Her Regret, His Resolve; Bouncing Back, Book 2

31

Callum turned his back and told all the men to leave the room. Looking at the friend who'd been at his back since he was eighteen, Callum nodded. Once the Red Room was vacated of all the others, he smirked, "I'm giving you a completely free pass."

"You have no idea how fun it was to beat the f**k out of his sorry hide," David replied.

"Why are you not cutting him up yet?" From the hall, Callum could hear some of the men barking orders, telling whoever it was to back off and let their superior handle it. He turned his brown eyes to his friend as he ran a hand through his blond locks. Confusion turned to understanding as he heard his younger brother-in-law snap. He smirked, "You were waiting to see if he was going to actually show up or not?"

David shook his head, "I wasn't concerned about that. I knew he would. I'm just wondering if he left her home alone or not. I just don’t want him giving her an opportunity to off herself when we’re not there to stop her. Would you mind?"

"Not at all," Callum replied as he pulled open the door. "Boys, let him through."

As Russell stepped into the room, his dark blue eyes slid to the man sitting in the chair. "Is that the asshole who touched my girlfriend?"

"Tell me you left the kids in the right hands," David asked in a gentler tone than normal.

Knowing what he wanted to know, Russell said, "I called in the entire team to take over the guardian reins for a while. Ken and Andromeda called in Giana, who asked me to record our session for her. The older boys took the younger kids to the arcade. If anyone finds their way to our floor, an alert will be sent to Lukas and Jaxon, who will let Red know so she can deal damage."

Both Callum and David watched him carefully as he stalked over and grasped Jericho by the hair. The man gasped, "P-please, I learned my lesson. I swear, it won't happen again!"

Shaking his head, Russell grinned. It was a grin laced with the promise of intolerable pain and agony. "Are you scared, Jericho? See, the thing is, you preyed on a little kid, and now you're going to pay in blood."

"Come on, man," Jericho argued. "Like you ain’t never wanted to taste sweet, fresh meat before."

Callum watched Russell beat the man for a moment to silence him. "I like where his morals lie."

His arms crossed, David knew the moment Russell’s control slipped. "He’s just like Declan. Right down to the way he deals with predators."

"I had teacher and cheerleader fantasies, I never once thought of innocent kids like that. Never. You know, there's approximately anywhere between 4.5 and 5.5 liters of blood in the average human adult," Russell murmured as he let go and walked over to the table. "I wonder how much we can get out of you before you bite the dust? I wonder how loudly we can make you scream, make you beg for mercy you’re never going to get."

Russell fingered the straps for the hands, feeling the thick leather slide between his finger and thumb. Looking over his shoulder, he held up a small bottle. "Ambrosia is such a gift-giver."

"Oh?" David expertly caught the object and looked at the label. Snorting a laugh, he said, "Cal, remind me to get that gorgeous wife of yours a nice gift. She sent a bottle of liquid Viagra."

"I’ll pass on the gratitude," the man replied.

Nodding, David conceded to the fact that Russell could keep his word when it came to protecting the kids. "Time for us to have some fun, Russ."

With that, Callum snorted a laugh and moved to the door. "Oh, before I leave and give you the freedom to do whatever it is you want to do, I have a question. Russell, the young man who attacked you is still in our custody, along with his sister. I moved them to a more comfortable room, but he's been asking to see you. Do you want to meet him?"

"Poor homeless kids were always my mother's M.O. I'll talk to him, but not until this jack-wad's taken care of and things settle down a bit."

"Well, have fun, you two," Callum grinned as he walked out the door. It sealed shut behind him as he gave the order to only open it if Russell or David said to.

Turning to Russell, David let a slow, calculating smirk split his face. "I got us permission to torture him as long as we want to. He's not going anywhere until he takes his last breath, so let's take our time."

"Skylar doesn't know that we have him, nor does she know what we're doing to him. I lied to her, David. I hate doing that," Russell complained.

"This is our life, Russ. Sometimes we have to lie to protect our loved ones. Besides, I didn't want her to know anything until he was dead," David's hazel-blue eyes flashed with fearsome delight as he walked over and stood beside Russell.

Knowing that the older man was not someone anyone with a working brain cell would cross, Russell produced a bottle of water. "He likes to hurt little kids, so I suggest making him feel pain in the most unpleasant way possible."

"I like the way you think."

Russell watched as David returned with two small injectors. Filling a needle, he set it aside and turned to the man in the chair.

Predictably, Russell grabbed it and stalked over to the man they'd captured. Holding it in front of Jericho's face, he said, "I've never had to use this stuff. I wonder how it works. Does it cause pain or pleasure? Who cares? I just want to listen to you scream."

David's grin widened. "Russell, go ahead and give him that one for now. We can discuss what to do with him while it's working. When it kicks in, we can give him this one."

Enthusiasm danced in Russell's azure eyes, and, for a moment, David felt like he was working with Declan.

"You remind me of your brother when you get like this," he commented thoughtfully. "I've never done this with you, but I've worked with Declan. There's hardly a difference between the two of you as far as I can see."

Russell shrugged, "Declan has a lot more control than I do. He's been training longer, too."

"And yet, you were the one who was put through the most hell," David countered.

Turning an evil smirk to David, Russell asked, "I wonder where I should stick the first dose. Leg, maybe? Perhaps his arm? Or maybe I should just inject it straight into his dick."

"No, please! Someone save me! Help!" Jericho cried out. "Help! Is anyone out there? Please, help me!"

Russell hauled off and backhanded him. "Shut the f**k up! You like making innocent babies suffer, and the Veiðimenn hate that with a passion."

Blood trickled from Jericho's lips. "This is illegal! I'll sue you for this! I'll—"

His eyes wide, Jericho gasped for air as Russell grabbed him by the throat. As Russell squeezed a little tighter, he jabbed the injector into Jericho's upper thigh. Driving the entire contents into the leg with the plunger, he pulled back his hand to tap the side of the man’s face condescendingly. "There now, that's better than getting beaten to death, right?"

"I don't know, Russell," David sighed. "Having a raging hard-on can be pretty painful if you can’t take care of it."

Shrugging, the other man rose to his feet. "Does it look like I care? One kid losing their innocence at his hands is one child too many. He deserves to suffer. He deserves to die."

Jericho fell to the floor, painstakingly crawling to the door before pulling himself up to try the handle.

"Please, I don't want to die! Someone help me!"

"The door doesn't open from the inside, dumbass. You need a keycard." David said in a bored voice.

Whipping his head around to face the one who had brought him to this place, Jericho struggled to his feet. Gripping the rail against the wall, he staggered, struggling to breathe through the obviously broken ribs. Russell grabbed him, dragging him unceremoniously over to the table and pushed him to his back. Along the way, he couldn’t resist purposely smashing the man’s face off the wall a few times. Strapping his wrists and ankles down, he ensured their prisoner couldn’t move as he snatched a pair of scissors off the table to cut away Jericho's clothes.

Jericho groaned as the pain swept through him. "Make it stop! Please, make it stop! I'm sorry! I won't do it again. Please, have mercy!"

"Did you have mercy when you r***d my woman when she was a child? No, you didn't. You were a selfish bastard whose only thought was getting off. If you wanted mercy, you should never have touched a kid," Russell laughed darkly.

David nodded in agreement. "You just don't get it, do you? We don't do mercy. It doesn't exist in the underworld because our primary rule is kill or be killed. We're the Hunters, and people like you are the prey."

"Lions and tigers and bears, oh my," Russell mocked as he took the other needle from David's outstretched hand. "And now it's time for you to die."

Slowly, he pushed the needle into the man's inner thigh. Screams filled the air as Jericho's body stiffened, coiling like a spring that was wound too tightly when David started breaking bones. The more he begged, the less the other two cared, and the better they felt about their actions.