Page 35 of The Book of Wrath

“What crawled up your ass?” Marty asks him as we head through the building.

“I had plans tonight and now they’re fucked,” Pete snaps, well guess we’re stopping him from getting laid. Poor dude. Outside of work on the few occasions we saw him, the nerdy look was gone. He was covered in tattoos and would wear his piercings when we went out to the bar. Women would line up for him when he wasn’t in uniform. He dulled his look down for work.

“Well shit, drop him here and let’s go get you laid!” Marty hypes. Marty and his girl Kendra had been together for five years and none of us knew how she dealt with his ass. He was loud, constantly up in your business, and was always one of the first of us to run his mouth and get into a fight.

“This is too important just for me to walk away so I can get my dick wet. She’ll be there when I get home,” Pete says, focusing on shoving Jeff through the building. I couldn’t think straight when these two argued. You wouldn’t know they were partners when Marty wasn’t undercover.

“The chair right there across from Roy will do it,” I say, pointing at the vacant chair in front of the piece of shit father. Jeff and Roy have a long rap sheet. Grand theft auto, burglary, sexual assault, domestic violence, and they were being investigated for the murder of Bridget Moore, Jeff’s mother.

Andy came stalking out the meet us, or at least I thought it was to meet us. Max was standing behind one of the pillars, only stepping out once we got Jeff secured in the chair.

“Found how these pieces of shit met Michael Paxley. They broke into his summer house in Lewes, they just didn’t expect him to be there. According to police reports Michael Paxley and his assistant, Laura Bellardi, were holed up at the house because he was on a press tour. Michael didn’t press charges on them, but instead wanted to help them reform,” Andy says as he hands Max his iPad.

Max pulls the black hood off of Roy and smirks, “Let me guess, you threatened to blackmail Michael Paxley. What? Did you catch him dick deep in Miss. Bellardi and threaten to expose him to his wife?”

Roy blinks his eyes, trying to adjust to the light difference. Roy finally focused his attention to Max, fear flickering in his eyes. “She is the wife of a well-known city councilman. We weren’t breaking in to steal anything from him. We were hired to get information on her whereabouts.”

“So, you and your son were on a job?” Max asks, looking over the police report. I watch as realization clicks in his eyes. “You’re private sector?”

Roy looked away from Max, a refusal to answer, a dumb mistake on his part. Max looks at me and I just nod. I don’t plan on stopping him. He waits another minute then punches Roy hard in the stomach. One solid punch, hard enough that we all heard the crack. Max hit ribs.

“It’s in your best interest to answer me Roy. If not, I’ll just move over here,” he says, with a devious smile, pulling off the black bag from Jeff’s head. He was busted up pretty bad. Busted lip, looks like a possible broken nose, his eyes were bloodshot with bruises forming around the edges. He was fucked up, and bleeding. I knew they were gonna rough him up but fuck me. Max took in the display of violence and smiled.

“Jeff!” Roy yells once he takes in the state of his son, “If you fucking think—” another punch to his gut has the air flying out of his lungs. Max hit him three more times in the stomach. Wailing on him like he’s a punching bag.

Max steps back to admire his work as Roy spits blood on the floor. Thankfully there is a fucking tarp beneath their chairs. I don’t feel like cleaning their blood up.

“Did you think we wouldn’t find him, Roy? Are you going to answer me now?” Max says as he grips Jeffs hair and yanks his head back. A glint at his throat had me seizing up, holy shit, he wouldn’t! Andy, Pete and Marty all watched as Max held a knife to Jeff’s throat. The wicked twist in his face turned more sinister.

I’ve seen Max at his breaking point, but these two took children. This was personal for us. We were on those search parties; we were out there looking for those girls for weeks. Max and I even took personal time to go looking for them. We took care of three dirty cops in one night. Max would take out more if he had the chance.

“Max, keep calm. Remember what we talked about,” I caution him as I watch his hand being to twitch.

“I won’t do it too soon, but you’re going to want to bring that fucking piece of shit out here. He needs to see that I am not fucking around,” Max says as he pushes the blade into the side of Jeff’s throat. A line of blood flows down from his neck to his shirt.

I sent Tony a text to roll Ryan out here. He was sitting with Ryan while this went down, but I know I am going to need the back up if Max loses his shit. We all hear the door open and the creaking chair rolling through the building. I could hear the muffled yelling as they approached. A part of me wished I knew what he was saying, but Tony gagged him so he wouldn’t kill him. I give Tony the most credit in the world. I wouldn’t have had the patience.

“You’re buddy is here,” Max looks at Roy and Jeff as Ryan gets closer to them.

“One dead beat boyfriend for delivery,” Tony says as he kicks the back of the chair sending Ryan toppling onto the ground. Fucking idiot. Tony picks up the chair that Ryan is tied to and sets it up right. “Oops.”

“So, Roy, I’m going to ask again. Are you private sector?” Max asks once more, pressing the blade into Jeff’s throat even harder. Roy’s eyes widen as he watches the crimson liquid spill down his sons throat.

“Stop it! I was in the private sector; it was left out of the report once I told Michael Paxley why I was there. Because of him, I lost my practice and got drug into their sex ring. He found out about the murder of my wife and used it against me saying he could make it look like I did it. He got my son messed up on drugs and when I threatened to quit doing his dirty work and expose him, he had me drugged by my own fucking kid. Next thing I know, I’m raising a kid he told me is his niece who needed to be hidden from sight. I just did as I was told!” Roy yells out and it’s a bullshit fabricated lie. One to save his own ass.

“You expect me to believe that load of shit? I believe you were there to steal shit and got caught. You’re a drug junkie who has a record dating back over twenty years. You also expect me to believe that you weren’t harming that girl? What about her friend huh? Who killed her?!” Max roared in Roy’s face. The smell of ammonia leeched into the room.

Great, one of these fuckers just pissed themselves. “I’m not cleaning up piss or shit Max.” I say, the look of disgust all over my face. I’m pretty sure he knows I’m getting annoyed.

“Try again Roy. Unless you want this knife shoved up your ass, ripping you wide open for when you go to prison. People like you don’t last long in prison,” Max is walking that fine line of sanity and insanity. If he continues he will slip into a darkness that we can’t drag him out of for days.

“Max,” I say, daring to take a step closer to him. “Think about Megan. You’re teetering.” Max looks at me and I can see the fragile parts of his heart slowly cracking away.

“Looks like someone else wants to speak,” Pete says, pointing at Ryan. I don’t think it’s wise to take that gag out of his mouth, but Max points the knife at him and Tony removes it.

“You think you’re any better than me?” Ryan spits out, looking at all of us. I want to think we are better than him and his entire family.

“We are better than you. None of us would hit a woman and control her like you did. It wasn’t just Megan you beat the hell out of, there are so many other women out there. Most paid off to keep their mouth shuts. But see Ryan, we found your skeletons, they weren’t buried deep enough,” Max said holding the knife point at Ryan’s knee cap.

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