“I… I don’t know. I didn’t see them clearly, Chester. I just heard their voices.”
Cortez scratched the back of his head with agitation. Even with his back to me, I could sense the eye roll directed at her. Even though, from what I could tell, she was a part of his club in some way, he didn’t have a lot of respect for her.
“It’s like working with those bastard kids all over again. Tucker, enlighten her.”
All attention turned to Drew, including mine. I was so desperate to see those eyes of his, I knew he could feel my stare boring into the side of his head, but he was all about business. Just as he should have been.
Drew tore his attention away from the woman as he looked back at Cortez. His eyes flickered wildly around his rival’s face until a small, broken, and ever so weak smirk tugged at his lips. With his arms strapped up in chains, it was difficult for him to move in any direction, but he attempted to shrug anyway.
All eyes seemed to be on the interaction between thetwo men, while mine stayed firmly on Drew, my shoulders relaxing slightly as I realized he wasn’t going to give them what they wanted. Not completely and not without a fight.
Cortez wasn’t playing, though. He strutted forward with the same casual stride and spun the tip of the knife on his index finger. Drew wasn’t intimidated. He didn’t so much as lean away. He just tipped his head to the side in question, inviting the torture to begin.
“You’re an arrogant fuck, Tucker. Hardheaded. I know you don’t fear death, and pain is a drug to you,” he said, balancing the knife on his finger and knocking on his own temple. “But you’re not the only one I can hurt.”
With another nod of his head, my hair was almost ripped from the roots before I was thrown forward. I tried to catch myself on my shoulder, my face turning to the side to protect my nose and chin from the brunt of the force. The shift in my body had the right effect, but it sent me sprawling on my back, enticing my cry of pain to come almost immediately as the jolt of my body sent the throb in my finger escalating into something more apocalyptic. My feet hit the floor quickly, my ass and hips rising to relieve the pressure on my bound hands and broken finger.
Chester started laughing, his boot coming down on my stomach and pushing my body toward the ground again. “Your whore likes her ass in the air, Drew. I can see why you like her so much.”
There was no sound coming from Drew, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have a lot to say.
“Oh, and what an ass it is.” Cortez slammed his foot down so hard on my stomach it crushed my finger between my body and concrete yet again. I swallowed the scream of pain thatsat in my throat like a baseball. It felt like a red hot poker was being pushed into the joint while it was being slammed in a car door over and over again, but the only sound I gave him was a grunt. I wouldn’t be the reason Drew was forced to talk. Whether he’d done what he was accused of or not, I didn’t care. It was club business and I wasn’t going to be used in that particular game against him.
The moment Cortez’s foot was gone, I forced myself to roll onto my stomach without a sound, and buried my face against the concrete in an attempt to gather my strength. My breath forced waves of dust to scatter across the surface, giving me something other than the pain to focus on. I couldn’t let Drew see my agony, but it meant I left myself open in other respects.
When I felt the hand on my ass, the only thing I could do was scrunch my eyes closed and pray for it to be over soon.
“These pants are like a second skin, man.” I felt the cold blade of the knife through the denim and remained still. Nothing good would come from fighting him on what he was doing, no matter how much I wanted to protect Drew from the inevitable.
The chains rattled furiously until the sound of them snapping into a sharp line caught Cortez’s attention, as well as the small growl of frustration that Drew just couldn’t keep in.
“Close, but not close enough,” Chester said through a smile, fixing his eyes on Drew as he began to move the knife.
Drew didn’t say anything for the longest time, not until he inhaled loudly, the intake of breath obviously causing him pain, before he blew out again. His head rose slowly as he looked across at the girl and let his eyes linger.
Then he began to speak.
“You’re going to watch as I tear your world apart in front of you…”
Sofia’s gasp was instant, her hand flying up to her mouth to catch her sobs.
“Every limb, every tooth, every single hair on his head will fall at your feet. Then, and only then, will you get to leave,” Drew said slowly in a raspy, dark, malevolent tone I’d never heard him use before, but one that immediately sent chills down my spine.
I’d always known there was a side to him that I wasn’t acquainted with, and there was a time I wasn’t even sure I wanted to know it. This was the business face of the man I loved—one that belonged to the Hounds, and the side that his enemies got to see and experience. Whatever I felt in hearing his voice that way, the shout of redemption inside of me made it possible to separate the two, which in turn helped me to ignore the violent undertones and just see the man I loved. The only problem now was the threat being used against me. It had more than exposed his participation in whatever it was Cortez was pissed about.
Lifting my head defiantly, I silently pleaded with Drew to stop talking. I understood that he wanted to protect me, and that was admirable and I loved him for it, but as Cortez had pointed out, it was becoming glaringly obvious that I was his one weakness.
“Don’t do this,” I choked out, my voice hoarse from the last scream I’d given. I could have said so much more, but my head was once again forced down with a boot until all I could hear was the metallic ringing that drowned out everything. Unfortunately, Drew didn’t look at me. Instead, he kept his eyes narrowed at the girl as another smile played on his lips.Before he could react, she was throwing herself at him, her balled up fists hitting at his chest and face over and over again as her sobs echoed around the derelict building.
“You bastard,” she cried. “Itwasyou. It was you, you evil bastard.”
Drew stood rigid between the chains, accepting her blows against his sliced and bruised skin for all that they were worth, his face tilting to one side as he tried to lean away and hold his balance.
“That’s enough,” Cortez commanded, but the girl kept on hitting Drew over and over again, and all I could think about was finding a way to get to her so I could scratch her eyes out. “I said that’senough!”
Wrapping an arm around her waist, Cortez dragged her aside and tossed her away as though she was worthless, her body making a dull thud reverberate off the walls. My eyes had only one target. They were locked on Drew, who was coughing up more blood and avoiding my stares as much as he possibly could.
My head slowly started to swim, flashes of white light peppering the edges of my vision. With the pressure of the boot still there, the buzzing was making me nauseous, and with the dull red from the blood that seemed to come from even more spots on Drew’s body, I was becoming lightheaded. It was only sheer will and the fear of what would happen if I blacked out that had my breaths coming in long, even pulls. When the guy standing over me put more of his weight on my head, I forced my finger to bend and focused on the pain there instead, refusing to give into their games. My eyes, however, were now trained on the girl who had curled into the fetal position the moment she’d hit the concrete, her sobs drowningout the shuffle of boots from the shadows.
