Page 61 of Charming But Reckless

“Jackie, how could you be so rude? You should always say please and thank you. We spared your life. Or did you forget watching the truck blow up as we drove away?”

Varr dropped his head back, revealing a glare. “You blew it up. I'm not an idiot. What do you want? Is it money? I don't have any. They froze everything.”

I chuckled. “Of course they did. With the evidence we provided them with, they had to take away everything you had. Though now, I'm sure that Olivia will get the money and the business. Hopefully she dismantles it like she said she would. Maybe put the money away for the kids' college fund. That would be a sweet end to the story. Oh, and pay for a divorce lawyer because her husband's a piece of shit. Just like you.”

Varr shook with unfiltered rage. If he had been free, I'm sure he would have attempted to swing at me.

Some sick part of me wanted to let him go just to see if he would. That would be fucking hilarious. The man was so out of shape, I could have blown him over if I really wanted to.

Ronan cracked his knuckles as if he were gearing up to hit him again. Varr froze, his eyes cutting to the other man before turning back to me.

He ignored Takeshi completely — a mistake really. Whether it was because he'd been so quiet and didn't notice him or because he was afraid to look at his blank face, I wasn’t sure.

“Here's what we're going to do today, Jackie. We're going to beat the ever-loving shit out of you. Just for fun. And when we're done, you’re going to beg for death. We might even give you some time in the cells to cool down between beatings.”

“It's more like a cage,” Ronan said. “I made sure to get a small size.”

I shrugged. “Semantics. The point is, you're going to be locked up here and some not so nice people are going to come visit you. They have fun breaking men like you. Men who think it's okay to buy and sell children. Men who find pleasure in the most depraved things.”

Varr still held an air about him that made it seem like he wasn't scared. He needed a reminder he wasn’t in control.

I swung at him, letting my fist land on his already bruised jaw. Pausing for a second, I waited for him to lift his head, then I hit him on the other side as well. He deserved a matching set after all. I knew how fancy he liked to live life.

“You should be scared, Jackie,” I told him. “The people who are coming for you aren't all that nice.”

He spit blood from his mouth and tilted his head to the side. I pulled his hair, forcing his head back all the way. I wanted to watch his face as he realized he held no power here.

This wasn’t the end.

“Get it over with then! If it's so bad, let them have me.”

I squinted at him, contemplating if I should up the ante by playing a little game of my own. I pulled out my phone and pressed the buttons I needed to get a group call going.

“What do you want?” A gruff voice demanded. It was Carver, a man known as “the Butcher”, who’d helped us out not all that long ago.

The other two voices that joined the line were a happily married couple who would probably consider what I was about to offer them a vacation.

“To what do we owe the pleasure of this call?” Dante Romano asked.

His husband Preacher grunted and said, “Yeah, what do you want, Orion?"

I sighed lazily as I stared into Jackie Varr's eyes. “Well, gentlemen, I have a little problem. I was going to see if either of you would be able to help me. There’s this guy here who stole my boyfriend's son to turn him into his own personal sex slave. We already got the boy, no worries. But he bought another one already. We returned him to his family earlier this week. Oh, and our little problem is also connected to those really bad guyswe've been hunting down. So I need him dead. While I could get messy, I thought maybe one of you would like to have fun with him first.”

Carver chuckled darkly. “I would have a good time with that one. I call dibs.”

Dante huffed as Preacher laughed. “You can't call dibs. I want in on this. It's been too long since I've shed some asshole’s blood."

Preacher interrupted to say, “You get two for one if you pick us. We can be there sooner than this other guy as well. Whoever he is.

“Name’s Carver. I bet you can figure out how I got it.”

“Yeah, and I'm Preacher because people pray to me right before they die. Big whoop about your fucking name dude. How close are you? If you beat us, then you can have dibs I guess.”

We could hear the sound of keys jingling, which was enough of a signal to let us know that Preacher and Dante would likely be at the NightShade offices in no time. Those two were a mess, but they were fun.

Preacher had been a part of Tank’s long list of informants for years. The two of them had also worked together to help some of our other friends find their loved ones, including Preacher reconnecting with his now husband.

Overall, they just had a connection — a sort of friendship that crossed over into work more often than not.

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