AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Don’t do that,” Kellan said in an equally soft tone. “We can’t change it, and what you were trying to do—what Ms. Stephanie tried to do—was put Sparrow first. We didn’t know. I wish to fuck we had so we could have acted sooner.”
“Only we didn’t,” I said, catching the lifeline Kellan had thrown to Milo. Grasping it in both hands, I hauled us toward the shore. “We have her now. We’ll protect her now. We’ll get her the pound of flesh she is owed.”
“I know,” Milo said, not even a flicker of a smile on his face. “We will…and at the same time, I’m imagining Ivy here, growing up with us to look after herallthe time.”
“We’d have beaten up a lot more people,” Vaughn said, and Liam actually laughed.
“That would have been one of the good parts.”
But would she have grown up as our baby sister in that scenario? Who would she have been? Would we have smothered her to keep her safe? Fuck knew, we’d have ripped the eyeballs out of anyone who looked at her the wrong way.
“Wouldn’t be the same,” Freddie said, his voice tight. Although he wasn’t pale or shaky. He also looked focused. I wasn’t the only one keeping an eye on him. “She wouldn’t be. Don’t know if she would feel better or not. But I like Boo-Boo as she is, even if I don’t like what she lived through.”
“Agreed,” Doc said, then stepped back and picked up a device. He adjusted something on it and depressed a button. Sharpe let out a squeal of sound as his whole body convulsed. “Little high on the voltage.”
He nudged the dial one degree and I had yet to determine if it was up or down. When he depressed the button this time, Sharpe’s whole body arched at the voltage hitting him. He was shaking when Doc let go of the control.
Holding it up to all of us, he said, “Warning ahead of time, and everyone else hands off.”
Sharpe let out a low sobbing moan that the tape muffled. Kellan looked at his watch before he focused on each of us. “Split it up. We’re going to do this in shifts. No one stays if their temper starts to go.”
“You keeping watch?” I checked because as much as I wanted to kill this son of a bitch, I wanted him to suffer. We kept Arlington for weeks until he was begging to die.
I was fine with that being the outcome for this asshole as well. We had the time to do it right, but first…
“Yes,” Kellan said. “So everyone else not on deck, take a break and walk it off.”
I wasn’t the only one who glanced at Liam. He rolled his eyes. “I’m fine.”
“Me too,” Freddie said before we could suggest otherwise. Of all of us, Vaughn and Kellan were likely the only two as calm as they actually appeared.
Finally, I focused on Milo and Doc.
“I’m not leaving,” Milo said. “But I won’t touch him until we have answers…”
I could respect that. “Don’t worry, brother, I got your back. Oh. We need to get something to cauterize his hand before we’re done.”
“I got it,” Doc said, arms folded as he faced Sharpe. Silence rippled around us in a circle. He actually won the first question, his attention to the man narrowing as if he were weighing which option he would explore first. Then he dropped his gaze to his feet. “Right… Vaughn, you mind gripping the leg for me?”
“Right or left?” Vaughn asked.
“Dealer’s choice,” Doc told him as he retrieved a scalpel from the tools.
Vaughn gripped Sharpe’s right leg. The man immediately started to thrash and kick out with his left as he tried to pull back. Rather than get upset or look even remotely overworked about it, Vaughn just slammed his elbow into Sharpe’s kidney. He let out a muffled grunt and pissed himself.
Again.
The smell was gonna get worse before it got better. Locking his hand around Sharpe’s ankle, Vaughn wrenched his foot upwards. At least he didn’t try to bend his knee in the other direction.
“Where is your brother?” Doc asked. Simple. Straightforward. Direct.
The muffled response was unintelligible.
“Want to try that again?” Doc said.
Sharpe struggled, but Vaughn kept his leg in place. The muffled grunting was more shrill sounds and insults in between the sobs than it was worthwhile.
“Right.” He cut a slice right down the middle of the guy’s foot. I didn’t wince, but fuck, that looked painful. The screaming from behind the duct tape said it felt as bad as it sounded.
