"He didn't have any ID on him," Ramsey said.
Ice nodded. "That doesn't surprise me. Is he familiar to any of you? He doesn't look familiar to me."
"I've never seen him before," I said.
"Me either," Sadie said.
Ramsey shook his head. "He's no one I know. I'm guessing he's new in town and was hired to do this one thing."
"That would be my guess too." Ice nodded to the hooker. "He probably wasn't planning to stick around long. Luckily, people like him aren't missed."
The gunman's Adam's apple bobbed.
Ice cocked his head. "I'm glad you're listening. We could make this easy on you. Tell us who you are and why you aimed a gun at my sister, and we can end this quickly."
The gunman continued to look at the ceiling.
Ice clicked his tongue. "That's unfortunate. Let it be noted that he preferred the hard way."
"If that's what he wants." Storm drew his arm back and slammed it into the gunman's stomach.
He grunted and sagged, dangling from the chains. His wrists soon reddened from the strain. Gaze still on the floor. He shook his head to himself, and let out a ragged breath or two.
Storm's punch must have hurt like a bitch.
"Sadie wanted to stab his shoulder," Frost said helpfully. Evidently, empathy wasn't in his vocabulary today either.
"With a screwdriver," Sadie said. She seemed to be looking forward to it.
I silently added her to the growing list of people who didn't give a shit if this guy was uncomfortable or not. To be honest, I might as well go ahead and add everyone else in the room.
The gunman shuddered but kept his face down.
"Is it really worth the pain?" I asked him. I didn't know why anyone would subject themselves to torture to save someone who very likely gave no shits about them. He was a tool, like a screwdriver or a knife. Why suffer for that?
"It's worth it to me," Storm said. "No one aims a gun at my woman and gets away with it. End of fucking story."
"What Storm said." Frost laced his fingers in mine and stood beside me, pressing me between him and the fullback.
"I have to agree," Atlas said. "We need to send a message to anyone who'd try to do this again. They won't get away with it."
"I think him disappearing off the face of the planet would send a message," I said. "Without having to draw it out."
"Hey." Ice stepped over and cupped my cheeks with his hands. "He can tell us everything he wants whenever he’s ready, but no one tries to hurt my sister. No one. The moment he did that, he was fucked. You're so sweet to feel bad for him." He kissed the tip of my nose.
"I don't feel bad for him, not exactly," I said slowly. "I just?—"
"If you don't want to watch, you don't have to," he said. "I'm sure your men would take you back outside if that's what you need."
"I just want answers," I whispered. "He could have killed Sadie."
"He could have killedyou," Ice whispered back. "I want answers as well. Shit like this doesn't happen without someone behind it. I want to know who."
"We can guess," Atlas said. "What I don't understand is why. If this was the work of Dominic King or Carlos Jones, why would they do that?"
I looked past my brother to the gunman, for a sign he recognised their names. There wasn't one. Either he didn't know who they were, or he had the best poker face I ever saw.
"King thinks we're working with him." Storm frowned. "Is it possible their side doesn't realise we're faking it?"
