Chapter 9

"I should"ve killed allof them when I had the chance," Liam sneers as he paces back and forth behind me.

It"s not unusual for him to bring me into his little torture chamber, but this is different. He"s not focused on me; he"s focused on some other problem that I don"t know about. I don"t know what"s going on, but I have an idea. It sounds like my club has been able to do the impossible.

They won.

I forget myself and start chuckling. Of course, that only pisses off Liam more.

"What the fuck is so funny? Now you have to say about this shit too?" Liam grabs hold of my side and turns me so I have to look at him. I"m tied up with my hands above my head, hanging. My feet are tied together but up off the floor, so I have no real leverage.

"I"ve got nothing to say about the situation. It"s just funny that you seem to think there"s anything you can do now." I shrug as best I can and watch as Liam"s eyes go cloudy and his lips twitch with a grimace.

"It doesn"t matter if they might have gotten free. It doesn"t matter what happened to Rupert. I"m still in charge over here." Liam shakes his head. He"s trying to convince himself of that not me. I don"t believe a word he"s saying. In fact it just makes it more hilarious to me that he believes he"s the boss of anything.

"Rupert Giles doesn"t have anything on what my club will do to you when they find you. I"m surprised you ever thought you"d get away with this shit. After all, you were part of the Boys of Djinn for years. You know the kind of dedication those men have. You know how loyal the Wings of Diablo are, too. You wronged not just your brothers, but everyone else they are allied with. There"s nothing you can do to stop what"s about to come your way."

Liam"s nostrils flare, and instead of answering back, he roars in complete frustration.

Out of breath he gets back into my face, "There"s one thing you"re forgetting Bishop, even if the boys do manage to find out what I"ve been up to with Shade and the Faceless, that doesn"t mean they"re going to find you. At least, not in time. I"ll have my way with both you and that pretty bitch before they ever figure out where you are."

The smile I was wearing a second ago slides off my face. He"s not lying. Even if they are all out right now, that doesn"t mean that they"re at the door waiting to pull us out. If Liam and Shade don"t need us as collateral against the Boys of Djinn, we"re expendable. That means our days are about up. If we don"t have a plan to get out of here within the next few days, we"re not going to make it.

"Even if they don"t make it in time to save Gabrielle and me, I know they"ll never leave you alive. Your days are just as numbered as mine."

"True, but at least I can get some joy out of knowing I made your last days on this earth as fucked up as possible. Let"s start off by seeing just how much pain you can take." Liam"s expression turns from pure frustration to absolute crazed madness.

He walks over to the small table where he usually keeps all of his tools and picks up a bullwhip. I"d never seen one of those outside of movies and magazines, and based on all my previous experiences with Liam in this room, I"m already wishing that I"d never was able to see it in real life.

Liam turns me so my back is toward him. I suck in a few deep breaths. I"ve had him beat on me before, but he seems more unhinged than usual. He"s losing everything that he thought he had locked up, and it"s because of my club. He"s about to take all his anger out on me. I want to think I"m strong enough to go through it and come out on the other side. After the first crack of the whip, I second guess myself.

The pain slices through my skin and I instantly feel blood trickling down my back.

I grit my teeth together hard as the first blow hits. By the third I"m roaring in pain and squirming trying to get away. Liam grunts with every crack of the whip almost as if he"s using all his energy to destroy me. I pray that he loses his wind quickly but once the darkness begins to overtake my consciusness I know Liam is pulling from a strength deep within himself. A strength driven by mania and rage.

This isn"t going to be over anytime soon.