When he’s close enough, I pounce, biting into the flesh of his ear and clamping my teeth down. The man screams and tries to pull away, but I yank the other way, trying to rip the appendage free.
Blood fills my mouth as I shake my head back and forth. A ripping sound fills the air for a brief moment, then pain explodes on the side of my face. My chair falls to the ground and I clonk my head on the concrete floor.
A second masked man appears, checking the ear of the other. “Shit, you alright?”
“No, I’m not fucking alright! My fuckin’ ear is hanging off.”
“We’ll get you stitched up. Why did you remove your mask?”
The man doesn’t answer, just glares at me. “That’s the last time you’ll be able to do that shit, Whitlock.” He looks at the other man. “Get me some bandages. The stitches can wait. It’s time to get to work. We need to cut some pieces off to send a message.”
Fear lances through me, though I smile and spit my captors’ blood at his feet. “Do my ear. We’ll be twins.”
“You fucking…” He takes two steps toward me and kicks me in the face. I feel one of my teeth crack, the pain sharp, radiating up my jaw.
Dental work is in my future.
I spit again and a piece of white bounces across the floor.
“Huh,” my maskless captor says. “Maybe I’ll pull the rest of those pearly whites. Won’t have such a pretty smile anymore.”
I chuckle and try to roll away. “I’ll always be handsome. Not you, though. Got a face only a mother could love.”
I’m taunting him and I shouldn’t, but I finally see what everyone meant when they said I lose my head when I’m upset. The man in front of me can’t think past his anger and that could work in my favor. I just have to keep pushing his buttons until he cracks, then I can find a way to get out of this mess.
“Give me the fucking pliers,” Maskless says, holding out his hand.
“Not yet,” the other guys says. “We gotta give Carter some time to pay. If he sees we’ve fucked his brother up worse than he is, he won’t.”
“Bullshit. He loves this son of a bitch. He’ll pay. We’ll squeeze him for every fucking dime for what this fuckhead did.”
“Still.” The other man tips Maskless’s face toward the light, looking at the damage I did and wincing. “Let me get that ear fixed and we can wait for more instructions.”
Maskless grunts and turns as if to leave. But then he turns around suddenly and kicks me in my gut over and over. I try to tuck my body inward, to protect my vital organs, but I’m tied too tightly to the chair.
The other man has to pull him off before he fucking kills me.
“Upstairs, now!” my masked captor says. “That’s enough! If you kill him, we don’t get paid.”
“Fuck the money! He fucking maimed me! I don’t give a fuck about that money!”
“I do. I need something to take care of my family after the risk I’m taking. Stop being so fucking selfish.”
He pushes the man upstairs, blood trailing behind him. The man with the mask glares at me as they go, promising pain for what I did.
When I’m alone, I blow out a long breath, pain lancing through my ribs. I’m not sure if anything is broken, but those kicks hurt like a bitch.
Dammit, who are these people? They think they’ll get ten mil from Carter? They might as well shoot me now and get it over with.
The pain is sharp, but I can still think, I can still plan. I take in my surroundings, but nothing around looks helpful for an escape. I’ll have to wait for my opportunity, whenever it decides to present itself.
While I lay on my side, looking at the fucking dust on the floor, I think about Nico. Is he okay? Did they hurt him? Kill him?
No, he’s not dead. I’d know. I’dfeelit.
I need to get out of here so I can let him know that this isn’t his fault. If I know Nico, he’s blaming himself for not keeping me safe. But I think that regardless of what happened tonight, whoever has me would have found a way to take me. They just got lucky that I was in public.
I bang my head on the floor, intensifying my headache. I’ll get out of here. I’ll get through this.
