Pausing just inside the entrance, my eyes are drawn to the middle of the room where Diego has been strung up, his arms stretched taut above him and his feet scrambling to find purchase on the slippery plastic sheeting under his feet. He’s already lost his shirt, and Blade is in the process of removing his pants. None too slowly or gently, but there’s not one of us here who’d give a fuck about that.
I take a moment to study him, this defiler of young girls. He appears to be in his mid-to-late thirties, and though currently his face is twisted in panic, and his nose broken from Drummer’s punch, it’s still possible to see he’s a handsome enough specimen to catch a woman’s eye and reel them in. His naked body revealing he’s kept himself in shape, trim without an ounce of fat, it’s not hard to understand how a naïve young girl like Jayden could easily have been flattered to find she’d attracted the attention of an older, good-looking man.
“Let me down! You can’t do this!” He’s shouting, but his voice soon tapers off as Blade lays his knife in warning against his chest.
Drum gives me a chin lift, acknowledging my presence. The preparatory work completed, they were waiting for me to arrive before getting started. “You wanna take the lead?”
Fuck yeah, I do. I step forward and stand at Diego’s feet, my arms flex and my shoulders pull back as I look eye to eye with the strung-up man. As he stares back at me in confusion and alarm, I decide to introduce myself.
“I’m Slick, and the girl you’ve been raping is my ol’ lady’s little sister.” I let my personal investment settle in for a moment. “You’re gonna tell me exactly what you did to her and everything else you know.” I pause and point at Blade. “This here’s our enforcer. I couldn’t begin to list the number of ways he can make you suffer without letting you die.”
Wild eyes flick toward me, his palpable fear giving me a sense of satisfaction.
I’m vaguely aware of the door opening and closing behind me, but don’t bother to turn around to see who it is, until I recognise the deep voice as it growls at my side. “And I’m a medic. I’ll make sure he keeps you alive until you’ve spilt every fuckin’ thing you have to tell.”
Hiding both my amusement and surprise, I dip my head toward Doc. He’s not technically part of our club and doesn’t normally get involved in the darker side of what we do, though, of necessity, he’s aware of many of our secrets. Normally, he’d want to be far removed from shit like this. The fact he’s here now shows his personal level of disgust with this sorry excuse of a man.
Suddenly Diego starts talking, but his prattling doesn’t give us anything we want to hear. Ignoring the protests, begging, and offers of money from the man who’s struggling furiously against the ties which hold him, Drum steps up and puts his hand on Doc’s shoulder. “You sure about this?”
“I want to see him hurt,” Doc growls. “That girl’s little more than a fuckin’ kid.”
The exchange appears to have done nothing to make Diego feel easier. His face has paled, his naked body is trembling, and his balls have shrivelled up into his body.
“You can’t do this!” he screams. “Lay a hand on me and you’re all dead. You won’t get away with it.”
I pay him no attention, thinking of the questions I’m going to ask. There’s so much I want to know, it’s hard to know where to start. At last I find my first question, and it’s a personal one. “Why did you target Jayden?”
His mouth purses as though he’s not going to speak. Blade stabs him in the side, then trails the tip of the knife slowly downwards, making a six-inch tear in his skin, the looks of concentration on his face showing how seriously he takes his role. I happen to know our enforcer has made a study of anatomy, knowing just where to make it hurt without causing a fatal injury. Well, not before he wants to.
Diego, only aware of the pain and the blood running down his body, lets out a scream of pain and fear. “Sylas chose her for me.”
Sylas? The young kid, Sy? “Sy works for you?”
He shuts his mouth fast. Blade steps close again.
“He’s my nephew.” Diego’s eyes don’t move from the blade the enforcer’s touched to his skin on the opposite side from the original wound.
“He the kid of that brother of yours? The one that we killed?” Drum interjects.
The man hanging from the scaffolding shakes his head. “No, one of my other brothers.”
“Fuck,” Drum says in an undertone into my ear. “It’s a family fuckin’ business. Just how many of the motherfuckers are involved?”
At least three brothers enmeshed in it? One of them dead, one will be soon, and the third will follow soon after if I’ve got anything to do with it. It’s a family fucking sickness more like. Staring at Diego, I want to find out exactly who we’re dealing with so we can hunt them all down. “What’s your family name, fucker?”
That one’s easy for him. “Herrera,” he yells out. His face twists into a sly smile. “You’re fucking with the Herrera family. You’re all dead!”
Shit. You don’t live in Tucson without being aware of them, they’re the city’s most notorious crime family. To date, the Satan’s Devils and the Herrera’s have managed not to step on each other’s toes, but now? Drum stiffens beside me, an imperceptible movement giving nothing away.
I’m still in the chair. Keeping my face impassive at his revelation, I walk around him, pointedly stepping over the blood dripping steadily from his side and pooling on the ground. Diego’s eyes follow me as well as they can. Back in front of him, I raise my chin. “So how does this work, then? Your nephew, Sy, gets in with a young girl, then brings her to you? What happens next?”
He actually smirks. “I break them in.”
The casual way he throws it out there has me moving before I can hold myself back. I punch him so hard in the stomach it steals his breath. As he draws his legs up, his body starts swinging and he chokes as he tries to breathe.
I fire more questions, ones he evades, now knowing his answers will draw more punishment. He shakes his head and refuses to speak.
Blade gives me a nod, then jerks his chin over his shoulder and makes a request. “Beef, grab hold of his hand, will you?”
As Beef steps forward, undoes one side of the chain holding him up, then wrapping him tightly with bulging biceps allowing him no escape, Blade approaches. Armed with tools from his box of toys, he holds a pair of pliers in Diego’s line of sight.
Diego struggles harder, his eyes flaring in terror.
“Fuck!” Blade jumps back. “Motherfucker’s just pissed himself.” I and my brothers remain stoic, it’s nothing we haven’t seen before, and not the first time we’ve been forced to smell the rancid odour of ammonia.
Undeterred, the enforcer proceeds with his task and begins to pull out all of the fingernails on Diego’s right hand, who quickly starts screaming, his cries and pleas now punctuated with promises to talk. Blade pulls out the last nail and the weeping man’s words begin spilling out one after another. Blade signals to Beef and Diego’s arm is chained back up.
“Once they get into me, I start training them.” He’s sobbing with pain, his eyes going to the blood running down his arm from his hand. “We then whore them out to the highest bidders, usually in groups, like last night. Men attracted to young flesh.”
It’s not just me who sees red at his disgusting revelation. Blade stabs him again.
“Give us the names of the men involved. Your relatives and the punters you contact.”
He’s howling like a wounded animal. “The family will kill me,” he screams.
I give him a pointed look, then start turning my head, giving Blade a chin jerk.
That gets him started again and he screams. “We’ve got a network all over Tucson.”
Further and not so gentle encouragement from the enforcer, and it’s not long before he’s spilling names of his brothers and nephews and explaining exactly how they groom young girls.
It’s hard to stand here and listen to the filth spil
ling from his mouth. Bile churns in my gut at the scale of this operation and the numbers of paedophiles they attract. What started with Jayden has turned into one fuck of a big mess, and it’s all coming down to the Herreras. I’m not even sure where the fuck we’d start shutting it down. There’s a reason our paths haven’t crossed—our club is a pimple compared with the size of their organisation.
A glance toward Drum shows he shares my concern. He’s looking drawn, his hand toying with his beard. Fuck knows how many young girls like Jayden there have been or will be in the future if we don’t put a stop to this. I know he’ll be willing, I just don’t know if we’re able. We’ll have to go head-to-head with the fucking Herrera family
“I’ve heard enough. I can’t listen to this poison anymore.” The prez looks my way and I raise my shoulders. We’ve probably got enough, he’s told us what he can; he’s whimpering but is now just repeating things he’s told us before. I hold up my hand, forefinger extended. There’s one last thing I want to ask.
“You film them?”
“Of course. It’s a good source of money. They go up on the web.” Yeah, they’d make as much income from their disgusting practices as they could.
“Jayden? The young girl last night?” My gut rolls at the thought of men watching the depravity they’d put her through. I hold my breath, hoping for a negative answer.
He doesn’t want to respond. Blade’s knife comes out again. “Yes!” His eyes flick warily toward the enforcer. “There are videos of her,” he replies with another screech.
Fuck! As if that young girl doesn’t have enough to contend with. A hand drops to my shoulder. “Consider it fuckin’ taken down, Slick. I’ll find it and fuckin’ delete it, and whatever else I can find.” Mouse’s promise only goes so far to ease me. Neither Ella nor Jayden must ever know.
“Slick, you ready?” Prez looks as sickened as I feel.
I look at the man hanging, bleeding, knowing he’ll never suffer enough, but grateful Drum’s leaving the decision to me. I suspect my brothers, like me, are fed up with hearing this shit, and we’ve probably got all we need or that we’re going to get. Raising my eyes toward Blade, I quickly opt for the most fitting end I can think of. “Castrate him, Blade.”
With a roguish grin, the enforcer moves closer. Diego’s eyes flicker this way and that, his chains rattle where they hold his hands over his head.
“I’m going to do this nice and fuckin’ slow. Like filleting a fish. Beef, Rock, hold him steady, will you?” Going to his box, Blade pulls out some latex gloves and selects a different knife.
Diego’s screaming and yelling, begging for his dick and his life. Unfortunately for him, even his flaccid cock is impressive and hangs down a few inches, easy for Blade to get hold of.
As he takes it in his hand, Doc steps forward. “There.” He points, offering up his medical wisdom. “That’s the best place to cut, do it cleanly and he’ll start to bleed out. But not too fast.”
As he thrashes and screams, Beef and Rock hold him tighter, and the blade flashes as it comes down to deliver our final retribution. Kept honed and sharpened, it slices easily through the flesh, Blade’s brow creasing in concentration as he slowly and steadily completes the castration. The agonised screeching brings solace to my fury at what this motherfucker has done.
Once Blade has finished, he stands back, holding testicles and cock in his hand, offering them up to Diego, who lasts just long enough to see what he’s holding before he passes out.
I think it fitting the last sight he sees is the instruments of torture he used on young kids. An appropriate end for a child molester.
We leave him to bleed out, some brothers staying to watch. They’ll do the cleanup. Me? I want to get back to my girls.
Drum catches up with me after I leave the storeroom. “Some fucked-up shit that was.”
“Makes me want to puke up my guts.” I emphasise the truth of that as my hand goes to my stomach. Watching him in the throes of death hadn’t upset me, hearing the words that he’d spoken had.
Wraith takes a place at my other side. “This is a big fuckin’ problem. We need to keep Jayden safe. We have no information about what the Herreras might be aware of. If they know about Jayden and that she was there tonight, well, if they get a whiff she’s still breathing, they’ll know she’s a witness to what went down.”
I breathe in deeply through my nose. Their customers and two of their family have gone missing. “They’ll want to get hold of her to find out what she saw.” My body tenses. “The Herreras are vicious. They’ll torture and kill her. She can’t go home. She’s got to disappear. They’ve got to think she’s probably dead, until all the risk’s over.” I’m thinking fast how the fuck that will even be possible.
“We move her and Ella to one of the other chapters. Get them set up in another state.”
I can’t allow that. I want Ella in my life, not halfway across the country where I might never see her again. “I hear what you say, Prez, but I want Ella here with me.” I give voice to the impossible. “I want to take all these motherfuckers out.”
He stops, his hand on my arm swinging me around. “Are you hearing yourself, Slick? You’re putting us up against the most powerful family in Tucson. Who knows how many of those fuckers have bred. They’ve got a link with the fuckin’ Zetas. It’s a big enough organisation by itself—fuck knows what we’ll be up against if they bring in the cartel on their side. You prepared to risk this club just to get your dick wet?”
I snap out fast, “What would you do if it were Sam?”
That stops Drum in his tracks, my blunt comparison making my point well. His fingers stroke his beard as he thinks.
The VP suggests, “What if we send the girl away on her own?”
“Wraith, she’s only fourteen and she’s been through hell. Ella would never stand for that. And she’s got a mother who probably wouldn’t think much of that solution either.”
“Hmm…” Drum’s thinking fast. “Would the mother go with her?”
From what I know of her, probably not. I shake my head.
Drum looks worried. “Want the fewest possible people as we can in the know. If the mother can’t be trusted, she can’t be told she’s okay, or where she fuckin’ is. First place the Herreras would go to try and trace her.”
I wipe my hands over my head, realising I may have fucked up. “I told Ella to ring her. Let her think she was staying with friends for a while. She’ll know she’s alive.”
“Fuck!” Wraith kicks a rock with his steel-toe boot. “I know you did what you thought was right at the time.”
I accept that’s on me. “I made the wrong call.”
“You didn’t know what we were dealing with. Fuck, none of us knew. Fuckin’ Herreras,” Drum muses, staring off into the distance. “If it gets out she’s alive, we can’t take the chance they won’t be stopping at anything to try tracking her down. Even if we move her out of state.” A moment passes, then, “I’ll visit the mother. Get her to see sense. Make sure she reports her as missing. It might throw up a sufficient smoke screen.”
I nod my thanks at Drum. If anyone can put the fear of God into her mother, he can. Thoughts race through my head. We’ll have to keep a young girl hidden away when she should be at school, going out with her friends. To recover from what she’s been through she should be getting back to normality, not being kept on lockdown at a biker club. But I can’t see any other solution, at least not for the moment.
“Look, it’s been a fuck of a day. Coming on top of what’s happened with Heart and losing Crystal, it’s fuckin’ with all our heads. Let’s take a moment to gather our thoughts. Tomorrow we’ll bring it to the table and see what we can come up with.” Drum tunnels his fingers through his hair. “End of the day, Brother, I gotta think of this club.”
I know that. My brothers come first with me too. It’s only just creeping up on me how very close a second Ella’s become, and, by extension, Jayden.
When we get to
the fork in the path, Drum goes off to his house at the top of the compound and Wraith goes to the guest suite which had been assigned to Sophie when she’d first come to us for our protection, which they now share while they find somewhere to buy off-site. I continue down to the clubhouse, pausing only to nab a beer before making my way out back.
As I open the door, Marsh gets to his feet and I nod, giving him the signal he can leave, before resting my eyes on the girls. It’s a large double bed which has seen more action from fucking than resting, but tonight two female bodies are lying in the middle, both fast asleep, Ella’s hand holding tight to one of her sister’s which hasn’t got the drip running in. Doc enters behind me and quickly goes to expertly check the drip and pull the needle out of poor Jayden’s arm.
“Sleep will do her the most good now,” he says softly, patting my back as he leaves. He’s been so efficient neither girl has stirred.
Wanting nothing more than to be close to them, I notice there’s just enough room for me if I lie on my side. So, fully dressed and on top of the covers, I cautiously slide down, my arm at first gingerly, then more firmly tucking around Ella.
She starts and turns. I raise my finger to my lips and point toward Jayden. “Hush, let her rest. Doc says that’s what she needs. Just let me hold you, Ella. Please, give me this. I need to know you’re both safe.”
She stares at me for a moment, my desperation to protect her, my distress at the harrowing experience I’ve just been through must be written on my face. Her hand comes up to place a featherlight touch to my cheek, then, with a nod giving silent permission she turns back around, staring at her sister before closing her eyes.
I stay awake, going over and over what fucking options we’ve got. One thing’s for certain, I’m not able to give Ella up. Shit, I never thought of myself as any kind of family man, but I’ve made the decision that not only am I going to win my old lady back, but Jayden’s going to be under my protection too. Which means I’ve got to sort this fuckup of a situation and negate all threats. I must. I’m not letting either of them go.
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