Clint stood slowly as the tightness took hold—razor wire twisting his gut. The shooter writhed in pain, his breath hitching and faltering in his throat as tears streaked his face. Clint looked at him, feeling nothing as his mind echoed with the cries and screams of two mothers and the image of the traumatized older brother… and the broken father… haunted him. Ordinary people living ordinary lives—untilthisfucker destroyed it all. And for what—fuckingdrug money?
Clint gritted his teeth and shoved the blade against the captive’s throat. Cochise grabbed a fistful of the shooter’s hair and yanked his head back, exposing his throat. The blade’s tip pressed into the soft flesh beneath the crook of his jaw. “Hedid.”
Chaz didn’t account for any of this. How could he have? Why would he have ever thought adrive-bywould ultimately place him underthe cowboy’sknife? It wasn’t evenconceivable—even with all things that could have gone wrong,thiswould have never even crossed his fucking mind.
Why was he asking about thefucking kid?
What if it was HIS kid—what if you killed the COWBOY’S kid?!
He tried to form the words to hurriedly backpedal, but the pain exploding from his ruptured nuts had webbed through every fucking crevice of his body. His body was shaking, and breathing became a conscious effort. Trying tothinkwas impossible as all the “pain synapses” in his brain were firing off, and he couldn’t focus on anything else.
“Does that make youhappy?”The cowboy dug the tip of the blade into his throat. Chaz feltthat.
His throat worked with an erratic hitch, bobbing against the knife blade. His jaw clenched as a violent spasm of pain ripped through his groin. Chaz gulped down his pain, wheezing heavily.“I-I… no… I didn’t mean...”Cold sweat sprouted over his body, beads rolling down his face and blending with his tears.“I-I didn’t mean to...”He gulped a couple of more times. Chaz squeezed his eyes shut, trying to breathe.
The cowboy leaned back slightly, though the blade stayed flush against Chaz’s throat. “You didn’t mean towhat?”
Chaz swallowed hard as the tip of the blade dug in harder.“Shoot… the kid…”
“You didn’t seem too sad about it a moment ago,” the cowboy reminded with brittle clarity. “When you said you hoped he fuckingdied.”
Chaz coughed, and a surge of pain exploded through him.“I didn’t… mean it.”Chaz wheezed, terrified yet still feeling theirritationwith the kid. All this was abouthim?That fucking littlecunt—
“That’s two,” the cowboy said.
CHAPTER 15
Clint’s eyes were fixed on the shooter, the man’s words resonating in the cowboy’s mind.
Fuck him, I hope he fucking died.
The little brother.
Sibling to the traumatized older brother.
Son of the devastated mother.
I hope he died.
Clint dragged the other chair over and sat in front of the shooter. For a long, drawn-out moment, he stared at the bleeding man, savoring his fear and pain. The coppery odor of his blood hung faintly in the stale air of the Guest Room, and the cowboy inhaled it as if taking a drag from a joint. It had a similar effect, getting him a bithighon the scent.
It had been some time since the scent of blood had this effect on him. Maybe that was a good thing. He had kids and, soon, a husband; it was probably best to leave his old “addictions” behind.
But tonight… he let himself feel it again. He didn’t want anything to stifle his baser instincts, his need todrawblood andtakelife.
Cochise stood his ground behind the shooter, his own bloodlust reflected in his cold gray eyes. He hadn’t been present for the horror show Clint and Axel witnessed, but he could read Clint like an open book, and the nightmare was etched on the cowboy’s face. The Egyptian was a dad, too. A dad who had almost lost his sons to another nightmare. Standing behind the shooter, eyes locked with Clint’s, he understood the assignment and, like Clint, wouldn’t flinch.
What the fuck were they waiting for?
Not that Chaz was eager for the torture to begin again, but—fuck—the way the cowboy just sat there and stared at him was fuckingcreepy. And the big bastard hovering behind him like some kind of fuckingcreaturemade his hair stand on end and sent chills down his spine.
The pain surging outward from his groin wasn’t subsiding; it was growingworse. It pulsed through his body in waves of agony. His balls felt as if they’d been set on fire by theheatof the pain. A permanent bleary haze glazed his vision, blurring the cowboy’s face—but not enough to blind him to the man’s eerie stare.
“Why… are you… doing this?”Chaz rasped. “Wh-What did I… do to you?”Even speaking heightened his agony. He shifted, and his bare ass slipped in the blood pooling beneath him.
Something almostdemonicstared back at Chaz, and an icy sensation slid down his spine.
“That kid… who messed up your shot.” The cowboy’s voice stayed at a whisper. “The one youhopedwould die.” The darkness behind his green eyes shifted. “He had a brother, amother. Family wholovedhim.”
