Page 94 of Barristers & Bones
Fenn stared at my tear-stained face and determined look while Sylvie grabbed a gurney from against the garage wall. “What are you two planning?” he asked cautiously.
“Do you really want to know?” My conscience told me I should feel guilty about wanting to torture Lionel before we killed him, but the guilt wouldn’t come. Lionel had attacked Misty and he probably would have kicked her to death if Samuel hadn’t been watching for her.
The men hoisted Lionel onto the gurney, and Kilian pulled out a knife and expertly sliced off the duct tape and his shirt. Fenn pulled his shoes and pants off, and then Kilian cut off his boxers. They were suspiciously efficient at cutting off his clothes.
Lionel’s thigh was bandaged where Roman had shot him, and when Kilian disturbed the area, the man groaned and started waking up.
“Do you have any handcuffs?” I asked.
Kilian walked over to the SUV and rummaged through the glove compartment. He pulled out two pairs and a pack of thick zip ties.
I looked at him when he handed the items to me. “Do I want to know what else you have in there?”
He shrugged. “It’s better to be prepared. Why don’t you let Fenn and me take care of him? We’d do a straightforward BTK. Cut off a few fingers, maybe an ear, then kill and cremate the fucker and be done with it.”
I glared at him. “He stabbed Misty twice, then kicked her in the face while she bled on the ground.”
Kilian held up a hand. “We could also cut off his testicles, pour alcohol over the wound, andthenkill him if that makes you feel better.”
Sylvie cuffed Lionel’s wrists to the gurney. “Save that for his father. This one’s personal.”
I pulled a few zip ties out and tried to get one around an ankle to secure it to the gurney leg. But Lionel had swollen, thick cankles, and the lone zip tie wouldn’t make it all the way around both the gurney and his leg.
Fenn watched me with a pained expression, then took the zip ties out of my hands. “Here. Combine two together like this, then make sure it’s tight enough.” He deftly added one zip tie to another and secured it around Lionel’s ankle, then repeated the process so there were two zip ties holding his leg down, and motioned me to do the other leg.
I combined the ties and secured his other ankle just like he’d shown me. “Okay, I think we have him.”
My heart rate spiked, and queasy determination coursed through me. Sylvie and I wheeled him into the embalming room, and the men followed.
“You aren’t licensed, you two can’t come in here,” she protested.
Fenn smirked and ruffled her hair. “That’s the least of our problems, Syl. Besides, I want to watch you two work. You coming or not?” He asked Kilian.
Kilian sighed. “Fine, but this better not put me off my dinner.”
I shot Sylvie a furtive eye roll. Kilian had come to family dinners with bloody hands and gore on his clothes countless times. The Spade family had a DIY approach to crime and punishment, and after watching my father twist and corrupt the judicial system to suit his own needs, I didn’t entirely disagree with their philosophy.
We pushed Lionel’s gurney into the embalming room, and Kilian looked around, shaking his head. “This area of the mortuary gives me the creeps. Some people don’t like abandoned houses, graveyards, or sewer grates with red balloons. Those places don’t have anything on embalming rooms.”
Sylvie looked around as if trying to see it through Kilian’s eyes. “Huh. It’s like a second home to me. Okay, let’s get started.” She sounded almost chipper.
Performance nerves crawled through me at having an audience. I’d never purposefully tortured or killed someone before when it wasn't in self-defense, and Fenn didn’t look like he was going anywhere. Sylvie and I put on protective gear as Lionel started waking up. I was by his head, and he saw me first.
“Well, if it isn’t Fowler’s little whore, Luna Cross. You stupid bitch. How’s your face, sweetheart? Did I break your jaw when I punched you? And how’s that stripper friend of yours doing after our little visit this morning? My brother wanted to play with her first, and I should have listened to him. He likes to have his women gang-raped, then he shoves broken bottles up their cunts and asses and watches them bleed out. How’d you like that, huh?”
I pulled down my face shield as he spewed insults and turned to Sylvie. “New plan–let’s get the largest scalpel blade you have and a couple of suture needles, then cut his tongue out, cauterize the wound, and stitch his mouth closed. I don’t want to listen to his garbage while we work on him.”
Sylvie leaned over the other side of Lionel and snapped one of her rubber gloves next to his ear. “I like the plan–cauterizing the stump so he doesn’t bleed back into his throat and drown in his own blood before we’re done. Smart.”
Lionel’s ruddy face went from red and splotchy to pale and bloodless when he finally noticed the three Spades standing in the room with me.
Fenn grinned and handed Sylvie a wicked-looking scalpel with her name engraved on it, then looked across the gurney to me. “Can I help? I know this is your kill, but this fucker really needs to feel pain before he dies.”
Lionel started rocking on the gurney and tried to spit at me, but it dribbled down his chin. “You worthless fucking bitch! I’ll torture and piss on you, then violate your corpse. Silas will hunt you down and–ah!” He screeched in pain as Sylvie slapped his bullet wound, then stabbed him with the scalpel in his other thigh.
I flinched at the shrill sound and turned to Fenn. “If you want. We need to secure his head and find a spreader to keep his teeth out of the way.”
Sylvie motioned to the PPE closet. “We’ll definitely need rubber boots today. I don’t want his urine and blood getting into my shoes.” We left Lionel screaming and rocking on the gurney as I switched out my shoes for my yellow polka dot rubber boots, and Sylvie put on her glittery pink ones.
