Page 215 of Never Fall for an Angel

“Ffffuck!” Collin curses, throwing his head back and gritting his teeth against the pain. I’m happy to see tears well in his one good eye.

“Now, we can’t have that, dear Collin.” I stoop down, running my thumb across his lashes and wiping away the tears that linger there. He glares up at me, his chest heaving through the pain. “I want you toseewhat’s happening.” I shrug, standing back. “You need to know what happens when you touch a Cross.”

“Who the fuck are you working with?” Levi snaps, cracking his knuckles. They’re already bruised and bloody.

“Fuck you.”

“Unfortunately, I’m straight, but I know a few men that might be down,” Levi looks him over. “Maybe if they couldn’t see your face.”

“What the fuck do you want?” Collin spits.

“Answers. You hurt one of us.”

He laughs maniacally. “You should have seen what else I was planning for her.”

I smirk, the blood roaring in my ears. I can feel my self-control threatening to snap, but that’s what he wants. He wants me to lose control so we don’t get the information we need.

Stepping back to the table across the room, I look over the instruments. Grabbing the bolt cutters made for industrial-style bolts, I step back over to Collin, laying them over my shoulder.

“Collin, I really don’t have time for games tonight.” I look at the clock. “My wife’s asleep in bed recovering from what you did to her. You’re wasting my time.”

“What the fuck are you going to do with those, Cross?” Collin challenges. “You think you can kill me and get away with it?”

I look to Levi, who nods.

“Yeah, I think we can.”

“How about this,” I stoop down in front of him, resting my arm on the bolt cutters. “You tell me who you’re working for, and I’ll kill you quickly.”

“Fuck. You.”

“Oryou continue to waste my time, and I kill you very slowly. You’ll be in excruciating pain either way.”

“Go to fucking hell.”

I chuckle. Fucker can’t say I didn’t warn him.

“Look around, Collin,” I look to either side of me. “You’re already here.”

I stand back. “Release his hands.”

“What thefuck?” Collin thrashes in the seat, but Levi’s bigger than him. He cuts the binds and drags his hands around to the front. He secures his wrists to the arms of the chair with zip ties, his fingers resting over the sides.

I take the pointer finger of his left hand, positioning the bolt cutters over the flesh, visions of my wife fading in and out of consciousness from the blade in her side flashing through my head.

“This is going to hurt.”

“Wait—” Collin fights, cut off by the sickening sound of bones crunching fills the air milliseconds before his screams.

Blood pours from the wound, and his finger falls to the ground.

“That’s one,” I tell him. “One finger for touching my wife. Unfortunately, I’m not satisfied.”

“Wait, I’ll fucking tell you!” he screeches when I line the second finger up. I pause, still holding the finger in the cutters.

“I know you didn’t do this all on your own. You’ve never been a leader. So . . . whodidyou do it for?”

“I don’t know!”

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