“What is your relationship with Clay?” Declan chimes in next.
“There isn’t one! I’m just helping him find her. That’s all.” He nods at Fallon who has disgust written on her face.
His fear is starting to sink in. I can see his hands trembling from a combination of pain and adrenaline. We want more than information on Clay. This bastard is going to pay for all of his crimes, I just need him to admit them.
“Yeah, she isn’t the only missing young woman whose case you have been assigned. Tell me about the others.” I cross my arms, waiting for his answer.
He goes deadly still, his eyes narrowed on me. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” His features twist into a snarl.
I glance at Fallon, who is still holding the bolt cutters. “Menace, you’re up.”
Declan smiles as he approaches her, his hand covering hers as he takes the tool out of her hand. “Let's work our way up to removing digits. Think painful, but smaller.” She nods. Her face is a mask of concentration, as if she’s learning everything that she can from us. She turns back to the table, assessing her options. When she turns back around, she’s wielding a scalpel, and Declan gives her a nod of approval.
With a controlled voice she orders, “Take off his boots.” Curious about where she’s taking this, my brothers do as she commands, despite O'Brian’s struggles. She crouches down next to them. “Spread his toes.”
“What the fuck are you doing?” O'Brian screams, throwing his weight back, trying to scoot the chair away from them. Unfortunately for him, the chair is bolted to the ground. I walk around behind him to brace his shoulders down, minimizing his movements.
That’s when Fallon begins. Taking her time, she slices deep into the thin skin between each toe. He howls in pain, but she doesn’t stop there, cutting into the bottoms of his feet next as he screams for her to stop. When she finally stands, I walk back around to face our captive. Tears and snot run down his face.
“You will all pay for this. Especially you, you little bitch.”
“Our turn.” Declan nudges Akio. O'Brian blanches but refuses to say anything that would verbalize his fear. Both men pick up their discardedblades, but instead of immediately using them, Declan walks over to his tools and takes out a portable blow torch. When he returns, he and Akio begin while Fallon and I watch this monster get cut into pieces.
Akio slices deep across O'Brian’s chest. Blood sprays out while Declan focuses the flame of the torch on his own knife. Once it is red hot, he pressed it against the seeping wound, cauterizing it. The smell of burnt flesh and hair fills the room alongside the screams of our captive.
They step back, speckled with blood, knowing that this is the part of the dance where we allow him to speak. I ask again, “Tell me about the other cases over the years that you have been involved with.”
“There’s nothing.” He’s panting and struggling to speak through the pain. “A few runaway cases, that's it. It’s a big city, we can't solve all of them.” His eyes are pleading for us to believe him.
I look at my brothers and indicate for them to continue, but before they get started, Fallon approaches and takes the torch from Declan. She lights it up while he holds the blade under the flame. O'Brian screams again, his voice turning hoarse. His eyes go wide with terror as Akio makes another slice under the first, and Declan again waits for the blood to flow nicely before pressing the heated blade to the wound.
This goes on for well over an hour. At some point, we aren’t even asking questions anymore. O'Brian needs to break in order to confess and we do enjoy that process.
The cop blacks out from the pain, his pants darkened with piss and blood. I snatch the smelling salts from the table and hold them under his nose, jarring him awake. He jerks back, groaning in agony.
I crouch down in front of him, my voice low and menacing. “I am going to let you think about your answers here. Ask yourself, if you’reinnocent, why would we possibly have you here? If you’re not innocent, maybe it’s time to confess.”
He says nothing, just sits there trembling in the pain. We all make our way to the door where Akio puts his eye to the scanner for it to unlock. Fallon and Declan follow him, I’m the last one out of the room. Shutting the door behind me, I catch Declan hooking an arm around Fallon’s shoulders while Akio is on her other side, holding her hand. She melts into their touch as if it is the most natural thing in the world as they head up the stairs.
I grit my teeth, denying the urge to join them, and instead, march up to my room for a shower.
The water runs down my body in rivulets as I wash away the stench of the last several hours. My thoughts spiral around the events that just took place in the basement and Fallon Helix. She slid seamlessly into our group and watching her hold her own down there without panicking brought a surge of pride and appreciation. Which just leaves me feeling frustrated.My first urge after day one with this bastard is to go to Fallon just as my brothers had. To seek some kind of comfort there. But that’s not an option for me. She’s already too fucking close and if I’m being honest, I can’t take her on. I can’t handle the responsibility of protecting her only to lose her, too. That would kill me. So instead, I take the angriest shower of my life.
I pulled the trigger on kidnapping her and made the final decision not to let her go. So why am I balking at the idea of her fitting into the group seamlessly? What I’m supposed to do with her now is beyond me.
Fallon
It’s the third day of having O'Brian in the basement and I’m itching to get down there and finish this. He has yet to give details of the specific cases he covered up or who put him up to it, though I have my suspicions. Yesterday, we removed his binds several times so he could use the toilet, though I think that was less for him and more for the guys having less of a stench to clean.
Periodically through the day, I sit with Akio and check out the cams in the room. Initially, when O'Brian’s energy was back, there was a lot of ranting and raving, but as time goes on, the outbursts decrease, and the fear in his eyes becomes clearer. It is amazing how doing nothing is having just as much of an impact as the interrogation.
Now, we’re just waiting for Declan and Matteo to get home from work. I’m pretty sure Declan would go on a rampage if we started without him. I chuckle to myself as I wander through the kitchen for a snack. Going to need to put a pin in that idea because I really enjoy pushing his buttons.
I am at the breakfast bar eating cereal when I hear the front door open followed by heavy footsteps.
“What the hell is that?”
I look up, finding Matteo towering over me. “Chocolatey goodness.” I take another bite and watch his nostrils flare while he stares at the cereal like it insulted him. He shakes his head and starts for the stairs.
