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Chapter19
"You're distracted."
I could break Sergei's nose for stating the obvious. My brother was off the rails, I had some mysterious organization trying to take over my city, and the woman of my dreams locked in my room with my cum between her perfect thighs right now and I wasn’t with her.
Saying I was distracted was an understatement.
"Are you filing a complaint with management?" I pulled out my piece and set it on my lap. "Because management would be happy to respond."
Sergei, cocky bastard that he was, knew I wouldn't shoot him. He was too damn valuable. He was younger than me by about five years but too good as an enforcer to lose to a temper tantrum. And I didn’t crawl my way to the top of this city by throwing tantrums.
I might enjoy some bloodshed as a stress relief, but it wasn’t on my best people.
Sergei shed blood as an artform. It’s what made him such a good enforcer. He even scared me sometimes, not that I would admit it.
When he ran information up to me, it wasn't because he was the best at finding it. It was because men told him whatever he wanted to know for fear of what would happen if they didn't.
Currently, one of my soldiers was driving us to a safehouse where Sergei had secured one of these new players—one of these so-called Black Thorn members.
The quicker I got information out of him, the quicker I could get back to Daisy. I glanced to my phone to the webcam footage linked to my room. I didn't have a locking mechanism on the door to keep her inside, but I'd posted a guard outside the door, so she was effectively caged in.
After she'd yelled pointlessly at the guard for an hour after I'd left her, she'd given up and gone to shower me off her. I couldn't very well lock her out of the bathroom. Even I had limits.
But it bothered me that she had washed me away. It bothered me that she'd wiped away the evidence of us from between her thighs.
And all I wanted to do was run back to her and mark her as mine all over again like I was some sort of primitive beast. But I was no good to her if I couldn't keep her safe. And to do that, I had to secure my empire.
I watched as Daisy tossed and turned restlessly on my bed as though she was just waiting for me to join her. "Is Borya working with the Black Thorn?" I asked Sergei.
"Unconfirmed. He has met with their operatives, but he's not staying in their known nests."
"Where is he staying?"
"Hotel downtown. Penthouse suite. Not being subtle about it either. Whatever he's up to, he's not worried about being found."
At least I knew where to find him when I finally figured out what questions I needed to be asking. "If he shows up to the house, I need him to be kept separated from Daisy. I don't want him to know she's there."
"The panic room is fully stocked. She can be moved there if necessary."
The windowless apartment that I'd had built into the mansion wasn't ideal, but it would keep her safe. "I'll have to show her how to get there." And how to hit the failsafe once she goes in.
She'd be the only one besides me and, ironically, Borya, who would know how to activate the panic room. I never thought I'd need to use the room against my own brother. How quickly things can change.
"We can stake out the hotel and send a team to bring him in."
I shook my head. Borya knew all our tactics. If we pulled something so standard, he'd see it coming a mile away. A full-on assault like that would not only be a betrayal, but it would also be insulting. "Borya will come back to talk before he makes any more dangerous moves. Even with Daisy, it was more of an information gathering mission." One I still owed him a broken bone or two for.
Just because we were family didn't mean he could scare my woman with no retribution.
The SUV came to a stop in front of a barely standing house surrounded by empty lots. It was all land owned by a shell company of mine. If any screams escaped the soundproofed basement, there were no neighbors to call the cops.
Any pedestrians on this side of town weren’t the type to call the authorities. And if a patrol car decided to play hero, I'd buy them off. I had fifteen different layers of protection, so when I stepped out of the vehicle, I had no concerns about shielding my face.
By now I had tucked my gun back into my shoulder holster. That was noisy and far too quick for the work we were going to be doing.
I was just here for the intro. Sergei was going to be doing the legwork.
Good torture involved a lot more downtime than most people thought. The human mind was far more painful than any physical affliction we could create. Just leave a person alone with discomfort and their imagination for an indetermined amount of time and they'd be well on their way to insanity.
But the first part was like popping the cork off a champagne bottle. Loud, messy, and the most fun part.
A soldier led the way, opening the door for us and making sure the safehouse was clear before we moved into the basement.
While the decrepit structure left standing aboveground was the footprint for a thousand square-foot ranch, the space below was about four times the size and consisted of various rooms, cells, and many, many different toys for very bad men to play with.
The Black Thorn member was hanging from a hook in the ceiling, the ropes around his wrists tied so tight that his hands had turned an ugly purple color. If he ever got out of here alive, they never would work right again.
That wouldn't be a problem for this poor son of a bitch.
He was barely conscious, so Sergei got the ball rolling by dousing him with a bucket of ice-cold water.
He screamed as awareness came slamming back, and he renewed his useless struggles to get free.
Sergei shrugged and I stepped forward to take the lead. Gripping the man's chin, I used my other fist to hold my knife up to his face, bringing the freshly sharpened blade closer to his eye until he finally registered the threat and shut his fucking mouth.
"Welcome to Miami. I got to meet your boss today."
The prisoner gave a bitter laugh before spitting at me. He couldn't work up the momentum needed, but the insult was loud and clear.
Great.On top of everything else I had to do, now I would have to burn this suit.
With one quick jab, I stabbed the bastard in the eye. He went right back to screaming but damn it felt good.
I stepped back, wiping my knife off on my already ruined suit as Sergei frowned at me. "We're supposed to start small."
I shrugged. I was the boss and wasn't about to apologize. "Now he knows we don't make empty threats. You’re welcome."
"You think you scare me?" asked the idiot though panting breaths once he stopped screaming.
Sergei and I both turned back to him. The injured eye was already nearly swollen shut. Blood and other fluids that were better not named leaked down his face.
"The Black Thorn is capable of so much worse than you can imagine. Nothing you do to me is worse than what they have already done."
Big words for a guy with a hole in his eye. And not a good sign. Loyalty wasn't easy to come by especially once serious pain entered the equation.
"Don't believe me? Just ask your brother. Take the deal with Black Thorn. Better to be on the devil's workforce than swallowed whole by them."
That was very unfortunate to hear because I was used to being the devil around here.
