Chapter 7
Seven
MATEO
Ihaven’t touched her in over twenty-four hours, and I’m getting twitchy. I’ve seen her. I followed her after work until I had to go to my meeting with Diego, and when I couldn’t tail her, I had one of my men do the honors, with the threat of death if he showed himself to her or dared to touch her.
She went back to the fight club last night and stayed for several hours.
What the hell is her fascination with my club?
I’d be tailing her again now, but it’s family-dinner night at Rome and Lulu’s penthouse, and I do my best to never miss some of Lulu’s food. She doesn’t just invite us brothers, but she also includes our number twos and any significant others we might want to bring.
So, it’s a full house tonight with Julian and his wife, Natasha, along with myself and Carson. Rome’s second in command is Luke, and his woman, Scarlett, is best friends with Lulu and Natasha.
Diego is here, along with the other seconds, Jack, who works for Julian, and Spider, Carson’s right-hand man.
We’re loud and crazy, and Lulu soaks up every second of it.
“I made lasagna tonight,” she informs us, “along with all of the usual salads and breads and dessert too.”
“I always have to spend an extra two hours in the gym after we have dinner,” Spider says with a smile for Lulu. Spider never smiles, unless it’s for one of the girls.
Pretty much like the rest of us. They’re our only soft spot, so we go to extra lengths to make sure they’re safe and well guarded.
“No regrets,” Spider adds, making Lulu smirk.
Suddenly, Lulu scowls and presses her hand against her baby bump, breathing deep.
“Whoa, what’s going on?” Scarlett demands as Rome hovers close by.
“They’re fake contractions,” Lulu explains. “But they don’t feel fake.”
“Are you sure it’s not real?” I ask her, ready to burn the world to the ground to get her to a hospital, but she nods.
“Yeah, I’ve been seen by the doctor twice. It’s too early, but my body is gearing up for it. Which you guys don’t want to know about. Now, be good and eat my food.”
Rome whispers in her ear, and she blushes as he presses a kiss to the top of her head.
It still blows my fucking mind that my brother is having a kid. That Rome and Julian are both married.
We’re not the kind of men who settle down. Our world is violent, unpredictable, and dangerous.
But now that I’ve met Violet, I get it.
“Mateo has a girlfriend,” Julian announces to the room, and everyone goes quiet as they turn to stare at me.
“Oh, that’s awesome,” Natasha says. “You should have brought her.”
“We want to meet her,” Scarlett agrees. “Where is she?”
I glance down at my phone and the last report from my man. “She’s at home.”
“Fucking stalker,” Julian mutters, shaking his head.
“Why haven’t you talked about her before?” Lulu demands.
“Listen. I met a girl, she’s fucking awesome, that’s all you need to know.”
More silence, and then the whole room erupts with laughter. But when I glance at Diego, he’s scowling at me.
“The fuck, man?” he says.
“I’ve been busy,” I reply.
Suddenly, Julian’s phone pings with a notification, and he lifts an eyebrow.
“She’s searching you again.”
“Wait. You’re really stalking her?” Natasha demands.
I like Julian’s wife. She used to be so quiet and scared, but she’s come out of her shell, and just like the other girls, she isn’t afraid to speak her mind.
“I’m looking out for her,” I clarify, and when an idea strikes, I turn to Julian. “Put in there that I own Rapture.”
Rome’s head comes up. “The fuck? Like hell you do. I’ll put a fucking bullet in your head.”
“No, you won’t. It’s just a ruse. I want to get her to the club tonight.”
“Never pegged you for a cat-and-mouse man,” Carson says, shaking his head. “But it sounds fucking fun.”
“And how is she going to get into my exclusive club?” Rome asks me.
“I’ll wire you the quarter a mil for her membership dues. Does that work for you?”
“I think it’s romantic,” Lulu puts in. “He wants her to see the club.”
“He wants to fuck her in the club,” Rome counters, but Lulu shrugs, as if to say Same thing. “Fine,” Rome grumbles, and Julian taps his screen.
“Done,” he says, watching his phone. A slow smile spreads over his face. “She’s searching it now.”
Fucking excellent.
“I’ll give the girls a heads-up to let her in,” Rome says, pulling out his own phone, but he’s not happy about it. “But you fucking owe me.”
“I told you I’d pay for her membership.”
“I don’t want your money,” he says. He never charges any of us to use the club. “You can owe me a favor.”
“I think I’d rather pay you.”
When we’re finished with dinner, Rome nods for the guys to follow him.
“We need to go to the basement,” he says.
“Jesus, Rome, you kill a lot of people in your cell,” Julian says as we file into the elevator.
“And you don’t?” Rome lifts an eyebrow, and the rest of us smirk.
I’d say we’re all pretty close in that regard.
“Who pissed you off this time?” Carson asks. “And can I fucking strangle him?”
“I think Mateo’s going to want to take the lead on this one,” Rome says, and I frown as the doors slide open and we step out into the cold cement basement.
This area has three cells, but one is bigger than the rest and is used for interrogation.
Also known as good old-fashioned torture.
There’s a man sitting naked in a metal chair, right over a drain. The tool chest has been wheeled over to sit near him, and I glance at Carson because I don’t recognize him.
Carson shakes his head.
He doesn’t know who this is either.
Here’s the thing with wanting people dead: You don’t always know what they look like.
The man in the chair takes one look at me, his eyes blow wide, and he starts to squirm, as if trying to run, but he’s not going anywhere.
“Who the fuck is this?” I ask, shoving my hands in my pockets, staring at him like he’s a science experiment.
“Milo Carter,” Rome replies, and I’m still lost. “Milo here tried to get a membership at my club. He made it through to the interview round because his name didn’t raise any red flags.”
Rome’s adult club goes beyond exclusive. It’s almost impossible to get a membership, unless you’re not only wealthy as fuck but connected as well.
Turning to the man in the chair, Rome pulls the duct tape off his face.
“Tell my brother who you are, Milo.”
“I’m no one.”
Interesting.
Crossing my arms over my chest, I wait. I keep his gaze pinned to mine. I can stand here all night without a word, waiting for him to fucking talk.
“Does the name Miguel Cortez ring a bell?” Rome asks, and my skin is suddenly on fire with rage.
But I don’t move yet. I continue to stare, the knowledge of who this is, and what he did, written all over my face, and Miguel goes ghostly white.
“Everyone out,” I say, keeping my voice steady and hard.
The door behind me opens and then closes again, but when I turn around, I find that Rome, Carson, and Julian stayed.
“We won’t interfere,” Julian says. “But we’re not leaving.”
Resigned to having an audience for this, I turn back and glare at the piece of shit in the chair.
“I’ve tried to find you for fucking years, and you fuck up by coming to my city and trying to join my brother’s sex club.” I shake my head as I move to the tool bench. Rome keeps a well-stocked bench, but I don’t reach for my usual. I’m going to start small and take my time.
Because this motherfucker doesn’t deserve a quick death.
Grabbing a drill, I saunter around in front of Miquel and stare into his eyes.
He shivers.
Yeah, I’m going to make you wish you’d never been born.
“What were her last words?”
Awareness crosses behind his eyes, but then he frowns to cover it up.
“I don’t know what you’re—”
He doesn’t get the last words out before I drill a hole in the back of his hand, making him scream. Blood and flesh flies around, making a fucking mess, and it fuels my lust for his pain.
“Let’s try again.” His head has fallen, but I grip onto his hair and yank it back until his neck is craned uncomfortably.
“I’m not going to let you die until you answer my questions.
I’m simply going to make you hurt. I enjoy that immensely, so if you want to keep being a dumb fuck, be my guest, but I’m drilling through your eyes next, so think carefully. ”
“I don’t remember,” he whispers.
I drop his head and turn to see my brothers watching with sober faces.
They know who this is and what he did.
Why I will not only kill him but steal his soul in the process.
“Last words,” I repeat, already breathing harder. Sweat runs down my spine, but it’s not from exertion. I could work him all night.
It’s from remembering.
“I—”
I spin and bare my teeth. “You do fucking remember.”
Miguel’s whole body sags, as if he just resigned himself to his fate.
“‘Please.’” He swallows hard. “She said, ‘Please spare my son.’”
I nod and have to breathe through my nose so I don’t throw up.
“And what did you do to her?”
“Mateo,” Rome murmurs, but I shake my head.
“I want this piece of garbage to tell me what he fucking did to her.” Miguel coughs, his lower lip quivers, and I take a swing, punching his jaw so hard, his head flies to the side and several teeth go flying. “Tell me.”
“We raped her.”
I knew that. They tied me up in a room where I could hear everything, and I’m the one who found her when they were done. I saw with my own two fucking eyes what Miguel and his associates did to her.
“And then?”
I pace back and forth, waiting as the man in the chair starts to cry.
“Oh, you feel bad? Or are you just scared shitless because you know you’re not getting out of here alive?
” I punch him again, on the other side this time, and more teeth, along with a spray of blood, shoot out of his mouth.
“Because I guaran-fucking-tee you that she knew she wasn’t getting out of that kitchen alive, and you didn’t give one flying fuck. DID YOU!”
Miguel shakes his head, and I start the drill and send it through his shoulder, crunching through ligaments and bone, making him wail.
“You see,” I begin, some of my composure back in place at the sound of his horrific screams, “my brothers and I are shitty people, Miguel. We kill, we run guns and drugs, we clean money, we deal in gemstones, and, well, Carson kills for hire.”
Carson grins.
Crazy fucker.
“But do you know what we don’t do, you piece-of-shit motherfucker? We. Don’t. Hurt. Women. We don’t touch them if they don’t want to be touched, we don’t beat them, and we sure as fuck don’t buy and sell them like goddamn livestock.”
I’m breathing hard, my voice rising with every word.
I drop the drill to the floor and pull my switchblade out of my pocket, flipping it open and slicing off his ear.
“Did you think it was funny to watch her beg?” Fuck. She begged. She cried and pleaded with them to let her go, and I couldn’t do a fucking thing to help her. “Were you the asshole laughing while the others took turns with her?”
“Just kill me,” he says, the words muffled from the swelling in his mouth and his lack of teeth.
“Oh, I plan to, but not yet.” I smile at him, and he seems to go even paler. “Because you’re just a tiny piece of the bullshit going on in our city. I want to know who your fucking boss is and where the girls are.”
“Don’t know.”
“Sure you do. You know. You know everything, and you’re going to tell me because we’re cleaning our city, getting rid of the garbage, and I want to know who the motherfucking boss is.”
“Damien,” he rasps, and I go still as surprise shoots through me.
My gaze flies to Carson, who’s whole body is on high alert, his hands fisted, his eyes on fire.
I shake my head, keeping him back. Damien is Carson’s worst enemy. His nemesis. The one man on the planet that he would kill before you could blink, but also the one he can’t find.
Damien killed Rina, Carson’s wife.
“Fuck no, it’s not Damien. He’s not in Vegas,” I counter.
“Doesn’t have to be here to be the boss,” he replies.
“Where are the women?” I ask.
“They move them.” Miguel tries to swallow but ends up coughing instead. “So most of us never know for sure. They’re going to be moved on Wednesday night to a warehouse where they’ll wait to be sold.”
“Where’s the fucking warehouse?” Rome growls.
Miguel rattles off a location that we all recognize.
“What time on Wednesday?” Julian asks.
“Eleven at night. That’s all I know.”
I don’t believe that at all, but I can also see that I’m not going to get more out of him right now.
“No one kills him until after Wednesday,” I decide.
“What?” Miguel tries to shake his head. “No. Just do it. I told you what I know.”
“If what you say is true, I’ll put a bullet in your brain myself.
If you’ve lied, this is going to feel like Disneyland compared to what I’ll do to you.
” I don’t walk away. Instead, I turn back to the workbench and grab the blowtorch, fire it up, and run it all over the back of Miguel’s head, melting the skin and hair from his skull.
When I’m done, I set the torch aside as the room smells like singed hair and flesh.
“That was for pulling my mama’s hair out, you motherfucker. ”
I stalk from the room and feel the others moving behind me.
Diego comes to attention and falls into step beside me as I walk down the hall to the elevator.
“Get that asshole over to my building and keep him alive until I say so.”
“Got it. She’s on the move, boss.”
“Where?”
“Looks like she’s headed this way.”
I nod and wonder if I made a bad decision by luring her here tonight, after what just happened and the fucked-up shit running through my head.
“I’ll go home and shower and then be back.”
I don’t want her to see me like this.
“Yes, boss.”