Total pages in book: 43
Estimated words: 40524 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 203(@200wpm)___ 162(@250wpm)___ 135(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40524 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 203(@200wpm)___ 162(@250wpm)___ 135(@300wpm)
Rocket was silent but moved his gaze to fix on Scarlet. He just stared hard at her, as if he were sizing her up. For her part, Scarlet held his gaze with an equally hard one of her own.
“I’m sorry, Scarlet,” Rocket said softly, never looking away from her. “You didn’t deserve any of this.”
“I got it anyway. Are you saying this was all about Hammer getting revenge for Claw killing my mother?”
“Looks that way, kid.”
“I’m many things, Rocket. But I’m not a kid. Not anymore.”
“Point taken. I never thought Claw was capable of betraying you. Or killing himself. Not like this. Every member of Grim Road has secrets they don’t want anyone to know and that was Claw’s. I guess it’s better this way. For what he did to keep his secret from you, I’d have had to kill him anyway.” Rocket scrubbed a hand over his face. “No one inside Grim knew Claw had killed Madina but me. I honestly hadn’t realized Hammer knew until now. Had I known, I’d have overridden his approval of you leaving with that bastard.”
The bastard in question was hollering behind his gag. Didn’t matter. The sound was muffled, and no one gave a shit about what he had to say anyway.
“It’s done now. At least, Claw is done.” Scarlet glanced over toward Hammer. “What’s gonna happen to him?”
Roman had been at the table the whole time, laying out instruments until there was a veritable smorgasbord of blades, saws, and pincers. He was currently lowering a full-length mirror from the rafters and checking the angle. Looked like Hammer could watch whatever was about to happen and he wasn’t too happy about it. Hell, it was almost enough to give me the heebie-jeebies. If he hadn’t hurt Scarlet so much she’d thought the only way she had out was to kill herself… Nope. Fucker had it coming.
“Well.” Sting let out a breath. “We can’t torture him over several months like we should. This will likely only last a few hours. Six or eight tops.” Hammer thrashed against his bonds but they held firm. “First thing we’re gonna do is slice away his eyelids. Don’t want him to miss a fuckin’ thing.”
“Good,” Scarlet snapped. “What next?”
“Stitches is gonna start an IV and put heart monitors on him and all kinds of monitoring shit. ‘Cause, you know…”
“You don’t want him dying too fast.” Scarlet’s grin was positively evil. “This is a good plan. Stitches gonna make sure he stays alive as long as possible?”
“Oh, yeah. We’re gonna take him apart one appendage at a time. Then cauterize the wound. Got O Neg blood standing by in case we hit a major artery too fast and have to take a break, but we’ll stop the bleeding and give him more blood. When he passes out, we’ve got adrenaline to kickstart his heart and wake him up.”
Scarlet moved to stand over Hammer. “Sounds like you’re getting ready to have a fun time. Bet you wished you’d never fucked with me now, huh?” She spit in his face before grabbing a scalpel and slicing a bit of skin off of his chest. Not a big piece, but enough she made the man scream behind his gag.
“We should go, Scarlet.” I wanted her out of here before she checked out. She was holding her own and I had no doubt she needed at least part of this, but I wasn’t comfortable having her here any longer.
“I can see this through, Mars. He was my nightmare. I can watch his demise.”
“I know you can, honey. But maybe I can’t.” I even managed to keep the wince off my face. I could absolutely watch every second of this and laugh every time the bastard squealed or woke up when Stitches hit him with a shot of Epi. But I knew Scarlet would have nightmares for the rest of her life if I let her stay here.
Her gaze met mine immediately, and she nodded once. “You’re right.” She looked back down at Hammer, still hesitant to leave.
“I’ll stay in your place, Scarlet,” Lemon volunteered. “I’ll be your witness.”
“Not on your life.” Danica, Lemon’s sister, spoke up for the first time. “You’re coming back to the compound with me and Wylde. Right now.”
Lemon rolled her eyes. “You forgot to add ‘young lady’ at the end.”
Danica looked like she wanted to throttle Lemon. Wylde looked like he was ready to burst into laughter. Well, until Danica looked up at him. Then he schooled his features and looked appropriately concerned.
“I swear to God, Lemon.” Danica gave an exasperated huff. “Can you, for once in your life, please do what I tell you?”
“If it were your best friend, Dani. If you were in the same position I’m in right now. Would you not see this through when your friend couldn’t?” It wasn’t a question. Lemon already knew the answer.