Through the window, Jagger walks around behind him, pulling his head back by his hair. “You ready to tell us who the fucker you made a deal with is yet?” his voice booms through the room, sounding scary as all hell.
Cruz moves abruptly, slamming the man across the face with his fist. Blood flies, splattering over the mat they have laid down under his chair. They have this set-up all planned.
I shriek and cover my face, not wanting to see the horror show taking place in front of me.
Asher’s arms wrap around me tightly. “You have to understand, princess, there is only one way to deal with scum like this.”
“You’re going to beat him to death.” I sob, unable to help the tears that have now taken over. I want to say violence is never the answer, but knowing what this man was going to do to me, having heard that conversation, I can’t even be mad at them for wanting to hurt him. A small, unhinged part of me needs to know he won’t still be out there on the streets to come after me. A tiny sliver is eager to cause the pain myself. I have never felt so consumed by a burning rage, it scares me.
“Eventually. For now, the boys are just trying to ease a little information from him,” Mal explains.
As much as my queasy stomach makes me want to look away, I can’t. My eyes are focused on the awfulness playing out in front of me. I have to know he’s dead. Cruz grins at the man as he takes up a tool, something that looks a lot like wire cutters. “What the fuck is that for?” I cover my mouth, nausea threatening to escape.
Asher’s hold on me is strong but comforting as he rubs the top of my arms. Both he and Malachi are watching the horror in front of uslike it’s some kind of normal. Satisfying even. “A tool he uses to help loosen their lips.”
I turn in his arms, burying my head into his chest. “I can’t watch this. Please, just tell me when it’s over.”
“Let’s play a game,” Cruz sing-songs. “For every minute you don’t tell me his name, I will cut off another finger.” Metal scrapes along concrete in a way that sends shivers over my skin, like nails on a chalkboard. Cruz must be dragging the tool along the concrete floor, teasing the man.
“Ready to talk yet?” Jagger hisses.
“Never,” the man spits back. Then, a sudden tortured scream comes through the audio.
Asher grips me tighter. “It’s okay, little princess, everything is going to be just fine. I promise it will be over soon.” He kisses my hair softly, trying to comfort me. But everything is not going to be okay. Two men that I have come to adore are doing unspeakable things, and I will never be able to unhear or unsee what I have today. “This man was going to kidnap you, have his buddy rape you, before they shipped you back off to your papa to be traded for marriage. He deserves everything they will give him and more.”
I sob into his shirt, knowing it’s true. “If I keep watching, I won’t be able to look at Cruz or Jagger in the same light again. I don’t care how evil the man is or how much he deserved it.”
He pulls back from me a little so he can take my face in his hands. He wipes away my tears with the pads of his thumbs. “Don’t watch, princess. Just keep hugging me. But I need you to remember my brothers are not the bad guys here. They are doing this for you. They would do anything to keep you safe. Karma for his sins.”
My bottom lip trembles. “But they are doing bad things,” I whisper, unable to help it.
“I’m not sure how much my brothers have told you about our life growing up, but let me tell you a little story that might ease your mind, Daisy,” Malachi says from behind us. He’s taken a seat at the desk again.
I nod, needing anything as a distraction right now.
“The four of us didn’t go to school much. We grew up in a strip club and brothel run by our father, so there wasn’t much time for education. Our father didn’t see the value in it when he already had life plans for us. Ones that didn’t involve book smarts. Our dear sweet mother did, though. She did her best to get us there, and when we couldn’t, she called on a friend of hers to help fill in the gaps. Miss Honey. She was the sweetest lady I had ever met.” He smiles softly as if remembering the woman.
“Another minute. You ready to talk yet or do I take your thumb?” comes Cruz’s light and fluffy voice, interrupting Mal’s story as he toys with the man.
I cringe, trying to keep my focus on Asher and Malachi. “I don’t think I want to know where this story is going,” I say, already feeling the sad ending on its way.
Asher shakes his head sadly, and I know I don’t.
Another horrendous scream comes from the man. “Fuck you… you… you’re all going to pay for this,” he mutters, gasping in pain.
“Oh, yeah?” Jagger’s laughter fills the air. “Who’s going to make us? We both know if you don’t talk, you’re not getting out of this place until you’re tiny chunks of pig food.”
The man howls again, and I know Cruz has gone rogue and taken another finger.
“Miss Honey was the smartest. She knew everything from math to science, and she loved to read. She would bring us books. Well, me,the others didn’t partake in reading unless they really had to. But I did, and she opened up my mind to a world I never thought possible.”
I stare back at Mal, liking him more and more by the second. He’s different from his brothers and comes across as less damaged or something. More normal. If there is such a thing with these guys. But I see how genuine he is in his eyes, and I like it.
“One night she was leaving our club after dropping off some work for me, and she was attacked before she could get in her car. Two of them raped her, hurt her so badly she bled out in the back alley and wasn’t found until the next morning. The whole awful thing was caught on our dad’s crappy video surveillance.” The pain in Mal’s eyes is still so obvious. She was more than a teacher to him, she was someone special, and even after all these years, he still lives with the hurt of what happened to her.
Tears leak from my eyes, and I sniffle, trying to stop the pain that’s now lodged in my chest for him. “Why did you tell me such a sad story?”
“Fucking serpents,” Asher spits out, anger lacing his voice. “That night changed everything for us, princess. It wasn’t long after that our mother was killed brutally and the four of us agreed we wouldn’t let that shit slide in this town.”
