“Sometimes.”
“That’s fucked up.”
“What’re we doing right now?”
“Point taken.”
Sadie pushed off the wall. “Ready?”
“He awake?”
“Sorta. He’ll be more awake in a second.”
“Ready.”
Madigan dragged a chair loudly across the floor, and the guy stirred. Madigan swung the chair around and took a seat in front of him, while Sadie stepped to the man’s side, pulled a capsule from her pocket, and cracked it, then passed it under his nose. He groaned. Sadie ran the capsule under his nose again then grabbed his hair close to the scalp and held his head upright.
“What’s your name?” she asked.
Madi waited a beat, and when the man didn’t respond, translated the question in a low, lilting timbre.
The guy barked out a laugh and replied.
“He says he feels so special that you’ve employed a translator just for him.”
“Ask him his name again,” Sadie demanded.
Madi repeated the question, and the guy responded. “Arda.”
Madi and Sadie exchanged a look, then she continued. “What were you doing outside that building?”
No response. And no response when Madigan asked it again. Or the next question about whether he’d come alone and who he worked for.
Sadie steeled her jaw and glanced back at Jonah, a question in her eyes. When he nodded, she walked to a cabinet on the far side of the room and returned, a cleaver in one hand, the other pulling a wooden table over the floor. Jonah couldn’t see the man’s eyes, but he didn’t miss the uptick in his breathing, the way his shoulders rose and fell more rapidly.
Sadie freed one of the man’s hands and strapped it to the table, then splayed his fingers. He hardly had time to let out a cry before she’d severed the tip of his pinky at the first knuckle. Jonah caught Cas’s flinch from the corner of his eye, but he didn’t move otherwise.
Sadie waited until Arda’s cries quieted. “You have three joints in each finger, minus the one I’ve just removed, and two in each thumb for a total of twenty-eight. Sorry, twenty-seven now. I have approximately ten questions for you. Would you like to see how many joints it takes to get the answers? After knuckles, I usually move on to kneecaps and elbows. Four of those, and then we’ll have to move to tendons. Those hurt like a bitch.”
The guy made a choked noise then squared his shoulders, seeming to steel himself. Sadie finished off his pinky and was steadying his ring finger when Madi put up a hand. “Wait.”
Sadie arched a brow, but Madi leaned forward, speaking rapidly in that same soothing timbre when the man’s howls subsided.
Jonah realized Cas was plastered to his side and wrapped an arm around him. “Okay?”
Cas nodded. “Is this the interrogator version of good cop/bad cop?”
“It works surprisingly well, even when people expect it,” he replied, then fell silent as Arda began speaking.
Madi leaned back in the chair. “He says he only wants the drive and the boy. He wasn’t there for anyone else—” Madi’s gaze flicked toward Jonah. “Just knew the boy might be staying there.”
“He’s not got a whole lot of fucking leverage now, considering where he’s sitting. Where did he learn of the bounty? Is he an independent contractor or working on a team?” Jonah asked, and Madi leaned forward, translating.
The man began speaking rapidly again.
“His employer sent him. He’s not after the bounty. His employer offered him a raise.”
Cas snorted softly. “Who knew office politics existed among crime lords?”
