Chapter 11 Crow
“What’s the next move, Pres?” Hawk asked, cracking his knuckles. “Let me have five minutes with him and he won’t stay silent for long.”
“And let you have all the fun?” Cuckoo asked, joining us after we arrived with Boris and took him to the basement of the clubhouse.
“Where’s Bella?”
“Falcon just finished up. He took her to your room to rest.”
“Good.”
“Say the word, Pres. We all want a piece of this asshole,” Talon growled, staring at our prey.
“This needs to be quick and efficient. I don’t need to remind you all that Bella’s sister Brianna has been taken and this piece of shit is the only one who knows anything about it.”
I jerked a thumb over my shoulder, indicating the bloody man behind me. “That’s why we’re going straight to the rope.”
A few vicious smiles appeared on the faces of my brothers.
“Let’s get to it then,” Raven announced. “No more delays.”
Rope torture was a personal favorite of mine.
My father used this method often when someone tried to hurt the club or a brother.
Didn’t take long before they started runnin’ their mouth and confessing every sin they ever knew.
Boris was already tied up, restrained by thick ropes that wrapped around his ankles and attached to the legs of a sturdy wooden chair.
That wasn’t the genius part. His arms were pulled behind him, around the chair’s wooden back, and then bound by two different ropes.
Those pieces of rope were knotted and attached to another long length of rope that wound around a metal wheel.
The wheel turned by a crank that could be tightened a little at a time.
Each rotation pulled the rope tighter. To prevent the wheel from loosening during a struggle, each time the rope moved an inch, it landed in a metal tooth and wedged inside with a click, unable to roll backward.
In essence, the wheel pulled the limbs and stretched them until they snapped. And it was usually a long painful process. With my lack of patience tonight, it might be over fuckin’ fast.
I walked over to the wheel and turned the crank, moving the rope into the next space, landing in the metal crevice.
The rope tightened a bit and Boris’s head snapped up, his lip twisting in a snarl as he stared with defiance. It was fucked up without eyeballs, but I could feel his resolve as his jaw snapped shut. Didn’t need to have eyes to get his point across. “You will not break me.”
“We’ll see,” I answered calmly.
“You already took my eyes. I will die without telling you anything,” he insisted, lifting his chin.
They always fought us in the beginning. “So proud and defiant. It won’t last.”
Silence followed and I turned the crank twice.
Boris didn’t move but I could tell the rope tugged on his arms.
I waited a few seconds, then turned the crank three rotations as Boris blew out a sharp breath. His arms were pulled taut, effectively raising his wrists higher, close to pulling the limbs out of socket.
“Where is Brianna?”
Boris remained quiet.
Two more turns of the wheel.
“Where is Brianna?” I asked again.
Boris laughed, tilting his head back. “I will never tell you.”
Impatient, I turned the crank until I heard a pop and then Boris began cursing, refusing to give any information. His body appeared distorted, one shoulder twisted out of place.
“That’s only one arm. You have another,” I pointed out.
“Fuck. That looks painful,” Raven observed.
Boris didn’t reply.
“Where. Is. Brianna,” I demanded, enunciating each word with a punch of my fist into his wounded shoulder.
Nothing. Motherfucker!
The wheel turned again two more times as Boris began trembling, fighting against the ropes. I didn’t fucking care and hoped it hurt. Another two turns and then he cried out as the other arm made a sickening crunch, dislocating from his shoulder.
“You know,” I began, “shoulder dislocation causes numbness, weakness or tingling while the muscles in your shoulder spasm and increase the intensity of pain.”
He trembled, his body shuddering and his arm twitching.
“You sure you don’t have anything to say?”
“No,” he roared.
I ticked my head at Hawk and he stepped up, giving Boris’s shoulders a few punches that almost made me wince. Damn. That looked excruciating.
Boris grinded his teeth, his brow damp with sweat.
“Every hear of the Iron Maiden?” Time to move on. Boris could handle pain and this was moving too slowly.
“Yes,” he spat.
“It’s a shame you can’t see the one in front of you.”
Boris appeared nervous for the first time.
“I’ll describe it for you. It’s a big hollow statue made of iron and lots of pokey places inside.”
“You’re lying.”
“Am I?”
Raven walked up and kicked the side of the statue, eliciting an odd metal hum from inside the interior.
“Sounds real to me,” Cuckoo remarked as Talon chuckled.
I usually didn’t have to do more than point to the massive iron figure in the corner of the room to elicit fear and compliance. Few ever actually entered the Iron Maiden. In this instance, I didn’t think Boris would comply until he was forced into it.
The torture device consisted of an iron cabinet with a hinged front and spike-covered interior small enough to completely enclose the individual.
Once locked within the frame, the victim would be unable to move because the number of steel spikes would impale them in every direction if they did. It was brutal and effective.
“Get him inside,” I ordered, ignoring Boris as he fought but couldn’t prevent the inevitable.
“Remember to stay still,” I reminded him.
“Fuck you!”
“Nah, Boris. I think you got a date with a spike instead.”
He continued yelling until his voice became hoarse.
“Ready to tell me what I want to know?”
He huffed a breath but that was it.
“I don’t know why you’re so loyal. That asshole doesn’t give a shit about you. He’s not looking for you and won’t care when you’re dead. You’re replaceable. Just another goon on the payroll.”
“No,” he answered, less forceful than before.
“You know I’m right. Die with fucking dignity or I’ll bury you alive in the desert with your head above the ground after I drip honey all over your face and neck,” I threatened. “Trust me. No one will ever fucking find you.”
Boris relented, rattling off an address.
Too goddamn easy but I’d take it.
“You stay in the Iron Maiden until we have Brianna. If you lied to me, we won’t be finished.
I’ll take you out to the desert and slice into your skin so you’re bleeding a little when we bury you.
Lots of insects and scavengers in the desert.
When the honey mixes with your blood and sweat, it will call to them for miles. ”
A whimper left his mouth for the first time. “Go. I want no more of this.”
Before we could react, Boris slammed his body back and forth inside, impaling his flesh on the spikes in multiple places as blood began dripping from the wounds, leaking through the cracks.
“Get him out!” I roared, knowing it wasn’t too late if Falcon helped.
Talon and Cuckoo rushed to the Maiden, swinging it open as Boris slumped forward, his body gyrating as his mouth filled with bloody froth. Some kind of foul-smelling liquid dripped down his chin and I ordered my brothers to stand back.
Boris landed on the concrete floor with a thud, his limbs twitching as we watched the stupid motherfucker commit suicide.
When I checked his mouth, the remnants of a capsule stuck to his teeth.
The coward had it the whole time, waiting to bite down until the time was right.
Maybe he was just playing with us the whole time.
Was he some sadistic freak that enjoyed pain?
Why the fuck would he crunch into that pill now instead of during the interrogation?
Did he like having his body parts twisted until they pulled out of socket?
Shit. Did the delay harm Brianna? I had no way of knowing if she was dead or still alive.
Rushing upstairs to my room, I found Bella in bed, her eyes closed. “Hey, darlin’.”
“Hey,” she whispered, blinking open her eyes. “Do you know where the kidnapper is keeping Bree?”
“Yeah. We’re going now.”
She sat up and I shook my head, insisting she lay back against the pillows. Falcon was an excellent healer but human DNA was always a bit tricky compared to ours. “You have a head injury. Got to stay here, baby.”
She frowned, and I bent down, pressing a kiss to her pouty lips. “You’ll rescue her, right?”
“Yes,” I replied, firmly.
“And the asshole that took her?”
“We’ve got ways of making him suffer,” I assured her.
“I want in on that, Crow.”
“Beautiful, that’s not something you should taint your soul with, okay?”
“I want in on it.”
I could tell she wasn’t backing down. “Alright. We’ll discuss it after you see your sister.”
She reached for my shirt and pulled me closer. “Thank you.” Her mouth met mine and I savored the kiss, reluctantly pulling away.
“You got it, sexy ass.”
She shook her head, gesturing that I should get moving.
“I’ll return as soon as I can.”
“YOU SURE THIS IS THE address?” Raven asked, giving the place a skeptical look.
“Yeah,” I huffed, annoyed. “I didn’t forget the layout of the city just because I was fucking gone for a few months.”
Raven held up his hands, his expression innocent. “Relax, sugar.”
“Touchy, ain’t he?” Talon asked, elbowing Cuckoo in the gut.
“Must be that time of the month.”
“Oh, yeah. Totally raggin’.”
Goddamn comedians. Flipping the smartasses off, I stomped around them and dared anyone else to comment. “Time to go quiet. No one betrays their position before I’ve located Brianna.”
Falcon, Eagle Eye, Jay, Swift, and the prospects remained at The Roost with Bella.
I’d taken Raven, Claw, Talon, Carrion, Cuckoo, and Hawk to the address Boris had given us.
We parked our bikes outside the neighborhood, but it probably didn’t matter.
A dozen had already lined up outside the house, and they weren’t friends.
As we approached, I crouched outside the fence, tapping into my crow and his sight. Above, higher than anyone would catch from below, I rode on the current of the wind. My wings spread out, gliding over the grounds below, and the motorcycles gathered in a long row.
I caught the logo painted on one of the tanks, and a loud caw escaped, warning the others. Flapping wings joined my own as I swooped down, landing on the bike and dropping a little present on the chrome.
“Motherfucker,” I cursed, opening my eyes as Raven smirked. “Dirty Death MC.”
“Fuckin’ knew it,” Hawk spat, cracking his neck.
“We’re ready,” Talon added, slipping on his brass knuckles.
Cuckoo tilted his head back, belting out a melodic “Kraaaa!”
I might have laughed if not for his ridiculous outfit.
Rainbow hair stuck out in all directions from his head, the wig he wore unruly and full of tangled curls.
Clown makeup added to the demented vibe when combined with the fake vampire teeth in his mouth and the red bulbous nose.
Droplets of blood were splattered onto his face like he had just walked out of a slasher film.
Beneath his cut, he wore a tie-dyed t-shirt with more blood splatter and little rainbows all over it.
Fucking hell.
“I’m not going to comment about you,” I growled as he laughed with glee, holding up a machete.
“I can’t wait to see their expressions when I run in.”
I bet. Sick fucker.
Hawk slapped him on the back, hard. “You’re a goddamn sexy clown like Pennywise.”
Cuckoo sniffled. “Don’t make me emotional, man.”
Christ. “Focus,” I ordered, pleased when the smiles faded and they grew serious.
“I heard a young woman when my crow flew over the compound. I’m bettin’ it’s Brianna.
She’s in the corner on the northern side, east of our position.
We move in fast, and if you encounter any Dirty Death members, we’re taking them back to The Roost. We need to know their plans and how they’re involved with this kidnapping. ”
“What about anyone else?” Raven asked to clarify.
“Kill anyone who tries to stop you. The kidnapper is mine.”
“You got it, Pres.”