Blade
“Motherfucker!” Skid screams into the air. His head pops up and he’s howling at the ceiling. He’s chained in the middle of this dark, dingy, old building of the Mine. His body makes an X with his arms and legs spread out. The chains are the only way he is staying upright. We think this building used to be where they would process the gold, but now it’s our torture chamber. Hooks are everywhere, along with chemicals which I will find out what they are for later. I make a mental note to have the prospects do an inventory later this week.
Back to this dirty fucker. “Skid, I can only cut you so many times before you bleed out, and I know you are counting on it. So, I’m going to do what I’ve been holding out on. Solo, hand me the torch.”
Solo tosses the small torch to me. I grab my lighter from my pocket with my other hand. I open the valve and a small hiss of propane leaks out. When I strike my lighter, Skid looks over to me, then the fucker passes out. Nope, not good enough. “This limp dick fucker isn’t going to pass out,” I growl to no one in particular.
Searching through my bag, I find the syringe and small bottle with epinephrine written on it. Taking an almost lethal dose, I plunge the needle into the vein on his neck. Purging his body with a wake-up juice cocktail, the next time he goes to sleep, it will be for good. I toss the needle into a metal bin nearby and grab the white sports tape. I tape his eyelids open and count to thirty. Sure as shit, right on schedule, his head snaps back up and he tries to scream. Oh, I taped his mouth shut too. For fun. Skid’s eyes bug out, his face turning bright red, the veins in his neck pumping erratically to his accelerated heartbeat, from the heart that probably wants to quit.
Smirking over to the boys, I point to him. “That shit looks painful, doesn’t it? I bet his mind is all kinds of fucked up. Wants to die, but at the same time the drugs keep it all ticking along.” I sigh feeling inpatient that this isn’t more fun than I thought it would be tonight.
“Skid, this isn’t going to be getting any easier for you. You know, and I know, you’re not going to die today. You aren’t going to give me everything I need so easily. We’ll keep you here as long as it takes.”
Getting back to the torch and lighter, I start all over again. Lighting the torch, stepping closer to Skid, I say, “You may not tell me today, but you will.” Searing the big cut on his left arm, his agonizing moans and groans fill the darkness. I step back and Gunner puts out the fire with an extinguisher.
I follow the same process with the right leg. The smell of torched flesh hits our nostrils, and Pawn gags, then steps to the back for some relief from the stench, returning couple of minutes later.
“Solo, Pawn, you two keep him alive, give him a penicillin shot. Chain his right arm to the corner.” Following out the orders, they move Skid as I asked them to. “No food, no water, no heat.” With that, I walk out for one of the longest nights this fucker is going to have. He won’t get much sleep either with his eyelids taped open.
Gunner lights a cigarette and passes me the smoke and I take a deep pull. “Prez, why didn’t we question him?”
“He’s not giving us anything today. He knows what happens. We have to do what he doesn’t expect. Catch him off guard in pain and sleep deprivation, we’ll have a better chance.”
Taking another pull, we continue to stand in silence. It’s late and damn cold out here compared to the Las Vegas winter. “Grab the prospects, we need to head over to the warehouse.”
With that last thought, I walk over to the truck and look back over to Gunner, seeing him and the prospects walk toward me. The four of us make our way to Axl and the load of kids we found today.
Walking into the warehouse, I have this thought that some of these kids may have heard or seen something. If I can only convince them to talk. The space isn’t as shitty as you would think. We bought it off some hipster kids that tried to turn it into a trendy little hacker spot. “Axl, where are all the kids?”
“Set them up in the large corner office, thought the smaller space would be better for them. Called Kat over here, the nurse who used to date Tank, to come help us out.”
Axl runs his hand through his hair, clearly agitated. “There are some very young kids in here, man, that just does not sit well at all with me. The little ones had no clue what they were taken for.”
He lets out a sigh. “I hope Kat can help us find some places for them to go. What are we going to do with them? We can’t just throw them back out on the street, and we can’t have them go running to the cops either.”
“I know, bro. First, we need to talk with the oldest, bring her out here.” Axl looks wearingly at me as if he really thinks I’m going to hurt her.
Looking at the door, the petite young girl steps out and walks behind Axl, and then stays there.
Moving myself over to a table with chairs, I ask the young girl, “Can you sit down with me? I have a few questions for you. We have a friend on the way to look at all of you. I promise I won’t hurt any of you.”
Axl turns himself sideways, and I see that the young girl is wringing her hands together. Giving her a moment to decide, I encourage her by pushing the chair out with my boot. Another minute passes and my patience’s wearing thin along with it. Finally, Axl coaxes her forward by lightly touching her shoulder, and she moves, then gingerly sits in the chair in front of me.
“Can you tell me your name and how old you are?” I try to speak a little softer and quieter than I care to.
She breathes in deeply and shakes her head back and forth. “I-I’m not anybody, haven’t been for a long time, but my mom, before she died, called me Tami. I’m seventeen, and I’m a runaway.”
“Tami, where did you live, and how did you end up on that truck?”
She starts shaking her head again, not wanting to speak, and starts crying, then pulls her little trembling hands to her face and starts sobbing into them. “Don’t put me back into foster care, please! I won’t tell the cops or anyone you took us from those men, just please don’t turn me into foster care!” She’s crying harder, not able to look at me or control her sobs.
I’m not the man for this shit. I don’t care where this girl came from and I won’t send her back. My blood pressure is shot and I have no patience left to sweet talk my way through this, but I try again.
“Tami, you got a raw deal in life it sounds like. Let me help you out, get you off the streets and in safer places, but, first, I’m going to need you to pull your shit together. Answer some questions. Can you do that? Then, I’ll find the right person to help you out. We never have to talk again.”
Tami sits a little straighter at my frustration, seeming to trust the real version of me and not the sugar coated one. “What do you need?”, she asks quietly, dropping her hands, hiccupping and raising her brown eyes at me.
“How did you end up on the truck? Tell me every detail of how and what happened.” I let out a heavy a sigh as I finish my request.
“I steal food or money. Since I’ve been living on the streets since I was fifteen, it’s how I’ve survived in New Mexico. There are lots of communities where groups of kids live together, watch out for each other. One girl I knew, close to my age, said she heard of a deal going down. If we could get in before the pickup, we could make enough to start over.
We snuck in and waited for the Hispanic guys to leave, but they never left. Just drank so much Tequila till they passed out. We grabbed the leather bag they had and ran out. Eventually, one of your men caught us. His patch said Bear, he found us not long after we took the bag. Said that he scored two dumb bitches and was going to sell us.”
Tears start pouring down her cheeks, her voice growing quieter. “He raped Amanda, then put us in the backseat of his diesel truck. He took the bag with him in the front. Outside of Las Vegas, there was a stop where he got into a fight with another guy from your club that pulled him over. He called him Buck. There was what sounded like a gunshot. He then dragged the dead man in the back of his truck. I don’t know what happened to him. Eventually Amanda and I were separated when we were sold.”
She’s shaking from reliving her story, and I should feel bad, but all I feel is intense rage over hearing the confirmation of who really killed Buck. Axl hangs his head in total defeat. Bear knew what he was doing that day in the meeting. He knew it was a matter of time before we confirmed it was him. He died way too quickly instead of facing Stryker, like he deserved. The old man is going to be so pissed when he hears this.
“Tami, what was in the bag?” I ask her, unable to look at her from the anger I know is seeping from my gaze.
“We didn’t want to steal, but you have to understand, th-that we…”
“I don’t give a fuck why you stole it, hear what I’m asking you. What. Was. In. The. Bag.” Unable to keep looking away, my deathly gaze hits her. I’m forcing her to see death in another man’s eyes that she needs to answer to.
“Raw uncut diamonds.” From her pocket she pulls out what looks like a small dirty crystal, and she places it on the table between us. “You can have it back.” She looks down at her hands again.
Picking up the stone, I look at it in my fingers, gazing at what must be worth more than this girl will ever make in a lifetime, and a smile tugs at my lips at what she just gave me.
“Funny thing is that this little rock is worth so much money, but also has cost so many lives. You know what will happen to you if you keep this rock?” She shakes her head no. “You can’t sell this rock to a bunch of thieves, they will take it and kill you, costing you your life. This tiny rock is your death. Never play with thieves again.” She nods in understanding
Bam! The backdoor swings open, hitting the wall and forcing all of us to point our guns, waiting. Only it’s not a threat walking through but Tank, with a very pissed off Kat over his shoulder. Not wearing scrubs either? What the hell is that woman wearing?
“Tank! You freaking big assed asshole! Put me down! I said I would help!” Tank reaches up laying down a hard smack right on her leather covered ass. Kat’s long black hair flies through the air as her back arches from the blow.
“Easy, Kitty Kat, you’re scaring the kids, and the boys are about to shoot your loud, mouthy ass. It’s a nice ass, though, and I don’t want them to shoot it, K-love.” He rubs the spot he smacked, making Kat squirm more. Pulling her down the front of his body, he places Nurse Kat down on her… knee-high black leather boots? What the hell?
She shoves him away from her with both hands planted on his chest. Or at least trying to move the beast, when Tank kisses his fingers and touches her nose. “Calm down, Kitty Kat, we can play later.”
Grabbing her temples, she rubs circles and takes in deep breaths before dropping her hands and storming forward to stand in front of the table. She is definitely the dark to Tank’s light in every way. The woman has many tattoos on her body, including on her hands, and deep brown, dark eyes.
“Hey, I’m Kat, you must be the President of these merry little misfit fuckers?” She sticks her hand out at me and I stand and shake it back.
“Blade, and yes, I’m the President,” I say while forcing to keep down a smile. “You a nurse?” Scanning her very un-nurse like attire, I ask, “Can you check over these kids? Help us to find them some safe place to go?”
“Yes and yes. Tank, haul in my bag and stuff in, k, hot stuff?” Kat holds her hand out for the young girl, then takes her in another office to look her over.
“Tank, as soon as she got the kids looked over and situated, we have Church. Make it in two hours for an update. Solo and Pawn can stay here and help Kat if she’s not finished by then.”
“I’ll be there with an update.” He moves outside to grab Kat her supplies, while Solo and Pawn follow to help.
“Gunner, roll with me. Text Stryker, Ice and Fuego, conference call for Church in two hours.” As I’m giving Gunner his instructions, I text Vegas.
Me: Gonna be a late night, meet me at the clubhouse, bring Dana. If she leaves to grab a bag, James or security goes with. James stays with Jenn all night or she comes too.
Pulling out from the warehouse, my mind is running over tasks that I need to do before Church. Number one is find Spider and get an update on the owner of the warehouse in California where we followed the first truck.