I rolled my eyes and ignored the laughter.
Several more positions were demonstrated to the class at my expense. I hadn’t been this sore for a long time, even though I sparred Kade daily. I could see why they called her Badger. She was lethal. Her footwork and movements were a sight to behold.
After the class had finished, Badger walked over to a fridge, grabbed two waters, and walked back over to me. She held out a bottle. I looked at her, confused, before taking it.
“Good job today, Screwdriver,” she said, holding back a laugh. “Don’t forget to ice that ego of yours.”
I rolled my eyes and walked over to my bag, waiting for Kade to finish up. I limped out to the SUV, rubbing my lower back.
“Fuck man, I think I broke my ass bone!” I complained.
Kade laughed. “Quit your bitchin’. You did this to yourself by antagonizing her.” He clapped a hand on my shoulder. “Maybe you’ll think before you speak next time.”
I repeated what he said in a mocking tone before getting into my Durango.
FIVE
MACHINE
I stood in the small cement room, watching as Kade interrogated one of the Ricci’s informants. The raid on Ricci’s warehouse had been a red flag that something was amiss. Soon after, someone had infiltrated one of our large gun shipments.
“Who ratted on Ricci’s shipment? I won’t ask you again,” Kade boomed, placing his hands on the two armrests that our captive was tied to.
We’d been at this for over two hours. We needed to find out if Ricci was messing with our shipment. But first, we had to know who attacked Ricci.
“I swear, man, I have no idea. I’m just a transporter for him. No one tells me anything,” the gaunt-faced man cried. His beady eyes filled with tears.
Kade sighed and scrubbed a hand down his face before squeezing my shoulder, indicating it was time for me to take over. A thrill of excitement zapped through my veins. I needed to burn off some steam. My nightmares had been keeping me up the past week, leaving me with anger, despair, and exhaustion.
A sadistic grin spread on my face. The captive’s face paled when he saw me twirl a knife in my fingers.
“We are going to play a little game. It’s called ‘I am going to cut things off until you talk’. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure that you stay alive until you do,” I said as I crouched down in front of the man.
The scent of urine filled the room.
“Ah, dude, he just pissed himself,” I said, scrunching my face. If the smell wasn’t a dead giveaway, the wet spot on the guy’s dirty khakis certainly was.
Kade chuckled at my distaste. “You are talking about cutting off appendages, yet a little piss grosses you out.”
“Fuck you, Ghost,” I chided as I stood up and walked around the chair.
“I think we will start with this little guy,” I said in a sickly-sweet tone while pulling on the guy’s ear.
As my knife touched his skin, the man started to talk. “I don’t know who exactly did it, but I do know that that guy Moretti was in contact with someone in the Sinaloa Cartel. One of the other transporters heard him fighting with some guy before the shipment was attacked. I—I swear man… that’s all I know. Please just let me go. I won’t tell Ricci.”
“One last question,” Kade said, starting to pace. “Who fucked with my gun shipment?”
Kade’s voice was oddly calm. I knew that he was beyond furious, and that he was thinking the same thing I was. If Moretti was dipping into different organizations' contraband, we could be looking at a full-out war if we weren’t careful.
The man looked confused. “I don’t know anything about guns, man.”
“Wrong answer,” Kade said in a cool tone.
I drove my knife through the man’s skin, cutting off his ear. His screams echoed in the soundproof room. It was like music to my soul. I took a sick pleasure in beating others, especially when they fucked with our business.
Kade got up in his face while I held onto the man’s other ear. “Who the fuck messed with my guns,testa di cazzo!”
“You should probably answer him. Actually, don’t. I want to add this to my collection,” I quipped.
