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My eyes narrowing was the only outward sign I gave that I was a heartbeat away from slitting her throat. "So," I said as calmly as I could while walking back over to the table of sharp, as well as not-so-sharp, implements. I perused the options available as distaste filled my gut for what I would have to do next. "Your brother is a Boogeyman." I finally selected a pair of pliers and walked back over toward her, holding up the pliers, allowing her to clearly see what I was holding. "What have you told him about the Nightmares?"
She licked her lips as she danced on her toes, letting her weight settle on one foot before switching to the other. She eyed the pliers nervously. "Look, just let me go and he won't kill you or your bitch."
I chuckled darkly. "That wasn't what I asked you." I placed one knee on the ground in front of her and studied her toes. If she were a man, I would have just started cutting body parts off. Seeing a woman helpless and being abused brought back too many dark memories that I found difficult to push back.
I placed the pliers against one of her big toes and clamped down on the red-painted nail with the pliers, squeezing hard with a firm hold. I paused, looking up at her, disgust and self-hatred roiling in my gut. "Who is your brother?"
Her lip trembled as a tear escaped from one eye. But she narrowed those hostile eyes at me, and I knew what she would say before she opened her mouth. Her screams rang out as I pulled, removing the first painted toenail from her foot. I shifted the pliers to the next toe and asked the same question.
It took three more attempts, creating a small pile of red-painted nails, before she broke, spilling her secrets. Curses rang out in the room as all of my men straightened their backs and looked like they were already mentally preparing to go to war.
"Why would Oogie send his sister into the Nightmare's lair?" I asked her as I stood back up to loom over her. She was shaking so hard that the chain the hook was attached to rattled as she sobbed into her arm.
Oogie was the president of the Boogeymen. He was a big, mean motherfucker, and the stories about the shit he had done to both men and women were enough to have my blood turn to ice in my veins. If he got ahold of my woman, he wouldn't hesitate to hurt her precisely how Daisy had described earlier. He wouldn't stop at a few toenails. No, Sally would never be the same. If she survived at all, death would be a kindness. I would never let that happen. Every Boogeyman would be a pile of ash and bone before even one of them laid a single goddamn finger on her.
"H-he hoped I could lure you into bed. I w-was supposed to slit your th-throat. But you never even l-looked at me twice."
I shook my head in disgust. "It would never have been that easy. He had to have known that. He threw you to the devil, not expecting you to come back."
"No! You're wrong!" She screamed, spit, and snot running down her chin. Thick rivulets of black-tinted tears ran down her red cheeks.
I sighed at her denial of the truth. "What secrets have you told Oogie about us? About me?"
"Nothing, I swear! I was never able to get close enough to learn anything important."
I believed her. I glanced over at Barrel, who was standing frozen in the corner with his arms crossed over his chest. His green hair was sticking up in every direction like he'd been repeatedly running his hands through it. He met my stare with hard, cold eyes and slowly shook his head. No, he wouldn't have given any of our secrets away.
I was about to do something that went against my instincts. At the same time, I couldn't let Daisy return to the Boogeymen. I pulled the knife from my back pocket and pressed the latch. The sound of the metal sliding against metal rang out loudly in the room. Her eyes went to the blade as I lifted it, and her body shook as she sobbed quietly. Regret and terror clouded her eyes until she squeezed them shut.
I raised the blade higher, and with one swift swipe of the knife, the girl fell to the floor. We all stood there in silence as she continued to cry pitifully until she opened her eyes and stared up at me in confusion.
I crouched next to her and danced the blade close to her face. "I'm giving you a gift, Daisy. Something I've never given to another soul that's ever been brought into my shed. A chance."
"Wh-what?" Her whispered word was hoarse and disbelieving as her eyes darted from my face and back to the blade repeatedly.
"I'm letting you live." I closed the blade and slid it back into my pocket, standing up to my full height as I stared down at her. All the possibilities of my actions played through my head as I questioned my sanity. "I'm going to give you money, and you are going to get on the next bus out of town. You're going to ride that bus far, far away from here. You will forget you ever knew this life, this town, and these people. You don't have a brother. You were never here." I stared hard at her, letting her see her death in my eyes. "If I ever see you again, you won't get the chance to take another breath."
I stepped back, giving her room to scramble to her knees. She winced as her foot scraped against the floor, but what I saw in her eyes told me all I needed to know. She was going to take the out I was giving her. She also knew I wasn't the only one who would slit her throat if she ever returned. Her own brother would do it before I ever had a chance to.
ChapterTwenty-Three
SALLY
The shift in the air woke me seconds before the mattress moved with the weight of another body. Before my brain could fully come awake, I was being caged in. Jack's large body loomed over me, with his arms on either side of me and his legs trapping mine.
"Jack," I whispered, relaxing my cheek back into the pillow. I wanted to know what had happened while, at the same time, I didn't. I hated Daisy. Hated the way she treated me, hated the way she had betrayed the Devil's Nightmares, but I didn't want to hear that Jack murdered her.
"You were a bad girl," His deep, gravelly voice rasped into my ear as he ran his nose down to the back of my neck and nipped me there. "You disobeyed me when I distinctly told you to stay in my office."
I whimpered, pushing my rear up against his front. I could feel the naked, hard length of him brushing against my thigh where my nightshirt had ridden up in my sleep. He ran a hand down the center of my back, pausing at my ass. He palmed the cheek there, and I pressed into it, telling him I wanted more without saying the words. I would be ready to beg him in another minute of his continued teasing.
"I'm sorry," I moaned. "They said they needed the help."
His hand disappeared a second before heat exploded on my ass. I gasped as he smoothed his palm over me, rubbing away the sting he'd caused. "You obey no one but me. You follow no one's instructions but mine." He shifted until he was lower on the bed, his arms next to my hips. In another quick movement, my thighs were jerked open.
"Bad girls get punished."
I whimpered again, wondering if he was going to spank me some more, wondering if I wanted him to. I had never been spanked before. My parents were shitty at parenting their kids, but they had never laid a hand on any of us. I had a feeling that even if they had, this would be far different than anything I might have experienced as a kid.
