“You two really do seem to enjoy throwing up,” Ledger observes wryly.
Ginger grabs hold of Rook’s hair again and pulls his head back so hard, I think he’s going to break his neck. Rook’s Adam’s apple bobs as he swallows convulsively against the hold Ginger has on him.
With his other hand, Ginger pries Rook’s jaw open and leans over him. He stares right into Rook’s eyes, rolls his tongue and sucks in his cheeks, then spits in Rook’s mouth.
My horrified gasp echoes in the room. Beating him is obviously so much more painful than this act, but there’s something so depraved, and so humiliating and degrading in it that it shocks me to my core.
Ginger shoves Rook’s head forward violently. Rook spits onto the floor and gags. He isn’t sick again, but he heaves a couple of times.
I’ve got to do something to stop this; I can’t let them keep on hurting him. Not for me, not because ofmyfamily. I’ll never live with the guilt.
“Unzip him,” Ledger commands. “Get his pants down.”
My blood runs cold. What does he plan to do?
“Boss?” Lion asks, as if he’s thinking the exact same thing as me.
“I want you to cut one of his balls off,” Ledger says.
Absolute sheer panic rushes through me and I scream. “No, no, you can’t.”
Ledger moves in front of me and grips my face viciously between his fingers, pressing my cheeks so hard it hurts. “Oh, but you see, Little Liar, I absolutely can. That’s the beauty of this situation. I can do whatever the hell I want, and all you and pretty boy over there can do is take it. So, if you want me to stop, you better give me something. Or he is gonna lose part of his nutsack, and, if I’m not feeling too charitable, perhaps all of it.”
I must give Ledger something. He does not know where my family are, and I know that my men are coming soon, so why don’t I just play for time? Yes, lying to the psycho is dangerous because it could get both me and Rook killed, but I have to do something. My mind whirls as I think desperately, trying to make sense of the jumbled chaos that currently composes my thought process.
There was this place we went to when I was a kid, a long time ago. My father took his men out there to practice survival training, and he didn’t want to leave my mother and us kids behind as we were young at the time. Considering recent events, it seems that his paranoia was, in fact, very reasonable. The place was in pristine, virgin rainforest, and extremely inaccessible. We had to walk in, and it took over half a day. It was near the Guatemalan border, and I can remember the name of the nearby village clearly. Mind made up, I look at Ledger and I give him what he wants. A location.
“They’re near El Reposo,” I say, with heavy resignation in my voice. “It’s a village on the edge of the rainforest,and they’re about a five to six hour walk into the forest from the village.”
“Bullshit,” he spits. “How the fuck did they get there?”
“We have a chopper that drops us off as close as we can get, and then we walk in.”
“Can I get a chopper all the way in?”
I laugh bitterly and wipe a tear away. The tears are coming for Rook, but I hope he will believe they are for my poor family that I’m betraying. “No, Ledger, you can’t land a helicopter in dense, almost virgin rainforest. But your men can walk in. That’s where you will find them.”
“Walk in, she says, as if it’s easy.” He rolls his eyes at me. “Which direction?”
“If you leave Rook alone, I will draw you a map.”
He turns to Lion. “Go fetch me a pen and paper,” he snaps. “Make it quick.”
He squeezes my jaw even tighter, and I whimper in pain. “If you’re lying to me, your friend is dead.”
The bikers better arrive within the next ten hours, or I’ve just signed Rook’s death warrant.
9
JACK
It feelsgreat to be back in the company of my old club. Although I brought a few of the men here when I set up this new chapter, I had to leave a lot behind, including some of my closest friends. Big Mike is sitting in a corner leaning back in his chair, and his intimidating size is enough to make most men feel a little fear.
We’re in the clubhouse, but I’ve asked all the barmaids to leave, plus a few members of the Riders I don’t fully trust yet. Beer bottles sit sweating on tables, and the men chatter in low voices as I gather the maps and information together on a table to go through it with them. I glance across the room and smile at the familiar faces.
Crow, wearing his usual all-black uniform, leans against the wall, tall and rangy. His hair is darker than usual, and I wonder if he’s colored it. He has rings on every finger and matches Ghost for pale skin.
Zoo came, too, because he’s a fucking psychopath, and I need all the help I can get in that department when we plan this crazy raid.
