“You think this guy we’re meeting really is Ed or are we walking into something bigger?” I ask Jax as he pulls the truck to a stop across the road from the roadside diner we arranged to meet us at.
“I suppose we’ll find out soon enough, angel,” he says as he stares out the window, his eyes scanning the area. “But meeting at a diner tells me it’s a safe bet this isn’t a trap at least.”
“Why suggest meeting somewhere so public though?” I ask, noting the half a dozen cars in the parking lot across the street.
“It’s not that busy. Easy exit routes to the North and South. And a chance meeting in a diner is easily explained away.”
Damn, I love watching him work. He’s the smartest man I know.
“You think he’s in there already?”
“Probably. No doubt he’s sitting at one of those booths with a coffee or a soda, so that when one of the local asshole pot dealers sits at his table, he can pretend he doesn’t know them. Different if he has to walk over to them.”
“Hmm, I suppose.”
“Trust me, angel,” he says with a wink. “Let’s go.”
We jump out of the truck and cross the street to the diner. Jax pulls open the door and we walk inside.
“Bingo,” he mutters as we both spot Ed at a booth near the back.
Ed’s eyes lock on Jax’s. At first he goes to smile, as though Jax and I might just be stopping by for some pie or a burger, but not even a second later, he realizes what we’re there for. Ed wipes his hands on a napkin and then he stands up and begins walking quickly toward the restroom.
“Asshole,” Jax mutters. “Do me a favor, angel, and go bring the truck over to the parking lot,” he says, taking hold of my elbow and guiding us both back out of the door.
“Why? Where are you going?”
“To catch the asshole who’s about to climb out of the restroom window.” He gives me a soft kiss on the cheek before he jogs around the back of the diner.
I make my way over the road and drive the truck across to the diner parking lot, just in time to see Jax pulling Ed from the tiny restroom window by his ears. Ed’s face is twisted in pain as Jax tugs him free. I can’t hear him but he’s red in the face and his tongue is flapping wildly like he’s screaming. The image would be funny if Ed wasn’t such a disgusting pervert — or actually maybe that makes it even funnier?
I’m smiling anyway when I roll down the truck window. “You okay there, cowboy?”
“Sure am, angel,” Jax says as he pulls a shrieking Ed into a standing position. He slaps him across the face. “Shut the fuck up or I will pull out your tongue with my fucking bare hands,” Jax snarls.
It has the desired effect and Ed clamps his mouth firmly shut.
Jax opens the passenger door of the truck and tosses Ed inside like he’s a rag doll and not a man. As Jax climbs in beside him, Ed shuffles awkwardly along the bench seat, his thigh bumping against mine for a fraction of a second. But even that slight contact makes me wince and my stomach twists. This guy filmed me and my husband at our most intimate moments. Did he watch it back? Did he get himself off?
“Did you just fucking touch her?” Jax snarls.
“I I, y-you…” Ed starts to babble, but Jax elbows him in the temple, knocking him out cold.
“Sick fuck,” he hisses as Ed slumps sideways until he’s resting on Jax’s shoulder like he’s just taking a nap. I imagine anyone looking in would think they looked kind of cute. “We’ll wake him up when we get there.”
“And where is there? Where shall we take him?” I ask.
We didn’t discuss this part of the plan, but I’m pretty sure Jax has known all along.
“To my work shed back at the ranch.”
I’m shocked that we’re heading to the ranch, but I suppose it makes perfect sense. Jax owns all the land. It’s private property and he can do whatever he likes there without worrying about people hearing. Because I imagine Ed is going to be screaming in agony before the day is through.
Ed is still unconscious as Jax carries him into the tool shed. He only starts to stir as Jax wraps a huge steel chain around his wrists.
“W-what?” he screeches, trying to wrench free from Jax’s hold but failing.
“You see that hook over there, angel?” Jax asks me, ignoring Ed’s noise and nodding toward a huge steel hook beneath his workbench.
“Yep.”
“It goes on that beam there, see?” He nods now to one of supports that runs across the roof of the shed, and which has another thick metal chain dangling from it.
“Okay,” I nod my understanding and grab the hook before fixing it in place.
All the while Ed watches me. He’s stopped crying now and instead I think he’s paralyzed with fear. I mean, we both know where he’s about to go, and the thought of what Jax might do to him while he’s hanging like a pig on a butcher’s hook has me feeling a little queasy too.
When his wrists are securely bound, Jax carries Ed to the dangling hook and hangs him from it. It’s at the perfect height for his toes to just about reach the floor.
Jax picks up a knife with a serrated blade from his tool box and holds it to Ed’s chest.
“P-please don’t,” Ed snivels.
“Oh, I’m not going to cut you with this,” Jax says with a scowl. “It’s far too sharp and that would be way too easy.” He pops one of the buttons off Ed’s shirt with the tip of the blade. “This is just so I can do this,” he adds before he starts to cut off Ed’s shirt, pants and socks. Once he’s done that, he takes hold of the waistband of Ed’s briefs.
“No!” Ed wails, twisting on the chain like a fish on a hook.
“Yes,” Jax snarls as he cuts them in one swift slice of the blade. He looks down Ed’s flaccid dick, which is shriveled in fear. “I hope you’re a grower not a shower, Ed, because there’s not much meat for me to work with there.”
I snigger at that but Ed just keeps crying. His wailing has turned to soft sobs now. It would be pitiful if he wasn’t such a piece of shit.
Jax picks up a huge pair of shears and hands them to me.
“Now, here is how this is going to go,” he says to Ed, his tone calm and steady now. “I’m going to ask you a whole heap of questions, and if you don’t tell me the truth, I’m going to tell my girl to cut off a body part. Okay? I mean she’s a nice person so she probably won’t start with your cock. But your hands are pretty high for her to reach, and you only got ten toes.”
Ed nods his head in understanding.
“You okay there, baby?” Jax asks while keeping his eyes fixed on Ed.
“Yep,” I say as my heart races while adrenaline thunders through my veins.
“Now don’t worry, Ed. I’m gonna start with the easy stuff first. Like how long have you been following me.”
“I haven’t,” Ed mumbles.
“For fuck’s sake,” Jax hisses and then he turns to me. “Pick a toe, baby.”
I take a step closer and fix the tip of the shears around Ed’s big toe because it’s the easiest to grasp as my hands tremble slightly. Then I feel Jax’s strong hand on the small of my back. Reminding me that I got this. This man tried to destroy us.
“Wait!” Ed shrieks but it’s too late.
I clamp the shear tightly shut and Ed’s toe pops off like a soda cap. Wow, these things are sharp. Ed howls in pain as blood spurts from the wound.
Jax slaps Ed’s face so that he stops focusing on the pain in his foot and looks at him, again. “You see how this is gonna work now?”
Ed nods his head.
“How long have you been watching me?”
“Only while you were here on honeymoon,” he sniffs.
“But the photograph of me and Shannon? That was from way before that?”
“The photograph of you fucking my wife?” Ed says, as though suddenly he has a little fire in his belly.
“She wasn’t your wife then,” Jax snarls. “You two weren’t even together.”
“Because she was too busy screwing you every chance she got to notice me,” he sniffs. “Not until Huxley…” he trails off as though he’s said too much.
Jax narrows his eyes as though fishing for a memory. “Her dog, Huxley? Someone hurt him real bad and left him on her front porch,” Jax hisses. “She was heartbroken. She even phoned me while I was in LA to tell me. You patched him up. You knew exactly how to treat his wounds so he wouldn’t die, because you caused them, didn’t you?” Jax snarls.
Ed nods his head. “I gave him a sedative while I did it, so he wouldn’t feel anything.”
“No, you gave him a sedative so he wouldn’t know it was you who hurt him and bite your fucking face off when he woke up,” Jax barks.
“It was the only way to get her to notice me,” Ed sobs, full of self-pity and not a thought for the poor dog he abused.
“You are evil,” I spit at him.
Jax puts an arm around me and presses a soft kiss on my head. “It’s okay, baby. We’ll make him pay for everything, I promise,” he whispers before he turns back to Ed. “So you took that photograph and what? Just kept hold of it? How many others did you take?”
“None of the two of you. I swear.”
“And Lucia and me? You filmed us at the barn?”
Ed stares at him, his mouth open and no sound coming out.
“You’re up, Luce,” Jax says and I step toward him with my shears.
“Yes. Yes I did it,” Ed admits.
I feel like chopping all of his toes off for that, but I know I’m not allowed to yet.
“Why?”
“He’s blackmailing me. He said he’d tell Shannon about what I covered up back in Virginia. He had that girl killed but the trail wouldn’t lead back to him, it would lead straight back to me and Vince.”
“Vincent Kane? The coroner?”
“Yeah. He told me that you knew about it. That you were the one who dug it all up again. That was why I had to leave my home town,” Ed sniffs.
“And then I went and fucked the woman you wanted to marry?” Jax snarls.
Ed simply nods as he glares at him.
“Who told you all this? Who is blackmailing you?”
“Foster Carmichael, who else?”
“But you were happy to help him out just so you could get a little revenge too, right?”
“I was just supposed to take a few pictures of you that we could use to set you up…”
“The pictures with Toni Moretti?” I ask him. “You fabricated those?”
“Yep,” he says with an air of pride. “You can do anything with photoshop these days. But you two went and gave me so much more, didn’t you.”
I swear there is an arrogant sneer on his face. Like even though he is tied up and about to die, he still can’t help being a disgusting piece of shit. I feel the anger in Jax beside me, but I don’t give him time to act. I raise the shears and smash them into Ed’s face, busting his nose open like a ripe peach.
“You sick, twisted piece of shit!” I shout, ready to hit him again, but Jax catches my arm.
He pulls me to him, pressing his lips against my ear. “I know, baby, but I need to know what he did with those videos first, okay?” he whispers so that Ed can’t hear.
I drop my hands and nod my agreement. Ed is going to know pain like he could never have even imagined, and he’s going to deserve every second of it.
