Page 102 of The Woman with the Wallet

“Though, doesn’t seem like this idiot got treatment for his leg,” Brio went on, inspecting the red stain seeping through Devon’s jeans and onto Brio’s leg. “Or even did much for it himself. If we gave ‘em a few days, he’d probably die in that creepy-ass hotel.”

“I don’t want to waste a couple of days,” I said as Nico turned the car into a narrow alley between buildings.

I wasn’t sure if it was happenstance or by design that the lights had all been knocked out.

“Give me a second,” Nico said as Devon started to grumble and come to.

Nico climbed out, and I turned to watch out the back window as he went to the end of the alley and slid a privacy fence across the opening before walking back toward us.

“See that wall?” Brio asked, jerking his chin out of my window.

“Yeah.”

“There are stairs on the other side. Door is already unlocked. Just push with your shoulder. We gotta do this quick,” he went on as Devon started to struggle.

Nico was at my door then, pulling it open so I could slide out, grabbing Devon’s upper body as I went.

Brio crawled across the seat while trying to grab Devon’s kicking legs. He was just getting to his feet when Devon landed a kick to his jaw, making a dark look creep across Brio’s face as he leaned down to grab the legs, yanking them at an angle that made his thigh twist.

A howl of pain may have escaped him, but Nico chose that exact second to literally slap a piece of duct tape over his mouth.

“You need me?” he asked as we wrangled Devon toward the steps.

“Nah. We got this,” I told him, knowing the violence wasn’t Nico’s favorite part of the life.

“Might wanna detail the backseat while you wait,” Brio added.

With that, we struggled down the stairs.

I threw my shoulder into the door when we reached it. It groaned open as we moved inside.

Brio was the first to drop Devon, moving around me to slip a bar across the door, then secure several locks.

“You wanna question him?” Brio asked.

Honestly, like Nico, the violence wasn’t something I got off on like Brio did. I didn’t enjoy beating the shit out of people, let alone resorting to torture.

But sometimes pain came in handy.

Like getting the information for the location of the diamonds from Devon, so I didn’t waste hours and possibly drop DNA all over his hotel room.

“Gotta know where the diamonds are,” I told Brio as he grabbed Devon’s legs again and dragged him to the center of the room. Where, I shit you not, he shackled him to some ancient-looking, heavy chains. Then he moved across the room to where the chain was on some sort of lever system and started to lift Devon off the ground by his wrists.

He didn’t dangle him completely off the ground, but Devon was high enough that it was just his tippy toes that brushed the cement floor. His shoulders were likely screaming from the strain. But it was really the least of his worries when he was facing someone like Brio.

“Hold on,” I said, walking up to Devon and fishing in his pocket until I found the hotel keycard, then tucked it into my pocket.

“So, you and me, we’re gonna have a little talk,” Brio said, pacing around Devon like a cat stalking its prey. “And each time you try to lie to me, it’s gonna hurt. But this,” he said, suddenly cocking back to land a blow to Devon’s jaw so hard that he turned in half a circle from his chains, “is for kicking me before.”

Devon was panting hard.

But it wasn’t panic in his bright blue eyes.

No, it was rage.

I knew right then that Brio was going to have his work cut out for him.

“Oh, shit, man, I’m forgetting my manners,” Brio said, pressing a hand to his chest in apology as he half-turned to me. “You wanna have fun first?”

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