60. Tyson

Tyson

E ver since Levi showed me the video of Malaky and his minions hurting Olivia and laughing each time she cried out in pain, I swore I’d kill him.

Finding him wasn’t as easy as I’d hoped since his father is a senator and his address isn’t known to the public, but after months of looking, Cirro finally found him.

Malaky has no idea what I’ll do to him.

Hell.

I don’t know either. But what’s certain is that by the time I’m done with him, not even his mother will recognize him.

My thumbs drum on the steering wheel. Rueben wanted to drive, but I insisted on being the one taking us to Malaky’s house since I wanted to keep my hands and mind occupied, or else I might have thrown a grenade on the highway.

Jasper is next to me, his hand on my thigh, keeping me calm enough to drive.

My gaze goes to the rearview mirror.

Ansel and Rueben sit in the back, their jaws set hard.

Only Rueben and I had seen the video, but after Cirro sent me Malaky’s address two days ago, I showed it to Ansel and Jasper. Since Mose is a snitch, as Olivia likes to call him, I didn’t let him see anything. He only heard Olivia’s screams of pain, which were more than enough to make his demon take control. Knowing we don’t trust him after what Mose did, he decided to remain at the cabin to protect Olivia and Spencer in case of danger.

I don’t trust Mose, but I do trust his demon, who proved to have more common sense and loyalty than his human host.

Jon is also at the cabin. Between him, Mose’s demon, and ‘Kicking Balls’ Juniper, the cabin will be more than protected.

My gaze slides to the GPS. Only ten minutes before we get there.

Malaky lives on the city’s outskirts in a new residential area for the elite Dukes. He moved here shortly after the hunt he organized in December because one of the women who died that night was the daughter of an important Lord from Canada.

The new residential project was started by Senator Deymar. The security is supposed to be top-notch, making it hard to get inside, but Dimitri and his blood-brothers promised to take care of it.

As we get closer to the residential area, Jasper and Ansel check our toolboxes one last time. Dimitri has a thing for role-play and had us dress up as electricians. At least five houses have reported problems with their power, which seems to come and go at odd hours, and my blood-brothers and I will inspect them. At least, that’s the story Dimitri came up with. He even let me drive his crew van.

When we reach the entrance gate, I stop the van in front of it.

Dimitri and a guy I haven’t seen before—probably a Duke—are guarding it. They approach us, and I roll down the window.

“What business do you have here?” the Duke asks.

I pull out a fake work ID and show it to him. “We are here to inspect the wiring.”

The Duke takes the ID from me and looks at it, then glances inside the car. “Four electricians to fix a few wires?”

I keep my breathing even and my tone calm as I say, “We are also to inspect the main generator. That takes time. The four of us will finish faster so I can get home in time for dinner with my wife. She promised to make tacos.”

The Duke looks at the ID for a few more seconds before returning it to me and signals to Dimitri, who rushes to open the gate.

“You have two hours to finish the job,” the Duke tells me.

Two hours is more than enough to get our hands on Malaky and the fuck out of here. I don’t plan on torturing and killing him here, where we can be discovered at any time. Besides, what I plan to do to Malaky will take days, not hours.

I park the van close to one of the houses that needs an electrician.

“Rueben and I will check the generator while Jasper and Ansel drug and get Malaky in the van,” I say to no one in particular.

Once we have what we need, we get to work.

I chose to go with Rueben because our father was handy, and we learned a lot from him. There’s another reason why we want to go to the main generator. We want to take photos of the houses. If Carlos is hiding here, we can devise a plan to take this place by surprise and capture him and a bunch of his acolytes.

The building housing the main electric panel and generator is next to the maintenance offices. We enter using the keys we took from the electricians who were supposed to come here today. They won’t need them anymore since Reyes decided to use them as lab rats for his weapons. No one will miss two Dukes.

The strong smell of a rotting corpse comes from where the electric panel is, and I cover my nose with my sleeve.

“Smells like death,” Rueben says.

When we locate the naked body of a young woman covered in bruises and torture marks similar to those Carlos leaves on his victims, I take more photos. Rueben pulls out a pair of latex gloves from his pocket, puts them on, and crouches beside the woman.

After a quick inspection, he says, “She was a Duke pornai, but the scars on her abdomen are new. She became a sex slave several months ago. From the state of her body, I’d say she’s been dead for less than a week.” He looks at me. “I never cared about these bitches before. But ever since Olivia…”

I swallow my saliva because I know what Rueben is thinking.

Thank fuck Olivia is safe and happy back at the cabin and not beaten and tortured to death.

Jasper sends me a message telling me that he and Ansel have Malaky in the van.

“We should call Inspector Raphael before the Dukes call their cops. It will create the perfect distraction for us to get out of here unseen.”

Rueben turns her head around and looks behind her left ear. It’s something the Lords started doing after Wasp told us to find the hellstars before the Dukes do.

A tirade of curses leaves Rueben. “It’s Cricket.”

Alma wasn’t the only woman Wasp wanted Maddox to find.

If Wasp told the truth, Cricket is a hellstar who disappeared in December during a mission.

“I’ll let Wasp know,” I say.

I take the phone out of my pocket and dial Wasps’ number. I don’t like having to work with her when I don’t know her real identity, but there’s little I can do about it.

Wasp answers after the phone rings a few times.

“I’m busy,” she hisses in a low tone.

“We found Cricket.”

Wasp is quiet for several seconds. Then she asks. “Is she dead?”

“Yeah. I’ll send you an email with all the info I have.”

“I asked you to let Maddox go to Washington to get Cricket out of Senator Deymar’s clutches. Now she’s dead, and it’s all your fault!” Wasp yells.

“We found Cricket in Veross City. From what I can see, I think Carlos killed her. Maddox going to Washington would not have saved Cricket if she has been here all along.”

Wasp exhales loudly. “There’s no way you can know that!” A pause, then she adds, “Tell Mose that I found Alma.”

Thank fuck!

“Is she okay?”

“Alma will talk when she’s ready,” Wasp says before ending the call.

“Wasp found Alma,” I let Rueben know.

He blinks before asking, “I still wonder how Wasp knew about Alma being taken by Senator Deymar."

Getting out of the residential area was more difficult than I expected. Inspector Raphael came with a bunch of cops. After interrogating Rueben and me, they wanted to look inside our van before letting us go. We avoided a disaster only because Raphael knows Rueben, so he let us go with the promise to let him know if we have any useful information about the dead woman.

Dimitri parks the van close to Alekos’ cabin. He left at the same time as us since the other guard was too busy with the police and wasn’t paying any attention to what Dimitri was doing.

I let Dimitri drive since I wanted to be the first who punched Malaky the moment he woke up, but he is still knocked out.

Ansel and Rueben open the back doors, and Jasper and I drag Malaky out of the van. Not wanting to have to drag Malaky all the way to the cabin, I let go of his hand and kick him in the stomach.

When the son of a bitch still doesn’t wake up, I ask, “Did you give him a higher dosage than normal?”

Jasper gives me a mischievous look. “He realized something was fishy, so I hit him in the head.”

When I met Jasper, he used to spend most of his time on the couch, drinking beer after beer. With time and patience, Jasper has become more active, but he has refused to come on missions with us.

My cock twitches at the thought of seeing him in action. He was one of the best assassins. I still wonder what the fuck went down on his last mission. Jasper keeps blaming himself, but I’m sure someone from inside is to blame.

“You do realize this is our first mission together,” I say.

Jasper chuckles. “This is sweet revenge.” In a serious tone, he asks, “Have you thought of how we’re going to make him suffer?”

“I have six masks in my backpack, similar to those we used during the Hunt.” The word masks makes Dimitri’s eyes light up like a child in a toy store. “I don’t want Malaky to know we are Lords or that we are torturing him because of what he did to Olivia. Maybe we will even find out what he knows about Cricket.”

Jasper goes and grabs my backpack from the front of the van.

Dimitri joins the discussion. “Cricket is the woman you found dead?”

I nod. “She had her hellstar mark behind her left ear, which means she already accepted her man or men. But why didn’t they protect her?”

“What if she was bonded with a Duke?” Rueben suggests.

I trace the contour of my bottom lip with my thumb. “It could be a possibility. Anyway, let’s put the masks on before Malaky sees our faces.”

“He might recognize our voices,” Ansel points out.

Dimitri grins. “We can always put on music while we torture him. It will distract him.”

Jasper gives me the backpack.

“Good idea,” I say as I pull out five masks and pass them around.

Once the masks cover our faces, we drag Malaky to the cabin. We tie him to a chair and wait for him to wake up while we eat and drink something.

Afterward, I send a message to Olivia.

Me: We’ll be late. Don’t wait up for us.

Olivia: You have yet to tell me where you and the others went.

Me: You know I can’t talk about the missions the Elders send us on.

Olivia: ?? Right. At least Hellcniht is keeping me company. I’m riding him as we speak. You should see how hard he is for me and the way he begs me to fuck him harder. I could do the same to you, but you are not here.

All my blood vanishes, replaced by anger and jealousy.

Me: Who the fuck is Hellcniht?

Olivia: Are you jealous?

Me: Answer already!

Olivia: Mose’s demon.

All the anger evaporates.

Me: You deserve to be spanked.

Olivia: ?? I love you.

Me: I love you, too. Tell Spencer that I miss him.

I put the phone back in my pocket and start looking through Alekos’ VCR tape collection.

“What do you think is on them?” Jasper asks.

I shrug before saying, “Either musicals or cartoons.”

My reply makes Jasper laugh.

“Right. As if Alekos would ever watch musicals.”

“Maybe it’s Reyes who likes them,” Ansel suggests.

The corners of my mouth twitch because I’d love to see Reyes watching a musical.

Dimitri gets tired of waiting for Malaky to wake up, so he throws a bucket of cold water on him.

I snort. “You know that doesn’t work like it does…”

I stop mid-sentence when Malaky’s eyes pop open.

Dimitri gives me a funny look before putting Funkytown on his phone.

Malaky pulls on his restraints as he looks around the room, an angry look on his face. Until his gaze falls on me and the others. His anger turns into confusion then back into anger.

“What the fuck!?” he snarls, trying to appear as a tough guy, but I know his type. He is just a piece of shit who enjoys abusing women. “ What’s with the masks? And the freaky music?”

Olivia wasn’t the only woman Malaky enjoyed hurting. There have been many women before and after Olivia. Cirro dug up every dirty little secret Malaky has, and he will send a pen drive to the media in the morning.

Olivia thinks we should only be concentrating on getting ready for when the Nephilims get here. What she doesn’t know is that getting rid of the Dukes is part of the preparations. I don’t trust the Dukes to not ally with the Nephilims.

God damn! Like we didn’t have enough with Azael. If we don’t find him soon and kill him, the Lords will soon be trapped between two strong enemies. Wasp is willing to help. While I don’t like her, Olivia trusts the Sisterhood.

“Is there a Hunt going on?” Malaky asks, his tone laced with impatience as he keeps pulling on the restraints.

Behind the mask, a smile appears across my face. Adrenaline rushes through my veins, but I force myself to keep calm. I want Malaky to suffer, to pay for what he did to the love of my life.

“It’s been a long day. I don’t feel like chasing you around the woods,” Rueben replies.

I bet Rueben would have all the energy in the world if we were to chase after Olivia. I know I would.

Malaky’s brow furrows. “What?”

My body trembles with anticipation. The vibrations produced by my demon’s snarls run through my body.

Jasper places a palm on my lower back. His touch is reassuring, but for what I’m about to do for the next few hours, sweet distractions like Jasper’s thumb stroking my skin will cut short the loathing I’ve been building up for Malaky since December. I’ve watched the video many times, memorizing every sick thing Malaky did to my precious Olivia. I need to focus on my vengeance, not on what I want to do to Jasper, like fucking his mouth again.

I move to the left, and Jasper’s hand falls to his side. I feel like a jerk for doing so, but first things first.

Malaky.

Dimitri, my blood-brothers, and I gather around Malaky.

“You upset the wrong people, and now you’re going to pay the price,” Ansel says.

Fear flashes through Malaky’s eyes. I bet he’s never been in this position before—of being the victim. Except Malaky is not a victim. He’s a fucking monster.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m a monster too. I’ve killed and tortured so many people that their faces blend in. I don’t even remember their names or what they looked like, but I do remember how they pleaded with me for their lives. But it’s different. Because I kill monsters like Malaky.

It’s the only thing I haven’t told Olivia. Not because I’m afraid she would love me less or judge me for what I do as a Lord. Olivia has seen so much suffering and endured so much abuse, she doesn’t deserve the pain of knowing about more women who went through the same ordeal. The only thing she deserves is peace and love, not more trauma. She is finally in a good place, and I don’t want to open old wounds.

“Do you know who my father is?” Malaky asks. “He will crush you like a bug when he finds out what you did to me.”

He’s not that tough now, is he?

“And what exactly did we do to you? We only brought you here to talk,” Dimitri says.

Malaky narrows his eyes. “You’re Russian.”

“Transnistrian,” Dimitri lies.

It’s not a secret that the Dukes rule Transnistria. Around ten years ago, they killed the last Lords living there. A war almost started in Europe back then. After many long discussions, Lords across the world decided not to take any revenge against the Dukes since many innocent people would die. Not only that but also the world’s economy would have suffered greatly.

Malaky seems to relax a bit. “You are Dukes.”

Letting Malaky believe we are Dukes might make him talk faster about what he knows about Cricket.

I might not have known her, but I hate that the Dukes killed a hellstar. She was someone’s bonded. Whoever killed her won’t get away with it. Raphael has been working on Carlos’ case for many years, and if Carlos killed Cricket, Raphael will know.

“And?” Rueben asks.

Malaky’s gaze lingers on Rueben’s mask. Maybe Malaky recognizes Rueben’s voice. It doesn’t matter anyway since his bones will rot here.

“Then you know I’m also a Duke,” Malaky points out. Suddenly, his expression changes. “Did Chris set up this entire thing because I fucked his woman? Look, it was an accident.”

“Did she trip and land on your dick?” Dimitri asks.

Malaky avoids Dimitri’s question and says, “If Chris is behind this, how can he let a woman get between our friendship? We’ve been friends for more years than he was with Paola.”

Men like Malaky, who sleep with women who are in relationships, deserve to have their balls cut off.

I pull out the knife Reyes gave me. It’s still one of my favorite weapons. Easy to use, and sharp as a scalpel, it cuts even through bones.

“What the fuck are you going to do with that?” Malaky questions me.

Pretending to clean my already-clean fingernails with the tip of the knife, I reply, “You see, Chris is angry. More than that. He wants you to suffer like he did.”

Malaky still can’t believe we are going to hurt him. “This is a prank, right?” His gaze goes to the front door. “Chris, I’ll never touch a bitch that belongs to you from now on! I’ve learned my lesson.”

Seconds pass by and when no one opens the door, Malaky gets more and more desperate. I enjoy seeing this expression on his face. It’s the same one Olivia made when she was raped over and over again by Malaky.

“I don’t think you have, but this is why we’re here,” I sneer before stepping in front of him and placing the tip of my knife at the base of his neck. “What should I start with first? With your dick,” Malaky’s face turns ashen, “so you won’t abuse women ever again? Or,” I slide the tip of the knife all the way to his right wrist, leaving a red line behind it, “your hands, so you won’t touch what doesn’t belong to you.”

“Look, Paola was the one who got into my bed. The bitch seduced me. What was I supposed to do when she offered to suck me?” Malaky begs for us to understand.

“Did Cricket beg for your cock as well?”

Malaky blinks. “Who?”

I push my knife into his wrist, the sharp tip piercing his skin. Malaky tries to push the chair back but what he doesn’t know is that the legs are anchored to the floor. No matter what he does, he won’t get away from me. “Don’t play dumb with me! You know very well who I’m talking about. She was about five feet tall, with brown hair and grey eyes. She was killed not long ago. Behind her left ear, she had a mark that looked like a tattoo of a cricket.”

Malaky takes a moment to think. “Melanie?”

I don’t know Cricket’s real name, but I’ll ask Wasp later. For now, I’ll assume Cricket was Melanie.

“Did you kill her?” Rueben asks before I can.

“What? No! No!” Malaky quickly denies it. “She was part of the Hunt back in December. After that, I lost track of her.”

I push my knife deeper into his wrist. “Who bought her?”

Malaky tries to shrug. “Like I said, I don’t keep track of the bitches who take part in the Hunt. Except for the dead ones, as my father’s men need to dispose of the bodies. We can’t have bodies all over the forests near the city, or it will draw too much attention.”

“We want a list of everyone who took part in that Hunt,” Ansel demands.

“You think I’m stupid enough to keep a list so that anyone can get their hands on it at any time?” Malaky huffs.

I don’t believe he doesn’t have one, but the list might not be of any help since those taking part in the Hunt go by aliases. There’s a reason the men have to wear masks: in case any of the women escape, they won’t be able to identify any of the men.

Maybe I won’t be able to do anything with a list full of aliases, but Cirro can.

“You would be stupid not to have one. To keep track of those who purchase women from you,” I say.

Malaky presses his lips into a thin line.

In moments like these, I wish I still had my pets. After Jasper got rid of them, I didn’t get any more. As much as I like scorpions and snakes, the sight of them reminds me of what Rueben and I did to Olivia. It will probably take years before I decide to get more pets.

“Dima, get a fire started in the stove,” I say to Dimitri.

Dima is one of Dimitri’s aliases.

“There’s firewood next to the cabin,” Ansel lets Dimitri know.

Dimitri goes to do what I asked.

I don’t need scorpions and snakes to terrify Dukes.

The knife and the other things I brought with me in the toolbox are more than enough to make Malaky beg me to kill him.

Without warning, I start cutting off his hand. Blood drips on the wooden floor. I don’t rush, prolonging his suffering.

“Get the IV ready,” I say to Jasper.

I don’t plan to let Malaky die any time soon.

Jasper goes to look into my backpack while my knife sinks deeper and deeper into Makaly’s flesh. He has plenty of it since he’s a fat pig who likes stuffing his face with food.

Malaky screams, bucking, trying to get away from me. But there is no place Malaky can go to escape my wrath. He touched my woman! He hurt her and let others do the same. I won’t rest until everyone who abused Olivia is dead. I want her to never feel afraid that she might be taken back to the Celestial Heaven. No one will be able to separate us again.

Dimitri returns with firewood, and Ansel goes to help him start the fire.

The knife reaches the bone, cutting tendons and ligaments.

“Stop!” Malaky screams.

“I would, but you keep refusing to answer my questions,” I nonchalantly say.

Malaky hesitates just one second before crying out in pain, “My father has all the lists!” just as his hand falls to the floor, landing in his blood.

I chuckle while he screams. “See. That wasn’t so hard.”

It takes several minutes for Malaky to stop screaming.

“My hand,” Malaky whimpers.

Dimitri and Ansel get the fire started.

“You still have one left,” I point out. “And it’s the left one too.” I take a step back. “I hope you’re a leftie, if not, you will have to learn how to jerk off with your non-dominant hand now.”

Rueben picks up Malaky’s hand from the floor. “Maybe you can find someone to give you a hand.” Malaky glares at Rueben. It’s always so much fun to break a Duke’s spirit. “Not me! The only one my hands are touching is my wife.”

Dimitri heats up the poker used to clean the stove. “I heard science has made a lot of progress lately and there are very good prosthetic arms on the market.”

Rueben puts his arm around Malaky’s shoulders. “Do you hear that? You can get one of those robotic arms. Heard chicks are into that shit.”

“You can even say you are a cyborg,” Ansel suggests.

“Maybe I should cut off your other hand so you can start your transformation right away,” I say and place my knife against his other wrist.

“No!” Malaky screams as I cut off his other hand.