-handedly that they wanted to kill me sent a shiver down my spine. But, wait—that didn’t make any sense. They wouldn’t be hired to kill me and then, after they failed, kidnap me. Wouldn’t they just try to kill me again?
“Why kidnap me, then? Why not just try to kill me a second time?” I asked, the wheels in my mind turning.
The look the man gave me made me think I’d asked the wrong question. A second passed, then another. It was a short while before he finally muttered, “It wasn’t you we were trying to kill.”
The world around me stopped when he said that, or maybe it spun around me faster than ever. It was a short thing, but within seconds I dissociated and found myself back at that press conference, reliving it for the millionth time.
The press conference was about me. After my escape, it was assumed everyone’s attention would be on me. When that gun was raised, everyone—including Kieran—thought it was aimed at me, and after the chaos of the fallout, no one thought to double check where the gunman aimed before he pulled the trigger.
Lola stated, sounding confused, “I don’t get it. Who were you trying to kill, then?”
“The mayor’s brother-in-law. I forget his name.”
I took a step back, and then I turned around and fought to keep breathing. The attempt on my life wasn’t on me at all—it was on Kieran’s ? But why?
I supposed, if someone was playing the long game, a dead brother-in-law would be similar to a dead daughter; it’d garner sympathy across the board. First someone came after me, and then Kieran.
“Shit,” Lola spoke. “So when you failed to kill him, your employer gave you another chance? But instead of murder, he wanted you to kidnap Laina?”
And then the asshole muttered something under his breath I didn’t think either Lola or I expected: “It wasn’t a he.”
Whirling around to stare at him, my breath caught in the back of my throat. “It was a woman?” The question didn’t want to come out. Out of everything I thought I knew… nothing was true. I was wrong on every count, which begged one question.
What was going on here?
“Yeah,” the man spat out the word. “She didn’t give a name, but she had money, and lots of it.”
“Enough to make you not ask questions,” Lola spoke with a nod. “Did she sound young, old, what?”
“I don’t know. The calls were always restricted. We never got ahold of her. She was always the one contacting us.”
Lola set the scalpel down on the cart before taking me by the wrist and dragging me far enough away from the jerk that he wouldn’t hear us. “A woman,” she whispered. “Do you know any woman that would have it out for you and your uncle?”
With a shake of my head, I muttered a confused, “No.”
“And this Devil of yours was definitely a man? You’re sure there wasn’t, like, a strap-on involved or something?”
Flat chest. Strong arms. Equally strong hands. A voice so low behind that mask when he finally spoke to me at that party… the warmth he brought me when he was inside of me; a strap-on was definitely not used. “He’s a man.”
“Shit.” Lola folded her arms over her chest. “This could change things. For one, the shooter wasn’t after you. He was after your uncle, but why? Why kill your uncle and kidnap you? Do you think, maybe, your Devil wasn’t working alone?”
“No, he had nothing to do with this. He’s the reason Mike knew where to find me that night. If he was working with this woman, whoever she is, he wouldn’t have ruined the plan,” I said.
“There’s gotta be more to this story. If it was your dad behind all of this… well, there are easier ways to win votes. There has to be something we’re missing, pieces of this stupid puzzle we don’t have—”
Before she could say anything else, the outer door to the warehouse opened, and someone else walked in; our delivery, if I had to guess. I turned to look at the newcomer and was absolutely delighted when I saw who it was strolling over to us.
Fang.
A smile grew on my face, the seriousness of the situation instantly fading. “Fang,” I said, barely able to stop myself from skipping over to him and throwing my arms around his neck. I waited until he was before us to ask, “What are you doing here? And what’s that?”
Fang wore a smirk—and he held onto a small box. “I told Lola to let me know when you were going to interrogate him together.” His silver stare flicked to the asshole in the center of the warehouse. “Looks like I was a little late.”
“Our girl here is very gung-ho when it comes to torture,” Lola spoke, sounding like a proud momma hen. “She dove right in. It was pretty hot.”
“I’m sad I missed it, but I’m sure you could still find a way to use these. He doesn’t look like he’s bleeding nearly enough.” Fang offered me the box, while Lola clapped and waited for me to lift the lid.
Just because I already knew what was going to be inside the box didn’t mean that the shock was any less when my eyes fell to the item inside. A second set of metal prosthetics, only this time it was a complete gauntlet, similar in design to the one he’d made his brother—different in that it was made for me. Smaller, more slender, prettier.
But just as sharp.
Fang took the lid from me as I carefully lifted the new gauntlet out of the box. The pinky and ring finger were shaped into mini-knives, while the other fingers simply had blades curling along the top of the metal. Multiple rings for each finger would hold the gauntlet in place, combined with the wrist attachment. A small metal plate was fastened where the outside of my hand would be, and a design of flowers had been carefully molded—or soldered or whatever.
I didn’t know how any of this worked; I only knew the end product was kickass.
“Here, let me help you.” While I held onto the gauntlet with my right hand, Lola went for my left. She unclasped the bracelet and carefully pulled off the original gauntlet, placing it in the box for now. Her blue gaze twinkled with glee as she helped put the new claw on me and said, “Not going to lie, I’m jealous. This thing is wicked sweet.”
Wicked sweet. Now that was something she and I agreed on. I think, deep down, we agreed on a lot of things.
Once the gauntlet was on, I wiggled my fingers. Halfway between claws and five small blades, something like this could do a hell of a lot of damage to somebody.
“Do they fit well?” Fang asked. “Does it need any adjustments?”
I turned my hand around, studying both sides of the gauntlet. “No. It fits perfectly.” I was in awe. It felt like I’d stepped into a dream and got my heart’s desire. This man really did know me too well—which was crazy when you thought about it, because in the grand scheme of things, we hadn’t spent that much time together.
We would, though. In my heart of hearts, I knew our story was only beginning.
“Thank you.” I was barely able to get the words out before Fang closed the distance between us and bent his top half down, pressing his hungry lips upon me in plain view of Lola, who only chuckled as she watched the kiss.
“You’re welcome.” His chest rumbled with appreciation, and his lips brushed against mine with every word he spoke. “Now, why don’t you try them out?”
“I vote for the same,” Lola quipped as Fang straightened out. “You know, believe it or not, I didn’t see this coming. I really just thought Fang could make you something for your hand. I wasn’t trying to be a match-maker or anything—” She flashed us her perfect teeth. “—but you guys are cute together. I’m all for it.”
The three of us moved closer to the man chained up in the center of the warehouse. Fang hung back with Lola, letting me have the front and center, so to speak. I waved my left hand between us, showing the man my new gauntlet.
“Look what I just got,” I told him with a smile. “Isn’t it pretty?”
The man said nothing, but unless my ears were mistaken, he whimpered.
“Now, are you sure you don’t know anything else? Anything else you might’ve been keeping to yourself, hmm?” With one more step, I was inches away from him, and I lifted my left hand and ran the claws of the gauntlet along his cheek.
The man tried to pull away, but given the chains holding his arms up, he could only move a centimeter or so, not nearly enough to get away from my shiny new steel. “I told you everything I know.”
Well, as much as I wanted him to tell me more, I also knew the information we got out of him was enough to point us in a different direction. The shooter hadn’t been aiming at me; the bullet had always been meant for Kieran. And the person who wanted me kidnapped, at least this second time, was a woman, and the two things were related. Whoever wanted me kidnapped also wanted Kieran dead.
My dad had been a suspect this entire time. I never fully trusted him, but now I was forced to reckon with the fact that it wasn’t him. It was some woman out there, pulling the strings.
It couldn’t be Tessa. She wouldn’t have her own brother killed—her only brother, at that. She might be the serious sort, someone who never understood Kieran’s jokes or even feigned laughs at them, but I didn’t think she’d go so far as to kill him. Kidnap me? Eh, I could see it, probably because I didn’t particularly like the woman, but wanting Kieran dead… it just didn’t make sense.
“Please,” the man went on, “don’t. I’m sorry, okay? I’m sorry we took you. I’m sorry we drugged you. I’m—”
“Sorry you hit me?” I finished for him. It was sort of funny how fast someone’s tune could change when they were no longer the one holding all the power. His apologies were a last-ditch effort at getting out of here alive.
His fate was already sealed.
When he said nothing else, I felt a slow, deadly kind of smile spread on my face. “Yeah, I bet you are. I bet, right now, you’re regretting every single bad decision you ever made in your life.” I clanked the tips of my claws together right in front of his face, and he grimaced like I was digging them into his flesh. “I bet you never thought those bad decisions would catch up to you. You probably thought you’d get away with it all. Get a big payday and make a name for yourself.”
Someone like him, I highly doubted his ultimate goal was to get enough money to leave the city and start over somewhere new. Criminals liked it here, that much was obvious. Everyone was corrupt.
Why not join them? Why not be one of them myself? Why not show this asshole and any other asshole that came knocking on my door that I was not some pretty little girl who couldn’t hold her own? I could be just as bad as the rest of them, just as vicious and bloodthirsty.
I set my claws on the man’s upper chest, meeting his beady eyes—though they weren’t so beady now; they were so wide I thought they might just pop out of his skull, the anticipation in him so heavy he could hardly breathe.
“Can I tell you something?” I leaned in as I started to dig the tips of my claws into his chest, and he cried out in response. “It’s my first time, so it might be a little messy.” Not my first time spilling blood, but my first time spilling someone else’s blood, and I was going to dive right in.
I lifted my left hand, and then, without saying another word more, I brought it down, slashing my claws across the man’s chest. His body rattled against the chains, trying and failing to pull away from me as four deep cuts appeared, a wave of fresh blood soaking his shirt from each wound.
It was almost too easy to cut into him. Like taking a hot knife and cutting butter with it. Should I feel something more as I watch this guy bleed from wounds I’d given him? Should I feel bad? Logic told me I should’ve felt guilty or remorseful for hurting him, but why should I? He only apologized because he was backed into a metaphorical corner with no escape. He wouldn’t know remorse if it bit him on the ass.
So, no. I didn’t feel bad. I didn’t feel bad at all.
“Fuck,” the man whimpered, the pain he felt laced with the word. “You’re fucking crazy.”
I chuckled. After glancing back at Lola and Fang, I returned my stare to the man. “Yeah… I guess I am.”
Let’s just say I never knew a man could bleed so much… or scream so loud.