Chapter 56
Aiden
Mia grabs Libby’s face and holds it firmly in place. “Tell us everything, or I’m going to start pulling your teeth out too.” Dagger and Libby are tied to chairs, side by side in the open space.
“Please, I don’t want to die,” Libby cries.
Mia smacks her across the face, and fuck, I’ll never get sick of seeing her beat someone’s ass. “You should’ve thought about that before. Now the only thing you get to decide is how you die. Quickly?” Mia holds up the pair of pliers we just used to pull out Dagger’s teeth. “Or slowly?”
“Please… If I tell you everything, will you let me go?” Libby asks. She’s a sweaty wreck, mentally exhausted from watching Dagger suffer. She was already weak after Mia fucking knocked her out, and now she’s knee-deep in trauma.
For two hours, we’ve used pliers to pluck Dagger’s teeth, snap his fingers, and slowly yank every single fingernail as he’s fucking wailed, floating in and out of consciousness.
I don’t like to hurt women. It’s something I avoid at all costs if I can, but Libby is going to die, either by my hand or Mason’s. You don’t threaten a president’s ol’ lady and watch him torture a man to death, then live to tell the tale.
Mia doesn’t bother to answer. She just forces Libby’s jaw open, and I wonder if she’ll actually pull one of her teeth out.
“Okay!” Libby cries. “Please… I don’t know anything about your sister, only that Dagger said she had to die because she was a rat.”
Mia clenches her jaw.
“How long have you been with Dagger?” I ask Libby, tapping Mia on the shoulder. “Go sit down,” I tell her. “You need a break.”
She nods and heads over to sit with Mason on the sofa. I watch her chug water.
“For months off and on,” Libby answers, “and then you came.” She looks up at Mia. “This is all your fault—”
“What did Dagger have you do?” I ask, cutting her off. I don’t give a fuck about Libby’s feelings.
“He had me watch you both. I had a special phone to text him on, and he said…” She lets out a sob. “He said that Mia needed me. That we would be sisters, and that…” Another sob. “That she would serve me like Melanie.”
“Who the fuck is Melanie?” Mia asks, fire blazing in her eyes. Any kind of harm to a woman, and Mia is ready for the kill.
“She was in your cage before I got it ready for you. She was too young. She didn’t like the rules. Dagger said once she turned sixteen, she’d be easier to control.”
Fucking Christ.
“It wasn’t my fault. The harder he fucked me, the tighter I was supposed to hold the rope around her neck. That was the rule. If I let up, he’d punish me.”
What the fuck…
I look down at Dagger. Maybe Libby was already fucked up before, but he’s turned her into a certifiable fucking lunatic.
“He said you’d love me, Mia. He said I’d teach you how to behave, and you’d make him happy.” She gulps back more tears. “He said we were made for each other.”
“All right, I’ve fucking heard enough,” I tell Libby, pulling my knife from my hip.
“Are you gonna…l-let me go?”
“No,” Mia pipes up. “You’re gonna die, just like you killed poor Melanie.” I wonder if I should let Mia kill Libby. It might be cathartic for her, healing.
Libby seethes and fights against her restraints. “Fuck you, you ungrateful bitch! We were supposed to be a team!”
“For fuck’s sake.” Mason gently shoves Mia out of the way and points his gun at Libby’s head. Her eyes widen in fear, but his are laser focused.
“You’re gonna kill a woman?” Libby pleads.
“You’re not a woman. You’re just the cunt who tried to hurt the only sister I have left.” He doesn’t hesitate. He just puts one right between her eyes, ending her screams immediately.
Mia doesn’t even flinch. “Thank you,” she says, turning to Mason. “It was about time she shut the fuck up.” She grins as blood steadily drips from the hole in Libby’s head onto the floor.
I’ve created a fucking monster, yet I’ve never been more fucking turned on.
I move over to Dagger, ready to be done with this night and take my girl home. I shove my knife deep under his good knee, pulling him out of his haze as he screams. I wrench it forward slightly, and he screams louder.
“Tell us you were the one who gave the mob the location of our shipment,” I grit out, twisting the knife a little more. “Or I’ll pop your kneecap clean fucking off.” Blood leaks through his jeans.
“You might kill me, but you’re gonna fucking die! Messing with your shipment was a personal request from Ramsey himself,” Dagger gloats, lisping on account of having no upper teeth.
I pull my knife from his knee, and he screams again.
“It’s the fucking mob.” He spits out blood. “They’re going to gut you like a pig, and you won’t get a choice. You know as well as I do, Ramsey will just come for you and take it.” He mentions the don, Angus Ramsey. He’s a tyrant in the south, but I’m not afraid of him. Let him fucking come.
“Not if we’re working together, they won’t,” Mason pipes up, rising to lean against the wall and light a smoke. “The mob creeping into Savannah is a problem for all of us, and your disappearance will send that message loud and fucking clear.”
I like the sound of that. This could be the start of a new alliance between us and the Hounds, for the greater good.
“This can’t be it. I can’t die like this,” Dagger chants like a fucking pussy as he bleeds.
Rage fills Mia’s tired eyes.
“This can’t be it?” Mason booms. “Do you think that’s what my sister said when you stuck the fucking needle in her arm?” Mason’s rage consumes him. He walks over and slices Dagger’s Achilles tendon. Dagger doesn’t even scream this time. He just passes out. Mason slices his other one.
“Guess we’re dragging this motherfucker to the river,” I grunt.
Mason shrugs.
“We’re prolonging the inevitable at this point. There’s nothing left of him. We’re delaying some gator’s dinner.”
Mason nods reluctantly and looks over at Mia. He knows as well as I do that she needs to be done with this. I really fucking like him. He’s more like me than I ever would have guessed.
“Not quite,” Mia says, with an oddly satisfied look on her face. She’s strong as fuck and so fucking beautiful, disheveled and wild. She stalks toward Dagger, looks up at me, and holds her small hand out expectantly.
“This fucking pig took my knife. Give me yours.” Her tone is calm, and her eyes are cold, the iciest blue I’ve ever seen them.
I don’t question her. At this point, I know it’s best not to. She’ll get what she wants regardless. I flip it up in the air, catch the flat of the blade, and hold the handle out to her.
A moment later, she tears Dagger’s shirt open and buttons hit the floor.
“Wake up, you piece of shit.” She smashes the butt of the knife into Dagger’s face.
His eyes open and roll back. He’s barely conscious when she gets onto her knees in front of him, trailing the knife down his torso like she knows exactly where every vital organ is.
With her schooling in forensics, I’d bet my fucking life she actually does.
“Mia!” says Mason, trying to stop her.
But she looks over her shoulder and whispers, “I need this, Mase.”
Something stops his fight. His eyes flit to mine, and I nod.
When Mia plunges the knife into Dagger’s abdomen with absolutely no hesitation, it hits me like a strike of lightning—Christ, I fucking love this woman.
Tears stream down Mia’s face as she drives the knife into Dagger’s gut again.
She lets out a harrowing scream, pulling the knife upward until she’s satisfied, then twists it as Dagger starts to seize.
Like a beautiful fucking beast, she pulls the knife out, bringing part of his large intestine with it. Then she strikes him in the face.
“Wake up,” she orders. Dagger’s pulling in his last breaths as Mia grips his face. “You like my eyes so much, you motherfucker.” She smiles, so fucking stunning, splattered in blood. “They’re gonna be the last thing you see.”
She raises the knife to his throat, but I stop her, grabbing her arm midair.
“No. I draw the line here. You’re not killing him. I won’t let you.”
She hesitates, so I whisper the only thing I know will stop her. “What I have in mind will hurt more,” I tell her, kissing her cheek.
Dagger passes out again.
“Let’s get them both outside, Prez,” Mason says. “It smells like fucking rot in here.”
I nod toward the back door, and Mason cuts the tie between Libby’s wrists and picks her up, heading outside.
“Kill…me…” Dagger comes to, gurgling his plea as blood bubbles and foams in his mouth, but then slides back out of consciousness. I cut the tie and drag him by the back of the shitty fucking cut he’s still wearing. It’s the only place on him still intact.
I order Mia to grab me an old bottle of whiskey from the kitchen, lug the fucker out the door, and drag him toward the river.
“Here.” I point to a muddy spot near the river.
Mason tosses Libby down in a heap, and the sound of her dead bones hitting the earth echoes through the air. I add Dagger to the pile, and the rattle of death takes over his breathing. “Kill me…” he groans again.
I hold my hand out to Mia, and she passes me the bottle.
“Got a light you don’t mind sacrificing for a campfire?” I ask Mason.
“Sure fucking do,” he answers as I pop the cork and douse Dagger in the whiskey. I’m pretty sure he’s already dead as it pools in his half-gutted torso.
Mason tosses me his lighter.
I look at Mia, flick the lighter once, and kiss her.
“Come on…” Mason groans.
I smirk at him, and he smirks back while I toss the lighter onto Dagger and Libby.
Their clothing immediately ignites, flames engulfing them as a guttural, pain-filled scream sounds from within the blaze. Well, shit, I guess he was still alive after all. Good.
I turn back to Mia. “For Nicola.”
The flames from the burning bodies light up the night around us, and my lips are back on hers again while the stench of burning flesh fills the air.