“It’s not like that,” Roman said, even though that was what it sounded like. “Wayward alphas have very few places to go.Ouroboros can put them to use provided they can prove they can handle it. And if they’re not, they’re cut loose. The leaders are excellent judges of who can make it and who can’t. We don’t take in anyone we cannot be sure will thrive.”
“He sounded like a prick on the phone,” Sidian muttered, and Roman muffled a soft laugh.
“That would be because he is.” He reached up to give Sidian’s thigh a little squeeze. “When he meets you in person, he’ll be on his best behavior. But he is an asshole every chance he gets.”
Figured. Roman’s buddy sounded polite on the phone, but Sidian guessed expecting the people who lined up to commit murders as part of their job to be nice was a bit of a stretch. Or maybe it was just stupid to give a fuck about it; the Mambas took down omega auctions, so maybe that gave this guy a free pass to be as much of an asshole as he wanted. Granted, Sidian didn’t know if Hadeon was involved in the work, but still.
“Why are we torturing someone? Are they not capable of doing it?” Given they weremercenaries,it seemed like they would have been able to take care of it themselves.
“I’m not sure. They are, in fact, capable of doing it.” Roman shrugged, then turned his head and pressed his face into Sidian’s stomach. “I’ll do what it takes to get that address.”
Sidian tensed, not sure he liked Roman anywhere near his stomach, but he had said nothing yet. He couldn’t have noticed. “And then we can go kill Pack Kincaid once and for all.”
“That would be the plan.” Roman tilted his head back, and Sidian brushed the curls off of his forehead, tracing the scar through his eyebrow with the tip of one finger. “They just lost an auction location, so maybe the captive is supposed to know something about that. It’s possible.”
Sidian sucked his bottom lip into his mouth, considering. “Like the location details?”
“No, it's been a couple of days, so the auction might have already happened.” Roman didn’t note the obvious; Pack Kincaid might be on the way home if the auction had already happened, but Sidian chose not to bring it up. Not yet. “It might be more about an information leak. How would the traffickers have known the Mambas were closing in on them if not for a leak?”
“I guess that makes sense. A rat in the snake pit. How nice.” And how fucking worrisome to think about.
Sidian could tell it was a stressful job for everyone involved, much less with someone feeding information to the worst lowlifes in the world likely for a quick buck. He didn’t understand how anyone would go through the trouble of joining Ouroboros—and it had to be trouble—just to cash in their morals at the last second for someone who didn’t even deserve to draw breath.
No wonder the Mambas were ready to outsource help. Maybe they didn’t trust who they had available to do the torturing. “What makes Hadeon think we can get the information? He’s used to torturing people. I’ve never done it before.”
Roman puckered his lips. “I think you can get it out of the guy if you want to. Knives go a long way toward loosening someone’s tongue, sometimes, but still. You can do a lot of damage with blades alone.”
“Why can’t Hadeon do that damage instead?” What was it about the guy that made him not willing to trust even himself to get the job done?
“He’s impatient,” Roman murmured. “He might have called us in to take the guy off of his hands before he kills him, which wouldn’t be the first time. If their information is slipping through holes, then he’s likely desperate to get a foothold in what’s going on, and this might be the only way for him to dothat. I don’t think he wants to risk fucking it up over his anger issues.”
That sounded pretty reasonable, even if Sidian still had severe doubts about what they were expected to do. “So we just carve the guy up and hope he talks?”
“Carve him up, splash him with some alcohol while he’s bleeding. Maybe I can break some of his fingers.” Roman cracked his knuckles, and Sidian’s clit twitched in response. "If you’re up for it. I won’t make you do it, but… We could do it together. We could enjoy it together.”
Together.The thought of bleeding some asshole alongside Roman was far too attractive of a concept to just write off. “You wanna do that with me?”
“I’d like to see what you could do to someone if you knew you didn’t have to hold back.” Roman grinned at him, and Sidian studied the sharp points of his alpha canines.
He considered the idea, wondering what it would feel like to hurt someone alongside his mate rather than doing it on his own. Though he wounded his fair share of people over the years, he’d never gotten to dig into them the way he wanted to. No one at the center would let him near anything resembling a weapon, but he’d done some pretty significant damage at the psych ward.
If only he’d stood up forhimselfthat night…
Let it go,he urged himself.Roman’s waiting for you to give him an answer, idiot.
When he brushed his fingers over Roman’s lips, Roman parted them just enough for Sidian to slip them inside. A warm tongue laved his fingers before Roman sucked, reminding Sidian of last night, of Roman’s cock heavy and hot on his tongue. When Pack Kincaid came for his heats, they’d dragged him down to his knees even with his cunt inflamed from how desperate he was, but that was nothing like what he’d done for Roman. There wasno force, no violence, nothing but him restrained and beautiful and letting Sidian suck him off.
Sighing, he leaned down to kiss Roman’s forehead. “Yeah, Roe. I’ll torture a guy to death with you. Sounds like a fun date night idea.”
“I know.” Roman sucked his fingers harder, and Sidian’s cunt throbbed. “You’re going to look so sexy covered in someone else’s blood. I don’t know if I’ll be able to control myself.”
Now there was an image. Sidian considered what Roman might look like caked in someone else’s blood, gorgeous and wild like when they were kids. It might be risky to take him into the middle of that, given what happened last time, but as long as they got the information, did it matter what happened after? Maybe they could see how many pieces they could chop the guy into before he hit the incinerator.
The only drawback was Hadeon. Sidian was not looking forward to meeting another alpha.
Roman drew his hand down and pressed a kiss to the inside of Sidian’s wrist. “If you don’t want to do it, I can handle it on my own. Won’t differ greatly from what I already do to people who piss me off.”
“I do wanna do it with you.” Fuck it. Roman came back to him last time. Sidian could get him to come back if he lost Roman again.
