around them turned white.
A moment later, Ash handed me what I’d asked for, purposefully making them clink together. I ran the rough edge of the knife across Janson’s side, just hard enough to sting and make blood pebble. I eased it away, watching Janson slump before I dragged the blade harder, slicing open his skin. His screeches grew louder as I cut again, drawing an X.
Pushing the cold pliers against the gashes, I said, “I wonder how much skin I can peel from his body before he passes out.”
I pinched the bloody skin between the tip of the pliers and began to pull.
“Wait!” Janson screamed, nearly hyperventilating. He angled his body away from me. “If I tell you what I know, will you let me go? I’ll move across the country. You’ll never see me again.” His earlier bravado was long gone as he sobbed, his voice thick as it cracked. “My brother was an asshole. Viktor is a greedy prick. I don’t want to die for either of them.”
“You’ll tell me everything?”
“All of it. Just don’t kill me.” His body shook, rattling the hook above his head, which only made him shake worse. “I don’t want to die,” he wailed over and over.
“Tell me.”
“You won’t kill me?”
“Not if you tell me everything.”
His head fell forward, his chest heaving. “Shamus owed Dobrow. A lot. More than he could pay.”
A sinking pit filled my gut as ice water flowed through my veins. “And?”
“And he gave his daughter as payment.”
Why am I surprised? Even from the grave, he makes Juliet’s life hell.
I should’ve brought that motherfucker here instead of going easy on him with a quick bullet between his eyes.
Not for the first time, I thought about how lucky it was that my little dove had shown herself that day.
God knew what she would’ve faced had I not taken her.
“We thought Shamus took her away to protect her,” Janson continued. “When Viktor pressed Mugsy Carmichael to find them, Mugsy told him he suspected you killed Shamus.”
I thought about Carmichael’s visit to my office. He’d acted concerned about Juliet but had only wanted to trade her to save his own ass.
“What else?” I asked.
“We watched and waited for a while before Viktor got bored and moved on. But then word got around you did have the girl, and he got interested again.” He paused, wheezing. “I need water.”
Rolling his eyes, Ash grabbed a bottle and poured it down his throat like he was waterboarding him.
Janson turned his head and coughed, bloody spittle shooting everywhere.
“Why’d you come today?” I asked once he quieted.
“To offer Carmichael and set a meeting.” He took a shuddering breath. “And to scope out your place to see how to break in.”
Juliet was smart. Sweet. Funny. She was ballsy and adventurous and stubborn and creative and ambitious and beautifully submissive in her gilded cage.
But Viktor didn’t know any of that.
“Why all that effort for one woman?”
“To get back at you. You have power. Clout. He wanted to use that to expand his reach, but instead, you banned him and others followed. He lost connections and money. Two of his clubs went under. He blames you. You took from him. He wants to take from you.”
Guilt sat heavy on my shoulders. Her old man may have been the one to put a target on her back, but dragging Juliet into my life had grown it.
“Anything else?” I asked, fighting to reign in my rage and guilt.
“That’s it. That’s all I know.” He inhaled deep before shaking his bound hands. “Now let me go.”
“Where’s Dobrow now?” I asked Cole.
Janson thought I was talking to him. “I dunno, probably one of his clubs. I can give you a list.”
Cole clicked a few buttons then turned the computer so I could see. A map took up the screen, a blinking light flashing. “He was bouncing around to some of his clubs earlier, but he’s been here for a while—All or Nothing.”
“Another strip club?” I guessed.
“His most popular because the girls do more than dance,” Janson shared. “He does a lot of his business out of a backroom. The only door on the right.”
Cole closed his computer and packed his gear. Ash had already locked up the tools and was heading for the door, ready to go.
Janson must’ve figured out we were leaving because his head jerked around despite the fact he couldn’t see. “Wait! What about me?” He rattled the hook, thrashing his body. It was pointless, he’d never get free.
Even if he did,