Chapter 22
Devlin
We had just gotten them secured in the soundproof room of my warehouse when the coms came to life.
Rhys’s voice came through as he said, “James, can you come outside for a moment?”
I gave James a look, and he rolled his eyes as he walked to the keypad and punched in his code. The door opened and I turned my attention back to Kendra. She was suspended from her wrists in front of me as Lucian got Bradon secured next to her.
She was staring at me with the lustful gaze she used to give me when she was turned on. “I didn’t know you were this kinky, Devlin. Would you like to spank me too?”
“Shut the fuck up,” I demanded and pressed the button to the hoist above her, raising her into the air so her feet barely touched the concrete floor.
I’d guess she thought by trying to be provocative, I might show her mercy, but none would be found here today. I needed some answers, then I was going to end her and whoever he was to her, sending them straight to hell where they belonged.
A moment later, the sound of the door opening echoed into the room, and I turned to see what Rhys wanted from James.
The last thing I needed was a problem, so I watched as he walked through the door.
I wasn’t expecting him to have anyone with him, and I’ll admit, I was shocked to see my wife holding a gun entering with him.
I didn’t expect Elise to walk into my torture room, and when she did, I thought something was wrong.
Knowing she only wanted to witness these assholes’ demise was music to my ears.
Kendra’s manic screams filled the air of the soundproof room as the realization of her future, or lack thereof, was becoming real.
“I can’t believe you hit me,” she bellowed, spitting blood onto the floor. Trying to turn directions on her tiptoes, she whined, “Bradon, do something.”
“Fuck you, Delilah,” he spat at her, and she turned her eyes to the side, giving him a nasty glare.
“Don’t call me that, Michael,” she replied, making her sound like a child arguing.
“I guess there’s not really a need to ask who they really are anymore, is there?” I asked Lucian.
He shook his head and rolled his eyes as he stood off to the side. Michael no longer seemed like he wanted to rescue Delilah. He had hatred and vengeance in his eyes, and I had no doubt he would kill her himself if we let him go.
Maybe I should let him handle her, then I can take care of him. Walking up to Michael, I looked him directly in the eyes, and just like I remembered, he diverted his gaze from me.
“Pussy,” I remarked and turned away from him to retrieve the file from the table.
“Keep struggling like you’re going to do something, and I’ll let you go so he can choke you to death with his bare hands,” Lucian warned, and I glanced over my shoulder to see Michael losing steam.
Looking at them hanging there, him pissed at her and her trying to gain my attention, I began to think they were more fucked in the head than I originally thought.
I moved over to a dangling Deliliah and made sure to stay out of her reach as I spoke. “What was your purpose in all this? Did you actually think I would leave my wife, the woman I’ve loved longer than I’ve know you, to what? Run away with your crazy ass?”
“You were always meant to be mine,” she protested as she hung from her wrists in front of me.
She had a bloody smile as she watched me. Insanity was clear from the expression on her face, so I grabbed the metal chair and placed it ten feet in front of them before I took a seat. Crossing one leg over the other at the knee, I opened the file and began to read out loud.
“Delilah Greene, huh? Why did you kill your parents? Did Daddy diddle you during the night, or was Mommy too strict on you?”
“Fuck you,” she spat and literally tried to spit blood onto me, only for it to dribble down her body. “I don’t owe you an explanation for a damn thing.”
Michael hung five feet from her, and he tried to look at her as he suggested, “Tell him what he wants to know and he’ll let us go.” He turned his gaze to me and asked, “Right? You’ll let us go if we tell you everything?”
I chuckled and shook my head as Lucian watched from beside me. “I never said that.” Looking up at my brother, I inquired, “When did I say that?”
“Devlin, be reasonable,” Michael started, trying to bargain his way out of this.
I stood from my seat and dropped the file onto the chair as I approached him, Delilah swung beside him, and she attempted to get close to me as I stepped in front of Michael. Pulling my knife from my hip, I held it up in front of him as I stared into his eyes.
“This is how everything’s going to go. I ask a question, and you give me the complete truth. Any deviations, lies, half-truths, or omissions and I’ll start to remove parts of you until there’s nothing bigger than a matchbox left.” His eyes grew wide.
Delilah struggled next to him, and she watched on in fascination as I glanced at Lucian and requested. “Strap him to the table.”
Michael fought against his restraints as I stepped back and watched Lucian yank him from the hooks by his wrists and drag a combative Michael to one of the metal tables in the center of the room above the large drain.
It took little effort for him to be strapped down to the table before Lucian stepped back and I approached.
I pointed the knife at Michael’s hand and looked down at him as I spoke. “I know you’re Michael Badcock and she’s Delilah Greene, but I want all other names you’ve used during your life.”
His forehead had a thick leather strap across it, and he tried to shake his head as he responded, “My name is Bradon Mills. I don’t know who those people are.”
I glanced at Lucian as I responded to his blatant lie.
Pressing the tip of the knife against the back of his hand, I used my body weight to let it slowly and painfully pierce his flesh.
The screams were instantaneous as I explained, “You’ve already called her Delilah, and she’s called you Michael, so that’s your first warning. ”
The knife hit the metal table, and I instantly grabbed it and yanked it out, feeling the serrated edge tear through flesh. He screamed louder as blood gushed from the gaping wound in the top of his hand.
“Fine,” I heard Delilah yell, and I looked over my shoulder as she said, “You know our real names. So fucking what? We haven’t been them in years, so why does it matter what we call ourselves?”
“I guess she wants to play too.” I smirked at Lucian. “Can you bring her over? And be careful. She likes to bite.”
Michael was trying to maintain continuousness as Lucian snatched Delilah off the hook with two hands on her waist, dropping her to her knees before he grabbed her by the hair and began to drag her closer to the metal tables.
She attempted to fight him, but she couldn’t gain any traction on the concrete floor.
He yanked her onto her feet, and she tried to use her hands to stop him, only for me to walk up and smack her again, silencing her for a moment.
Lucian hoisted her up and threw her onto the table before he secured her arms, legs, torso, and forehead with leather straps.
They were both secured in the same manner, and I watched as she tried to escape the restraints.
Delilah began to speak to me as she struggled, “If I would have known you were this kinky Devlin, we could have really had a good time.”
“I got everything I wanted from you already,” I returned.
Walking up to Michael, and seeing Delilah strapped on the other side of him, I slapped his cheek, demanding, “Wake up, asshole.”
Skid stepped over and handed me an ampul with a smirk. I looked at it and gave him a nod before placing it under Michael’s nose and breaking the little glass bottle wrapped in cotton. The smell instantly brought him back to the living, and I smiled down at him.
“You don’t get to miss all the good stuff,” I taunted as his eyes lulled to the side.
Delilah was grunting as she attempted to get the heavy leather to give enough for her to escape and I decided to change my tactic. Elise said Michael seemed pissed at her, but still did as she asked, and I thought maybe I could end this by grilling her.
Moving around to the far side of Delilah, I pulled my gun from the holster and she stopped squirming. “Why did you kidnap Elise?”
“Fuck you,” she spat again.
I lifted the gun and pressed it to her knee before pulling the trigger, splintering bone and muscle. She screamed and writhed under the restraints as I asked again, “Why did you kidnap Elise?”
“She doesn’t deserve you,” Delilah managed to get out around her heavy tears.
“And you do?” I inquired. “What makes you so special?”
“What makes her so special?” Delilah asked with snot and tears rolling down her face.
“I don’t owe you a damn thing,” I remarked, “but I’ll tell you that she’s a better person than you’ll ever be.”
Michael moaned on the table beside Delilah, so I moved the topic back to what I wanted to know. “What did you think would happen? That I’d leave her and start a life with you?”
“You were always meant to be mine,” she whined as Lucian wrapped a bandage around her knee, slowing the bleeding.
“Crazy bitch,” I replied. “Who funded your little endeavors?”
She shook her head, and I pressed the gun to her other knee, ready to pull the trigger when Michael interjected.
“Some guy named Marcora.”
I looked at Lucian, and he seemed as confused as I did.
Marco was a Marcora. He was sent away like I was, so his older brother could be groomed as the next head of the Marcora family.
He was meant to be a Syndicate inductee, but died before I killed Marco, and as far as I knew, there wasn’t another sibling in the family.
Their father was dead and wasn’t a threat, so who were they speaking about?
Moving back to Michael, I looked down and asked, “Why?”
“He wanted to know all about your business, and he tortured her to get the information. Something inside of her broke during that time, and she became hellbent on getting you back.”
“When was this?” I asked him as she seemed to slip in and out of awake beside him.
“Six years ago,” Michael remarked.
“And where is he now?” I inquired.
“I killed him so he wouldn’t hurt her again,” he answered and tried to look over at her.
“Why stalk Elise? Why did you kidnap her?” I asked.
“Delilah said that if Elise left you, she’d be able to win you back,” Michael offered. “I told her it was crazy, but she made me do it.”
“You could have said no,” I reasoned, and he looked up at me with watery eyes.
“I can’t say no to her. She’s my wife.”
“What the fuck?” I asked and looked between the two of them. “What kind of twisted fuck helps his wife kidnap her former lover’s wife so they can be together?”
“One who will do anything for her,” he admitted. “I’d do anything to make her happy. Even give her to you.”
I was shocked by his admission and walked back over to Delilah. Slapping her cheek, I roused her and asked, “What happened to you to make you so fucking twisted?”
“Daddy happened,” she replied. “He said I wasn’t allowed to love my brother, so I fixed it so I could.”
She tried to look over at him, almost lost in a memory as someone walked up behind me and placed a hand onto my back. Looking over my shoulder, I saw Elise standing there with anger in her eyes.
“Ask her what her plans were with our sons,” she demanded, and I snapped my gaze back to the two assholes strapped to the table in front of me. “She said you and she were going to take the boys, so I want to know what she had planned for our sons.”
Turning back to the two of them, I had a decision to make.
I could continue to question them, or I could just close this chapter of my life and never look back.
But what if this Marcora was still a threat.
Even dead people have a way of reaching out and hurting people, so I stepped up to the foot of the tables and spoke to them both.
“The first one to tell me everything gets to live. The other, I’ll draw your pain out until you’re bleeding from every orifice of your bodies.”
Delilah seemed to want to speak but neither said anything.
I was sick of this shit, so without a second thought, I picked up my knife, walked up to Michael, and plunged the blade into his thigh, twisting until I felt muscle, tendons, and bone shred under the sharp blade.
Delilah lay next to him, tears filling her eyes.
I reached my palm out to Lucian, and he placed another knife into my hand.
I gave Delilah the same treatment as Michael, making sure to damage the same leg I’d shot.
There wasn’t any reason to move limbs until this one was completely destroyed.