“Yes, boss.”
“Where is he?”
Silently, he guided me to where the treacherous cunt had been stored. Not that I needed a guide. He reeked.
I’d have gagged if I weren’t used to worse stenches.
I peered at the fucker slouched on the floor, one hand cuffed to a pole someone had screwed into the concrete. Rory had already informed me that his spine was broken. A fact they’d uncovered when below-the-waist torture hadn’t earned them so much as a grunt of pain.
Stepping over to his crusty ass, taking note of how his wounds were infected, adding to his less-than-pleasant odor, I crouched beside him, making sure my shoes didn’t go anywhere near his various leaks.
His head barely rolled on its side as he turned to look at me. “Let me die.Pleasssse…”
“Why would I do that, Dante? In fact, haven’t they been pumping you full of my own drugs to keep you going? I’m thinking of leaving you here. Letting you rot and die at the same time. Maybe dousing you in moth balls to kill the stench,” Icrowed. “Do you know what happens to a body when it’s dumped in a lye bath?”
“I do,” he babbled.
“I’m contemplating that. The slower the better. See, Kitty told me what you were about to do to her, Dante. I’m tempted to make you choke on your dick and let you bleed out from the stump, but I need answers.
“I want to know whatyouknow because, Dante, you won’t be the only one who suffers.” His eyes flared wide. “Oh, yeah. We found that little house in Philly. The one where your mom and sisters live.
“How fortunate that we have some openings in our stables. I’ve seen pictures of them. I think they’d make nice whores. But then, looks don’t matter so much, do they? If they’re ugly, then they’ll service the fuckers who are too tight to pay for the premium product.”
The words, toxic and filled with vitriol, slipped from my lips. It was this skill, this ability to verbally torture someone, that made me priceless in these situations.
Luc was rash and quick-tempered. He tortured with a knife. Made them bleed.
I liked it slow. I wanted them to steep in their misery so I could fuck with their heads as well as their blood.
People, my siblings included, thought I was more brawn than brains, but they were wrong. I wasn’t afraid to get my hands dirty, but the brain was a far more delightful place to play.
When I clicked my fingers, Chad appeared beside me. A metal tray in his hands with a syringe on it that rattled from one side to the other before knocking into the ampoule I’d given him earlier.
I didn’t take it, just let Chad’s presence resonate with Dante, who wept silent tears.
“How much do you think we should charge for his mom, Chad?” I twisted the verbal knife. “She’s old, no? Fifties?”
“There’s a market for that,” Chad inserted, calm as you like. “Be worth more if you mess with her mouth, knock her teeth out. Men’ll pay big to fuck a hole like that.”
“You bastards,” Dante howled, thrashing about as much as he was able—i.e., he resembled a dying fish.
“I don’t think so,” I countered. “My legitimacy has nothing to do with your mistakes. You fucked with the wrong people, Dante. You could have stayed as you were, tucked up safe and sound on myStidda. Hell, you’d have been set for life.
“But no. You weren’t just a snake in the grass. You were a traitor. You stolemywoman frommybedroom and thought you could get away with it?” I scoffed. “Se, I like the symmetry of this. It’s very eye for an eye, but you should have figured it out by now, Dante—we don’t take one eye. We take both. We take your tongue and your fingers and your dick too. Then, we kill you.
“You reap what you sow,porcu.”
“Nah,” Chad disagreed. “The women in his family will be reaping that,Capo. Years after he’s dead and gone, his bones the fertilizer in some fields on a farm somewhere, they’ll be the ones fucking?—”
“You cunts,” Dante cried, but the most he could do was wriggle.
“Oh, look, the worm is trying to turn, Chad.”
The other man cackled. “Maybe he thinks he can save them.”
“Too late for that,” I declared with a laugh. Until any and all amusement in my voice faded. Until it turned to ice. Until the air around us froze. “Unless I get answers.”
“You won’t leave my family alone,” Dante bit off. “No matter what I tell you.”
