Page 17 of Psychological War

“What did you want with the girl?” I asked, removing the cloth from his mouth.

Martin lifted his head up slightly, his eyes boring into me. For a moment he looked like he was going to play dumb and act like the innocent he played to be. But his upper lip tucked up a little bit.

“Tell the bitch to come out here herself if she wants to ask stupid questions,” he snarled. I wish I could tell her to come out here and deal with these men herself. I wanted to see what she would do. I mean, I highly doubt she knew what I was going to do. She probably just wanted me to call the cops and report the attack. But that would not do.

Cocking my head to the side I continued to stare at him. I wondered how long it would take him to break. People always think they will last a good amount of time being tortured, but, in reality, they don’t.

“I really won’t ask again, so I suggest you just tell me.”

He let out a laugh. “Get out here, stupid bitch!” he screamed. Well, I guess we’ll see how long he lasts. Grabbing hold of my favorite knife I stepped towards Martin, his eyes widening. Yeah, he was going to be an easy one to break.

***

I sat back against the far wall watching blood drip down Martin's body. His left ear was laying by his foot. He had multiple cuts across his chest and arms and his blood pooled below him.

The door opened at the top of the stairs. I kept my gaze on Martin. I didn’t have to look over to know who it was. Dimitri.

He was the only one who came down here besides me. Killian didn’t like to get involved with anything I did. Sure he could shoot a gun, and he knew how to fight. But he didn’t like to be involved with torturing men for information. He stayed with his computer. Whereas I stayed away from anything to do with the internet and focused on torturing men.

“What did they do?” Dimitri asked, handing me a mug of what I assumed was coffee.

“They pissed me off.” I left it at that. I didn’t need him to know a girl was involved. He would make Killian find information about her, and I didn’t want that. Dimitri was paranoid. He tried to hide it. But ever since Mila was kidnapped for the second time, he had Killian do background checks on people multiple times. He only truly trusted the two of us and his wife. Everyone outside of the group was a threat in his eyes.

Which wasn’t necessarily wrong.

So not telling him about the girl who’d taken up all of my goddamn head space probably warranted damage later on. I just couldn’t find myself to care.

“Are they dead?”

“Blondie is, the other I’m not sure.” I shrugged, taking a sip of the coffee, immediately burning my mouth, still getting the hint of sugar. “This is disgusting,” I added.

“My wife made that,” Dimitri deadpanned. “She probably just forgot you like your coffee dark roast and as black as your damn soul.”

Mila didn’t simply forget; she was fucking with me. It’s something she did often, and somehow the other two never caught on. Like the one time she put peanut butter in my smoothie. I turned my back for a minute to open the protein powder, and somehow my dumb ass didn’t realize the glob of butter. The moment I took that first sip I nearly spit it out everywhere. I put olives in her coffee. She nearly choked on one. But that was beside the point.

Mila and I acted like brother and sister, after we got over our initial dislike for each other. Mila never truly disliked me; she was just afraid of me due to the fact of my size.

Dimitri was the shortest of us, at six foot four. Still tall, but he wasn’t as broad and as muscular as me. Killian stood in between us but was lanky. I understood why Mila was nervous around me. I was a big dude. Most of the time I had to bend down to get through doorways. People always looked at me like I was an actual giant.

She didn’t look at you like that.

I scowled at myself. I didn’t need this girl barging her way into my brain, especially when I stood in front of the Pakhan.

A groan sounded next to us. Glancing over I was surprised when I saw Martin beginning to stir. I didn’t think he was still alive. Of course, the fucker had to prove me wrong.

“Looks like the fun isn’t over just yet.” Dimitri side-eyed Martin.

“Nah, I got what I needed from him.”

“Needed?”

Shit. I should’ve made a better choice of words. Swallowing the lump in my throat I calmed my reaction. “Yeah, I’m calm now. They let me get the murder tendencies out.” It wasn’t far-fetched. I usually needed a good fight or to kill someone within a few days. And it had been about a month.

“That’s great because tomorrow Mila wants to take Tobias to some art exhibit around here. Which means I need you to start working on Luca’s men.”

Smiling, I sipped my coffee, cringing inside when I tasted the sugar. Following them I could do. It beat sitting around here waiting for whatever Luca wanted.

“I’m giving him one more chance to meet with us soon. If not we’ll be headed back home.”

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