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I go around to the back of the chairs to check which one is wearing rings. I pat the biggest of the two on the head. “This one.”
“Good choice,” says Rosey. “He was the rudest when he realised I wasn’t going to blow him off.”
I remove his gag. “You know me, right? Seeing as you left a lovely imprint of your ring on my woman’s cheek along with your message.”
“I was just the delivery guy,” he spits.
“From?”
“I don’t know.”
I punch him, and his nose splits, spraying us both in blood. “Try again.”
“I don’t fucking know, man, alright?” he yells.
The guy next to him is making noises like he’s got something to say, so I remove his gag. “The Palmer brothers hired us, but that’s not who the message was from,” he says in a rush.
“Keep talking,” says Albert, removing his favourite knife from its leather pouch.
“Man, shut the hell up,” says his friend. “They’re not gonna kill us for beating some bitch up.”
I hit him again, and he spits a tooth out on the ground. “You’re underestimating how much I like her,” I warn. “How did you know where she was?”
“A tip-off,” says the talkative of the two. “We were told where she was heading.”
“By who?” asks Rosey, taking another of Albert’s knives and examining it.
“You really are a dumb bitch,” yells his friend. “We already told you, we don’t know.”
Rosey sits on his lap. “I don’t like your tone,” she tells him. “I like a man with manners.”
“Like I give a fuck,” he snaps.
She stabs the knife into his thigh, twisting it. He growls, throwing his head back. Rosey jumps up before he can bring it forward to headbutt her. “Now, now, let’s not get upset. You totally deserved that.”
“Jesus fucking Christ,” he grits out, and I roll my eyes. If he can’t take that sort of pain, he’ll surely squeal like a canary when we start removing skin.
“Not even he can help you,” says Albert.
“We really don’t know who’s at the top,” says the other guy.
I remove my jacket and lay it neatly to one side. “I need you to take a message back to the mystery man at the top,” I say, rolling up my sleeves. “These are my streets, and I’m not giving them up for anyone.” I lay into them, releasing every bit of frustration that’s been building since Ma got hurt. When I’m out of breath and covered in blood, I step back. “Remove his fingers,” I tell Albert, pointing to the guy with the rings.
Rosey slaps him hard to wake him. “Wakey wakey,” she sing-songs. “You haven’t heard the whole message yet.” He groans. I wipe my hands on a rag, closing my eyes and enjoying the sound of him screaming as he loses each finger. “You miss this,” says Rosey gleefully.
“Meli told me about Ripper,” I say, and her eyes widen in surprise.
“Good.”
“That’s it?”
“Yeah, she trusts you. That’s good.”
“Maybe,” I mutter, pulling my sleeves down. “Help Albert with this and the clean-up. Don’t let them go until they’re close to giving up, I want them to get a glimpse of Hades.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
MELI
