Page 95 of Outcast

"Esteban," Rita said. "Take down his pants."

Kurt twisted to the right and left, throwing his knees up as if that would save him. Esteban gripped the band of his jeans when Kurt screamed.

And screamed. His pain pushed his voice higher as tears leaked from his eyes.

"Okay! Okay!" He panted once Esteban stepped back, understanding it for the near miss it was. If he was stripped, Rita would have latched onto his balls and not let go. I'd seen her do it more times than I could count in the clubs and that was without her tools.

Releasing his bloody nipple, she stepped back. "Go on."

"I was out the other night, before Javier's funeral. Tiago was with us. Rob too." His breathing became more erratic like he was more afraid to tell her the truth, but didn't want his balls crushed.

"If I have to ask again, I'm going strip you and you won't get an opportunity to speak."

Swallowing, he continued. "Tiago and Rob were bestfriends. I don't know what happened after I left, but you know that, right? That they were friends?"

"Everyone in the Dirty Dogs is friends," Esteban deadpanned.

"Yes, but we still have cliques like school kids!" Kurt almost shouted. "Tiago, he was talking about how this was an opportunity to make the Dirty Dogs feared again. He said...He said–"

"Spit it out." Rita opened the pliers and stepped closer.

"He said that since the Institution fell, we'd lost our spines. Then this new club rolls in and tries to take over our best businesses, the ones we didn't want to leave–" Kurt cut himself off like he realized what a mistake that was.

Rita hummed, her voice dropping low with emotion. "Interesting. I hadn't realized that so many people have issues with the way Dirty Dogs is going." She glanced over her shoulder. Joel and Ricco refused to meet her gaze.

They knew. But were they part of it?

"Tell me more," she purred, leaning into him.

He pulled his head back as far as he could with the way he was strung up. "It's not everyone. It's not even me! I just like to keep my head down! I like being included. That's it."

"What did Tiago and Rob say?"

"That..." Kurt gulped, glancing at everyone in the room but Rita. "That the only way to move into the future was to clear the past. They wanted to get rid of you because you are part of the old Dirty Dogs."

"Because Javier is my father," she concluded.

He nodded in jerky motions.

"That doesn't explain why you ran."

His face scrunched up as sweat rolled down his face. His perspiration and fear perfumed the tight humid space.

"There were only a few men there. All of them are eitherdead or missing today. I knew it would look bad. I didn't want anyone to accuse me."

"How would we have known?" Esteban moved beside Rita. "How the hell would we have known about that conversation, if you hadn't told us? We wouldn't have known you were there."

The blood drained from Kurt's face. "There was one other person there."

"Who?"

"One of the men from the new club."

That motherfucker, Matthews. He knew about a coup and he didn't say a goddamned thing other than not to trust anyone.

I was going to pay him a visit this time. By myself.

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