"I just need a few more minutes. I have a going-away present for our friend."
I chose this room for a reason. Sitting to my left was a stone fireplace with fire pokers resting in a wire basket. They would do for what I had in mind.
"Time to wrap this little session up."
Hakan was pale. Blood soaked the front of his pants, and I could leave him to bleed out, but I hadn't made my point yet.
I made quick work of untying his binds. I didn't even have to pull him from the chair. Gravity took over as he slumped forward and fell face-first into the hardwood floor.
"That was easy enough." I set the flab of skin on the chair. I needed my hands free for a moment. "You're not going to need these."
Without an ounce of grace, I yanked the pants down just below his hairy ass. The sad whimper that fell from his lips was enough assurance that he wasn't going to live much longer.
"Pathetic." I stepped over him and grabbed one of the fire pokers from the basket before glancing back at the flesh resting on the chair. There was no way I was touching that again.
I was quickly becoming bored. I preferred when my targets struggled and made this worthwhile. Hakan didn't even so much as stir when I kicked him on my way back to stab his dick onto the poker like a marshmallow about to be roasted.
"Say hello to the devil for me."
I bent over and shoved the dick and fire poker so far up his asshole that he gave one last ear-piercing scream before passing out.
"You sure know how to make a statement."
I glanced up to find Nyx leaning against the doorframe with a bored look on her face.
"Where's Krista?"
"Sloane has her. I figured I would come in to hurry you along, but I see you're finished. Let's move before the cops show up."
It was a good thing Hakan didn't have neighbors. It made what we had to do so much easier.
"Did you make sure we didn't leave anyone alive?"
"Yup. I took a few moments on my way to you to check the house. Found the room where he kept the women. He locked them in crates like fucking dogs."
I stopped short. "Change of plans. Help me drag his body. I want his final resting place to be the same cage he was going to stuff Krista in."
Nyx rarely smiled, but the one side of her lips curled up with the prospect of leaving him like that.
Between the two of us, it didn't take long to drag a mostly dead Hakan through the house and into the room of horrors. Despite his unconscious state, we shoved him in and locked the door of the cage.
"Now I'm finished. Torch the place. I want nothing but embers left."
By the time we drove away from the property, the house was a ball of fire in the rearview mirror, and Krista was safe in the backseat tucked between Lilith and Sloane.
CHAPTER EIGHT
BECKETT
"So tell me. How do you want to play this?" Sylvia asked as we walked together to the interview room at the prison.
"Follow my lead, but be ready to jump in and take over if it seems like Mason is responding to you better."
I wasn't going to let ego get in my way. Not when it came to this case. If Mason wanted to cooperate with my partner, then I would leave her in charge. At the end of the day, all I cared about was taking the Dunkin family down.
"Works for me. I can turn on the charm if it comes to that." Sylvia flashed me a smirk and wiggled her eyebrows. I couldn't help but snicker at her playfulness. The job was never boring when she was around.
The guard showed us into the room. "The prisoner will be with you in a minute."
