Total pages in book: 44
Estimated words: 40484 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 202(@200wpm)___ 162(@250wpm)___ 135(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40484 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 202(@200wpm)___ 162(@250wpm)___ 135(@300wpm)
Tooth growled and slammed El down into a leather armchair.
“—but he got the nickname because he takes teeth. Very efficient at extracting truth if you get my drift,” Milk finished, and indeed, El wasn’t laughing, especially not that the necklace of teeth hung from Tooth’s neck right above him, full of this damn sadist’s trophies.
The room they entered had no windows, and its walls were covered with plain tiles reflecting a sickly white glow coming from the massive lamp looming above El like a UFO.
Perspiration glinted on Tooth’s neck as he steadied his breath, but he didn’t stall and reached under the chair, coming up with a leather strap. Milk followed his example with a stern expression, and El only realized those were restraints when both men pulled them across his body and through steel cuffs attached on the other side.
This was no comfy recliner. He was bound to an old-school dentist chair.
El screamed into the tape and writhed to get some slack, desperate for a way out. This was his nightmare. Being tied down wasn’t fun for him even in sex, but this situation was painfully real and would end with his blood dripping to the tiles.
He’d always considered himself independent and in charge of his destiny. Back in the day, he and Trig had taken care of each other within their impenetrable bubble. Looking back, El realized they’d been as co-dependent as fuck, but it had worked for them. Losing Trig had felt like losing a limb, yet when El hadn’t bled out, he’d picked himself up and built a wall so thick and high no one could touch him. But those pliers he noticed on a table to the side? They would crumble El’s defenses with ease.
A whole set of steel tools glinted in the light, turning his joints to concrete as panic clawed into his shoulders, making him bleed courage.
Tooth pushed back his long hair and rose, as if it was his intention to intimidate El with his size.
“I think it’s best you start singing the truth, little bird. Who were the people who’d come after you earlier?” he asked and tore the tape off El’s face with a single tug.
“Hasn’t Trig already told you? Just some fuckers I owed money to, and things got out of hand because they’re psycho junkies! I mean, they’re gone now, so all is good, right? There’s really no need for this!” El was ashamed of speaking in such a breathy tone, fast as if he were firing from an assault rifle of lies, but he was used to petty crime, not torture.
Tooth didn’t even blink as he eyed El with a steady glare. “Does Trig know what a liar you are? The cleaners told me that the men who came after you were Moreno Cartel.”
El’s heart sank as Tooth reached for a contraption that would keep El’s mouth open. “How the fuck would I talk with that in my mouth?” he squeaked, backing into the leather as far as the restraints allowed.
Tooth patted his cheek with a sinister smile. “We’ll take breaks. I think I need to show you I’m not playing around.”
Sweat dampened the back of El’s T-shirt as he sank deeper into the cracked leather and twisted his neck in a useless attempt at getting away from the contraption, but Milk was there to grab El’s head and twist it back so fast that for a moment El feared he might have broken something. He could barely breathe, and he started shivering so violently it made the restraints rattle.
“Say ah,” Milk said, and El clenched his teeth, refusing to yield, even though they could hurt him in so many different ways, whether he opened his mouth or not.
Tooth gave a low exhale and rested one hand next to El’s hip, leaning above him like a predator smelling his prey. “I have something to pry your jaws open, but it might break your teeth. The choices are all yours.”
El was gonna be sick. His stomach clenched with pure terror, but he was determined to fight his tears. At least if he puked from fright, his vomit would go straight into this bastard’s face, but Tooth probably wouldn’t mind, if he was so used to blood and guts.
“I… I… Trig! Trig, I’m here! Help!” he screamed at the top of his lungs, trying to arch his head to the door despite Milk holding it down.
“This place is soundproofed,” Milk said with a huff, pressing his fingers hard into El’s scalp.
El was going crazy with fear, and he had to take a few deep breaths to speak. “Listen, I can just leave, tell no one nothing, take all the blame for the murders and disappear. It would be on me anyway, since the house owner knows it was me who lived there. No need for any of this. It’s all my problem, and nothing to do with you.”