Page 9 of Murder & Mayhem
The form was fucking awful, and I winced, knowing it had to hurt. But there was still some bite behind it, and Joey’s head snapped back with a satisfying crack.
“Oww! Shit!” Jamie clutched his fist and glared at me like it was my fault. It was so adorable. “How come you didn’t hurt yourself?” he accused me.
“I actually know how to throw a punch.”
Jamie’s annoyed face was cute, but I had to focus on Joey. “You made him bleed, though. That had to feel good.”
Jamie gave a half smile. “Yeah, it really did.”
“This is getting old. Also, my brother is currently tracking your moves since you snatched the kid earlier today. Oooh!” An idea came to me. “Let’s play a game. Will Ari find Bailey before you tell us, or will you tell us first?”
“What do I get if I win?”Ari asked, intrigued. He was a competitive bastard.
“If Ari wins,” I said clearly so everyone could hear the stakes, “I’ll do all the cooking for two weeks.” Gid couldn’t cook at all, and between my day job, the time I spent at my apartment, and this, I wasn’t in the home we shared often, so most of it fell to Ari and he hated it.
“Oh, I like that. And if Byrne wins?”
“If Byrne wins, I won’t chop off his dick and feed it to him before I kill him.”
“Fuck,” Jamie whispered, sounding slightly disgusted but also a little impressed. Joey looked like he was going to throw up.
“Yes!”Gideon shouted gleefully.“This is fun. Let’s do this.”
“You’re so easily amused,” I said, but I kinda loved that about him.
“So what will it be, Joey? You gonna talk?” I pulled out my blade and ran it lightly down his cheek, blood sprouting from the barely there touch. “Or am I gonna be able to have some fun?”
CHAPTER 4
JAMESON
He cut off Joey’s dick. Really easily too. Like, should it be that easy to cut someone’s dick off? The thought of it made me queasy, but I was also sickly fascinated. I mean, it couldn’t have happened to a better person. There was some kind of fucked-up joy I got from the whole thing.
Maybe I should be disgusted. And I guessed in a way, I was, but only because it was so fucking bloody, and I thought any man would get a visceral chill seeing a dick fall to the floor, but it didn’t bother me nearly as much as it should.
Karma.
A sense of relief and justice. I wasn’t dumb enough to believe my stepfather was walking away from this alive, but still, knowing that even if he did, he could never hurt anyone again the way he had Bailey, me, and countless others? It meant something. And whatever that said about me? Honestly, I didn’t care.
“I really thought he’d speak before that,” Dominicmuttered, mostly under his breath, or maybe he was talking to his brother. It was hard to tell. “You’re way too good at this, Ari. Should be working for the NSA or something.”
I didn’t know what information his brother had gotten yet and was a little terrified to find out. Dominic wasted no time, and the only reason I knew he even did was because he grinned sadistically at Joey, picked up a nasty looking knife, and went to work.
Hopefully, whatever Ari had gotten was enough. Joey had passed out, and even if he did manage to wake up before he bled out, well, I didn’t think sharing information about my brother would be top of his list.
I couldn’t believe I was blindly trusting this stranger that was clearly dangerous and willing to do things people shouldn’t do. Then again, I’d been surrounded by people doing things they shouldn’t my whole life, and at least it seemed like Dominic was on my side.
I was aware of all the ways shit could go sideways. I was a lot of things, but I wasn’t naive. Nobody tortured a person for you for free. He was gonna want something from me. But I was willing to pay the price for Bailey. I’d done way worse for way less. Dominic was attractive and he took care of his appearance. That was way more than I could say about most of the people Joey had forced on me.
I shuddered. Not thinking about that. Especially in the room with him while his dick lay on the tarp under his feet.
“Jamie?” I startled, shocked to see Dominic standing half a foot away from me, looking worried. I must’ve zoned out. I hadn’t even heard him get so close.
“Yeah?” I shoved my hands in the pocket of my hoodie so that I could have something to do with them. This whole situation was wild. Not that I’d had much of a plan when I’d shown up at Joey’s today, out of my mind with worry. All Icould think about was Bailey. But still, even in my imagination, I’d never expect allthis.
“Have you heard of a Sloan O’Malley?”
My nose wrinkled. It sounded familiar, but I couldn’t place it. “Maybe? Sorry. I’m not sure. Is that who has Bailey?”
