Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 79940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
When I said nothing more, he stood up and tapped the table twice with his knuckles. “Eat up. Rest. Text me or call if you need anything.”
“Okay,” I replied, realizing I didn’t want him to leave. I had thought I did, but when he walked out, I wasn’t sure when I would see him again. Bad train of thought, Rumor. Very bad.
He turned and headed for the door. Didn’t glance back once—and I would know. I watched him through the window, all the way to his truck, before looking back at my food.
Picking up a piece of bacon, I ate it slowly, wondering about sex with someone other than Hill. Women seemed to enjoy it. Did sex with someone who was good at it make it better? Was sex with King so good that it was worth all the pain involved?
• twenty-three •
“I didn’t know you’d come down for playtime.”
King
Churchill Millroe barely lifted his head to stare at me through his swollen and busted face as I entered the underground cell he had been kept in for the past eight days. This wasn’t my first visit down to see him. I’d been the one to break his nose and all ten of his fingers—one by one—and pull out five of his teeth. The more brutal stuff had been Thatcher, but we’d all had a go at him. It was amazing how much torture the human body could withstand before finally giving up.
“Kill me,” he begged—or at least, that was what I thought he’d said.
It was hard to decipher after I took out so many of his teeth. But Thatcher had sliced off the tip of his tongue, and that really hindered his speech.
He had stopped asking why, pleading for his life, his attempts at bribing, threatening—all the different phases a man went through while being strapped up and tortured. He cried silently most of the time now. I leaned a shoulder against the concrete column and crossed my arms over my chest as I studied him. This past week had been a living hell for him. It wasn’t nearly long enough. That was the only reason he was still alive. I wasn’t satisfied yet. I was wondering if I ever would be.
The more I got to know Rumor and realized how he’d abused her so deeply, the more I found myself being drawn back down here. To make him scream in pain. Hear him wail and beg. If he hadn’t abused his wife, he’d probably be able to live. Sure, we would have taken his fingers or an ear. Maybe his balls. But once we had all our money, he’d have been set free. Living in fear for the rest of his life that we’d return, but still living.
“She’s better. Smiling,” I told him. “She’s got the best damn laugh. I don’t get to hear it often, but when I do, it’s worth it.”
I walked over to the pack of cigarettes that Thatcher had left and tapped one out of the package. I wasn’t a smoker. Not really. I had one every once in a while when drinking, but I didn’t need them.
I was lighting one up because back when Churchill could still speak and wasn’t weeping all the time, he had shared his disgust with Thatcher’s smoke in his face. We all made sure to smoke down here. Leaving the air thick with the stench when we left. His eyes were almost closed from the battering, but I knew he was watching me. I smirked, then took a pull before walking over to blow the smoke directly in his face. He no longer winced. I doubted he had much control of his expressions anymore.
“She stood at the top of the stairs, listening, when we came in your house,” I told him, smiling at the memory. “Sweet thing heard what we said to you. She knew you were in trouble. I didn’t let her see me watching her, of course. I didn’t want to scare her. I figured she’d already been through enough that day, seeing as her pretty face was all beat up.” I took the cigarette from between my teeth before I ended up biting off the tip.
“Then, she hid. I didn’t check the closet in your bedroom because I knew that was where she had run to. I didn’t want to find her. She was fucking terrified. Hell, we weren’t real sure what to do with her. Would she call the cops when we left? Would she call 911? We had no idea.” I took a long pull and chuckled. “But, damn, I didn’t expect to see her running out of that house with a suitcase and speeding away. Leaving you bleeding out on the floor. I was so goddamn amused that I laughed for the first hour I followed her. The farther away she got, the more I liked her. She was a fighter. She had gotten a chance to escape you, and she took it. Good girl,” I said, praising her.