He didn’t take the usual seat behind his desk, but went straight to the bank of monitors on the far side where he knew Ripper had his findings ready for him. Glancing at the stills for a moment, he backed up the feeds and watched for himself. None of his “guests” could see what he was watching. The guys were muttering amongst themselves, their outrage and belief that Beast could do nothing to them at odds with the nervous glances they shot his way. By the time he stood and moved to his desk, the guys had worked up their courage.
“We demand you let us go or we’re calling our lawyer.” That was from Jeremy Hay, the eldest of the Hay brothers.
Beast didn’t rise to his remarks, simply sitting there staring at them.
“I don’t even know why you attacked us in the first place,” Ben said, snorting as though it were all some kind of big joke. “We weren’t doing anything everyone else wasn’t doing. It’s why people come here in the first damned place.”
“Besides,” Jeremy continued. “Even if you wanted to kick us out, you had no right to assault us.” He put his chin up. “I’m gonna sue your fucking ass. When I’m done, I’ll own this fucking shithole.”
“Look, I just want out of here.” Ah, finally little Debbie spoke. So far, the only one to keep quiet was Greg Kinson. All he’d done was murmur his agreement with the Hay brothers. “I need to find Fleur. She was depending on me being with her. Without me, she’s probably more than a little nervous.”
The girl was good. Playing the part of concerned buddy right up to the end. Had he been less angry, Beast might have been impressed with all their cool under fire, but he was past that. Way fucking past.
He wanted to backhand every one of them, Debbie especially. The guys deserved to be beaten to a bloody pulp for what they’d done to Fleur. Debbie… deserved far, far worse.
Unfortunately, no matter how much he wanted to make the woman suffer, Beast didn’t ever lay a hand on a woman. He was too big and strong to risk actually hitting a woman, even in a sparring match. If he did to this woman what he wanted to do to her, if he fought her the way he needed to, he’d kill her and wouldn’t lose a moment’s sleep. But if he did that, how could he convince Fleur he was different than she was? And why did he care in the first fucking place?
With a sharp shake of his head, Beast picked up his phone and sent a text to Venus. The woman was slight and fragile looking but built with sinewy muscle and subtle strength. She was short and wiry, but Beast considered her one of the scariest people he’d ever met. Probably because she’d been trained somewhere in Russia to do things only Thorn and Cain knew about, and that was fine by him. Thorn knew because he was their president. Cain because he was their boss at ExFil. Venus was the only female patched member of Salvation’s Bane, and her membership was well earned. Beast had learned to trust her over the couple of years they’d worked together and had become rather fond of the woman, considering her just one of the guys, no matter how sexist it sounded. In fact, the only thing he didn’t like about the woman was the fact that she owned and proudly rode a pink Harley. Who did that shit? If this had to be done, Venus was the only one he trusted to do it.
With her on the way, he continued to listen to the four chatter inanely. Listened carefully, but they kept spouting the same lies and bluster over and over. The fact none of them turned on the other willingly told him all he needed to know about their consciences. They had none.
Venus slipped quietly into the room and moved to the far corner accompanied by Andy, a tall, slender man who’d been working the bar tonight. New Kid was also there. Beast had wanted him there for another reason, but it was just as well he was here for this. With his brothers and sisters in the room to witness and give guidance where needed, Beast felt free to start.
Instead of confronting any of his guests outright, he simply turned to the screen behind them. “Let’s watch a movie,” he said in a mock-cheerful voice. “I think you’ll find this very interesting.” He gave them a grin that was probably more like a sneer. “Sorry I’m all out of popcorn, but I think you’ll be fine without it.”
Ripper had loaded everything up in chronological order, each step from beginning to the very bitter end on full display. Beast had previewed it briefly, but it still disturbed him at what he’d found. What they were all about to witness.
“Keep in mind, we did all this very quickly and were only able to get video from today. Ripper has done some digging, though, and we’ll review the rest of it after the little movie is done.” Beast pressed play on his remote and sat back to watch. He positioned himself where he could see both the screen and the faces of the participants. It was very important for him to see their faces. Their eyes. He had to note every subtle reaction if he was going to make a fair decision.
It started off at the gym that morning. Debbie got there about ten minutes before Jeremy, Ben, and Greg. Once the men entered and signed in, the four met for several minutes. It was easy to tell by watching they knew each other. The way she waved the men over the second she spotted them and their easy return greeting told they had a familiarity with one another. Debbie had handed Jeremy her phone and he’d passed it around to the other two, all of them grinning and punching each other playfully as they discussed whatever it was the woman was showing them.
Debbie had gone over to the treadmill and began a slow jog until Fleur had entered about half an hour later. The men had congregated near some of the leg machines, not really doing anything, but keeping a close watch on the door. Once Fleur greeted Debbie, the two women jogged on the treadmill for another ten minutes before Debbie had urged Fleur to the weight bench where she’d attempted to bench press the weight bar and Beast had intervened.
They all went about their business for another hour or so, Debbie moving Fleur from one machine to another, seemingly at random. After that, Fleur and Debbie left together. Ten minutes later, Debbie had entered again and met the guys one last time. They’d smiled and nodded several times before Jeremy had taken a thick envelope from his gym bag and handed it to Debbie. The cuts had gone through at fast forward except the important parts, the time stamp proving the time of day and its passage. The whole thing was something Ripper had put together on the fly in order for Beast to confront everyone with.
The next cut was from the club earlier that evening. Ben had approached the bar near the entrance and made a hand-off to the bartender, the very same man Venus had brought with her, a point that had hit Beast hard the first time he saw it. Another envelope, though this one contained more than money. Something they all saw as the bartender pulled out a small vial a few minutes later. Thank goodness Ripper was super paranoid and had cameras all over the fucking place, because it took several different angles to see everything so it wasn’t speculation. The next part was something else that had Beast ready to beat the living fuck out of someone very specific. It was bad enough Andy had betrayed them, but this was something altogether different.
They watched as Fleur was ushered into the club, then later shoved up against the bar by none other than fucking New Kid where Fleur ordered her drink -- water, from the audio. Darrin made a sound but was quickly hushed when Tool backhanded him none too gently. Andy had dumped the contents of the vial into the glass of ice water he handed Fleur. She’d made a face but continued to drink at Andy’s encouragement. The video went on up until the moment Beast had burst into the room, again most of it at fast forward until something important happened.
When the three young men started protesting how that was all edited to make them look bad and Debbie protested right along with them, Beast held up his hand for silence. Then he clicked on a few other files, putting them on display on the big screen.
Group text messages from Debbie to Jeremy, Ben, and Greg, along with several separate text messages between Ben and Andy and New Kid were there for them all to see. Details on payment and expectations were almost too much for Beast, but he kept his control by sheer force of will. There would be time enough later to lose his mind. This
had not only happened on his watch, but right under his fucking nose, using the club’s territory as well as a member of his own security team. A man he’d hand-picked for the job. A man he’d intended on bringing to Cain as a prospective employee of ExFil, which meant he’d have likely be a prospect in either Salvation’s Bane or Bones at some point. He was going to have to talk to Thorn about this, and it wasn’t going to be pretty.
As bad as all that was, he’d saved what he considered the worst for last. Text messages between Debbie and Fleur establishing they’d known each other since high school. How Fleur had never thought to have such a strong friendship with Debbie because Debbie had been part of the “in” crowd while Fleur had been a nerdy band geek. She’d devoted her time to studying either music or academics, planning on going to college as a physics major before her parents had died in a car crash. Debbie had understood her loneliness since her parents had basically shipped her off to Palm Springs to get her out of their hair. She’d invited Fleur to live with her rent free if she tutored her in her college classes.
The short of it? Debbie had lured Fleur to Florida from Tennessee. The text messages with the Hay brothers and Kinson had started the same fucking day Fleur agreed to move to Palm Springs.
Chapter Three
“Not really sure there’s much to add to what we’ve seen,” Beast remarked. “But if any of you have something to add -- beyond the assertions none of you had ever seen Fleur before or that you didn’t conspire to… put her in a bad situation -- I’d very much like to hear it.”
Kinson looked scared and ashamed, but said nothing. Jeremy crossed his arms over his chest, still defiant.
“That’s all bullshit. You made that to make us look bad so you could get money from our old man. Well, it ain’t gonna work. We’ll sue you --” He was cut off when Ripper stepped forward and punched him in the nose with a quick jab. Jeremy yelped and covered his nose as blood poured. His brother, sitting beside him, quickly scooted over in an effort not to get blood on him.
“Hey! You can’t do that!” Ben apparently wasn’t the brightest bulb in the box because Ripper was still hovering close. Ben’s nose met the same fate as his brother’s.
“Gideon,” Darrin started, holding out a hand as if to try and calm the big man down. “We can talk about this. It’s not what it looks like, I swear.”
“Oh, really, New Kid?” Beast rose so fast his chair tumbled backward. “Because it looks like you took a payout to sacrifice that girl to three sadistic pricks for torture and rape.” He gave Darrin a stare he wished would have put the other man six feet under. “Please. Enlighten me to what this actually was.”
Darrin looked to Venus, who had a neutral expression on her face as she buffed her bright pink nails on her vest. The vest was the same bright pink. Her nails looked to be sharp as daggers. Beast knew she’d used them as weapons on more than one occasion, and God help everyone if she broke a nail doing it.
“Well… it… we were just…” he stammered, sweat beginning to bead on his forehead and upper lip.
“Yeah,” Beast finally interrupted. “You were just.” He looked to Debbie then. The woman looked… bored. “You know you’re in a world a’ shit. Right?”
She shrugged. “Whatever.” She probably thought her mommy and daddy would get her out of this. Probably knew none of the men there would touch her like they had Jeremy and Ben and thought she was in the clear.
Beast focused on Kinson next. “Well?” The boy shook his head, not meeting Beast’s gaze. “Little lesson here, son. When you jump off a fuckin’ cliff because your friends do, you’re just as dead as they are.” That got the young man to whimper in fear, a single tear sliding down his cheek. Beast had no doubt it was more for his present situation than for any remorse he had about what they’d done to Fleur.
“What was in the fuckin’ vial, Jeremy?” When the other man didn’t answer, he looked to the other Hay brother. Finally, he focused on Kinson. “Well?”
“J-just a little Georgia Home Boy.” Kinson glanced at his buddies, who gave him angry looks. Jeremy shook his head as if exasperated with Greg.
Gamma-Hydroxybutyrate -- GHB, a date rape drug. Beast clenched his fists. “That all? If you hold out on this, you get to deal with me, and I won’t be as gentle as my associates.”
Greg nodded vigorously. “That’s it. I-I got it.”
Again, Beast had to grit his teeth. He pulled out his phone and called Doc. “GHB. They say that’s it, but I’m not sure how accurate it is.”
Doc was as calm as ever when he replied. “I’m treating her with fluids and other supportive measures. She’s resting comfortably at the moment. She’ll need someone to watch over her for twelve hours or so. I prefer twenty-four, but if she’s not still showing negative side effects, twelve should be fine.”
“I’ll take care of it once I’ve seen to this fuckin’ mess.”
“Want me to take her back to the clubhouse?”
Beast thought about it. Did he? Yes. “Take her to my room and get her settled. Assuming she’s ready to be moved. If not, I’ll do it when this is done.”
“She’s comfortable here. Just didn’t think she’d want to wake up in the club.”
“Good thinking. If you need help, take anyone you need and move her. Make it happen, Doc.”
“On it, brother.”
Once Beast had hung up the call, he turned back to Jeremy, Ben, and Greg. “Gentlemen, you’ve got two choices. The easy way where I call the DA, turn over all the security tapes surrounding this matter, and you plead guilty to whatever charges she brings. Or the hard way, where I beat the living fuck outta you. Ain’t sayin’ you’ll get out of this without a beating of some kind, but it will go far easier if you agree to take the guilty plea and the jail time that goes with it. Also, you might keep in mind that, if you fight any of the charges, if your let your daddies and mommies try to get your sentence reduced or the charges dropped, you’ll get the beatin’ at the first mention of it and it you might not survive said beatin’ intact.” That was when Greg Kinson began to cry. Then to sob.
“I’ll do whatever you tell me to!” he cried. “I’ll plead guilty and go to jail. Just please don’t hurt me!”
“Damn straight you’ll do your time,” Beast agreed. “But you’ll take your beatin’ like a man. You earned it.” Greg cried all the harder, dropping to the floor and begging. Beast simply jerked his head, and Lock lifted Greg by his upper arms and shoved him out the door. He’d take the kid to the basement and deliver a good thrashing before getting Doc to treat the worst of it. Once they were finished with the Hay brothers -- and Beast hoped to hell the boys took the hard way he’d mentioned -- Ripper would fill in the DA. Thankfully, he knew the woman personally and could handle the situation even if all three were in bad shape when they got to jail.
“How about you two? Don’t suppose you want the easy way, too?”
“You won’t hurt us,” Jeremy scoffed through his bloody hand. Tears streamed down his face to mingle with the blood leaving streaks of dark red down his face and neck. “When my dad sees me --”
Beast was the one to strike him this time. A hard, backhanded blow that sent his head snapping back. It was meant both as an insult and a casual show of his considerable strength. Though he’d hit Jeremy hard, it was just a fraction of what he was prepared to do to the boy if he didn’t cooperate.
“Won’t hurt you. Right.” He gestured to Jeremy’s face. “All evidence to the contrary.” Beast smirked. “Be very sure you understand what you’re getting into, Jeremy. If you choose the hard way, I’ll be the one administering your punishment, and I don’t go easy on men who hurt women or children.”
“Fuck you!” Jeremy spat, blood hitting the floor at Beast’s feat. “When my dad’s through, we’ll fucking own this place!”
“Yeah. You said that before.” Beast knew it was time to show the little motherfuckers he meant business. He leaned down to rest his fists on either side of Jeremy’s hips and
put his face barely an inch from the other man’s. “What you’re missing is the part where I beat you into a fuckin’ coma and no one fuckin’ knows what happened to you. Think I can’t do it? Take the hard way. I’m just itching to prove I can.”
Finally, finally, the situation got through to Jeremy. His eyes widened and he shook his head. Ben whimpered beside him, but Beast kept his gaze focused on the older brother. He knew he was intimidating. He worked hard to make sure he looked intimidating. Like now. Instead of his usual suite and tie, he had on dress slacks, but a black A-shirt that showed off his powerful shoulders and arms. The Hay brothers might be in good shape, but they had more of an athletic build. Beast was, quite simply, a beast.
“Fine,” Ben said quickly. “We’ll do whatever you tell us to.” Jeremy said nothing, just kept his wide eyes focused on Beast’s.
“So, your brother is the more intelligent of the two of you. That’s good. Tool, take Ben here down to join his friend. Me and his brother got some more talkin’ to do. Might want to tell Doc to be ready when I’m done. Assumin’ there’s anything left of the little motherfucker.”
“Wait!” Ben cried. “Jeremy’s coming with me!”
Beast still didn’t break his stare with the older Hay brother. “He’s not agreed to that. Far as I can tell he’s insisting on doin’ things the hard way. Thank God.”
“Jeremy, tell him! He’ll fucking kill you, man! Can’t you see that?”
Jeremy seemed unable to say anything. His jaw was slack, and a single tear trickled down his face. Beast smelled the distinct, sharp sour smell of urine as the boy wet himself. Beast wasn’t about to take pity on him.
“Well? What’s it gonna be? The easy way, or the hard way? Choice is yours.”
Jeremy swallowed before finally answering in a voice so soft Beast wouldn’t have heard it if he hadn’t been so close. “E-easy.”
Beast (Salvations Bane 2) Page 3