take Bridges down. That was nice of you. You really are his little bitch. That makes me think you know more than you’re telling me, Bruiser, about where Bridges is right this minute.”
“I don’t. I’m not.” Bruiser made the denial looking wild-eyed at the phone.
Steele shook his head as he thumbed through the texts. “Says he’ll do you no problem, Dart, just reiterates that Breezy is his after. Bridges goes on to say she might need a few hard lessons and look here, Bruiser, you were more than happy to oblige.” Steele looked up from the phone. “You plan to beat the shit out of my woman? Is that what this means?”
“You’re saying that Bruiser really agreed to kill me?” Dart demanded. He couldn’t believe it, not even after Steele had shown him the texts.
“Kill you. Beat the shit out of Breezy. And there’s more. So much more, isn’t there, Bruiser? No wonder he sent you here. You’ve been his private little bitch for years. Stealing from the club. Spying on your friend. Spying on your brothers. Doing whatever he wanted. But I especially love this. You’ll personally, and that’s personally, but with one L, slit that fucker’s son’s throat right in front of her if Bridges will give you that privilege.”
Steele looked up at Bruiser. “I assume the ‘fucker’ you’re referring to is me. You’re going to kill your best friend, presumably when his back is turned. Beat the shit out of Breezy and rape her in every way possible. Slit my son’s throat in front of her, and all this is to get favors with Bridges. Nice, man, really nice. You really are a piece of shit, aren’t you?”
“Get me out of these chains,” Dart said. “I’ll kill him myself.”
“Sorry, can’t give that to you, Dart.” Steele stepped closer to Bruiser. “He’s going to die slow. But first, you piece of shit, you’d better tell me where Bridges is.”
“I don’t know. I don’t know!” Bruiser screamed.
Steele glanced at Savage and nodded slightly. He admired Dart in some ways. The man rode with the wrong club. He should have chosen better. He rode for his colors and backed his brothers, but whatever his personal code was, it included trafficking women and children, and that wasn’t okay with Torpedo Ink. Dart didn’t know a thing about Bridges, but Bruiser did. Savage stepped up behind Dart and cut his throat, the blade slicing deep. It was fast and quiet, Dart never even suspecting that Savage was behind him.
Bruiser screamed, a high-pitched wail. He fought the chains with almost superhuman strength and then subsided abruptly, his bladder letting go for the third time. Steele just watched him impassively until he quieted to a soft sobbing.
“We just carried out your intentions for you, Bruiser. It was merciful. You’ve been his best friend for what? Twenty years? Since you were kids? That’s the way he always told it to everyone. Since you were in grade school.”
Bruiser continued to weep, shaking his head as he did, looking down at the floor and the blood mixing with the water under Dart’s body.
“Where is he?” Steele asked quietly. It was going to be a very long day. He knew Bruiser wasn’t going to give up the information easily. Somehow, in his twisted brain, he still thought he was going to get out of this with his plans intact.
Steele was rarely wrong. He’d thought Bruiser would break first, but Dart had sacrificed in order to try to save his friend from suffering. The brotherhood at work.
Breezy was very cognizant of the fact that they were traveling on mainly motorcycles and she didn’t want to fill the truck with unnecessary sentimental stuff. It wasn’t that she had lots of beautiful things. She didn’t have beautiful things. She had necessary things, but she had managed to acquire them, piece by piece from hard work. She looked around the bedroom. There wasn’t much there in the way of furniture, but she hadn’t needed much. The room was small. She could walk across it in several long strides. The carpet was old and threadbare with several stains in it.
She was comparing this tiny apartment on a bad side of town to Steele’s multimillion-dollar house that was all white and pristine. She didn’t know the first thing about caring for a house like that. It was absurd to think she could live there. She sank down on the edge of the bed and buried her face in her hands.