Marcus
"Tell me who else you're working with."
"Fuck you," Mr. Williams spits. "I won't tell you shit. Just know you and your sons are dead. No one can pull you out of this hole you've dug yourself into. Kill me all you want, but it won't save you."
I kick him in the stomach, and he screams, rolling into a fetal position. "I'm not going to kill you, not yet. I think I have a much better idea." I grab my knife and cut off his ear, slicing the sharp blade right through the cartilage.
He screams louder and blood pours from the side of his head. "You son of a bitch."
"If you won't talk to me, then I'll have to do something to convince you why you should."
"Nothing you do or say will get me to say shit."
I rip a piece of his shirt off his body and wrap the ear inside before sliding it in my pocket. "Nothing, huh?You sure aboutthat? Why even bother protecting them now? I don't see them trying to save your ass. What if the roles were reversed? You think they would die keeping your name out of their mouth, or wouldn't give you up for a chance to live? You obviously don't know what a desperate man would do in the last moments of his life."
He stays silent, squeezing his eyes shut and wincing in pain. I press my finger into the freshly open wound, and he hollers, tears spilling from his eyes. "Fuck. Just fucking kill me already."
"That would be too easy. I’d much rather mail you to your family instead. In pieces. Does your wife know about your extracurricular activities? What was the reason you gave her for needing to be at the beach house in Florida for so long? Or does she even know it exists? I bet she knows nothing about Jake, the boy you kept in the basement."
"I have no wife."
I throw my head back laughing. "Try spewing your lies to someone else. If you really wanted to make sure she remained safe, you would have never married her to begin with. Nothing stays hidden forever."
"I don't have a wife," he shouts louder, his body shaking against the floor.
"All right, then you won't mind if she gets a surprise package in the mail from me then since she's nothing to you anyway?"
He clenches his teeth, keeping his eyes closed.
"I guess not." I call for one of my men and the door opens. I hand him the ear, telling him where to drop it off at and ask him to send someone in to handle my captive’s bleeding. I need him to stay alive for a little longer.
"Wait," Mr. Williams says, before I can fully walk out of the cellar. "Please don't. She doesn't know. She can't know."
"Do they know about her?"
His eyes flash open, red rimmed and full of exhaustion. "No. She would have been a liability. I couldn't risk anyone using her against me."
I nod, stepping back inside and closing the door behind me. "You mean someone like me?"
He nods, swallowing hard. "Yes, someone exactly like you."
"Does this mean you're ready to tell me what I want to know?"
"Only if you promise to leave her out of it. She's six months pregnant and high risk. Knowing all this would only break her."
"I promise. As long as I'm satisfied with what you tell me, and everything checks out." I had zero intentions of hurting his wife or disclosing her whereabouts to others, he didn't need to know that though. Based on what I'd been told, the poor woman has no idea who her husband really is. It's bad enough she's been living with a monster this whole time, she doesn't need to suffer for his transgressions on top of it. Her and her unborn child are better off with this asshole dead.
"A friend called me months after my brother was killed. They asked me if I wanted closure from the ones who killed him and of course I did. Anyone would."
“What friend?”
"Mario Montoya. He had lost a few of his men, along with money and his purchases."
I wince at the end of that sentence.Purchases.
"Then what happened?"
"I contacted a few of my friends who either had a brother, boyfriend, cousin, or friend at the Mansion or who were attending the auction that day. The word spread from there and eventually got to the men who never got their purchases, the ones who sent others to do their dirty dealings for them."
