25. Caden
Caden
My mask sat uncomfortably on my face as I stared at the man slumped in the metal chair, wrists bound behind him, blood tracing a slow, lazy path from the gash at his temple.
“Need anything else?” Raj asked, voice flat with monotony.
Removing my watch, I set it gently down on the table. “You’re dismissed.”
Raj gave a single nod as the rest of my men followed him out without a word, the heavy door thudding shut behind them to leave me alone with Detective William Kane.
Kane barely reacted when I fisted a hand in his sweat-soaked hair and wrenched his head back. His eyes rolled, unfocused, pupils blown wide with pain and fear.
I leaned in close, letting him feel the weight of my presence, the promise of violence wrapped in calm control. “You alright there, mate?” Reaching for the tape across his face, I pulled it off in one, painful swipe.
A low, broken groan slipped from his split lips. The glue taking off several layers of skin.
“Wake up, Detective,” I murmured, patting his cheek with a detached voice. “We’re just getting started.”
“I didn’t … I didn’t know,” Kane managed to mutter, his eyes darting around the cold, concrete room. “I didn’t know he was your father. I wouldn’t—”
My fist slammed into the side of his face with brutal precision. The crack of bone and cartilage echoed as his head whipped sideways, but before he could even draw a breath, I pinched his chin and wrenched his bloody face back to mine.
“What’s she got on you?” I asked, keeping my tone so cold it bordered on boredom. As though his pain, fear, and pathetic whimpering were nothing more than a minor waste of my time.
Kane’s brows drew together in genuine confusion, blood and sweat streaking down his rapidly swelling face. “What?”
“Aeris Merrin,” I said flatly. “She’s the one that gave you the information, right?” At his jerky, reluctant nod, I leaned closer. “So, tell me … What has she got on you?”
A panicked moan tore from his throat. “Oh, come on. She’s—”
I punched him again, this time in the stomach, so hard his eyes bulged as he lurched forward as much as the bonds allowed. As he bowed forward, I hit him in the nose.
If it wasn’t broken before, it definitely was now.
“Don’t make me repeat myself.”
Kane wheezed and gasped, struggling for air.
For fuck’s sake.
A low whistle cut through the room, and I turned to see Langdon leaning against the doorway, watching the bloodied detective like it was prime entertainment. I hadn’t even heard the door open, so caught up in the violence.
“You’re throwing a party and didn’t invite me?” he signed, a wicked smirk twisting his mouth. “Who’s this sorry fuck?”
“The detective who arrested Dad.”
Langdon’s eyebrows shot up as he let out another whistle, sharper this time, the sound laced with genuine surprise. “Not your usual style, antagonising the cops. That’s normally my territory.”
The detective started wheezing harder, struggling as Langdon stepped forward and casually drove his foot into the front of the chair. It toppled backward with a violent crash, Kane’s skull cracking against the floor.
“I’ll tell you! I’ll tell you everything!” the detective screamed, just as the sharp, acrid stench of piss permeated the air around him.
With a shrug, Lang reached down and hauled the chair back onto all four legs, brushing the concrete dust from the detective’s shoulders before giving the universal ‘A-OK’ sign right in front of his terrified, blood-smeared face.
“Look, I fucked a couple whores, alright?” Kane rasped, words tumbling out in a broken rush. “Aeris found out I was supposed to be investigating them for solicitation and drugs. Instead of arresting them … I fucked them. If it ever came out, I’d lose my job and get done for bribery and misconduct.”
A laugh caught in my chest, but I didn’t release it as I slowly walked to the side where my sledgehammer rested. I dragged it behind me, the sound of metal against the concrete echoing around us until I stood in front of the detective.
“Please,” Kane begged, snot and blood dripping from his ruined nose. “Let me go. She’s the one who fucked with the Beast, not me. I’m just a pawn. She played me.”
Lifting the hammer, I used the head to tilt up Kane’s chin. “Keep going.”
“She … she used it against me. Blackmailing me with getting her information on certain cases. She sent me a recording of a conversation between herself and your father, then told me to arrest him or else she’d ruin me. So I did, but I didn’t realise he was associated with you or the Beast!”
My voice dropped into a low, lethal growl. “Is that why you hit her?”
Langdon’s head snapped towards me while Kane’s swollen eyes widened.
“She’s just some whore—”
I hit the hammer against his left kneecap.
He screamed, and I was thankful I decided to bring him to Thorns rather than do this in his tiny flat. Without hesitation, I swung again, crushing his right kneecap. The satisfaction that rolled through me was dark and vicious.
“You really shouldn’t have touched her,” I said, stepping to the side just as Kane vomited all over himself.
“I didn’t … I didn’t know she was yours,” he barely managed to get out.
This time I laughed. A low, cold sound that had nothing to do with humour.
I swung the hammer once more, this time straight into his face. Bone gave way with a sickening crunch, blood and teeth spraying across the concrete as I kept swinging until the man who’d dared lay hands on Aeris was nothing but a ruined, unrecognisable mess.
My chest heaved, lungs burning as the adrenaline slowly ebbed. The only sounds left in the concrete room were the steady dripping of Kane’s blood pooling beneath his body and the calm, relentless ticking of my watch in the corner.
Loosening my grip, the sledgehammer slipped from my fingers and clattered heavily to the floor, splattering fresh crimson across the concrete.
Only then did I turn, finding Langdon standing there wearing a wide, feral grin of pure, unhinged delight.
“This was never about Alexander at all. You’re here because of Aeris.” His eyes gleamed. “You’ve fucked her, haven’t you?”
“Of course not.” I crossed the room, snatching my watch from the table and snapping it back onto my wrist with more force than necessary. “She’s blackmailing us.”
“Hot, right?” Lang signed, waggling his eyebrows.
“We’ll probably have to kill her.”
“Exactly.” His hands moved with lazy amusement. “So you may as well get her out of your system first.” He paused, then added with a feral smirk, “If you don’t … I will.”
“Don’t you fucking dare.” Rage burned through me, and Lang let out that strange, wheezy laugh of his, shoulders shaking.
“See?” he signed once he’d caught his breath. “You think I haven’t noticed the way you look at her? She’s the only woman that’s ever held your attention for longer than it takes them to suck your cock.”
“That’s because she pisses me off. I’m not interested in Aeris.”
“You’re so busy protecting Bas and me that you’re letting your dick collect dust,” he signed, clearly enjoying himself far too much.
“Lang. Drop it.”
His grin only widened as he flipped me off. Why the hell I’d chosen a mute, annoying, bloodthirsty prick like Langdon as a friend, I’d never know.
“Seriously,” Langdon continued, because of course he fucking did, “you need to put yourself first for once.”
“Lang …”
“Look, I get you have mummy issues.”
“I don’t have fucking mummy issues,” I hissed. I didn’t have a mother, so how could I possibly have issues?
His fingers flexed. “But your dick will literally fall off if it isn’t used.”
I dragged a hand down my face, exhaling sharply.
The truth was far simpler, and something Langdon never really understood. I was too busy, making sure Sebastian didn’t fall over the edge and Langdon fucking survived his addiction to starting fires. Busy being part of an empire that bred corruption and lies.
Langdon enjoyed sticking his dick in everything, and while I enjoyed it on occasion, it was more the power I got off on.
On having control of the way a woman’s body responded when I took it apart.
I fucking loved making them come, hard. It was the most satisfying to the point I didn’t always need penetration.
Simply watching them shatter because of what I did to them fed something dark and possessive inside me.
I met Langdon’s eyes with a flat stare. “My dick is fine. Worry about your own.”
He smirked, signing quickly, “You sure? Because from where I’m standing, you’ve been celibate longer than a ninety-year-old monk.”
Flipping him my middle finger, I reached into my pocket and scrolled until I found Aeris’s number.
Me:
Meet me at Thorns next Saturday.
She read it almost immediately.
Tempest:
I don’t remember giving you my number.
Me:
Get used to me taking things.
Saturday. Thorns.
Don’t be late.