Page 76 of Unfulfilled Promises
I survived the unthinkable and I was still here, stronger than ever before and ready to face my demons.
I gave him a nod as his gaze caught mine before he turned to speak with Devlin and Lucian. James and Seth came around the car, and I grabbed James as he tried to walk past me. He looked at my hand holding his wrist and raised his eyebrows in question.
“I’m sorry, okay. I know you’re worried about me, but I need to do this. And the fear you have that I’ll somehow see youdifferently if I know what you’ve done, it’s not necessary. I’ve known about your dealings since I was a kid and you found me in foster care, and it hasn’t changed the way I see you. You save the innocent and slay the monsters.” I hugged myself to him, and he returned the embrace as I whispered, “You saved me from a life of isolation and loneliness. You gave me a family and you’ve always been my best friend. Please don’t let this change anything between us.”
I stepped back as Rhys approached, watching the interaction between us. Seth was off to the side with his arms crossed and his eyes locked on us. James shook his head, and a smile pushed up on his face. “Let’s finish this.”
Seth approached and took my hand as we followed Devlin, Lucian, James, Rhys, Skid, and Hawk into the warehouse. The overwhelming smell of bleach hit my nose as we moved from the small entrance into a larger room. The faint sound of yelling was audible over our footsteps, and the closer we got to a door at the far end, the louder the sounds became.
We stopped outside the door, and Devlin turned to look at me. “This isn’t a place we usually let women see, but these are special circumstances. Whatever happens inside this room stays inside this room, and for no reason are you to ever speak about what goes on inside.” He paused and tilted his head down, allowing me to see into his deep blue eyes. Something familiar stared back at me as he asked, “Understood?”
“Understood,” I returned, and he, James, Lucian, and Rhys turned as Devlin opened the door and they disappeared inside.
Skid stayed with me and Seth as I got the nerve to walk inside what I assumed to be a death chamber. Skid looked at me and explained. “Grace wasn’t able to actually do the deed, but she watched. If that’s what you need, there’s no shame in it. Sometimes, in the moment, killing someone isn’t the right thing.”
Seth squeezed my hand, and I looked up at him as he asked, “Ready?”
Nodding, I fell in line with them as Skid opened the door and we walked inside. The door closed behind us and the sight in front of me was something I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forget. Ricardo was bent over a table with his ankles tied to the table legs and his arms stretched across and tied to something out of sight. The shocking thing was he had what I could only guess was a butt plug shoved inside of him, and every few seconds, Caldwell would raise his arm back above his head and bring it down, lashing Ricardo’s ass with a cat o’ nine tales.
Every one of the leather whips made a bright red line across his wide, pasty ass and a few were seeping blood as he yelled for them to stop. Devlin and Lucian approached him, and Devlin let his older brother lead as Lucian stepped around the other side of the table and wrenched Ricardo’s head up with a firm grip into his hair.
“Hello, old friend.” Lucian smiled, and the evil pushing into his features reminded me so much of Sergey that I took a step back. “Long time no see.” Seth looked at me, but I couldn’t stop looking at Lucian as he leaned closer to an immobile Ricardo. “We have so much to catch up on.”
“Just kill me now,” Ricardo begged. “I’ve got nothing to live for.”
“That’s true, but I want information from you before I finally decide to end your suffering.” Lucian looked at Caldwell and gave him a subtle nod, indicating he wanted him to strike Ricardo, and when the whips connected with his bare ass, he screamed into the room. “Let’s start at the beginning, shall we?”
Lucian released his hold on Ricardo, and James stepped up to the table. Using a huge knife he pulled from his hip, he cut through the ropes securing Ricardo then pushed him into a chair at the end of the table.
Devlin and Lucian took a seat at the opposite end, both having the same piercing blue stare glaring at a crying Ricardo. “I have a question,” Devlin started.
Ricardo continued to cry as Devlin spoke. “You knew Lucian and I were still alive and trying to stop Sergey, so why did you let everyone believe we were dead? Why didn’t Kelly know about us?”
“T-t-that was S-S-Sergey’s idea. He was embarrassed you broke the deal he’d made with the Marcora family, so he told everyone you were dead. And Lucian? He wanted to kill you for betraying him, but he couldn’t get anyone close enough to do the job.”
“And to think it was Stella who killed him,” Lucian joked, and the brothers started laughing.
“I have a question,” James stated, and the Lenkov brothers turned to him. “Why didn’t you let Regan go when Sergey died?”
He lifted his head, and I stepped closer, drawing his attention. Ricardo looked over at me, and James hit him in the side of the head with the butt of his gun and demanded, “Do not look at her ever again.”
“She has the account information. She has to have it,” Ricardo insisted, and I saw red.
Letting go of Seth’s hand, I stepped up to James and held my hand out to him. He placed his gun into my palm, and I walked up to the table so I was next to Ricardo. “You dragged me into a Syndicate whorehouse, pimped me out and let men beat me for money, then you sold me to Giovanni so he could torture me some more. And you did it all for the possibility that Sergey told me about some fictitious money he supposedly stole?”
Ricardo nodded and lowered his head as he cried, causing his whole body to shake. “He bragged about taking millions from under the Syndicate’s nose, and you were the only person he ever took care of. He treated everyone, including his own kids,like garbage. But you, he protected, so you had to be the key to finding the money.”
I looked from Devlin and Lucian to James, and then behind me to Seth and Skid. Booker and Caldwell were standing off to the side. They were all watching and waiting for me to make a move, so I asked the brothers, “Is he going to be alive by nightfall?” They both shook their heads no and Ricardo started crying harder. “When you find his son, will he be alive my nightfall?” Again, they shook their heads. I gave a knowing nod and asked one final question. “Can I shoot him if I don’t kill him?”
Devlin chuckled as he replied, “Absolutely, just make sure you don’t render him incapable of speaking. We have questions we need answers to before he can be dealt with.”
I turned my attention to Seth, who stepped up to me and wrapped his arms around my waist as he asked, “What can I do?”
“Hold his wrists down to the table with his palms down.”
Ricardo tried to fight Seth as he grasped onto his wrists and James stepped up to assist. Together, they pinned Ricardo’s wrists to the table. He lifted his eyes to me, and for a moment, I saw defiance before tears began to flow again.
“I want you to know that when I walk out of here, I won’t think about any of you ever again. You tried and failed to break me, and when you’re dead and gone, I’ll still be standing.” Leaning closer, I pressed the barrel of the gun to the center of his hand and said, “Tell Sergey, Kelly, and those twisted little fuckers, Sergey Junior and Giovanni, that I said ‘fuck you’ when you see them in hell.”
