Chapter Thirty-Eight
Steel pushed openthe metal doors and walked into the cell. Raley was tied to a chair, his face bruised and bloodied. Steel’s gaze slid up to the lowered beam above. “String the fucker upside down like a pig,” he said to Diablo and Goldie. They quickly looped a chain around the ropes binding Raley’s ankles and fastened it to two large meat hooks, then pulled him up until his head was hanging down, chest level to Steel.
Raley’s eyes bulged and a perverse pleasure snaked through Steel as he saw, sensed, and smelled the fucker’s fear. He walked slowly over to a table and picked up some electric prods and two long, thin-bladed knives, watching as the crooked cop’s eyes followed his every movement.
“You’re the worst scum there is. You fucking sell smack to innocent people and you don’t give a shit about the consequences,” he said in a chillingly calm voice.
“It was the Demon Riders. They’ve been squeezing me for years. They had so much shit on me. They made me do this. They threatened my family. I didn’t have a choice. I wanted—”
While he’d been babbling, Diablo had come closer. He slammed his knee into the agent’s face. “Quit talking like a goddamn pussy. Be a fuckin’ man and take responsibility for the shit you did.” Diablo hit him again. “I hate a whiny-ass fucker.”
Steel laughed as Goldie, Crow, Skull, and Rooster grumbled their agreement. “I hate that shit too, Diablo.” Steel held the knife up so the light bounced off the blade.
With blood dripping off his face, Raley twisted and moaned. “What’re you gonna do to me?”
“Show you what happens when you fuck around in our territory. And I’m gonna give you the same amount of mercy you gave my daughter and all the others.”
“If you kill me, the feds will be all over you. You can’t just kill an FBI agent and not have consequences.”
“I never fucking cared much for badges, especially the crooked ones. Watching you die a slow, painful death will be worth whatever the feds want to bring on. Of course, that’s providing they find any evidence.”
“I didn’t know she was your daughter. I swear. I can give you a lot of money.” His words were strained as gasps and cracks interrupted him. “We can work something out. I can be very useful for your club—”
Steel glared at Raley. “Gag this piece of shit! I’m sick of hearing his pussy words.”
Goldie stuffed a rag in the agent’s mouth, then took the prods Steel handed him and gave Raley a couple of shocks.
“Now it’s my turn.” Steel locked his gaze on the FBI agent’s terrified one as he approached with a knife in hand. He bent down and put his mouth close to Raley’s ear. “I’m gonna skin you alive, you motherfucker. And I’m gonna do it real slow. I got a lot of time. And the shit you did to my woman? You’re gonna pay for that too. In the past, some Native American tribes killed their enemies by flaying them slowly. It’s been said that they could keep a man alive for six weeks.”
Raley shook his head vehemently, twisting his body, tears pouring from his eyes as his deep grunts tried to push past the gag.
“Let’s see if it’s folklore or truth.”
“He looks like a goddamn jumping bean,” Rooster said, and everyone laughed.
Except for Steel. He raged inside, the pain of losing Chenoa and almost losing his woman making his hatred palpable. It was raw, honest, and jagged.
“Strip the motherfucker.” Steel moved back and watched as Diablo and Crow cut off the man’s clothes.
He kicked away the pile of clothes as he placed the knife on Raley’s skin and began his task.
