Page 74 of Savage Obsession

I nod to Kris, and together we grab him under the armpits and haul him onto a chair. We don’t have time to mess about, we need him talking, and fast.

Kris opens the proceedings. “You picked the lady and her daughter up at Los Viñedos and dropped them at the shopping mall. Then you picked them up again two hours later. Where did you take them, then, Timo?”

He shakes his head. “No take. Not know anything…”

“Fucking liar. We know you did, so don’t waste my time.” I snap my fingers, and a pair of bolt cutters appears in my hand, courtesy of one of my waiting men who anticipates my requirements perfectly. “Can you drive a taxi without fingers or toes, Timo?”

His eyes widen to the size of saucers. His mouth hangs open. He shakes his head. “Know nothing. No one. You let me go…”

“Not happening.” I flex the bolt cutters and snap them a time or two by way of setting the scene. “We’ll start with your toes, I think…” I nod to Jakub, one of our enforcers, who is hovering, keen to get involved. “Get his boots off. And you, get a barrel or something to strap his foot to.”

Timo wails piteously as his grimy foot is exposed to the air and slammed on an upturned crate. The toes are not things of beauty, but he does seem very attached to them. I intend to put a stop to that and wonder how many it will take before he provides the information we want.

Despite the evidence to the contrary, I don’t think he actually believes I’ll do it. Fucking idiot.

“Last chance before I start snipping. Where did you drop my wife and daughter?”

“Not know wife. No daughter… Aaaaagh!” His screams rattle the tin roof of the warehouse when I slam the jaws of the bolt cutters shut and his big toe rolls onto the floor.

“Shut him up,” I instruct Jakub. “He’s making my ears bleed.”

Jakub obliges by landing a right hook on Timo’s stubbly jaw. It does the trick, and he subsides into snivelling.

“Let’s try that again, because I don’t believe you. We’re going to carry on until you tell me the truth. I think you and me and these bolt cutters are going to become well-acquainted, Timo. So, where did you drop my wife off?” I position the cutters ready to take the next toe in line.

“Please, no, please…”

“Where?” I snarl.

“Please… Aaaagh!” Another toe drops to join the first.

I have to step back to avoid the gush of blood. If I’m not careful, he’ll bleed out before I get the information I need.

“Get a tourniquet on his lower leg,” Kris suggests. “Then we can continue.”

“Good thinking.” I wait for a couple of minutes while someone wraps a leather belt around Timo’s calf and pulls it tight. The flow of blood eases to a steady trickle. Good enough.

Timo is shaking in the chair, held there by three of my soldiers. He’s whimpering, clammy, beads of sweat on his forehead.

“Is he going into shock?” Kris wonders.

“He’d better fucking not,” I growl. I grasp Timo’s chin and force his gaze up to meet mine. “No more messing, now. You talk, or it gets a whole lot worse.”

He dribbles and tries to speak.

My grip tightens. “Go on, spit it out.”

“Lomo Pascual…”

“What did you say?” I lean in.

“Lomo Pascual. A track, in woods…”

“It’s a hiking area in the national park,” Jakub volunteers. “Forest, pretty isolated.”

“Why? Why did you take her there?” I demand. “That wasn’t where she wanted to go, was it?” Julia would be as enthusiastic about taking up hiking as I would synchronised swimming.

He shakes his head, perfectly cooperative now. “She wanted to go home, back to hacienda…”

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