Chapter 5 Gage
Gage
“Right there,” Les announces, handing me binoculars. I look through them, and sure enough, it’s her latest victim.
None of us let her go on these alone, even though she doesn’t need us. It’s her way of dealing with what happened to her, and who are we to judge? We aren’t fucking saints.
“Let’s go,” she whispers from her perch on the roof across the street from Chadwick Wentworth’s office.
What a douche name. I read his profile in the car on the way over.
Six counts of rape, including minors, acquitted of all of them, all because of his fucking name.
If it wasn’t such a risk, we would start going after these judges and lawyers who get these dirtbags off.
We scale down the building and disappear into the alley across the street, right where he has to walk by. We wait a few minutes before I hear him loudly talking on the phone, telling his wife that he loves her and would be home soon.
Piece of shit. I wonder if his wife knows he’s a fucking liar.
I reach out and snag him, clamping my gloved hand over his mouth and jerk him into the alley. Les sticks his neck with the needle before he can react. “Nighty night,” I whisper.
“Come on,” she says as she heaves his legs. We carry him down the alley and unceremoniously dump him in the hatch of the stolen SUV.
We climb in, and Les pulls back onto the main road, ripping her mask off. Even though there’s no chance they can catch us, we always stay covered, and Holden is at the house hacking the cameras, making any sign of us disappear.
Our masks are plain black with nothing painted on it, and it’s creepy as hell. With our hoods up, it looks like we have no face in the dark.
Micah had the masks specially made for all of us. You can see and breathe out of them, and the eyeholes have night vision. They are cool as shit.
“Take your mask off,” she laughs.
“No. I like it,” I say, striking a pose before pulling it off.
“You’re seriously more deranged than I am.”
I scoff. “I’m not the one about to torture someone.”
She shrugs. “Fair point, but you helped me grab him.”
We pull into the garage at the house twenty minutes later. We go through the second hidden entrance so we don’t have to drag this guy past Leo. No one else in the house asks questions; they know better. Mani, the head of Les’ guards, will dispose of the car we stole to grab him.
We drag his unconscious ass into the basement and chain him to the chair.
We only tie people who are a threat to the ceiling, and this guy isn’t.
We thought Leo was we grabbed him, but something about him screams innocent.
He’s lucky she has feelings for him, or he would have been dead without a second thought. I’ve seen her kill people for less.
Alessa strips her gloves off and peels off her black hoodie. Her shirt rides up, showing off her stomach’s tanned, toned skin. I unglue my eyes before her head pops back out, so she doesn’t see me staring.
There’s no mistaking Alessa is gorgeous.
She is thick in all the right places. Thick ass, thighs, and hips, but she still has serious muscle tone from lugging these assholes around and working out with us.
Thanks to her dad and Micah, she can kill with her bare hands, and she never lets her size stop her from being the badass she is.
I never have a chance in hell with her, though.
She knows too much about who I am. I can charm the pants off any other girl or guy, literally.
But not Alessa. Not that I’ve tried. Now she has Leo, even if that is up in the air.
I’ve always looked at Alessa as more than a friend, but she never looked at me that way, keeping me firmly friend-zoned.
I feel more of a pull toward her lately, urging me to try.
I can’t put my finger on it, but things are changing around here.
What would it hurt if I took my chance?
She waves an ammonia capsule under his nose. “Wakey wakey,” she sing-songs. His eyes flutter open, and he immediately jerks his arms only to realize he’s tied up.
“Who the fuck are you?” he demands. “Do you know who I am?!”
“I know exactly who you are,” she answers, and I hand her his profile. “Chadwick Wentworth. Twenty-nine years old. Top prosecutor in Los Angeles. Married. Two kids.” She snaps it shut. “Too bad you didn’t prosecute yourself. Six counts of rape on minors. You walked away a free man.”
“Because I didn’t do it!”
She waves that away. “That’s what they all say. DNA doesn’t lie.”
“That was dismissed in court!” he fumes. “Who the hell are you?” he asks again.
“Oh. How rude of me?!” Les exclaims, making me laugh. “I’m Alessa Poletti. That over there is Gage Lawson.” I give him a little wave when he looks my way.
He narrows his eyes, then they widen. “You’re that rich girl that flashes her tits for the paparazzi.”
She leans close to his ear. “Better known as the Black Demon.” I love when she lets that drop.
They go from real brave to pissing their pants in seconds.
“Stupid name, really,” she continues. “They got one glimpse of me in my gear and ran with it.” She walks over to her torture table, gliding her fingers over all the shiny knives before she snatches one up, pointing at Chadwick. “You know why you’re here?”
He gulps, “But I have a wife and kids!”
“Exactly,” she snaps, her whole playful demeanor changing. She is indeed a goddess.
Of death.
“I’m giving those kids peace of mind that you will never fucking touch them.”
“I would never touch my kids!” he yells.
“So, you just like other people’s kids, you fucking scumbag?” I ask.
I hear the door open, and Ryder steps in, leaning with his back against the closed door. I walk over and lean beside him.
Les slams her knife down on the table before picking up a wicked-looking dagger. She turns and launches it right into Chad’s shoulder, causing him to scream so loud it echoes around the concrete walls.
“I will never get over her like this,” Ryder says lowly. “It’s like a different person when she comes down here.”
“I know,” I say happily. “It’s great.”
Ryder grunts, and I take that as an agreement.
Les walks over and runs her fingers over the blade’s hilt before ripping it back out. He screams again, tears running down his face.
“I never know what goes through someone’s mind when they decide to take another person’s innocence,” she says, trailing her hand over his shoulder as she walks behind him.
She leans down beside his ear. “I’ve asked myself that question countless times since I was raped repeatedly for days.
” She rounds in front of him again. “At thirteen.” She stabs him in the exact spot again.
“The same age as the girls you took advantage of!” she yells over his screams. She twists, and his cry is cut short when he passes out.
“Well, that was fast,” she comments, walking back to her table, picking up the ammonia capsule to wake him back up.
She walks back over, snapping the capsule under his nose; he wakes with a jolt. You can tell by the look in his eyes that he’s hoping it was all a nightmare.
“Sorry to disappoint,” I comment. “You are still here. About to die. Painfully.”
“We have a winner. Ryder, tell him what he’s won!” she announces into her knife like a microphone.
“A one-way ticket to Hell. With the rest of us,” Ryder says dryly.
“I like to think us taking care of the real criminals atones for some of the other stuff,” I defend.
“Real criminals?” Les laughs. “We are real criminals.”
“We don’t do that, though.” I flap a hand at Chad, indicating what I meant.
“I hate to admit it, but he has a point,” Ryder points out begrudgingly.
“Wait.” Les’ black eyebrows hit her equally black hairline. “Did you just agree with Gage?” She looks at me. “Hell has officially frozen over.”
“Can we get back to the point here?” Ryder asks, pointing his finger at a blubbering Chad.
She shrugs. “Sure,” she says before jamming the knife into his thigh, always missing the major arteries so he doesn’t bleed out too fast.
I cringe at the scream. I wish she would gag these assholes, but she says she wants to relish in their misery. Good thing this room is soundproof. I have to give Micah points for creativity when he built this place for her.
“Where’s Leo?” she asks, jerking the knife back out.
It always amazes me that she can have a normal conversation while she’s torturing the fuck out of someone.
“Please stop,” Chad begs, snot rolling down his face.
“Shut up,” she barks, then looks back at Ryder, waiting for an answer.
“His room. Still alive.” He looks away. “For now,” he mutters under his breath.
“I heard that,” she announces, and his head whips back to her. “If he dies, you start a war. Remember that.”
“Why do we need this fucking alliance, anyway? The Perez’s aren’t worth a shit,” he spits out.
“I won’t deny that they used to be. But I’m willing to see how they are under new reign,” Les says before walking back to her table, picking up her slicing knife, signaling this is almost over.
“Because of Leo,” Ryder barks.
She turns to him with narrowed eyes. “I’m not one of these girls being led by my pussy. I can make adult decisions.”
“You could have fooled me,” He spits out, and I know it’s the wrong thing to say.
Her eyes turn hard. “You have one more time, Ryder,” she warns.
“Or what?” he bristles, standing up from the wall. “You going to kill your lifelong best friend for that asshole upstairs?”
“You have done nothing but question me since all this went down. I’m still your superior, whether you like it or not.
” Les walks over, jerking Chad’s head back.
“Marciume all’inferno,” she says her signature line before slicing clean through his throat.
She lets his head drop, and it hangs at an odd angle.
“I don’t have a problem with you being my superior when you’re making the right fucking decisions, Alessa. This isn’t the right one.”
I wish these two would fuck and get it all out of their systems. So much sexual tension pours from them in waves that it chokes you. Maybe they just need a push.
I am the man for the job.
She whirls around from the table she just laid her knife down on, her black hair fanning out behind her before stalking right into Ryder’s space.
“I can’t wait for you to eat those fucking words.
Until then. Back. The. Fuck. Off.” She shoves him in the chest, and it catches him off guard making him smack the door behind him.
He jumps back up, towering over her. In her flat boots, he’s almost a foot taller than her but she never even flinches, mostly because he would never lay a hand on her in anger. He would be dead before the hit even landed, anyway.
“Is this how it’s going to be from now on?” he seethes.
“Like what?” she asks, frustrated.
“We are a team!” he bellows. “You made this decision on your own!”
“What would you have me do?” she yells back. My head is flipping back and forth between them like I’m watching a ping-pong match. I wish I had some popcorn. They’ve always had arguments, but it’s gotten worse she started dating Leo.“Kill him and start a fucking war!”
“If you weren’t fucking him, he would have been dead already!”
She takes a step back like he punched her in the gut. I inwardly wince at the look she’s giving him. “You’re a fucking asshole, Ryder.” She pushes by him, leaving the basement.
“That was an asshole move,” I say, agreeing with her.
“Fuck!” he yells. “I know,” he says softer.
“Go kiss and make up. I’ll clean this up.”
He jerks a nod and exits the basement.
When those two finally hook up, they will tear this house down. I chuckle to myself, cutting the ties holding Chad to the chair, letting him hit the floor, and his neck snaps almost clean off.
“It’s me and you, Chad-O,” I tell his corpse before setting out to dismember him to dispose of his body.
What a fucking life.