“How would you know that?” Badger asked.
“I lived under his rule for 18 years. You tend to pick up a lot of things over that amount of time. I was able to break into his safes and steal almost $100,000, wasn’t I?”
“Point made. Help yourself,” he gestured to the access panel.
Ember waltzed into the panic room, punched some buttons, and lights started flashing. The girl never ceased to amaze me. “Nice job. What’s the code, baby?”
She rolled her eyes, “8-O-C-T-A-V-I-U-S-8.” The man really did have serious issues.
“You and Jamie go on in and get comfortable. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” I leaned down to give her a quick kiss and realized every brother from my club was staring at me. “Later, guys.” I looked back to Ember, “Love you.”
“Love you, too.”
CHAPTER 26
Dash
Copper about fell on his ass when he saw me and the other Croftridge officers walking toward him. “Where in the fuck did they come from? Phoenix with you?”
“They were locked in the panic room. Phoenix wasn’t with them though,” I explained.
“How do you get locked in a panic room? I thought it was supposed to work the other way around?” Copper asked.
Badger grunted, “Octafuckhead had a tech guy change the passcode for the inside panel.”
Copper still looked confused. “So, how did you get the door open?”
“He’s either really fucking stupid or way too cocky, or maybe both, because the dumbshit didn’t bother to change the code to open the door from the outside. When Dash came down to put Ember and Jamie in the panic room, he found us.”
Copper grinned, “Never thought the day would come that I would be happy to see your ugly mug.” He pulled Badger in for a slap on the back. “You got any idea what happened to Phoenix?”
Badger looked to the floor and slowly shook his head. “I saw one of the Octacunts jab a needle in his neck right before they started throwing concussion grenades. When we all started coming around, we were locked in the panic room and Phoenix wasn’t with us.”
“Ah, I was wondering how they managed to get all of you brutes in there without there being a few bodies scattered around.” Copper clapped his hands together loudly, “Enough with the chit-chat, let’s see if we can get our caged birds to sing. You want your guy or my guy to do the honors?”
“Eh, let ‘em both have some fun. We’ve got three for them to play with.” Badger chuckled and headed toward what we called our interrogation room.
It was time to get the party started. We had Octavius’s son gagged, stripped down to his boxer briefs, and strapped to a metal table in the middle of the room. Octavius was tied to a chair and blindfolded. The other guy was tied to a chair on the other side of the room, gagged, but not blindfolded. Carbon was standing beside his tool box of torture, bouncing on the balls of his feet like a kid ready to rush the candy store. Coppers’ enforcer, Batta, was pacing the length of the room, casually swinging a baseball bat by his side, and whistling an eerily upbeat tune.
I considered both of these men my brothers, would do anything for them, but it straight up creeped my shit out when I saw them let their crazy out first hand. Kidnapping our president was the most severe offense either of them had dealt with in their years as a club enforcer. Add to that trying to kidnap and sell his daughter, killing a prospect, and nearly killing Duke, I wasn’t sure I would be able to handle what they dished out. I’d seen both of them work someone over, for far less than what these three had done, and that was hard to stomach.
Copper and Badger exchanged a look, communicating silently. They each turned to their respective enforcer and nodded. Let the games begin.
Carbon’s voice was ice cold when he spoke, “Remove his blindfold.” Copper ripped it off his head. Whatever reaction we were expecting, didn’t come. The expression on Octavius’s face remained the same. He actually looked bored.
Carbon covered his hands with vinyl gloves and picked up a pair of rusty bolt cutters. “Where shall I start?” he mused. The boy’s eyes widened and he started to thrash around on the table, sounds of fear and panic escaping around the gag. Still no change from Octavius. “Cover his eyes.”
Copper looked curiously at Carbon, but did as he asked and replaced Octavius’s blindfold. What was he doing?
As soon as it was in place, Carbon quickly turned and faster than anyone should be able to, he snipped off Hector’s thumb with the bolt cutters. Hector grunted and groaned around his gag. Octavius’s posture changed. It was slight, but I saw it, and from the looks of it, so did Carbon.
Carbon made eye contact with Batta and gestured to Hector. Batta silently crossed the room. With one swift motion, he swung the bat and hit Hector’s left knee. Hector screamed loudly behind his gag. This time, Octavius sat up as straight as he could, listening intently. Interesting.
My skin broke out into goose bumps when I heard Carbon’s chilly tone, “Ready to talk?” Octavius was visibly trembling and beads of sweat had formed on his forehead, but he didn’t respond. “Okie dokie,” Carbon sang. He returned to Hector and removed a toe with the bolt cutters. He stepped out of the way so Batta could bring the bat down on Hector’s right forearm.
Hector immediately started gagging and heaving. Carbon looked down at him and shook his head, “Pussy. Already puking.” He sighed, “Remove his gag. Can’t have him choking on his own vomit and dying just yet.” The gag was removed and Hector spewed forth the contents of his stomach. He screamed in pain, puked again, and sucked in huge lungfuls of air. “Octavius!” he screeched. “Help me!”
Octavius stiffened. His face turned red and his breathing doubled. Then he bellowed, “No!” He was trying with everything he had to get out of the chair. “What have you done to him? Let me see him! Get this off of me!”
