Page 23 of Guardian
After I land a punch to his gut, his eyes fly open.They’re piercing and blue, oddly cold.That old chestnut about eyes being a window to the soul?This guy hasn’t got one.Still, the retching and pained gasps are real.
“Okay, here’s how this goes.I’ll start with what I know, and you’re going to fill in any blanks,” I tell our prisoner.
“We know about a guy named Tony, whose bright idea it was to start trafficking well-off entrepreneurs and sometimes their family members.He’s dead now, in case you forgot.We also took care of the bartender he’d been paying off at parties to drug certain attendees.Also dead.Then, of course, there are the two guys who were hired to put select kidnapping victims on private planes and fly them to wherever they’d been purchased.Those guys are also dead.Are you sensing the theme?”
Pastor Elijah’s stare is sharp and hard.No begging or pleading.Nothing but a bit of labored breathing.
“See, the trouble with these operations is they’re like a hydra.So many heads, and we’ll keep cutting off as many as we have to.I will happily remove yours as well.”I lean in, close enough that he can hear my lowered voice, but not close enough that he could manage to headbutt me.“We know you guys were working with at least one member of law enforcement.We know a shell company with the operating initials TMI was transporting these victims overseas.We know your farm was used to store and transport victims.Someone was bankrolling this whole fucking thing.Who was the money guy?”
“You’re going to kill me.It doesn’t serve me to tell you anything.”
“Good point, Pastor.”His observation pleases me so much I feel my cheeks spreading with an unnatural grin.“But the easier you make this on yourself, the easier I make it on you.”
“Hmm.”He sounds the opposite of impressed.
“I don’t think you should make it easy on him at all,” Simon says with his arms crossed over his chest.
Sebastian leans over to his boyfriend.“Baby, anything they get from Elijah could help them find the other people still involved.Which helps the chances of making sure this sort of thing doesn’t happen in Belle Argo anymore.”
Elijah, for his part, simply smiles and manages a sort of shrug, killing any notion that he’s anything more than inconvenienced by this entire situation.
I gesture to Sebastian and then at my tools.“You want to get started?”
He turns to his boyfriend.“What about you, baby?You want to be the one to hurt him?”
The blond wrinkles his nose.“I don’t want to even touch him.Will you do it for me, Sir?”
Sir.
An unexpected memory hits me like a brick to the face.You’re not my parent.But you could be my daddy if you wanted.
Of all the fucking times.I’m a breath away from shoving the table full of knives and implements sideways.If I get hard in the middle of an interrogation, I’ll hang my own self from the damn ceiling.
Sebastian smiles, pulling a pair of brass knuckles from his pocket, and gets to work.Ignoring the steady thumps and groans of a man getting beaten, I pick up the two phones to check for notifications.The tracker in his watch tells me Ravi’s staying put at home for a change, and there’s still nothing on his phone aside from brunch plans and dick jokes.
When I look up, I’m surprised to see Simon regarding me and not watching his boyfriend pummel the man who kidnapped him.
“Why do you have Ravi’s phone?”
“Whose?”
The blond crosses his arms over his chest.“I know it’s his.What are the chances that anyone else in the world has a blue glitter phone case with the initials RN on the back in magic marker?I tease him about his initials all the time.I’m a nurse.You know, RN?”I don’t answer, but after a minute, he reaches a conclusion.“You must be Liam.I remember now, seeing you at the hospital.And he’s talked about you.”
My eyebrows jump into the air.“Has he?”
Probably nothing good.
Simon shrugs.“Some.Doesn’t sound like the two of you get along too well.”
That would be putting it mildly.“He’s a teenager with his head up his own ass,” I growl.“It’s not my job to be his friend.It’s my job to keep him out of his own way.”
Simon’s frown pulls me up short.Rein it in, Liam.
“Sometimes people butt heads,” I add, trying to smooth away his apparent suspicion with a softer tone.
The way Simon’s looking at me, he seems to have come to some sort of conclusion.There’s a knowing glint in his eye.I don’t know what it means, and I’m not sure I want to.
“Yeah, they fucking do,” he says after a while.As if that makes any sense.
