Carbon chirped, “Don’t think so. Start talking or we keep going.”
Octavius had stilled, I assumed to contemplate his next move. Unfortunately for him, Carbon wasn’t a patient man. Apparently, Hector wasn’t either.
“Octavius! What the hell are you doing? Talk! Help me!! Make this stop!”
Carbon turned to Hector and arched a brow. “I don’t know what he did with him. I would tell you if I did. I swear it,” Hector rambled.
“That doesn’t help me with my problem at all. Sorry…” Carbon laughed, “Oh, wait, no I’m not.” Two seconds later, Hector was missing half of his ear.
Hector’s high-pitched screeching could outdo a banshee on any given day. “My ear!! Help me, please, Octavius, please make it stop!” Hector was sobbing for all he was worth, blood oozing from his hand and his foot, and was that, oh hell, had he pissed himself?
“I find it interesting that he seems to care more about what happens to Hector than to his own son…” Carbon said to the group. “Or, is that a ploy to spare the boy?” Carbon cackled like a crazed maniac. “Damn, I’m so fucking giddy I’ve started rhyming.” Carbon shook his head and just like an etch-a-sketch, his face was wiped clean. The ice cold killer was back. “Remove the boy’s gag. I want to hear his screams.”
Carbon slowly approached the table, hands steepled in front of him, index fingers tapping together as he surveyed his tools. “Stop!” Hector bellowed, louder than I thought he could manage in his current state. “That’s not his son!!”
“Shut your mouth, Hector!” Octavius yelled.
“Why? You’re shutting yours enough for the both of us!”
“Not another word out of your mouth!” Octavius commanded.
“Why? What are you going to do about it? You may not know what it means to be a real man, but I do and I’m not about to let that boy be tortured because of you and you’re stupid obsession with Phoenix!”
Octavius was shaking with rage. “You don’t know anything!! It’s not stupid. I have every right to hate him! He ruined my life and then he did it again and again and again. No way am I telling these imbeciles anything about him when I finally have power over him!”
“It is stupid. No one knows what he did to you and if no one knows, it can’t be that bad. You can’t always win. You can’t always be the best. You can’t always have all the power.” Hector paused for a moment, heaving in breaths before he changed tactics. His voice was less anger-filled and almost encouraging. “Don’t you see, Octavius? You do hold all the power right now. Only you can decide if this stops or if they continue to torture me and that boy. At least get him out of this. You are the only one who can do that.”
Octavius seemed to brighten at Hector’s words. “You’re right. I do have the power.” He grinned evilly and looked toward Hector, “I don’t give a shit what they do to you or to him.”
“Enough!!!” Carbon bellowed. Even the boy, who had been thrashing around on the table and yelling into his gag the entire time Hector and Octavius were bickering, stilled. “Gag them!” He yelled, pointing at Octavius and Hector. Carbon walked to the table and sliced through the boys gag with a wickedly huge knife. “You his son?”
The boy quickly shook his head, “N-n-no, and I know where Phoenix is!”
Carbon bent down to the boy’s face and bared his teeth, “You ever see a clown pull a string of handkerchiefs out of his pocket?” The boy hesitantly nodded. “That’s how it will look when I pull your intestines out through your mouth if I find out you’re lying to me.”
The boy squirmed but didn’t break eye contact with Carbon. “I’m n-not lying. I saw him shove a man through the doors that led to his basement. The man was tied up and looked like he couldn’t stand very well. I don’t know if that’s Phoenix, but he was dressed like those guys.” The boy motioned with his head toward those of us on the sidelines. “He had that same leather vest on.”
Carbon turned to face Copper and Badger with a raised brow, as if to say, what now?
Copper and Badger had some silent conversation through a series of grunts, nods, and hand gestures. It was truly amazing to watch. Copper stepped forward, “Take those two back to their cells.” He looked to the boy and narrowed his eyes, “We’re going to let you up, but you ain’t leaving this room just yet. I’m going to ask you some questions and you’re going to answer all of them. If I think you’re fucking with me, I’ll let Carbon and Batta loose on you, got me?”
“Y-yes, sir.”
Once the boy was released from his restraints, he sat up on the table and answered every question Copper asked. When Copper was finished, the boy continued to talk, telling us anything and everything he thought we might want to know.
Copper stood, “Let’s go get our president.” He clapped the boy, who we now knew was named Coal, on the shoulder, “You’re coming with us.”
CHAPTER 27
Dash
I stopped by the panic room to let Ember know we were heading out to get Phoenix. She of course hit me with a barrage of questions that I couldn’t answer. I promised her I would come get her as soon as we got back and then I would answer as many of her questions as I could. She didn’t seem to like that very much, but she kissed me and told me to go bring her dad back.
Ember didn’t know it and would likely be pissed as hell at me when she found out, but I had her and Jamie remain in the panic room even though there was a skeleton crew of members staying behind at the clubhouse. I didn’t know how things were going to go once we got to the farm. Anything could happen, but I knew she was safe as long as she stayed in that room.
From what Coal told us, we should be able to enter the property without issue as long as we were in the SUV’s we drove back from the cabin. “They’ve got a chip or something on them that opens the gate. The gate can’t be opened without one of the chips,” Coal explained. “Once we’re through the gates, we can drive one SUV to Octavius’s house and the other two need to go to the building with his main office in it.”
“Why can’t we all go to his house?” Badger asked.
