Page 47 of How to Flirt with a Hellhound
“Jude told me about Paradise Falls. I made my way to this part of the country, and when I called earlier, he filled me in,” Atlas answered.
Of course he had. Jude was probably the one who kept in touch with Atlas the most, and he wouldn’t have known whether Atlas would actually show up, so he wouldn’t have thought to tell me.
Ah, well. At least I still got to torture and interrogate the guy. I supposed Atlas had done the messy part of sneaking in and restraining him. I looked around then and noticed that the basement was secure and pretty soundproof.
“Always helps when they have their own torture rooms for us to use,” I mused.
The guy whimpered again, and I just rolled my eyes. Evil humans were so badass until they were tied up and bleeding.
I walked over and took the gag out of his mouth, and the guy started blabbering as soon as I did.
“I don’t know who you think I am, but I’m not anyone. I haven’t done anything, I swear. Please don’t hurt me. I don’t know what he told you, but I’m not who you think I am,” he whined.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
“Kurt. I just own a flower shop. I swear. That’s all. I’m not involved in drugs or anything,” he whimpered.
Ah, so he was involved in drugs too. Made sense. Flowers would be a good way to transport small quantities.
“I’m not here about drugs,” I said calmly. “You just need to tell me what I want to know,” I said.
Atlas hmph’d behind me. Yeah, yeah, I had implied he’d be ok if he talked. But I hadn’t actuallysaidit. It wasn’t my fault if the guy was a moron.
“Sure, of course, anything,” he whined.
Atlas sighed. “It’s so much more fun when you have to break them,” he muttered.
“No breaking! I don’t need breaking!” the guy shrieked.
I kind of wondered if Atlas had let his hellhound out. The guy was a little too terrified for having a few little cuts and bruises.
“You sent a flower arrangement to Paradise Falls,” I said, running my hand gently along his cheek, up to his eye. He closed his eyes as I gently pressed against his eyelid with my thumb.
“Yes! Yes! I did!” he cried out.
“It had listening devices and cameras,” I murmured, applying a bit more pressure. Eye gouging was painful, but really it was the psychological aspect that made it most terrifying to humans.
“Yes!” he cried out, then he started blabbering, and I could barely make out what he was saying.
I sighed and took my thumb off his eye, and he blinked rapidly, tears streaming down his cheeks.
“This is boring,” Atlas muttered behind me.
I had to agree. Still, I needed information. “Tell me everything,” I growled, letting a little hellfire into my eyes.
And he did. It was so easy that it was actually sort of a let down. Apparently he ran drugs, just like I knew from his lie, but mainly in small quantities. His more lucrative side business was catering to stalkers and other creeps. He would send arrangements and gifts with cameras, listening devices, and trackers. He was apparently quite good at his work and very sought after, and he charged top dollar.
As for Toby’s stalker—he knew disappointingly little. Yes, he had worked with the guy before. No, he had never met the guy inperson. Everything had been done over the phone and through cash deliveries. The guy had watched someone else before this, but the owner couldn’t remember his name. He gave me a rough time frame and said it would be in his computer system under deliveries, so I texted the info to Liam to look into. Everything for the listening devices and cameras was online, so he simply gave the guy access to it. I got a password to his computer, and I figured I’d grab that for Liam as well.
“Are you done yet? Is it time for fun?” Atlas asked after it seemed like the guy had spilled all his secrets.
“Doesn’t seem like enough for a rotten soul,” I murmured.
“Oh, he’s done some of his own stalking. You can smell the old blood. I bet he kept someone down here. Probably killed them,” Atlas remarked nonchalantly.
“No! I didn’t kill her! And it wasn’t stalking! We were dating!” he cried out.
I tilted my head. I wasn’t so sure about that, despite my actions with watching Toby. Huh. Maybe I shouldn’t have placed cameras outside his house? I hadn’t microchipped him, though, no matter how tempted I was. Surely that counted for something. And I had told him about the cameras this morning.
