Page 116 of Tyler's Rule
“Just one. I’ve seen a bitch lead the show before.”
He meant Denise Harford. He had to. Austin didn’t have any female friends other than her. But when I formed the name on my tongue, Salter’s head lolled and dropped, drool sliding from his mouth.
“Ye knocked him out,” Tyler said.
Heretic stood and scowled. “Didn’t mean to. He’s weak as fuck.”
“We’ve had him a while. I should’ve warned ye.”
Mila slipped past me and booted the slumped man in the stomach. “That’s for targeting a kind man.” She kicked him again. “And for hurting Kane. He’s going to die, right?”
Tyler shrugged. “Not sure he has anything to live for.”
Cassie moved in next to them and peered at Jacobs. “Should I finish writing my word now? It’s a bit amateurish to leave it half done. Ooh, this could be my new calling card.”
I couldn’t smile. My mind was marching ahead into what else there was to uncover and who might know.
“Bring in Sullivan’s men,” I said.
Damien entered with two more prisoners, Davies and Skinner, Oscar Sullivan’s friends. The last time I saw them, they’d joked about raping me. Now, they were hauled in and thrown to their knees.
Skinner was already shaking. Davies had soiled his light-coloured trousers.
I crouched in front of them and tugged down my mask. “Remember me?”
Both men dragged their gazes off the much scarier men in the room and the broken prisoners and came to me. No recognition glimmered.
I kept my expression dead flat. “What if I was lying on my back, crying no and begging you to stop? What about the scar on my throat? Does that ring any bells?”
Something lit in the shorter man’s eyes. He shuffled until his back hit the wall. “You’re… That was Sullivan. Not me. Whatever he said was a lie.”
The other swung his head around. “Then that’s why…”
Tyler joined me. “Aye, that’s why he’s dead. We don’t like rapists. Tell me ye don’t like them either.”
“We don’t,” both rushed to answer.
“Tell me about him,” I asked.
Skinner spoke fast. “He…he thought he owned everything. People. Women. Didn’t matter. If he wanted it, he’d take it.”
Davies nodded. “Didn’t care where they came from. Just that they were there. Just like his dad.”
Well, didn’t that just bring us neatly back to the point. “Where did he get his women from?”
Their silence was short-lived when faced with a single step by Heretic.
Davies filled us in. “He bought girls at auctions. He took me with him once and bragged about how his old man had taken him to his first one when he was a teenager. I told him it was wrong, so we stuck to the brothels after.”
“Wow, how nice that you have a conscience. Do you know who Austin Marchant is?”
Davies nodded jerkily.
“Did you see him at the auction?”
“No.”
“Name everyone you did.”
