Page 45 of Heist in Paradise

He didn’t have time to react, short of gripping the towel around his waist, an unconscious clutch for safety as he was set upon by masked strangers. The fact that he was naked was a point in our favor. Not that I particularly enjoyed seeing his flaccid cock bounce around as we forced him to his knees, but it made him more compliant. More vulnerable. His hair was still wet, slicked back from his paling face. His eyes bounced fearfully between us, then landed on me with fervent desperation. “W-Who are you?”

I stood over him, grinning behind my mask. “I’m nobody. Answer our questions, and I’ll stay nobody.”

His tongue darted out across his lips. His chest heaved, droplets still clinging to his flushed skin. He didn’t look much older than me. He was well-groomed, lightly toned, with the kind of douchebag haircut that Nate called the ‘frat boy freshie’. He’d been sporting one himself when he joined our crew.

“W-What do you want to know?” He spluttered out. His hands clutched valiantly at his towel, trying to preserve his modesty. He was shaking all over. That was good. That meant he would break easily.

“Let’s start with a name.”

“K-Kane.”

“Last name.”

“S-Smith—”

My fist struck before he finished stuttering. His head whipped back, my knuckles throbbing from his jawbone. He fell back gracelessly, towel forgotten, and moaned as he stared wide-eyed up at the ceiling. Beside me, Madoc twitched. I didn’t dare look at him.

“Every time you lie, I deliver another blow.” I held up my fist, then my gun. Naturally, his eyes fixated on the gun. “I won’t use this,” I said. “Yet.”

“Please, man. What the fuck?” He cried, anguished as he rubbed his jaw and tried to sit up. I noticed the pile of clothes on the bed and gave Callum a nod. He stepped over the quivering man and began picking through the pockets until he struck gold.

I caught the wallet he tossed me, followed by the cellphone. I flipped through the wallet carelessly. “Kane Davies. Twenty-seven years old. Lives at Forty-Nine Baker Street, Newark.”

His eyes bulged in panic as he scrambled onto his knees. Callum moved instantly, grabbing his arms and pinning them hard behind his back, causing him to buck, but he was no match for Callum. Realizing he was wildly outnumbered and overpowered, he started to babble: “Listen, man, whatever it is you want, just take it. I won’t tell anyone, I swear to god.”

I flashed the phone at his face so it unlocked with facial recognition. Then I scoured his call log, finding mostly local numbers, including a recent one with a London area code.

I tossed the phone over to Nate. “Go through his camera roll.”

“Bet I’ll find a million dick pics,” Nate muttered, settling into the task. He gurgled in laughter not a minute later. “Called it.”

“Please.” Kane thrashed. “Whatever you want. Just don’t fucking kill me, man.”

“I want to know everything,” I said. I took a menacing step toward him and inwardly preened at the way he instinctively recoiled into Callum. Between two predators, he feared me the most. “Starting with what’s in the safe.”

He opened his mouth, and I lifted my fist, causing him to choke in fear. “Don’t lie.”

“Nothing, man,” he blurted out. “Just some fucking—I don’t know—documents, the usual stuff. Man, it’s nothing. Its—oof!”

The cartilage of his nose cracked under my knuckles. Callum, in the firing line, didn’t so much as wince as blood splattered across his face, some beading in his eyebrow. For a second, I worried I hit Kane too hard—his body flopped, then spasmed as he fell back in a limp daze, groaning loudly.

“I warned you about lying.”

“I wasn’t—okay, wait!” His body thrashed wildly. “Okay, shit, alright.” His voice was thick and nasally, his nose crooked. “It’s just a book, man. People sign it when they visit so that the old man can keep a record. That’s it, I swear.”

That was far from it. He knew it as well, judging by the nervous flick of his eyes to my hands, expecting my fist.

“Why?” I asked.

He hesitated, then his tongue lashed out and licked at the blood gushing over his top lip. “It’s n-nothing. He’s just a quirky old dude, you know. I don’t get how he thinks.”

“Another lie.”

His whole body trembled, sweat beading over his brow and joining the blood that was already messing up his face. It was a gruesome sight, but it clearly wasn’t enough. Whatever secret he was guarding had apparently worse consequences than getting the shit beat out of him.

That meant we had to take it up a notch.

“Bathroom,” I grunted.