Leaving Emerson with my family should have me nervous for one of a few reasons. One, my sisters are fucking batshit crazy. Snow will talk the leg off a chair, and Wynter is always looking for a way to fuck with Storm and me. Two, no one I’ve dated has ever been in the same room as my family and yet I basically threatened every member of my bloodline into being here tonight. And three, it gives Emerson breathing room, which if history proves anything, it’s that giving her time to think, and time to rationalize all the reasons us being together is a bad idea, is a mistake.
And yet I’m walking away from her with my brother.
“I won’t keep you long,” Storm promises.
“You better not,” I growl. He doesn’t understand. He’s never given a fuck about anyone but our family and Everett. But the further I am from Emerson, the more it feels like I’m coming out of my fucking skin. It just cements the fact I need to move her into my penthouse. I need to know where she is at every moment of every day, and her living with me is a sure-fire way to make that happen.
“I’ve never seen you like this, brother. It’s a good look on you.”
At first, I think he’s mocking me for how obsessed I am over the red-headed spitfire I just left with the rest of our family. But when I meet his eyes, I see how serious he is.
We’ve always been eternal bachelors, never having any interest in the idea of spending more than a few nights with the same woman. We’d seen what Everett went through with Wynter, how much it fucking kills him to keep his distance, to put her needs above his own. Storm and I never wanted that for ourselves and having a woman in our lives is a liability, a weakness men like us can’t afford to have.
Emerson is my weakness. Already I find myself thinking about her needs long before I consider my own or the consequences, and that’s really fucking dangerous for us both.
And yet I can’t bring myself to let her go, even if I know it would be for the best for both of us. I don’t want to watch her live her life from afar like Everett does with Wynter. I want to be her life.
Storm leads me through a service entrance, down a flight of stairs, and through a series of tunnels.
“Where are we going?” I finally ask, taking in our dark, dank surroundings. The concrete under my feet is damp, the smell of mildew fills my nostrils, and I ache to turn around to go back to Emerson and her intoxicating scent.
“Everett called. He has a lead on the shipment. I got Tommy to grab the guy, but figured you’d want to be involved in questioning him.” Storm’s smile glints in the dim light. He doesn’t get his hands dirty often, being the face of Frost Industries keeps him busy, and we can’t have him being recognized. Me getting caught doing illegal shit isn’t ideal, but it won’t have the board trying to overthrow the family to save face.
“How long has Tommy had the guy? I don’t have a change of clothes with me and you know how he gets.” I chuckle. Tommy is a sick son of a bitch. He loves the chase, but he loves everything that comes after more. The blood, the tears, the death. He fucking lives for it.
“An hour.”
I blow out a breath. “Probably won’t be much left of the guy.”
Storm chuckles. “I spoke to him right before your stunt in front of the cameras and he said he was only up to breaking fingers, so there shouldn’t be too much blood just yet.”
“Don’t hold your breath. Last week I got the call he was about to grab a guy, and by the time I met him at the warehouse he’d skinned him alive.” I shake my head at the memory. The image of one of Russo’s men screaming bloody murder as Tommy sliced chunks of skin from his body would be burned into my mind for a while yet.
Tommy is the best hunter I’ve ever met. He can find anyone, track anyone, and grab anyone, but he also loves to get his hands dirty, and sometimes he’s a goddamn liability.
“Where the fuck are we?”
“The tunnels that run under Chicago. Most of them were filled in when they expanded the city, but there are still a few. Tommy uses them a lot to get around.”
“How the fuck do you know that?”
Storm shrugs. “Can’t have you having all the fun, big brother.”
I’m shaking my head when Storm pushes through a heavy metal door and the sound of a man screaming fills my ears. We’re definitely in the right place.
Adrenaline pumps through my veins as the screams grow louder. There’s something about watching the fear in another man’s eyes that has my body tingling with excitement. I fucking hope we can break him, have him telling us everything he knows in the hope of saving his own life, just to realize we’ll never let him live for his involvement in the missing shipment.
Everyone in this city should know the danger in fucking with the Saint James family.
“What do we know about this guy?” I ask as I shrug out of my jacket.
“Street name Dagger. He’s one of Russo’s mid-level guys. Important enough they’ll notice he’s missing, but not important enough to start a war.”
“Family?”
“Grew up in a foster home. No wife or children on record.”
Storm stops at the next door and we both take a deep breath. The screams are on the other side, so loud I’m almost certain Tommy is torturing him within an inch of his life.
Game time.
He pushes the door open and steps aside for me to pass him. Even though there’s no way Dagger is leaving these tunnels alive, it’s important I’m the one he sees first. I’m the enforcer in the family, and we don’t want Storm getting mixed up in that role.
The scent of blood and burning flesh fills my nose to the point I can almost taste it. I was hoping Tommy would have left the blowtorch at home, but no such luck.
“Dagger.” A menacing smile tugs at my lips as I fold my jacket over the back of a chair by the door, taking a moment to look around the space. I’ve never been here before, but that doesn’t mean we don’t use it. The walls are brick, but they’re old and brittle and covered in dirt and moss. The light comes from a spotlight directed at Dagger but easily illuminates the space around us. It’s not a huge room but big enough for what we need. Dagger is tied to a chair in the middle of the room, and behind him Tommy stands with his back to us, surveying the contents of the table.
I don’t need to get any closer to know he has his favorite toys laid out in front of him, choosing how he’s going to end this asshole’s life.
“It’s about time you two got here.” Tommy turns to us, his white T-shirt smattered in blood.
“Oh, it looks like you were so bored waiting for us.” I chuckle as I roll the sleeves of my shirt up over my elbows. I can’t get too close to Dagger without the risk of looking like Tommy, but if he fucks me off, I won’t be able to help myself.
Dagger’s face is black and blue, and even without knowing what the guy looked like before Tommy got his hands on him, I know it was nothing like he looks right now. His arms are tied behind his back, a puddle of blood and probably piss underneath him. The scent of burning flesh originates from his thighs where what used to be his pants have been burned into his skin. Tommy works fast, I’ll give him that much.
“Dagger and I have been getting to know each other, haven’t we?” Tommy smacks his back and his prisoner hisses in pain.
“Fuck off. You should kill me now and save us all some time. I’m not going to tell you anything,” Dagger spits.
I chuckle. They all say that, but there’s something about slicing, breaking, and burning them that makes them squeal like the filthy pigs they are. “Well, here’s the thing. I have a beautiful woman waiting for me. The most stunning creature you’ve ever seen in your miserable fucking life. And she’s about to make a speech that she’ll be really fucking mad if I miss. Now, if anything, or anyone, makes my woman angry, or upset for that matter, I get angry, and believe me when I tell you, you don’t want to see me mad.”
Dagger laughs, actually fucking laughs. The motherfucker is strapped to a chair, bleeding from so many places, I’m starting to wonder if he’s going to pass out from blood loss any second now, and he’s fucking laughing at me. “You and I both know this crazy fuck is going to kill me regardless of whether I talk or not. So do us all a favor and kill me so you can go back to your whore.”
The moment the word leaves his blood-covered lips, red clouds my vision, but before I can charge forward, Storm grabs me around the shoulders, holding me firmly in place.
“Get off me,” I growl, bucking against him as I try to drag us both forward.
“How are you going to explain being covered in blood to Emerson?” Storm asks me quietly.
Tommy looks between the two of us before shaking his head and moving in front of Dagger. “While these two argue about whatever has their knickers in a twist, I’m going to run you through your options. The first option, also known as the easy option, is that you tell us everything you know about the missing shipment, and I’ll shoot you in the head. You won’t feel a thing. Like I said, that’s the easy option, and as much as I’d love to hear you sing like a fucking canary, I kind of hope you choose the other way, the hard way.” He grins wickedly. Fuck, he’s crazy, but we wouldn’t have him any other way. “The hard way involves a lot of blood, some burning flesh, maybe even some dismemberment, if we’re all really lucky. So Dagger, such a stupid fucking name by the way, in your next life I would recommend a better street name if you choose the life of crime again. What’s it going to be?”
Silence fills the space and Tommy’s lips quirk up. “I’ll take that as the hard way.”
Before any of us can blink, he’s pulled a knife from somewhere and slammed it into the burned flesh of Dagger’s thigh. The scream that follows is almost sickening… almost. If I were a man with a conscience, I would probably at least recoil at the sound, but I’m not.
I love the sound. Watching the life flicker out of someone’s eyes is like crack to me, and that’s what makes Tommy and I so similar. I may not enjoy the torture like he does, but we both enjoy the end result as much as the other.
This night has it all. My woman in a dress I picked. Claiming her in front of the world. And now, watching an enemy bleed out in front of me in the hope of holding onto his pride, and once we’re done here, I’ll go back to Emerson and claim her in every sense of the word.
I can’t fucking wait.
