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His shit-eating grin stretches another tooth wider. “Great questions. You can ask him yourself. Bastard's name is Vincent Byrne. He’s in the interrogation room right now, under the bowels of this building, waiting for you to torture the information right out of him.” Leaning back smugly, he folds his arms over his chest. “Ta-da. You’re welcome.”
I close the briefing folder and stride for the door. Behind me, I hear the telltale thud of Aleks kicking his feet up on my desk and the accompanying crackle of foil as he opens a candy bar.
“That’s a shit thank you!” he calls after me.
I pause at the threshold, rippling with pent-up energy that I can’t wait to unload into this miserable mudak’s face with my fists. “If you’re waiting for my undying gratitude, keep fucking waiting.”
Aleks is unfazed. “I’m just sayin’, it wouldn’t kill ya, y’know? ‘Great job, Aleks. You’re indispensable to me, Aleks. Couldn’t have done this without you, Aleks. Aleks, you’re so handsome and dashing and your penis is so?—”
“Shut up.”
Finally, his smile deflates. “‘Touchy’ doesn’t even begin to cover today’s mood,” he mutters to himself.
I growl in frustration, but I don’t bother replying. How could I? It’s not like I can explain to anyone why I’m so annoyed. What the fuck am I supposed to say?
That I woke up with the most painful, throbbing erection of my life, thinking about my P.A.-turned-baby-mama this morning? That, even after I’d managed to rub one out, I didn’t feel satisfied in the least?
That I had a nightmare about being chained in place and having to watch as a fictional fucking fool named Cedric carried her off on a white horse with his idiotic Fabio hair flapping in the breeze?
Hell. Fucking. No.
I hear Aleks falling in step behind me, but I don’t turn around. He knows me too well; he’ll clock the turmoil on my face and have some pretty good guesses as to what might be causing it—and the last thing he needs is more ammo.
The elevator doors open onto ground floor parking. Aleksandr and I sweep through the lot to the far end, where there’s a heavy metal door that can only be accessed with a special access code. Once I’ve punched it in, the door unlocks with a loud thunk of three-inch-thick bolts and whooshes open.
I spent a couple million on this basement shortly after acquiring the building. It’s built like a bunker, soundproof and impenetrable. Without the tube lighting along the walls, we would be walking through pitch darkness.
“He’s in the first cell on the left.”
I follow where he’s pointing and step inside to find Vincent Byrne bound tightly to a chair with military-grade zip-ties. He’s wearing his nurse blues but there are a couple of bloodstained rips in his uniform. Apparently, he thought he could fight back.
I grab the duct tape over his mouth and pull hard to wrench it off. He spits out a curse and directs his terrified gaze in my direction. His nostrils flare with anxiety. “W-what am I d-doing here?”
I look over at my brother. “You didn’t explain?”
Aleks just shrugs. “Figured it was pretty obvious. How was I supposed to know that he’s stupid?”
Sighing, I turn back to Vincent and bend down so that I can look him in the eye. “We should have known. Because only a stupid man comes after one of my people.”
Tears glisten on the man’s face, refracting the purple of his bruised eye socket underneath. “I didn’t come after anyone! I?—”
I backhand him across the face and he yelps like a stuck pig, then clams up and descends into a shuddering, downcast silence. “Speak when spoken to, mudak,” I spit at him. “You did plenty, whether or not you were the one holding the gun. I’m sure you’re aware of what happened at the Saeder & Banks Fertility Clinic on the morning of the…”
I look over at Aleks, who fills in, “Seventeenth.”
“The morning of the seventeenth,” I echo grimly. “Yes or no?”
Vincent’s nostrils flare again and he wriggles on his plastic chair. “I… I heard… rumors…”
“You heard a hell of a lot more than that. Especially since you were the motherfucker that signed in the man who came after the wrong person.”
His Adam’s apple bobs up and down furiously. “I-I can’t r-remember.”
“I suggest you try. Otherwise, this is going to get very painful.” I hold out a hand without looking and Aleks deposits the cold butt of a pistol into it. I flick off the safety and start to raise it to Vincent’s temple. I’m not even halfway there before he starts screaming.
“Help! Help! He’s going to kill me! Help me, please—anyone!”
I pause, gun suspended in the air, and watch him as he goes blue in the face. When he finally takes a breath, I grin at him.
