“He won’t be a threat to you after I get him.” His tone is cold, and I immediately nod.

“I’ll be waiting for your call,” I tell him, standing and leaving the room.

Kai doesn’t follow me out into the parking lot right away, so I take the time to call my mom and check in. She gives me an update about Autumn and Tubs, telling me that both are okay and Autumn seems to be doing a lot better today; she got out of bed and took a shower. That’s all great news, but it would be better if I were there to see it for myself. Autumn was upset that I was leaving, and I could see it in her eyes that she was afraid, but I needed to see to this situation myself. I’m not leaving anything to chance.

*

“Tell me where the f**k Vincent is,” I growl, digging my thumb into the open wound on Alfeo’s thigh. I have been at this for over two hours and still have nothing.

I picked up Alfeo outside his place of business in Vegas at a house known for selling pu**y. Normally, I would turn my eyes at this, but Justin got back to me with information, and this house has been on the cop’s radar for the last year. They’ve beentrying to build a case against Alfeo. Seems he has a preference, and that preference is for young girls who are mostly runaways and high school dropouts with nowhere and no one to turn to. He gets them addicted to blow and then puts them to work.

“I’m not telling you shit,” Alfeo says as spit and blood fly out of his mouth.

“That’s not the right answer.” I pull the knife I shoved into his left thigh out and slam it into his right one.

His scream fills the small space, and I shake my head. For a man who acts so f**king hard, he sure as f**k screams like a chick.

“I’m getting really f**king sick of this game. Tell me what I want to know or I’ll put a bullet in your f**king head.”

“Fuck you.” He tries to sit forward, but the ropes around his arms and legs hold him in place.

I pull out one of the guns Sven gave me from behind my back and hold it to the side of his head. “Last chance.”

“Like I said before…fuck you,” he spits.

I pull the trigger, letting one off into his shoulder. I don’t want to give him another chance, but he’s been one of Vincent’s sidekicks since they were young. I only have three men who’ve been in contact with Vincent over the last three years, so I don’t have a lot of options.

“You shot me!” I make out through his screams of agony.

“And I’ll do it again if you don’t tell me what the f**k I need to know.” I put the gun back to his head.

“I don’t have anything for you, you piece of shit!” His eyes go wide with panic.

“Well then, Alfeo, our time here’s up.” I pull the trigger.

This time, the bullet goes through his temple and his brain splatters all over the wall. I will never get used to the stench that comes along with killing someone, I think as I go to the sink, wash off my arms and hands, and then begin thinking about my next move.

“What’s next?” Kai asks.

I look at him then Sven over my shoulder. Both of them have been at my side since I left the meeting. They helped me get Alfeo to the basement I brought him to but have stayed back and let me handle this my way. I’d expected Kai to go back to Hawaii, but he came out of the club when I was hanging up with my mom, his face contorted with rage. I didn’t ask him what it was about, but I had a feeling the small woman I’d gotten a glimpse of him kissing a couple of minutes before his men had taken her away as we’d gone inside had something to do with that look. Sven, I knew, would have my back. The minute I called him from Tennessee telling him that I needed his plane, he was on it, coming to pick me up.

“We’re going to find Carlo to see if he has anything to say,” I tell them.

“You gonna kill him too?” Kai asks.

“Yep.” I look Kai dead in the eyes without saying anything else. These men are all f**king scum and do not deserve to breathe.

“Just making sure,” he says, and I see his lips twitch.

I shake my head and listen as he makes a call to have someone come clean up my mess.

*

“Do you feel like we’ve been here before?” Sven asks Kai from behind me.

I ignore them and pull the blade out of Carlo’s leg. I tilt my head back and forth, working out the kinks in my neck.

“I told you I don’t know where he is!” he shouts and then starts to cry.

“When the hell did men start all this crying bullshit?” Kai asks, stepping forward. “Your man has no loyalty to you. Tell us where he is and this will be over,” he says, getting down to Carlo’s level.

“So you can kill me? Fuck you!”

“You’re going to die one way or another, but think of it this way: you do the right thing and, when you get to the other side, God may have mercy on you,” Kai says, but I disagree with him. This guy here is as bad as his friends. He has a history of beating women that goes back ages. His last girlfriend was in the hospital for a month after what he had done to her.

“I haven’t spoken to him,” he swears.

“Bullshit.” I lift the blade I pulled from his thigh and slam it through his chest. He gasps for air, and I can almost visualize his lungs filling up with blood. “Tell me!” I roar, losing patience.

He starts coughing and his body begins to convulse out of control in the chair.

“Now you killed him and he didn’t even tell us anything,” I hear Sven say, but my eyes are locked on Carlo’s mouth as I lip-read the word ‘slaughterhouse.’

“Where’s the slaughterhouse?” I ask Sven.

His eyebrows come together and his hand goes to his suit’s pants pocket. He pulls out his phone and types something in it before looking at me again. “There’s a club named The Slaughterhouse downtown.”

I pull the blade from Carlo’s chest and watch as his body fights for air, hearing Sven ask, “You gonna end him?”

“He’ll die.” I wrap my knife up in a thick piece of cloth and tuck it into my bag.

“Remind me not to piss you off, Mayson,” Kai mutters as Sven laughs.

*

“What kind of f**ked-up place is this?” I shout over the music as we walk into the club.

The room is dark, with an eerie, red glow. Hanging from the rafters, acrobats of both sexes are naked and dripping blood onto the crowd below them. Around the room, there are spotlights that shine down on different BDSM scenes being played out.