Page 45 of The Madman's Nightmare
“Fuck you,” she spat and literally tried to spit blood onto me, only for it to dribble down her body. “I don’t owe you an explanation for a damn thing.”
Michael hung five feet from her, and he tried to look at her as he suggested, “Tell him what he wants to know and he’ll let us go.” He turned his gaze to me and asked, “Right? You’ll let us go if we tell you everything?”
I chuckled and shook my head as Lucian watched from beside me. “I never said that.” Looking up at my brother, I inquired, “When did I say that?”
“Devlin, be reasonable,” Michael started, trying to bargain his way out of this.
I stood from my seat and dropped the file onto the chair as I approached him, Delilah swung beside him, and she attempted to get close to me as I stepped in front of Michael. Pulling my knife from my hip, I held it up in front of him as I stared into his eyes.
“This is how everything’s going to go. I ask a question, and you give me the complete truth. Any deviations, lies, half-truths, or omissions and I’ll start to remove parts of you until there’s nothing bigger than a matchbox left.” His eyes grew wide.
Delilah struggled next to him, and she watched on in fascination as I glanced at Lucian and requested. “Strap him to the table.”
Michael fought against his restraints as I stepped back and watched Lucian yank him from the hooks by his wrists and drag a combative Michael to one of the metal tables in the center of the room above the large drain. It took little effort for him to be strapped down to the table before Lucian stepped back and I approached.
I pointed the knife at Michael’s hand and looked down at him as I spoke. “I know you’re Michael Badcock and she’s Delilah Greene, but I want all other names you’ve used during your life.”
His forehead had a thick leather strap across it, and he tried to shake his head as he responded, “My name is Bradon Mills. I don’t know who those people are.”
I glanced at Lucian as I responded to his blatant lie. Pressing the tip of the knife against the back of his hand, I used my body weight to let it slowly and painfully pierce his flesh. The screams were instantaneous as I explained, “You’ve already called her Delilah, and she’s called you Michael, so that’s your first warning.”
The knife hit the metal table, and I instantly grabbed it and yanked it out, feeling the serrated edge tear through flesh. He screamed louder as blood gushed from the gaping wound in the top of his hand.
“Fine,” I heard Delilah yell, and I looked over my shoulder as she said, “You know our real names. So fucking what? We haven’t been them in years, so why does it matter what we call ourselves?”
“I guess she wants to play too.” I smirked at Lucian. “Can you bring her over? And be careful. She likes to bite.”
Michael was trying to maintain continuousness as Lucian snatched Delilah off the hook with two hands on her waist,dropping her to her knees before he grabbed her by the hair and began to drag her closer to the metal tables.
She attempted to fight him, but she couldn’t gain any traction on the concrete floor. He yanked her onto her feet, and she tried to use her hands to stop him, only for me to walk up and smack her again, silencing her for a moment. Lucian hoisted her up and threw her onto the table before he secured her arms, legs, torso, and forehead with leather straps. They were both secured in the same manner, and I watched as she tried to escape the restraints.
Delilah began to speak to me as she struggled, “If I would have known you were this kinky Devlin, we could have really had a good time.”
“I got everything I wanted from you already,” I returned.
Walking up to Michael, and seeing Delilah strapped on the other side of him, I slapped his cheek, demanding, “Wake up, asshole.”
Skid stepped over and handed me an ampul with a smirk. I looked at it and gave him a nod before placing it under Michael’s nose and breaking the little glass bottle wrapped in cotton. The smell instantly brought him back to the living, and I smiled down at him.
“You don’t get to miss all the good stuff,” I taunted as his eyes lulled to the side.
Delilah was grunting as she attempted to get the heavy leather to give enough for her to escape and I decided to change my tactic. Elise said Michael seemed pissed at her, but still did as she asked, and I thought maybe I could end this by grilling her.
Moving around to the far side of Delilah, I pulled my gun from the holster and she stopped squirming. “Why did you kidnap Elise?”
“Fuck you,” she spat again.
I lifted the gun and pressed it to her knee before pulling the trigger, splintering bone and muscle. She screamed and writhed under the restraints as I asked again, “Why did you kidnap Elise?”
“She doesn’t deserve you,” Delilah managed to get out around her heavy tears.
“And you do?” I inquired. “What makes you so special?”
“What makes her so special?” Delilah asked with snot and tears rolling down her face.
“I don’t owe you a damn thing,” I remarked, “but I’ll tell you that she’s a better person than you’ll ever be.”
Michael moaned on the table beside Delilah, so I moved the topic back to what I wanted to know. “What did you think would happen? That I’d leave her and start a life with you?”
