Page 105 of S.O.S. Billboard

“The other perp?” Del asked.

“He’s, uh, indisposed,” Wiley coughed.

“Yeah,” Perk agreed. “He won’t be going anywhere, anytime soon.” He nudged the knocked-out man on the floor with his boot. “He’s having a nap, just like this one.”

“O’Shea?” Billboard’s voice cracked.

“Nowhere to be found,” Wiley shook his head regretfully. “We even tried to get it out of our man, but he wouldn’t give us anything.”

Billboard practically tossed Jakes back into his chair. “That won’t be a problem for me. I know how to get people to talk,” he snarled at their unwilling host. “You want to tell me where she is before I show you how that’s going to go?”

“I have nothing to say,” the man blubbered.

Billboard bent to within an inch of Jakes’ face. “Are you sure? Because here’s your one and only warning. You’re holding the woman I love, and I don’t give a shit how I have to extract that information from you.”

Yeah.He loved O’Shea. He loved the hell out of her. And Billboard didn’t regret admitting it in front of his team.Damn, they probably knew already, anyway. He just wished O’Shea had heard it from him first. But he’d remedy that as soon as he had her back in his arms.

“You…You can’t hurt me. I have rights.” Jakes was still hedging, looking toward Del, who shrugged.

“Oh. Sure.” The boss rubbed his hands together. “Sooo, everyone but Billboard, we’re going to make ourselves scarce and scour this place from top to bottom.” He urged his crewout, pausing only momentarily at the door. “You okay doing this, BB?” he prodded, scowling.

Billboard knew what Del was asking. He understood that Billboard had serious PTSD around what he’d been ordered to perform in the service, but…

“This is O’Shea we’re talking about, Del. I’d give anything I have to make this situation…” He swallowed his words.

Fuck.It was like his brain had just clicked into place. Some of the shit he’d done in the past suddenly made sense.

What he’d been forced to do had been unconscionable, extracting information from prisoners. But in the end, it had saved lives. Many,manylives. And here he was considering torture for just one woman. The woman he loved.

Billboard shook his head.

He understood now. His past actions had, no doubt, given innocent people who loved each other a chance at a future together. He now saw what his shrink, and everyone else around him had been trying to tell him for years. That his actions, although vile, had helped people in the end.

Just as he’d help O’Shea, now.

“Yeah, Del. I’ve got this.”

Del nodded, giving him a quirk of his lips. “I can see that you do.” He turned around and left.

Billboard, already in interrogation mode, spun and confronted Jakes. “It’s just you and me, now,” he baited.

Jakes attempted to rise from the chair, but Billboard sent a foot into Jakes’ gut, tumbling the man backward with an “oof”. Swiftly picking up one of the ropes that the team had discarded on the floor, Billboard wrapped it around Jake’s middle and arms several times, binding him in place.

“Now. Let’s see what I can do to persuade you…” Billboard scooped up a large, jagged shard of glass from the floor, grabbed Jakes by the hair, and cranked his neck back.

“A few slices here and there?” Billboard speculated, showing no emotion. “Not your carotid artery though. That would have you bleeding out too fast. No. I want to make this as painful as possible.” He jabbed the pointy end into Jakes’ throat a mere eighth of an inch, and Jakes squealed.

“You can’t do this,” the man sobbed.

“I can,” Billboard stated. “You don’t see anybody here who’s going to stop me, do you?” he jeered. “And what a shame that when those windows broke, you were cutall over, by the flying glass.”

Billboard grasped Jakes’ hand, turning it over so his soft palm was belly up.

“Maybe a piece even went right through here.” He tapped the glass a few times on the guy’s cold flesh, digging in a little deeper each time.

“I… I don’t know where she is. My men…they let her go before they got here.”

“Now that’s kind of funny,” Billboard returned, bringing the glass up to regard it thoughtfully. “Because I could have sworn your goon said they’d extracted information from her.”

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