He smiles, wicked and depraved, the monster revealing himself. “Now, this is more like it. At least I’ll die knowing I’ll haunt your dreams, motherfucker. Every time you taste her, you’ll know I had her fir—”
It’s my pistol that strikes him this time, his cheek breaking open and spilling before his head has even followed through on the bounce off the steering wheel. He’s deformed and bloody and still fucking grinning.
It’s not even close to enough.
Maddox yanks Keller’s hair, holding his head in place. “I do love seeing you lose it, Axe, but we should move this to the woods.”
“Fine,” I concede, getting out and expecting them to follow.
Maddox and Jax zip-tie Keller’s wrists behind his back as Ryker and Cash join us. Then we march him out to an area we scouted earlier.
Still hanging on to his heckling spirit, Keller slings another gibe. “You’re planning to hunt down every fucker who did her dirty?”
Pride in Zara’s strengths swells in my chest. “Only those she hasn’t already taken out.”
The towering trees can’t truly be appreciated beneath a midnight sky, but the scents of damp earth and pine and a mushroomy fragrance permeate the path. And the loneliness of it calms me. Because isolation is what he chained Zara to when he stole the choice from her. She might’ve chosen thatroute anyway. I’m sure her father was her hero, but maybe she would’ve had a chance to experience a life that wasn’t rife with the misery of trusting no one and the haunting gift of being the benefactress of death.
So, bringing him here, surrounded by the type of brotherhood he’s likely barred himself from, and returning him to the silent earth feels fitting. Once we make it to our spot, Jax jumps to start a bonfire because what every deep forest execution needs is a kumbaya blaze.
Maddox shoves Keller to the ground. Cash helps strip him down to his boxer briefs so the cold does some of the work for us. And while I didn’t plan on interrogating him because I thought I had all I needed, I decide to ask a question about something that’s gnawing at me.
“I’m not much for elaborate torture tactics, and we don’t have our usual equipment out here. So, for every question you refuse to answer, I’ll shoot an extremity.” I don’t wait for acknowledgment because he’s familiar with how this goes. “What organization did you make the deal with? The one opposing Kratos?”
“I don’t know, man.” He rolls to his side, alleviating some of the strain on his shackled wrists. “Kratos wouldn’t let me out of my contract, and I got wind of another group that wanted them dead, so I went for it. Just like you would have.”
I tsk, arching a brow at him in the firelight. “Nothing about what you did is how I would have done it.”
Unable to ignore a challenge, he huffs a scornful chuckle. “Well, I suppose that’s true since you’re bewitched by the same cunt I bartered with.”
His shrieking scream echoes off the steepling oak trees when the bullet pierces his floppy dick, and I feel my first twinge of satisfaction since we arrived. The few punches to his face weren’t nearly enough suffering for him disrespecting Zara.
Ryker steps forward and snaps a picture. We need a few to carry out our plan in its entirety.
“This is good video footage,” Cash says, referring to Keller’s bleats.
Ryker agrees, recording the pain, the pleas, and the gory remains of a worthless cock. But then he wordlessly steps back to the other three, where they all perch on fallen logs in their dress attire. The crackling wood and smoky-maple aroma of the bonfire consume us while we wait.
When the wailing finally ceases, I resume my questioning, which has little to do with Zara and everything to do with my morbid curiosity. “Why—and tread lightly here—was the contract so bad that you were willing to sell Zara’s services?”
He breathes through his teeth with a hiss to stifle the agony of his mutilated appendage, his eye swollen shut now and his cheek bloody and bruised. “They were out of hand. Newer when they sought me out. Power hungry. Had me offing people left and right and never upped the original pay, even though they could afford it.”
“So, you had them all killed for this other anonymous group?”
“Not all.” He grunts as violent tremors ripple through his legs. “There were fourteen by that time, and only eleven showed, but that was enough to cripple them.”
I prowl around him, my wrath igniting fiercer than the writhing flames at his backside. “Enough for Zara to cripple them. You didn’t lift a fucking finger.”
“Au contraire,” he quips in a smart-ass lilt. “I pulled the strings, and my lovesick puppet danced.”
That has him losing three fingers, his hand gushing and squirting all over the carpet of dry leaves as he roars a low groan.
Maddox kicks Keller’s feet. “You’re really slow on the uptake, man. Losing a dick wasn’t enough?”
“For a guy like that,” Cash taunts, “one who only has the faint recollection of pussy, what good is a hand without a dick anyway?”
Ryker crouches down in front of Keller and replays the video of him screeching. “I’m gonna pass this on so she sees what kind of bullet she dodged when you left her.”
Jax is busy playing in the flames, but he glances over, the blaze capering in his eyes. “He’s wearing down, Axe. Finish it.”
