Page 32 of Fire

FORD

“Wakey, Wakey,” I croon, slapping Benny on the side of the face.

He hadn’t gone unconscious yet, but he’s too damn close. I want him alert for every ounce of pain that I inflict. He needs to experience that before I end him. Unfortunately, I can’t draw this out much longer. I need to hurry and get back to Grace. I don’t want to be away from her. She’s been through too much. I need to make sure that she’s okay. I also want to plead with her to give us a chance. I know she’s been through hell and this latest run-in with her ex will leave even more scars.

I sigh as I bring my attention back to Martelli, who is a little more awake now. He’s also whining like a little bitch. Not with words, he doesn’t have a lot of energy. No, he’s just groaning in pain. I can almost guarantee he’s put my woman through much more pain than this, and she never gave him the satisfaction of hearing her pain. I know Grace. She may seem fragile at first glance, but that woman is pure fire. I got ahold of her medical records over the last two days. I figured Martelli was an abusive motherfucker. Looking at her records from Virginia Memorial had ripped my insides out. That’s a lot of what is driving me right now.

I currently have Martelli spread eagle on the bed. Each of his legs and wrists are bound by the ropes he had used to subdue Grace. The blood that was scattered on the sheets is now covered over with his own blood. The deep red stains run over the cheap white cotton and soothe me. I’m going to get vengeance for Grace. I’m going to make sure he suffers.

“Benny, Benny, Benny. You’re not looking so good there. You’re looking a little pale, actually. Maybe we need to up your iron intake. Hey, Grunt. Do you think there’s iron in bullets? I could have him swallow a few,” I quip, making Grunt laugh.

“Just kill me,” Benny raggedly exhales.

I laugh, the sound cold even to my own ears. “I’m not going to kill you with a bullet, Benny. That would be too easy. When you die, I’m going to make you taste every second of it—make you beg every single tick of the clock. Let you feel the pain, minute after torturous minute, as you slowly fade away. There will be no mercy for you, and do you know why, Benny?” When he doesn’t answer, I slap him again. “It’s because you touched what belongs to me.”

“Are you talking about that bitch? She’s my wife, not yours.” His words are labored, but he gets them out and shows me he has a way to go before I can end him. I slap him hard once more, this time on the opposite side of his face. He doesn’t even try to resist me now—not that he could. Still, before he was at least putting up a little bit of a fight. The bastard’s all but given in now. “She’s not yours, you asshole. She’s never been yours. If she were, you wouldn’t have treated her like you have. No, Benny, I may not know how the two of you got together, but I know you hid the evil that you are from her. My Grace would’ve never ever agreed to be yours if had she known who you really were.”

Benny laughs, spitting out blood. “Stupid bitch was ripe for the picking. Some asshole screwed her over. She felt useless. I played on that. It was wonderful. You should’ve watched it. Shefell into my hands like putty. So fucking stupid that she didn’t even know what hit her. All I had to do was give her a little attention while making sure she realized her own shortcomings. Pretty soon, she’d do whatever I wanted just to please me. It was pathetic. Why you’d want that bitch, I don’t know, but you’re welcome to her. You don’t have to go through with this. Let me go. Give me my son and you won’t ever see me again. I don’t want her. She disgusts me.”

I take out my knife and slice down his ragged-ass skin from his ear to his chin. I cut deep enough that the blood begins running out. It’s not a killing wound, but if you put that with all the other ones I’m going to put in his body, eventually he’ll be drained and that’s going to be painful. It won’t be as bad as he deserves, but it’s all I can do at the moment.

“You arenevergetting your hands on Asher. That kid is mine now. Eventually, it will be my last name on his birth certificate.”

“I’ll never allow that!”

“You won’t have a thing to say about it. Dead men can’t do shit, Benny. I’m your angel of death, asshole. I’m going to make sure that you never breathe Grace’s or Asher’s air again.”

“Fuck you!” he spits, trying to pull on his restraints, causing more blood to flow out of his wounds.

Damn it. He may die too soon.

I let my knife move down his chest, cutting real lightly along the chest bone, then inserting it a little deeper just under the bottom of his ribs, and then I make a matching mark on the other side. Now he has blood coming from four areas, not enough, but it’s a start.

“While you’re lying in the ground, worms eating your rotted corpse, Benny, do you know what I’m going to be doing? I’m going to be fucking Grace every night showing her how a real man gives her his dick. I’ll raise Asher asmyson and teach him to be a good man. Then, I’m going to put my baby inside ofGrace. We’ll be living the good life and you? Hell, Benny, you’ll just be nothing but a glob of gunk for the ants, worms, and snails to play in. Fuck, I might not even bury you. I’m thinking I’ll just let you lay in the field and let the birds pick you to death that could work. How would you like that, Benny? Wouldn’t that be fun to have the buzzards peck out your innards day after day? Maybe they’ll start even before you completely die. That could be fun. You see, I’ve got friends here and there’s this big field back on top of a hill that no one ever goes to. It’s private property fenced off and I can just leave you laying there, bleeding out while the birds, wolves, coyotes, mountain lions or whatever find you. The more I think about it, the more I’m convinced that’s exactly what you deserve. Tell you what, why don’t you tell me what would be more painful? Just letting you bleed out here, or letting you bleed out in the wilds all by yourself, surrounded by hungry animals just waiting to tear into your corpse? What do you say, King?” I ask, briefly looking to the side of the room where he and Grunt are standing.

“I don’t think he deserves that much effort. How about you just throw the bastard into the Saint’s dog pen?”

“Dog pen?”

“Yeah, they call them their hell hounds. Their dogs have been bred with wolves. The club keeps them for security. If you throw this sack of shit in with them, there won’t be anything left. They’ll even chew on the damn bones.”

I grin. “Now, that sounds like fun.”

“Hm,” he hums. “It would get you home to Grace and Asher sooner.”

That makes my smile deepen.“Hey, Benny, look alert now. I’ve got some good news and some bad news.”

“Just do it already,” he says, crying like the spineless bitch he is now. I notice his voice is weaker. I hope he doesn’t die too soon. It’d be a shame for him to bleed out before I get him to the club. Oh well, if he doesn’t make it, I’ll still let the dogs play.

“Benny, King here is a genius. The good news is that we’re going to let the dogs eat you and save me time to be with my woman. The bad news is that it’s still going to take me a little over an hour to fool with you when I’d rather be holdingmyfamily. Still, it’s worth it to see your ass off to hell.”

“Please let me go,” he says.

“How many times did Grace beg you to leave her alone? I’d guarantee she has a bigger backbone than you do. You’re the pathetic one. Let’s load him up, boys.”

We instantly went into action.It took us about twenty minutes to load Benny up in the back of a van. Ironically, it’s the same type of van that my woman was kidnapped in. I was nice and even put bandages on his wounds. It was painful as hell because they were compression bandages, but I didn’t want him to bleed out yet. That would be too easy. This way, the taste of blood was there for the dogs, but they’d still have fun with him. Now we’re pulling into the Saint’s Outlaws compound and I’m glad. I just want this over with.

King pulls us around and we go to the area behind the compound. The entire backyard is fenced in and looks akin to a prison yard. There’s even electric on the fence and barbed wire. I don’t have this kind of thing at my club, but I’m definitely not against using it. Back home, I don’t want anything that might hurt the children and our family. Still, having trained watch dogsappeals to me. I may need to check into that when I get back to Virginia.

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