“She’s not wrong,” Havoc adds. “You are pathetic.”
I jerk my chin at Crane. “Is it true? His men are dead?”
“Yeah. We cleaned house,” Havoc confirms. “We found one guy alive down here, but Jester said he’s one of ours.”
“Roger,” Jester confirms.
“Thank fucking God.”
At least one of Jamie’s friends made it through. Not sure what happened to Thomas, but after the shit he pulled…
But anyway, I’m a bloody fucking mess when I step up to Crane. “Hear that, asshole? We destroyed you. And after I kill you, we’re going to wipe your little kingdom off the map. You won’t even be a memory once I’m done with you.”
He looks at my chest. At the damage he did to my body. “You’ll remember me,Atticus.” He stresses that ridiculous name. “Every time you look in the mirror, you’ll remember me, and every time Jamie sees you, she’ll see me.”
“Nah, we won’t.” I motion to my friends. “Help me get this motherfucker in these chains.”
Jester keeps the gun on Crane as Havoc forces Crane in the cuffs. He doesn’t go willingly. I’d be disappointed if he did. His struggle adds flavor to the fight. I meant it when I told him I wasn’t going to drag this shit out. Jamie’s waiting for me topside, and that’s more important than dragging out some epic torture scene. Besides, I want this over. I want out of this goddamn dungeon. Out of the room.
I want Crane out of my fucking head.
But that doesn’t mean I want him going to the grave clean.
I have to have some fun with the bastard. I owe it to all the captives who he murdered to do some damage to him.
Crane’s already begging, trying to bargain, as I grab the drill from the table. By the time I’m done excavating his right deltoid, he’s sobbing. When I burrow a hole in his left, he pisses himself and vomits down his chest. Not done yet, though. Next is the blades. I slash at his chest. Cutting nice and deep. Like he did to me. Slicing through meat and muscle and relishing every whimper as his blood puddles at his knees.
“Sucks to have to kneel at my feet, doesn’t it?”
He doesn’t answer, of course. He can’t speak past his tears, poor bastard.
Havoc and Jester are watching me, but I don’t care. I ignore them as I go back to the table and grab the blowtorch. I set the flame good and hot. So hot, its cold, and carry it to Crane. He screams for mercy before I even melt his flesh. And once I touch the flame to him, his wails bounce off the walls.
The room stinks of his burnt flesh. Of charred meat and piss and vomit and fear. I’ve stripped him raw of every last drop of his pride. I took everything from him and bleed the last of his dignity out all over this floor.
“Apologize, and I’ll kill you quick. Snap your neck. Right now. Clean. Painless,” I hiss in his ear.
He’s heaving, nostrils flaring. Mouth compressed in a hard, quivering line. The stubborn bastard stays silent.
“Take the offer, man,” Havoc says.
“Fuck that. I want to see this prick suffer some more,” Jester counters.
Crane keeps his lips locked.
“Suit yourself.” I return to the table and grab the scalpel. I wave it in his face, and he knows how I intend to use it because of what he’s done to me. “This is gonna suck.”
He flayed me. Now I’m going to do the same to him until I get that apology, if nothing else, all the kids he’s hurt.
I touch the blade to his skin and he breaks. “I’m sorry. Oh God, I’m sorry. Tell Jamie I’m sorry.”
Jester comes to stand in front of Crane. “Is he crying? Holy shit, he is.” He points to Crane. “He’s crying. Wraith, did you cry?”
“Probably. But it sure as fuck took longer than this. Right, Crane?”
Crane shakes his head. “You wouldn’t give me your tears. That’s why I pushed you so hard. I had to make you…”
His sentence trails off, so I finish it for him. “What? Like you? A fucking coward? Yeah, no. But it’s all good. Because I have Jamie, and you’re going to die with nothing.” I move behind him. Wrap my arms around his head. His muscles stiffen. His breathing quickens. “Go to hell, you sonofabitch.”
