Chapter 35

CHASE

Brooke is silent after I refuse to answer her. Yes, she deserves to know, but I can't tell her right now. Not with Harper being out there. It's too dangerous. Asher is losing himself and I need her here to ground him.

We're at the same house where we killed Shane before. This is a convenient location that works for us, and there's no one around for miles.

"He doesn't know where she's being held, but he's gonna find out. She was at Deke's house earlier, but he said they're sending her to some of Deke's clients before he's allowed to pick her up."

"What the fuck does that mean?"

Kyle laughs as he comes out of his drug-infused haze. "Oh man, you better hope he doesn't send her to Neo. That man is fucked up. Most girls never talk after they've had one hour with him, let alone a day."

Asher leans in punching him in the face again.

"Stop that isn't helping," Brooke says calmly. She walks toward Kyle. She's not like my princess at all right now. Her face is blank, she seems taller, threatening somehow.

"Listen, Kyle. I killed a guy recently. You might know him. His name was James."

"You did that? But you, you burned him alive!"

"And he didn't do anything to me, so what do you think I'm going to do with the guy that hurt my best friend if he doesn't talk."

I watch Kyle visibly swallow.

"This is all child's play. You've been hit before, probably broke a bone or two on the field over the years, so these guys breaking your fingers or punching you repeatedly isn't anything other than fun to them, but will you talk? I doubt it."

She walks over to the table and picks up a knife. "You know, when I was away, trying to find the guys who were responsible for Nate, I did some research online. How to torture pretty much. You'll be surprised what's out there, but I wanted information from these guys. I wanted to know how to hurt them in case they wouldn't talk."

She plays with the point of the blade, and I realize this is the girl who killed those guys. It wasn't my girl. She really did change when she was away.

"You know there's a million ways to make someone talk before they die. In medieval times, they would put a rat in a man's chest with a cage over it and apply heat. The rat would slowly scratch and bite its way through a man's chest. Pretty painful, right? To be eaten alive by a rat. They used to talk. But unfortunately, we don't have a rat or a cage."

She slashes the knife against his face, cutting him as he winces.

"In China, they would torture and execute people by a thousand cuts. Each one more painful, removing piece by piece till they bleed out and died. But we don't have time for that." She pulls the knife back before plunging it into the soft spot between his shoulder and collarbone. He screams out in agony.

She then looks at Jax who tosses a large bottle of water to her.

"A lot of countries have used waterboarding as a form of torture…" She opens the bottle before taking a sip and then smirking. Asher walks over without pause, holding his head up as Brooke pours without remorse the entire bottle of his head, making him choke and splutter.

She then tosses it to the side as Asher steps back.

"Personally, I like electrocution. It hurts like a bitch, you know." She pulls her Taser from her back pocket, turning it on and letting it crackle. "I got this from James, you know, before I burned him alive in his car."

She smirks.

"Now I don't know what's going to happen to a man that is soaking wet with a metal blade embedded in his shoulder. Should we find out?"

She steps forward, careful to avoid the water on the floor.

"Wait," Kyle whimpers. "I'll tell you everything, please don't."

"Wow, you really are a pussy Kyle, you know that?" Jax laughs.

"We had to really hurt Shane before he talked…"

"You took Shane?"

Jax nods. "He sat there where you are right now. We had to cut a few parts off before he talked."

"You, you don't need to do that to me, I'll talk."

"I hear you talking, Kyle, but it's not what I want to hear, so start saying shit that we need or…" She crackles the Taser again.

"Deke told me to pick her up. Told me about this guy that had been causing him trouble. Some kid whose sister killed herself after his boys messed with her."

"How does he know about you?" Brooke turns to ask.

"He got a text from David. Said he was following up on a lead after one of his boys went missing. He described one of the guys he followed. Didn't take long to put two and two together. I'm guessing you killed him too."

Brooke nods. "Well, he shouldn't have killed Nate, should he?"

"You know I always liked Nate, right? I…"

She cuts him off, stepping forward and tasing the fucker in the leg before pulling back.

"You don't mention his name ever again. Got it?"

Kyle cries out, nodding.

"Okay, okay, please, I won't mention him again…Deke told me to watch Asher and report back to him. I went to that stupid party and saw how he acted with Harper when the brothers went after that guy for dancing with you. I knew he cared, so I got close to her, and then at the bar, I knew she was more to him, to you…" He looks over at Asher.

"I wanted to teach her a lesson, but that bitch hit me over the head with a vase. I called Deke, and he sent over a couple of guys to help me pick her up. They loaded her into the trunk of a car, and then that was the last time I saw her."

"Where does Deke live?"

"I don't know. Only his lieutenants do. They blindfold the rest of us when they pick us up."

"How do we find Harper?" Asher says.

"I don't know."

"Then why the fuck are you still alive?"

"Please, I was just following orders."

Asher cocks his head to the side. "I guess that's okay then." Asher raises his hand, a gun in it, and before I see him pull the trigger, I hear the noise, and that's it. Kyle is dead. A bullet hole landing right between his eyes.

"Call your contact. I want to know where she is," I say to Jax.

"Brooke, we already did. He's working on trying to find her," I reply.

She looks over at me. "Then tell him to try harder. How the fuck did you know he had a girl? You knew all this—tell me how."

"My contact told us today."

"Yet again, your fucking arrogance has hurt someone else I love. If she dies…"

"She won't. He was under instructions to pick this girl up on Saturday. She was to be returned to her boyfriend, which I'm guessing is Asher to teach him a lesson."

"The question is in what state will she be when she's returned," Brooke says disgustingly.

"We will get her before then, Brooke, I swear we won't wait till Saturday to find her."

"How? How will we find her? We don't know where this guy lives. We don't know who has her?"

I watch my girl collapse to the floor. "I can't lose her," she cries.

Asher steps forward, kneeling to the ground.

"We won't lose her, B. I will kill every single person that gets between me and her if I have to. I will find her, and I will bring her back."