Chapter 42
Tico
Ember steps back and places her knife on the table. She tilts her head at me, and I take it as my sign to take over.
Grabbing a knife from the cabinet, I walk over to Kane as I silently slip on my brass knuckles.
He lifts his head, glaring at me, and before he can open his mouth to speak, I nail him in the jaw with a hard punch.
Not hard enough to break his jaw since we still need him to be able to talk, but it is hard enough to hurt like a hijo de puta (motherfucker).
“Why’d you do it, Kane? Why’d you betray me? Why’d you betray tus hermanos (your brothers). Why’d you betray the Royal Bastards?”
Kane sneers at me. “Because you’re fucking weak.
Your father was fucking weak, too. You all are.
We never should have gotten out of the harder drugs.
We should be running weapons and drugs for the cartel, but no, you didn’t want to get mixed into that.
The fucking skin market is lucrative as fuck and you refused to touch that as well.
You’re a fucking pussy. You shouldn’t even be wearing that President patch.
You’re too weak to be what this club needs. ”
My vision threatens to turn red at his taunts, instead, I funnel it and refocus my anger.
Silently, I start cutting off the patches on his cut, one by one as he trashes and spews curses at me that I ignore.
When I’m done, I slice the leather off of him, letting it fall to the ground.
Walking back around so that I’m in front of him, I look at his club tattoo on his left pec.
Raising my knife, I make three diagonal slices and then I do the same just from a mirrored angle.
Then, I make a diagonal slice above his tattoo and start shaving it off of him, letting each little piece of skin fall to the plastic with a wet splat.
When I’m done, I take a step back. “You are no longer nuestro hermano (our brother). You are no longer nuestra familia (our family). You are no longer a Royal Bastard.”
Kane’s eyes harden in anger, but he knows what’s to come.
I fully step back, motioning for Taco to step up next.
One by one, mis hermanos (my brothers) beat the shit out of Kane until he is bloodied, bruised, and one eye almost swollen shut. We always make sure our guests can see out of at least one eye so that they know what’s going to happen to them, as well as any other guests we may have.
When they are done, I turn to Scooter who has, so far anyway, been hurt the least. I tap my knife against his fat cheek. “You planned to take mi mujer (my woman), my Ol’ Lady for yourself after you sold her off to The Collector.”
Scooter snarls at me before smirking. “And I would have popped that bitch’s cherry, too, if Drone hadn’t fucked up and killed two of the women The Collector had planned to buy.”
I return his smirk before cutting into his chest, carving ‘RB’ into it.
“And even after all of that, you still didn’t get to lay a finger on mi mujer (my woman). And you never will.” I pause and grin darkly at him. “But tonight… Tonight’s pain won’t be brought to you by me. Or mi mujer (my woman). No, I think mi hermano (my brother) will be delivering your pain.”
Scooter’s eyes widen and when fear flashes across his face, I know he’s heard the rumors about Daemon’s reputation.
I step back and Daemon instantly takes my spot, slicing a deep line through Scooter’s club tattoo.
Ember steps up to Ashley while Taco takes Kane, Cobra takes Bug, and I walk over to Drone.
“So, you’re the devil that thought you could get away with trying to kidnap and sell mi mujer (my woman)?
” I say to him, referencing one of the first things Ember told me.
That it was easier to live with the devil she knew.
“You’re in my house now, güevón (asshole).
And I’m going to enjoy making you pay for everything you did to mi mujer (my woman). ”
Drone grins a bloody grin. “Just you wait. El Diablo will get his hands on her and your sister’s club.
” His grin widens when he sees the muscles clenching in my jaw.
“Did you think we’d forgotten about her?
No, one day soon, El Diablo will get his hands on them and then you’ll never see them again.
Or maybe he’ll even take you along as well so you can get a front row seat to his plans for them. ”
I slice my knife deep into his skin.
“El Diablo will never get his hands on mi familia (my family). We cut the head off of the snake when we killed X. We can do it again with El Diablo. His days are numbered.”
I step back and turn to Psycho. “Psycho, I think our guests need a bit of a bath. Care to help us out, hermano (brother)?”
Psycho chuckles his crazy-assed chuckle and all five of them nervously try to turn and see what he’s doing.
He unrolls a hose and I share a dark grin with Ember as I step closer to her so I’m out of the way.
He connects a white, plain bottle to a sprayer and when he steps closer to our guests, Daemon and Cobra pull the chains that raises a plastic sheet just high enough to protect us from the spray but so that we can still see their faces.
Technically Psycho is skirting the line with this, but since he’s not physically putting his hands on Ashley, he’s in sort of a gray area, so I let it go.
Screams immediately erupt from all five of them and a moment later, Ember wrinkles her nose.
“Is that… bleach?” she asks quietly and Daemon just looks down at her, smirking in response.
“It stings like a motherfucker when you’re hit with that much at once and at that concentration,” Taco replies.
Ember laughs in response. Fucking laughs. Then her eyes widen and she starts laughing even harder.
“Oh, that’s perfect. Instead of mind bleach…
eye bleach,” she says through her laughter which has me and a few of mis hermanos (my brothers) chuckling as we catch on to what she means.
Then she straightens, raising a hand to her mouth to shout over the screams. “Hey, Psycho, can you be a pal and make sure they clean their eyes really well. Those naughty boys and girl need to clean everything after what they’ve done.
Well, maybe leave one eye undamaged.” She turns and smirks at me.
“We wouldn’t want them missing out on their gifts later and the fun that’s to come. ”
Psycho fucking cackles in response. “That’s our Queenie!” Then he turns to our guests. “You heard our Queen. Gotta get you lot squeaky clean!”
Chief pulls some plastic, protective seal or some shit out of his kit and hands them to Daemon.
He and Cobra help Psycho secure them over one eye on each of our guests.
Then they place some tape over it to further protect the eye.
When they’re done, they step back and raise the plastic even further to make sure none of us are sprayed accidentally.
Once Psycho has his gear on, he does as Ember requested and turns on the hose.
Instantly, their screams of pain bounce off the walls.
After a few minutes, I signal to Clutch and he and Radar put on thick metal working gloves before grabbing a large roll of barbed wire off the wall.
Clutch whistles loudly and a moment later, Psycho turns off the hose.
Daemon and Cobra grab the squeegee’s and start pushing the excess water and bleach down the center drain before lowering the front plastic shield.
Radar holds the roll while Clutch steps forward towards Kane first and starts wrapping the barbed wire around various parts of his body.
“Please, please, don’t…” Zane begs.
Clutch pulls tighter on the section he’s securing around his arm. Then he gets right in Zane’s face. “If you wanted mercy, then maybe you shouldn’t have betrayed us in the first place, jackass.”
Zane sobs but none of us pay him any attention. He knew from the day he joined us what the consequences were for betrayal. The cabrón (fucker) just never thought we’d catch him before he disappeared.
Once Clutch has the men’s bodies wrapped in wire, he guides and tells Ember what to do as she does the same to Ashley. Then, Psycho steps forward with another spray bottle—this one filled with a yellow liquid.
He walks up and down the aisle in front of and behind our guests, periodically spraying the liquid on them.
Sometimes he hits the same spot twice in a row, sometimes he hits a new spot.
The barbed wire cuts into their already tender and burned skin with every movement they make.
Each one of them starts sobbing and crying with increased pain as the liquid seeps into their injuries.
Ember frowns as she watches him, trying to figure out what it is in the bottle.
I lean down. “It’s pure lemon juice.”
She smiles darkly and nods. “Fuck, you guys have thought of everything.”
I look down at her, in awe at how she isn’t freaking out about what we’re doing and that she’s not judging us.
She really did mean it.
She really meant she’s willing to help us with any problem we might have.
When Psycho steps away, I push off the table and walk over to Zane. “What all were you and Ashley doing behind our backs? Or should I have Daemon come over and work his magic on you? You know what all he’s capable of. Are you sure you want that?”
Earlier, with Lucian and Creed’s help, we were able to identify everything they had done, but I want to hear it from his mouth.
“No!” Ashely screeches. “Don’t tell him anything!”
Zane scowls at her. “I’m not going to be put through more shit just to protect your skanky ass,” he hisses at her and then turns his scowl on me.
He’s hanging limply from his restraints, the fight obviously having drained out of him.
“The weed. She helped with the weed. It started with just skimming off the top. Later once she got the keys, she took money out of the safe. My man fucked with the cameras here and at the warehouses. At night, I’d change the inventory numbers on the weed and the guns.
I was working with another group to route the stolen product to the cartel and some other dealers.
Then I started helping Oasis by kidnapping people off the streets and handing them off to the thugs they hired from somewhere nearby.
Ashley helped with that, too. She faked needing help which got more women to let their guard down.
Ashley also helped leak information to Oasis about Ember and Pyper’s locations.
She followed you guys everywhere, giving them live updates. ”
While I’m still pissed as fuck at how much they’d betrayed us, I just nod for now, relieved that there was nothing new.
I look over at Daemon giving him a chin lift to proceed.
He wheels a cart in between all of them and as soon as he sees it, Zane starts begging.
He motions to Ember and she watches him hook them up to the machine, and then she does the same thing to Ashley.
After they both step back, Daemon shows Ember how to work the remote and then she flips the ‘on’ switch.
Instantly, all of their bodies start to convulse as short bursts of electricity course through their bodies. They go through four cycles, resting for a few moments after each cycle.
Then, when Daemon takes the remote back and starts unhooking the machine, Clutch approaches Ember.
“Queenie,” he starts and I fight not to grin and give away his surprise.
Ember turns and frowns when she sees Sandman wheeling forward a contraption on a metal cart with a white cloth covering it.
Sandman places it in the middle of all five of our guests and instantly, all five of them warily eye the cart.
Then mis hermanos (my brothers) bring out five carts with a box on each that holds Levi’s gifts and they place them behind each guest.
“I started on this after your last round with Bug. I took inspiration from Levi’s ‘toys’ as she calls them, and I figured if we ever got our hands on Drone and Scooter, you’d might wanna use something similar.”
Clutch gives Sandman a signal and he pulls off the white cloth.
“Holy shit!” Ember exclaims, her hands flying to her mouth in surprise, but thankfully she doesn’t touch her skin since she’s still wearing soiled gloves.
“Is that what I think it is?” she asks and Clutch’s lips twitch.
“Well, that depends on if you think it’s a mini-guillotine or not.”
Ember fucking straight up cackles. “Oh my God! You made a mini-ween-guillotine! A weenotine! Haha! Off with their weens!”
Her eyes widen at some train of thought she must have had while at the same time, Zane, Scooter, Drone, and Bug each start pleading for mercy.
“Oh shit, I gotta tell Levi this! We should totally have shirts made that say ‘OWTW (iykyk)’.”
Mis hermanos (My brothers) bust out laughing at her while I stare at her in shock before also succumbing to laughter.
“Holy shit, T,” Taco says in between his laughter. “You fucking picked the best woman ever. And the best Queen ever.”
“Ella es perfecta (She’s perfect),” I reply and fuck do I really mean it.