I shrugged, though my gut churned at what I was about to do. I didn’t enjoy torture like Cillian and Aspen did, and I’d never wished they were here harder than I did now. “This is gonna pinch.”
I stuck the pliers into his mouth and grabbed his front tooth between the steel before yanking it. Blood gushed from the fresh hole, and he screamed, struggling intensely against the zip ties. He screwed his eyes shut, and threw his head back, and Fallon jumped out of the way before the Cartel man could headbutt his chest.
I showed Fallon the tooth and winced. “I did warn him. Ye think he thought I was joking around?”
Fallon shrugged with a smirk. “You did. You were nice that way. It’s not your fault he was an asshole about it.” He leaned over the prisoner. “You look so hot right now. We should fuck on his dead body.” It was a joke, words to make the Cartel man scared, but the thought of fucking like that made me inwardly flinch. That was definitely more of Cillian’s thing, and I hadn’t realized there was anything that dark hiding away in Fallon’s pretty head.
I forced myself to raise my eyebrows. “Why wait? Let’s do it after a few more teeth. Blood everywhere. Sexy.”
The prisoner trembled as his screams of pain quieted. “You guys are fucked.” Tears flooded his face and he shook harder. He sobbed. “I don’t know where they are. I don’t know where Thiago will go next. I’m not that high up. I’m just Lejo.”
I sighed dramatically. “Well, wee Lejo, ye know something, even if ye don’t know that ye know it, and we’ll keep hurting ye until ye give us what we want. Another tooth?”
“No! Don’t—”
Fallon stuck his fingers in Lejo’s mouth again, opening it to give me access to Lejo’s teeth. I took another, this time from the bottom row. His screams hurt my ears.
For half an hour, we took teeth. When he was nearly all gums, we started working on his fingers. We began with the tips, then to the knuckle. I never understood what Aspen and Cillian enjoyed about this kind of torture.
“Had enough?” I crouched in front of Lejo. His entire body shook, and while he couldn’t talk properly, he could still give us the information we wanted. He didn’t. Instead, he shook his head with a cry. Brave bastard.
Fallon whistled. “You think he’s into pain?”
Before I could answer, the annoying vibration of my phone went off again, which made me groan and stand, grabbing it from my pocket. Vail’s name and sweet face flashed across the screen, and I smiled, hitting the green button to accept the call.
“Hello, angel.” I stretched out my back as it twinged. “What are ye doing?” I glanced at Fallon, who grinned when he realized it was Vail.
“Where are you?” The concern in Vail’s voice had me more alert. “I came home to an empty house, but I thought you would be back soon. You’re still not here. Are you all right? Is Fallon okay?”
Panic surged through my belly, knocking the breath out of me. “Whyare ye home? Ye were supposed to stay with Conall.” I took a step back from the prisoner and gestured for Fallon to move. He didn’t question me, already running from the room. I assumed he was going for his clothing and gun, so I did the same. The sooner we got to Westhampton, toVail, the better.
“I wanted to get a book I bought a couple of weeks ago,The Evil Life, which was written by a very thorough pair of authors, Clive Small and Tom Gilling. I was telling Lor and Conall about it, and they seemed interested. It’s the one about the Australian Calabrian mafia. They’re Italian, but they’re actually from a different region than—”
“Angel, listen to me very carefully.” I hated interrupting him when he was chatting about something he loved, but he was alone, and the images my brain painted of all the things that could happen to him weren’t pleasant. I shoved the phone between my shoulder and ear as I searched the room for my shirt and suit jacket. I was relieved when I saw the clothing and grabbed it. My gun in the holster was out on the counter in the kitchen, where it had ended up after Fallon and I had napped on the floor. I ran out and snatched the weapon next. “Go down to the panic room, ye hear me? Go there right now and stay there. Watch the cameras and only come out when ye see me and Fallon, aye?”
“I don’t understand. What’s wrong? Did something happen? One of the men, Irving, said you were home, so I came home because I didn’t know what was happening. I wanted my book! I know something is wrong because Conall’s been all secretive, and he won’t tell me anything. Aspen told me to stay there, but when Irving said you were here, I had to come see you. Plus, I really wanted to show Lor that book. And... I was hoping you could tell me what’s happening.” He sounded buzzed, as though he’d been awake for a while. Feck, had he gone running alone?
I mentally cursed. When I turned to look at Fallon as he came back into the room, I sighed in relief to see he was buttoning his shirt. From the expression on his face, he’d worked out the issue already from only hearing my side of the conversation.
“Vail.” I hardened my voice. “Panic room, now.”
“Don’t talk to me that way.” The hurt in his tone broke my heart.
“Do ye trust me, angel?” I tugged the SUV keys out of my pocket. There would be no time to go get my Lexus, but that was fine. Even if the parking garage had my car impounded for overstaying, getting to Vail faster was well worth some annoyance.
“Always.”
“Then do as I say. Please.” My heart pounded faster than a runaway train and anxiety ripped through my chest. I couldn’t bear the thought of something happening to VailorFallon.
“I’ll go down there now.”
“Good.” I sighed in relief. “Stay there. Fallon and I will be home as soon as we can. We’re driving from the city. Remember what I said. Don’t let anyone in but me, Fallon, or Conall. Am I clear?”
“Yes.” The sound of the heavy panic room door opening, then closing, had me staring up at the ceiling as I quietly thanked God. “Love you.”
“Love ye too, angel. We’re coming for ye.” I ended the call and glanced back at our prisoner. He would be going nowhere. Besides the walls of Mount Pleasure being completely soundproof, he was tied tightly to the chair with zip ties while having an injured... everything. His mouth was bleeding profusely and so were his hands.
I messaged Mickey McCorkell and Tadgh Quinn anyway to let them know the situation. They were good candidates to babysit.
