Chapter 29
COAL
Fucking hell. My brothers’ choice of women will give me ulcers. But Bee is right. We’ll never have to worry about our children. Somehow, each of us has found an Old Lady that brings something special to the club, and every one of them is deadly in her own right.
I didn’t miss Adam’s relief at seeing Bee with Copper. I’m happy to welcome her into our family. She’s a Wraith now, and we protect our own.
Adam leaves us to it. Brass, our Enforcer, and Iron, our Sergeant at Arms, unload Eade and tie him to the purpose-built metal chair in The Hole.
The rest of the brotherhood and the Old Ladies follow us down. I halt halfway down the stairs when Brass laughs and shouts up to us.
“Bee, it looks like Jeanie left you a present.”
“She did?” Bee claps her hands excitedly, pushing at my shoulder. “Hurry up, Coal, I want to see.”
“Fucking hell,” I mumble as I continue down the steps and into the room.
In the corner, Beatrice is gagged and strapped to a table. A bucket set up on a pulley drips water onto her forehead, one drop at a time. Adam was right; I won’t need the keys to her cell.
Bee and Nora move forward to inspect her, both wearing slightly deranged smiles that would worry me on anyone else.
“Who’s Jeanie?” Nora asks, studying the setup with interest.
“Bolt’s Old Lady,” Bee replies, tapping the jug slightly so that more water flows onto the nurse, who moans behind her gag.
“Hi,” Bee says cheerily. “Remember me? You tried to kidnap my boy so you could sell him.”
Beatrice mumbles something.
Bee bends over to hear what she’s saying. “Oh, you’re sorry?” She straightens and taps her finger on her chin, raising her eyes to the ceiling as if she’s thinking. “Eh,” Bee shrugs. “I don’t give a fuck. You’ll get what you deserve, but not before your boyfriend.”
Nora has been silent as she walks around The Hole, inspecting everything, but she whirls around at Bee’s words. “She’s part of it?”
“Yep.” Bee moves away from Beatrice to stand beside Copper. He curls his arm around her shoulders as we wait for Iron and Brass to finish securing Eade.
Interesting to me is that Nora stands next to Nickel, but he doesn’t push it by wrapping an arm around her shoulders. He seems happy enough that she’s close to him.
“How do you want to play this, Pres?” Cross asks as he fills a bucket with cold water.
“Um, I have a suggestion,” Bee replies, raising her hand as if she’s in school.
“Go ahead, Bee.”
“After you and the boys soften him up a bit, Copper will take my turn.” She grimaces before continuing. “I don’t think my ribs will be happy if I go all FUBAR on him. But if I were you, I’d leave the information extraction to Nora. That’s her speciality.”
“And the woman?” I ask.
“Oh, I’ll be happy to put her out of her misery.” Bee smiles widely. “But I want her to hear her man scream first.”
I don’t disagree with Bee’s plan, but holy fuck, we’ve all ended up with bloodthirsty women. Not that I’m complaining. “Okay. We have a plan. Cross, do your thing.”
I step back as Cross throws a bucket of icy water over Eade’s head. He wakes with a gasp, head rearing back and eyes rolling wildly. He jerks his arms against the restraints.
“One minute before you start,” Nora says as she pushes away from the wall and saunters towards Eade. She squats in front of him and pulls her beanie from her head. Her long blonde braid falls down her back, almost touching the floor. “Hello, Lloyd,” she croons softly.
His eyes widen. “Nora. You’re… supposed to be dead.”
As one, we straighten, thinking this is a setup. The Skulls haven’t been wrong yet, but there’s always a first time.
Bee catches my eye and shakes her head and mouths, “Wait and listen.”
I motion the brothers back, and we wait.
“Surprise, motherfucker,” Nora spits. “Did you think I wouldn’t trace what you did back to you?”
“You were gone,” he mutters, still looking shocked.
“I was, and you hit rock bottom. You let drugs rule you, change you, until you became this.” She flicks a finger at him, disgust clear on her face. “I’ve hunted you for years for what you did.”
I catch Copper’s eye, and he raises an eyebrow. Bee said Nora’s deal with Eade was personal. I guess we’re about to find out how personal.
“It wasn’t me. I didn’t kill her.”
“Maybe not, but you put her in their hands. You watched while they did vile things to her,” Nora says conversationally, as if they’re sitting in a pub having a drink.
“Were you there when she cried out and fought them? And I know she fought them, Lloyd. I’ve seen the autopsy.
She fought them hard enough to rip off her fingernails in their skin.
She fought them hard with whatever she could get her hands on.
Until they broke her hands and her feet so she couldn’t fight them anymore. But my little sister was strong.”
We collectively inhale a breath. None of us moves a muscle as we wait.
“I’m sorry,” he sobs.
Nora continues as if he hasn’t spoken. “She didn’t stop fighting, though, did she?
Not even with broken hands and feet. No, she didn’t.
She still had her knees, elbows, and teeth.
And that’s when they killed her, when she used those teeth to bite off his puny dick.
That’s when she was taken from me, wasn’t it, Lloyd? ”
Nora’s fury and pain continue to spill from her lips. “Did you watch as they slit her throat? Did you feel any remorse for the little girl who lived next door to you all her life? The one who hero-worshipped you? The one who believed you were redeemable right up to the moment you fucking sold her?”
Nora’s tone doesn’t change the entire time she speaks to Eade. I understood now why Nora is with us.
“I’m sorry.” Eade sobs, and snot runs down his chin as Nora lays it all out for him.
“I’m sure you are,” she tells him. “Just like I’m sure you’re sorry you killed my parents, and your attempts on my life were unsuccessful. All to cover up how Willow was taken and MURDERED!”
She stands in one fluid motion. “My friends would like a little word, but then it will be my turn,” she says with a cold smile as she bends to look him in the eye.
“And Lloyd… you better hope they kill you before I get to you, because what I’m going to do will hurt and there’ll be no coming back from it. ”
Nora straightens and walks toward Nickel, who opens his arms. She walks right into them.
I tilt my chin at Brass. “You’re up, brother, but don’t kill him. Nora deserves that privilege.”
“Gotcha, Pres.” Brass grins and bounces on his feet as if he’s warming up before letting loose a flurry of punches.
We all take our turn. We’re not looking for information; we just want him to hurt. Nora will get the information because she knows what questions to ask.
Copper steps up. He eyes the pulley above Lloyd, then turns to look over his shoulder at Bee. “They had you strung up, Spice?” She nods, and he turns to me. “Help me string him up.”
It doesn’t take us long to get him out of the chair and dangling from the roof. I like this setup. Everything is easy. Everything is at our fingertips. I make notes of what I want in our wet room at the club. Until now, we haven’t needed one, but I have a feeling we will in the future.
Eade has passed out, so I douse him with another bucket of icy water. He wakes with a jolt, but it’s slower this time. We’ve avoided marking his face until now, so he can still talk when Nora’s ready for him.
“Go for it, brother,” I tell Copper.
Copper slides sharpened knuckle dusters onto his fingers.
“Fuck, you’ve still got them?” I ask.
“They were my prize. Nobody goes after one of mine.” Copper grins and punches Eade in the face, splitting his cheek in the same spot Eade injured Bee.
“Ah, the old eye for an eye.” I smirk as I move to stand beside Bee. We watch as Copper hits Eade in every place Bee suffered Eade’s fists.
“So much better than flowers,” Bee says with a cheeky grin.
“Jesus,” I mutter, pressing my fingers to the bridge of my nose, my shoulders shaking with laughter. How is it possible that I’m laughing while we torture someone?
“What?” She shrugs. “Some women like diamonds, chocolates, or flowers. This is my version.”
The rest of the brothers hear her comment and start laughing.
Bee shrugs and looks at Nora as if to say, What’s a girl to do? Nora loses her haunted look, and a smile tugs at her lips.
Copper pauses when we laugh and turns to look at us as if we’re nuts. He’s filthy, covered in blood and sweat.
“Ah, fuck, that’s a sexy sight,” Bee hums happily.
“Nope.” I stick my fingers in my ears. “I don’t need to know what you think is sexy when it comes to my brother.”
Bee laughs at me until her attention is diverted when Copper stalks towards us and slams his lips to hers, lifting her and pressing her against the wall.
I walk away and take a turn around Lloyd, who looks a little worse for wear. I tilt my head at Nora. “He’s all yours. Do whatever you need to get the information you want from him.”
“Thanks.” She shrugs off her backpack and kneels to remove what look like two metal cages before walking towards Eade.
“Can you hold his legs for me?” she asks Nickel.
He does as she asks, with Brass taking one and him the other. We watch as Nora removes Lloyd’s shoes and socks, then opens the metal cage and fits it over his foot. She tightens a screw at the bottom of his left foot, then his right.
“You guys will have to hold him tight when I screw the bottom ones in, but first, let’s give him a cocktail to get him talking.”
Norah goes back to her bag and removes a black case. She holds it up to show me the vial with needles and a syringe inside. “Truth serum. No idea what’s in it. The Skulls make it. I only know that it works. I could have used it first, but I wanted him to hurt.”
“Fair enough,” I agree. “I’d want him to hurt, too.”
And I would. If it had been Opal, I’d have done the same thing. Nora is showing more restraint than I would.