“That,” Nero points to the now broken pitchfork on the floor. “Was not normal.”
“You think?” Fury shakes his head.
“We need to think about what we’re doing.”
“Why?” I take a step closer and kick the guy’s leg to make sure he’s definitely out.
“Jackal scares him more than we do, and he’s in an entirely different state.”
“If he’s that scared, why the fuck did he betray him and start working for Storm?” Beast asks.
He’s leaning against a stall where horses ought to go, but we have tools piled back there. Things Stryker or Fury might use onguests. He hasn’t said much the whole time we’ve been here. Having all the council here was a show of power.
This fucker decided killing himself was the better option than us, or Jackal if he showed up.
“He might be more valuable alive,” Beast says.
“You serious?” I ask.
“You wanna keep him locked up here?” Nashville moves closer too.
“I don’t trust Jackal.”
“None of us do.” I shake my head. Beast is stating the obvious.
“He hasn’t given us anything about Storm yet, we could keep him on ice,” Razer muses. “He is a direct link to the bastard, probably the closest we’ve come.”
“Storm is not going to ride in and save this prick,” Beast continues to argue his case.
“Considering what he just did, this one is more likely to talk if we hold the threat of Jackal over him," Fury says, eyeing Beast like he's finally acting like his old self, and he's glad about it. "We’ve beaten and killed enough people and got nowhere, this guy can feed us intel. If Jackal comes sniffing around, we have leverage if we’re able to hand him back.”
“Do you know what a pain in the ass it’s going to be to keep this fucker alive?” Razer moans.
“We have people who can do that for us,” Beast pushes off the wall. “How far do we take it tonight?”
Nero looks out of the huge open barn to the pigpen, some of them are starting to wander out under the dark sky, it’s hard to make them out, but the sound they make is unmistakable.
“Wake him up,” Nero says. “Show him what will happen. Drive home the only options he has are us, or his own President.”
Beast throws a bucket of water over his head, and he and Fury wrangle the guy to the fence outside. He screams his head off, and I wince at the sound.
“You sure about this?” I ask Nero.
“What, you not arguing?”
“For once, you’ve had a good idea.”
“Get fucked,” he grins. It fades as the man is dragged back inside. “I’m fucking tired.”
It took a lot to admit that, he’d never do it in front of everyone else.
“You heard from Ronin?” I ask, understanding that violence and planning isn’t enough for him anymore.
“Yeah. His man down in Virginia called. He said the older brother is getting suspicious and he’s been at the house more than once. The wife hasn’t been out in a couple of days.”
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know, but I don’t like it. Blaze looked her up, she had a normal life, graduated college and had a good job when she was forced into marrying Kivisto.”
