Page 15 of Sapphire's Gem
“Jed, you need to learn a lesson. See, a beating you can dismiss and recover from. Losing your fingers means you won’t ever forget the penalty of messing with us,” I countered.
“I need my hand!” Jed slurred and spat a tooth out.
“You’ll learn to masturbate with your other,” Vengeance teased.
“Fuck you, bitch,” Jed spat, blood spraying from his cracked lips.
“And now you’ve done it,” I replied, amused.
Vengeance freed his grip and tied his arm to a table. Without a second thought, she brought a hammer down onto his hand, and Jed screamed. She did it twice more before holding it in place.
“Go for it,” she ordered Candle. Candle brought the meat cleaver down on his hand, and Jed lost his fingers.
Stitch stepped forward and cauterised the wounds as Jed fainted from the pain.
“Carve his crime into him and let’s get rid. This place stinks of Gerrit. Can you fetch Belladonna to wipe his memories of our faces but leave the torture intact?” I asked Stitch.
Her eyes had been white as she surveyed his body. “He’ll live, Prez,” she said, her eyes returning to normal.
“Good. Once Belladonna’s wiped us from his mind and instilled the fear of God into him where we’re concerned, send him home,” I said.
“Earl will be pissed,” Sparrow stated, appearing with Lantern.
“Who cares?” I shrugged as Lantern began carving Jed’s crimes into his forehead. ‘Gang member’ and ‘extortion.’ That would fuck Earl off.
???
“Earl.”
“Really, bitch, you did that to him?”
“Problem, Earl?” I asked.
“Yeah, a massive one. The boy lost his fingers,” Earl hissed.
“You said send him back alive, Earl. I did precisely that. You failed to state he had to be returned whole!” I replied.
“Jesus, Sapphire, that’s my great-nephew.”
“If you’re thinking retaliation, think again, Earl. Anyone coming after us for Jed’s punishment will receive far worse than he did. Including Luther,” I alerted Earl, knowing Luther would be listening.
“One day you’ll go too far, bitch,” Earl warned.
“So will you, Gerrit, just remember who runs Portsmouth and who tolerates your family. You donotwant to go to war with us!” I threatened.
Earl cut the line without another word.
I yawned and headed upstairs to my apartment. I needed to wash the stink of Gerrit off me.
The warehouse was huge, and we’d been lucky to find it. We’d bought it the moment it had appeared. It had been ideal for our needs—huge, rambling, and a total eyesore. It had gone cheap.Based at Creek Farm, it had somehow miraculously come with ten acres of land. But damn, it had cost a whack to convert it. In fact, with everything taken into consideration, we’d literally rebuilt it. New walls, a new ceiling and roof, new windows, insulation, and so on—it was a brand-new building.
Downstairs on the ground level were the rec room, guest toilets, kitchen, cinema room, and offices. We also had twenty guest bunks on this level, as we did not want people wandering through our apartments. The first and second floors were where we lived. Unlike most clubhouses, we didn’t have what were fondly called bunks, a bedroom with an adjoining bathroom. No, luckily for us, the facility was big enough that we’d been able to create apartments, and there were forty in total. Each one boasted a living room, a small kitchenette, a bathroom, three bedrooms, and a spare room for whatever we wanted. They were fairly spacious and not cramped.
The warehouse had a large, multi-story atrium with a walkway around the edge, and the apartments came off that. We’d replaced the ceiling above the atrium, which had been metal sheeting, with one-way glass. We could look out, but nobody can look in. We also had electronic blinds that could cover it should we require them to.
It had been worth the price because we were women, had PMS, and were total assholes once a month. The apartments ensured we didn’t kill a sister, which several of us had come close to.
I opened my door and headed straight for the bathroom. After today, I needed a hot bath.
