Page 34 of Malice and Surrender
“Are you fucking joking?” I seethed.
My hand cracked down hard in the middle of the guy’s face. Blood coated my fist and sprayed me with each new blow.
“Man, take it easy. The guy is dead already,” Roach said. “We have a couple others you can spend this energy on instead.”
My fist stopped mid-air, and I stared down at the mangled face. “Fine, lead the way,” I growled, pushing myself to my feet. I wasn’t even close to being tired. In fact, I was just getting warmed up.
“You know you’re just making this a harder clean-up job, right?” Roach said as I reached where he was leaning against the wall, watching the show.
“Don’t fucking care. You either get me fresh meat, or I go back to what I was doing,” I said, eyeing Roach. He held his hands up like he was surrendering.
“Geez-us man, don’t look at me like that. You freak me the fuck out.” Roach pushed away from the wall of the beachfront property and led me down the hallway toward the bedrooms near the back. He pushed open the door, and two more guys were sitting on the floor, with their hands and feet tied up as they sat back-to-back with wide silver tape covering their mouths.
They started to beg for their lives, the sounds muffled through the tape, but I could understand them. They stopped when their eyes traveled from Roach’s face to my bloodied shitkickers, and up to my face. In cartoon fashion, their eyes went wide at the same time. That’s right, fuckers. Death has found you tonight.
“Gentlemen, let me introduce you to Snake. He’s our enforcer, and he’s just a little pissed off,” Roach said and signed dramatically. “He really doesn’t like it when people hurt those in our club.” He lowered his voice to a whisper. “He scares me.” Roach shivered, and the guys looked like they were going to faint.
“I found one more hiding in the carport. Stupid idiot tried to run out in the open, but he didn’t get far,” Mannix called out, but I was barely paying attention. “What the fuck? Did we use a sledgehammer on this guy’s face?”
“Naw, just Snake’s fist on a rampage,” Roach answered and casually chewed on the end of a toothpick.
“Can I do whatever I want to them?”
I stepped farther into the room, and a moment later, Mannix pushed a third man through the door. As soon as he saw me, he tried to turn and run. My name and reputation held weight in more than just the MC circles. I’d done jobs for the Mafia, casino owners, and politicians who didn’t want to get their hands dirty. I went after those who disrespected or hurt family members of the MC, but I was more than an enforcer. I’d graduated to gun-for-hire for the right price and the right favors.
“No, no, no, please,” the guy said, who was trying to find a way out the door that was now filled with a wall of muscle as Mannix and Roach blocked the way. “Please, I didn’t do it. I swear to God that I didn’t touch Kitten,” the guy begged.
I had no idea why we were here to begin with, and it honestly didn’t matter. Mannix said he needed my help and to meet him here. Teach these guys what it meant to mess with Lost Souls’ property. He wanted an example made out of them, which was like ringing a dinner bell in front of my face.
I yanked the one guy off the floor. He tried to scream through the tape and writhed around like that would make me let go.
“Yes, you can do whatever you want, Snake, but we need to be out of here in two hours and not a minute more. That guy Chase calls the Dragon is coming to make sure this property is…” Mannix looked around and shrugged. “Burnt to a crisp.”
“That crazy psycho?”
Mannix and Roach lifted their brows at me. Probably not the best choice of words as I stood holding a knife to a man’s throat and looking like I was auditioning for the lead in Carrie.
“Well, now, that doesn’t leave me much time, but it will have to do.” I ran the knife I was holding across the man’s throat. He began to choke as he collapsed to the ground.
The man sitting on the floor dropped to his side and tried to roll away as I reached for him. That was the funniest shit I’d seen in a long time. He turned onto his stomach and used his face and body to inchworm toward the door.
Where the fuck did he think he was going?
“Please let me go, please. I’m telling you the truth, I never touched Kitten,” the last man to join the party begged—sniveling sap.
“Which one is Kitten’s father?” Mannix asked, and the guy pointed to the man trying to make his grand escape one inch at a time.
“Are you lying to me?” Mannix asked as he stared down at the guy begging for his life. Mannix always looked big, but today he looked like a giant beside the scrawny man.
I slammed my boot down in the middle of the inchworm’s back as he reached the door. It was humorous for the first few seconds, but now I was just annoyed. I kept him pinned there while Mannix questioned the captive that didn’t have tape on his mouth.
“No, no, I’m not lying. I never touched his daughter. He was the only sick fuck who did that,” the man said, throwing the other one under the bus and letting us drive over him.
“But you are Steve, right?” Mannix asked, pulling a picture out of his pocket. He tapped the image and I couldn’t see the photo well, but I knew the answer was yes just by the way he hesitated. He looked at the photo and then up into Mannix’s eyes as if weighing what would be the wise answer.
“Um…well, yeah,” he finally said.
“So you helped assault Kitten’s underage friend, just not her? In a way, you still hurt one of the Lost Souls family,” Mannix drawled, and I knew he was playing with the guy. He was never getting out of here, even if he said that he was the next coming of Christ.
