“My glasses!” she cries, reaching out toward the broken plastic and glass.
“Run again and broken glasses will be the least of your worries,” Snake warns her.
“I’m sorry, Sandman,” prospect one says, his eyes bulging withfear. “I don’t know how we missed her. We were watching the building, but didn’t see her come out.”
I drop to my haunches and coast a finger through the blood trickling down his chin. “I wonder how long it takes a person to die from being skinned alive. Minutes? Days? Weeks perhaps?” I ask softly, but the threat is loud and clear. “You two better hope she’s found sooner rather than later.” I rise to my full height. “Get out, but do not leave The Sanctuary.”
A few of the brothers are already waiting upstairs to keep them company. It’s all hands on deck until Zilphia is found.
I stalk toward Leah, but Snake steps in my path. “I got this.”
“Go grab a drink at the bar,” I say, stepping around him. “You don’t want to be here for this.”
He places a firm hand on my shoulder. “I said I got this.”
I scowl at the offending appendage. “Do you want to keep that hand, little brother? One way or another, she’s going to talk.”
“I’ll get her to talk,” he rumbles, his turbulent coal-black gaze daring me to challenge him.Challenge accepted.I ball my hands into fists, ready to beat the fuck out of him, but his next words deflate my anger. “She’s mine.”
I understand now, this isn’t him trying to compare the size of our dicks. Leah is his, in the same way Zilphia is mine. No one else is allowed to hurt her; that privilege belongs to him and him alone. I nod. “I’ll give you ten minutes, little brother.”
Snake fastens a hand into her micro locs and hauls her to her feet. “Where the fuck is she?”
“I don’t—” he flings her into the wall, and again she crashes to the floor.
“The clock is ticking, Leah.” He saunters over to her and lifts a booted foot to her throat. “Are you prepared to die today?”
She clamps both hands around his ankle, trying to relieve the crushing pressure on her trachea. “Please,” she croaks, wheezing for breath. “I’m telling the truth.”
The girl is loyal, I’ll give her that, but my patience is wearing thin. A bullet to the kneecap will have her spilling her guts realquick, but I’ll let Snake do his thing first. For the next several minutes, he tosses her around the room like a rag doll, but she doesn’t break. She maintains that she doesn’t know where Zilphia is.
“I know what’ll get her talking,” Snake says to me, then leaves the room.
Leah grabs the leg of the table and pulls herself into a sitting position. “I don’t know where she is!” she wails. “Let me go before he kills me!”
“This is child’s play,” I remark, gesturing toward her. “When it’s my turn, the real torture begins.”
“You’re an animal,” she accuses, her tear-filled gaze flashing fire at me.
I laugh and dig my cell phone out of my back pocket, making a show of checking the time. “Yeah, I am, and in about three minutes, you’ll see firsthand just how much of an animal I can be.”
“No wonder Zilphia’s…” Leah starts, but then snaps her lips together.
“No wonder Zilphia what?” I question, straightening from my slouch on the wall.
My inquiry is met with silence. Just as I’m about to snatch her ass up and introduce her to theanimal, Snake strolls back into the room with his pet python coiled around his neck.
“No! No! No!” Leah screams and crawls beneath the table. “Take it away! Take it away!”
Snake looks at me and smirks. “She has asnakephobia.”
“Clearly,” I deadpan.
He flips the table, and she scurries across the floor on all fours. “Keep it away from me!” she shouts, plastering herself into a corner.
“Tell us what we want to know,” Snake barks, kneeling in front of her. “Or you can spend the night with Marla.” He removes the six-and-a-half-foot reptile from his neck and places it around hers.
Leah’s terrified screams rend the small space, and I’m of a mind to knock her the fuck out. Zilphia’s screams are music to my ears, hers, not so much.
