Page 9 of We Will Rise

He nods. “Uh yeah. I…I sampled the product once and haven’t been able to prove my loyalty since.”

I let out a sigh and wipe my bloody hand on my jeans, quietly apologizing to Meredith, who will no doubt give me a filthy look the same way she does the guys when they come home covered in blood and God knows what else.

What he’s not saying is that he fucked one of the women that works for Charles, and while I hope like hell it was consensual, I’m not holding my breath.

“Was it Davenport who asked you to fuck with Kovu’s car?”

His eyes flash with something, and he snaps his mouth shut before he can answer me.

Just when I thought we were making progress.

I sigh and drop back down in front of him, wrenching his unbloodied foot from the ground and forcing him to use the stump where his toe used to be attached to hold himself up. His scream fills the room as he thrashes back and forth, trying to dislodge me, but I hold steady. Thank God I managed to get some time in the gym with the guys recently because I’d forgotten how much torturing someone can take out of you.

“C’mon Todd, don’t you want this pain to stop? All you have to do is tell me who hired you to kill Kovu.” The words are bitter on my tongue as I force the emotions down. I can’t even think about it without the intense urge to cry washing over me, and I can’t afford to look weak to a man who has already underestimated me.

The pain in my chest is so acute that I can barely breathe through it, and yet somehow I’ve managed to pull this persona out when I needed it. All that training I did with my dad, all the pain he put me through, it was all to prepare me for this moment.

“I can’t.” He chokes on another scream.

“You can. You’re not walking out of this room alive anyway, and even if you were, anything they could do to you would pale in comparison to what I have planned if you don’t start talking.”

I reach for the knife where I dropped it on the concrete, preparing myself to take his other big toe and make good on the promise I made when I walked in, when he lets out a wail.

“I’ll tell you. Fuck. I’ll tell you.”

A small smile tugs at the corners of my lips. Part of me had hoped it would take longer to break him so I could enjoy this more, but the idea of going back upstairs and curling up with my men to continue my pity party for a little longer sounds way too good right now.

I shove to my feet and cross my arms over my chest. “I’m listening.”

“It was this friend of Davenport’s. He’s been hanging around the last few months, and he asked me to do a couple of other small things for him. I did some surveillance at the Legion’s casino and fight club a while back, and he said he’d give me five million dollars if I could take any of them out. When I found out about the meeting, I saw it as my chance.”

I nod along with his story. “And you just so happen to know how to make a homemade bomb and put it into a car?”

“I have some history from before I moved to the city. I was involved with a gang in California a while back and learned where to make one.”

I let out a steadying breath as I feel the emotions start to climb up the back of my throat again. “The guy who hired you, is he tall, dark hair around his shoulders, and dark eyes?”

He nods. “That’s the one.”

I move toward him until the knife is poised against his bare chest. “I should make you suffer for killing the man I loved, but a deal is a deal.”

I drive the blade into the center of his chest and rip it downward, dragging a garbled scream from his throat.

Blood drips down his body and my hand as I tear it from his body and take a step back admiring my handiwork.

I’m about to drop the knife when the door behind me opens, and I whip my head around to see who has caught the tail end of the interrogation, and my stomach drops when I see them.

CHAPTER SIX

KAOS

Incessant buzzing drags me out of a deep sleep, and it takes me a few moments to get my bearings.

I’m in Kovu’s bedroom, the black walls bathed in only moonlight from the open window. There’s a soft snore coming from my left, while someone shifts beneath the covers on my right.

It’s not until Crew starts speaking softly that everything comes crashing back to me.

The meeting.

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