Keeping his bride

CHAPTER31Nicholas

BELOW THE CONTROL room is a deeper, darker, soundproofed basement that my father had created for his “extracurricular” activities. As soon as I open the hatch for the stairs, I can hear a man screaming. A satisfied grin appears on my face as I go down the steps, taking my time and relishing in the sounds of a man getting his justice.NôvelDrama.Org content rights.

There are a few separate concrete rooms with a drain in the center of each. It makes cleanup a little easier with being able to hose down the blood…and other stuff. When I round the corner, I see that Benito and my father are in the room with the man. I move my head from side to side, cracking my neck, ready to take over. My father narrows his eyes on me when I walk in, but he knows I’m old enough for this shit. I don’t let them baby me like they do with Aria. This isn’t my first time dealing with scum, and it certainly won’t be my last.

“Has he talked yet?” I ask my father, who, in turn, shakes his head.

“Your mother and I are going to the hospital to check on the surviving women. We’ll be back later.” He clasps a hand on my shoulder and gives it a strong squeeze. He doesn’t say another word, but I know he’s silently asking me to get the information we want…no matter what needs to happen.

Once he leaves, I turn to the guy, who is strung up in the center of the room. His pale skin is covered in a sheen of sweat, and his eyes dart around the room anxiously.

I go over to the corner of the room where all of my usual instruments are. I select a pair of rusty pliers first before returning to our captive. “What’s your name?” I ask him.

“Trey,” he offers easily enough through chattering teeth.

“Well, Trey, it looks like you and I are going to be spending a lot of time together down here,” I tell him nonchalantly before I reach for one of his feet. The sickening sound of his toenail being ripped off by the pliers numbs my soul as he unleashes a horrendous scream. “What we need from you is simple,” I tell him before ripping off another nail. “We want to know who you work for. We want to know the location of their operations, and we want to know anything else you feel obligated to tell us.” I stare him in the eye as I grip another toenail in the pliers. “And I will keep going until I get all of the above information.”

“Please!” he begs as I tear off another toenail.

Once all five are gone, I start on the other foot. It becomes a methodical process now, and I tune out his screams until I’m finished with both feet.

Returning the pliers to the table, I search the instruments of torture for something that will make him squeal. My eyes land on an object that always worked in the past, and mind made up, I pick it up.

The electric drill whirls, the large masonry drill bit spinning wildly when I push the button and turn to Trey whose eyes widen.

“No, man. No, no, no, no. Please!” he begs as I step closer to him.

“It doesn’t have to be like this, Trey,” I tell him simply. “Tell me who you work for, and this can all be over quickly.”

Trey trembles all over, his body violently shaking as his bloody toes drag across the concrete floor. “I can’t! He’ll kill me!”

“I’ll kill you!” I tell him through gritted teeth. “I don’t think you fully understand your predicament here, Trey.”

He shakes his head back and forth vehemently. He’s not ready to talk yet. But he will be. Soon.

The drill whirs, and I choose his thigh to start inflicting the damage. If he begins to bleed out too much, we can always cut off limbs and cauterize them to stop the bleeding. I wouldn’t want his life ending too soon…or too easily. And I will not let him perish before I get everything I want out of this man.

The large drill bit digs into his meaty thigh, and he cries out in anguish as it goes straight down to the bone.

I’m quick and precise as I drill a few more gaping holes into his body. And when Trey’s screams suddenly stop, I realize he passed out.

“Throw some water on him,” I tell Benito, who nods at my request. “I want Trey awake for every fucking minute of this.”

He’s going to suffer until I get what I want. And then I’m going to torture him even after that, because I know that’s what Miner would have done for me had it been the other way around.

Selina is waiting in the hallway for me, surprising the fuck out of me. It’s well after midnight, and she should have been sound asleep in her bed. She’s perched on the edge of a chair, which she must have dragged into the hall, with a worried look on her face. I’ve been gone for hours…or, hell, maybe even a whole day or more. I don’t know for sure. Without any windows or clocks, it’s easy to lose track of time down there.

“Who…whose blood is that?” she questions with a concerned look on her face.

Fuck, that’s twice now she’s seen me covered in someone else’s blood. I know it brings back bad memories for her, but I honestly thought she’d be in bed by now. I didn’t think I would even see her on the way back to my room, but she must have decided to wait for me. And I don’t even know how I feel about that in this moment. I’m still shaken up, still angry…still everything other than what I should be in her presence.

“Go to bed, Lina,” I growl at her. I’m not in the mood to pacify her right now. Adrenaline is still rushing through my body after I just killed a man. And even though he suffered greatly, I still feel like his death was too merciful, too quick. My revenge hasn’t been sated, and it courses through my veins like poison. I’m still full of anger and hate, and I refuse to take any of those emotions out on her. She doesn’t fucking deserve that.

“Nico, wait.” She chases me down the hall and stops me before I can make it to my bedroom door. “Don’t shut me out,” she pleads.

“I’m not shutting you out,” I tell her with a sigh. Closing my eyes, I grit out, “I just want to take a shower and go the fuck to bed.”

“Did you murder the man who killed those women and your friend?” she questions in a whisper.

“Yes,” I growl without an ounce of remorse for his death. And then I open my eyes and focus on her beautiful face. “Even though I do some good things in my life, Lina, I’m still the bad guy. Never forget that,” I tell her before pushing past her into my room.

She doesn’t follow me into the bathroom, and for that I’m grateful. I shower quickly and thoroughly, scrubbing off the dead man’s blood from my skin. He was hard to crack, but everyone cracks eventually in the end. When you realize you have nothing left to lose and feel your life slipping away before your eyes, then the skeletons hiding in your closet begin to slowly pour out of your fucking soul.

We got the information we needed. With Constantine Carbone really no longer a threat here in New York since he started his affairs overseas, there is a new, up-and-coming mob boss dipping his toes into the flesh trade waters. We’re sending one of his men back to him in pieces as a message that we’re not going to tolerate this shit in our city. We’re cutting the head off the fucking snake before it can slither its way into the dark underground and try to establish a good, solid position before striking.

I’ve made it my mission in life to save girls like Selina from the monsters in this world, and I’ll be damned if anyone deals in human trafficking in this city while I’m living and breathing.

While I was hard at work making that man suffer, we got word that the girls at the hospital are now all in stable condition. That almost makes all of this horror show worth it, but then I think about the ones we couldn’t save, and Miner. They shouldn’t have died like that. I should have been able to save them all. I was head of that team, so the responsibility of their wellbeing falls on my shoulders. It’s my fucking fault, and I will carry the burden of their untimely deaths for the rest of my life.

When I’m done showering, I climb out, dry off and wrap a towel around my waist. Selina is standing in my bedroom, waiting.

I’m about to open my mouth to tell her to go back to bed, but she quickly asks, “Did that man suffer before you killed him?”

“Yes,” I tell her simply. “He suffered…immensely,” I say with a sickening satisfaction that I gave some semblance of justice to the innocent people he killed.

“Good,” she responds, surprising the hell out of me. Coming closer until she’s standing right in front of me, she leans up on her tiptoes and places a soft kiss on my cheek. “You did good, Nico,” she tells me before leaving my room.

I release a breath I didn’t know I was holding, still reeling from the touch of her lips against my skin. For some reason, having Selina’s affirmation makes me feel better, even if only minutely. I wanted to save them all, but what’s done is done. At least I can help the ones that survived. We can give them a better life, a future. And for that, I am grateful. And because of Selina, it feels like a great weight has been lifted off my chest and that I can breathe again.

Lina always did have that effect on me – even on the darkest of days, she would be the tiny ray of sunshine that I needed to make it through. She’s like this beacon of light guiding me home even when I’m feeling so far gone and lost that I don’t know if I’ll ever make it back on my own.