his back and I take the shovel and slice it down hard on his wrist. As it cleaves through his skin and bone, he howls in pain.
Crouching next to him, I say, “I figured you don’t need your hand if you’re not going to dig. You wanna start talking yet, or should I find other body parts you don’t need?”
His face is a mess of sweat, and tears, and grime as he stares up at me with pure bitterness. “Just fucking kill me,” he pants through the pain. “I’m not going to tell you a fucking thing.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. We’re not going to kill you until you talk.” I grasp his face and squeeze hard. “And I’m a patient man; I don’t care if this takes us weeks. You’ll fucking talk.”
Striker surprises me; he holds out longer than I thought he would. It turns out I’m not as patient as I told him I am. After three hours of torturing him, I’m way past ready to hear what he has to say, and willing to go to any length to make that happen.
Wiping the sweat off my forehead, I order, “Flip him over. I want Storm removed from his back.” There’s no fucking way I’m sending him to his grave representing the club he betrayed.
Striker jerks as Hunt attempts to turn him over. He musters up enough strength to stop Hunt from doing it, so Ransom and I get in there and make it happen. Hunt then removes Striker’s shirt and pulls his knife out.
I stand over him, my feet either side of his body. “Let me know when you’ve got something to say.” Taking Hunt’s knife, I slice into Striker’s back and begin removing his skin and all markings belonging to Storm. Blood oozes everywhere as I carve his back up.
Striker’s screams fill my ears until he cries out an address and says, “That’s where they work from.”
I stop slicing. “Keep fucking going or else I will.”
“The leader is Bourne. Leif is second in charge.” He pants with the pain coursing through him and tries like fuck to keep his head up, but fails. He face-plants while his body shudders.
“Bourne who?” I demand, grabbing his hair and pulling his face up. That name is fucking familiar.
“I don’t know his first name, only his last.” He takes a few quick breaths. “Just fucking kill me. I’m done.”
“You’re not done until I say you are. Tell us how they work.”
“All I fucking know is someone called Hagarty was financing them for a while, but now they’ve found someone else. I don’t know who. They have two separate locations they work from. One is where the guys running it work, and the other is where everyone else works. But they change that second location all the time so it’s harder to track them.” His pain becomes too much and he stops talking while he works through it.
I smack his face. “We’re nearly done. Keep talking and then I’ll stop the pain.”
He blows out a few short breaths and gets himself under control. “That’s everything. All I did for them was send updates through their app. Letting them know what the club was up to.”
Hunt steps in and takes his knife from me. I know he’s been holding himself back when all he wants to do is feed his desire for blood, so I let him loose. As he slices into Striker’s back to remove more of the tattoo, I say to Striker, “Hunt’ll keep going if you haven’t told us everything. Is there any more?”
“Fuck!” Striker’s scream pierces the air as he writhes underneath Hunt. “That’s fucking all! Fucking kill me!”
Hunt keeps going for another few minutes while Striker continues screaming.
I pull out my gun and aim it at Striker.
Our eyes meet as I prepare to pull the trigger.
He sends me one last filthy look before I put a bullet in his head.
“Fuck.”
I look at Ransom and Hunt. They’re feeling what I am. Utter fucking betrayal.
“Yeah, fuck,” Ransom says while Hunt remains silent and continues skinning Striker.
Once we’re finished burying him, I say to Ransom, “That address he gave us is Jackal’s club.”
Ransom’s eyes darken. “Yeah. Fury and I talked to him, and I fucking knew he wasn’t telling us something.”
“Bourne is the name we got from one of the Zenith guys who killed Ice. You think Jackal’s Bourne?” Hunt says.
Fuck, that’s why the name is familiar.
I look at him. “Only one way to find out.”
An hour later, we arrive at