Page 73 of Married with Blood
Before we reached the metal panel that trapped the man in, loud curses and threats came from the slit in the window on the door.
“He’s under the illusion that we’ll release him,” Alexei said.
I rolled my eyes. This man wasn’t going anywhere. He tried to hurt my wife. He dared to interfere with our shipment.
The only thing he could do was tell me everything I wanted to know about where he’d come from and why. If Arturo was the enemy I suspected he was, then he’d be killed. That was the only way forward in this scenario.
“Have you asked him anything else?” I looked at Alexei as he reached for the handle.
“No.” He shook his head and gave me a curious look. “I assumed that you would insist on being the only one to do that.”
Good.
I trusted my cousins. My brothers. All the men who’d sworn to serve the Bratva. But thiswaspersonal. Just like that drive-by incident that happened at the other pickup that Carina had accompanied me on, I took her safety to the highest level of care. Personally following up with this man who tried to capture or attack her was how I could ensure that all was done properly.
We entered the small room and I dismissed the gore and guts. Whoever had been in here before this man hadn’t gone neatly. Old stains of blood streaks slashed over the walls with a hint that one of our deadlier enforcers had been in here.
I glanced to the right corner of the room. Markus, one of the soldiers who specialized in this kind of treatment, stood there with his arms crossed, his burly body braced for more action despite the seemingly easy stance he exhibited.
He acknowledged me with a curt nod, not bothering with speaking to me. He’d reply when addressed, and I wasn’t offended that he wasn’t chatty. This stone-cold, gargoyle appearance he had was part of why he was so frightening and intimidating. The scars on his face added to the fear factor. The missing eye, too.
I guess I don’t need to get dirty, after all.
The man who tried to attack us yesterday on the side of the highway was bound up and tied to a chair. It was the only piece of furniture in the square cell, lit only by one lone light swaying from a chain over his head. Sharp shadows added more contrast to the angles of his wounds. Markus had already been busy roughing him up. The whip in his hand was likely the source of the long gashes on the man’s face. His shirt was ripped and barely hiding the open cuts on his torso. Clusters of swollen,puffy skin littered his face, evidence that he’d been beaten already.
Yet he stared me down the best he could, defiant.
“Who ordered that ambush?” I said, starting out with the bluntest questions just to see how stubborn and antagonistic he’d be.
He screwed up his face before launching a wad of blood and spit near my shoes.
I heaved out a long exhale and lifted one hand to beckon Markus forward.
Alexei and Lev stood behind me. If I turned, I bet they’d look just like me. Annoyed, impatient, and frustrated that we had to deal with this kind of confrontation from a captive who seriously had no power or leverage to play hard ball.
Markus stepped forward and whipped the man on his chest. He hissed, arching back and squeezing his eyes shut.
“Who ordered that am?—”
He looked like he was ready to spit at me again, but Markus whipped him once more, beating him to the punch.
“I’m in no rush,” I told the pathetic man wheezing for air after the second strike. “I can do this all day. It can take hours to bleed out.”
He lifted his head slowly, glowering at me as he tried to catch his breath.
“There are two guarantees. You will not exit this room. And I will have the answers I’m seeking about what happened yesterday.”I shoved my hands into my pockets and shrugged. “You give me the answers I need and we can end this now. Your call.”
“Fuck you,” he snarled.
When Markus stepped forward to hit him or whip him again, I held my hand up to make him pause. The man wasn’t done. That wasn’t only a spew of hatred that he wanted to share. He sucked in another deep breath to charge himself to say something more.
“And fuck those idiots who arranged that hit.”
“It was a hit?” I asked, taking whatever opening I could.
Distinguishing between a hit placed on me or Carina and an attempt to stop that shipment was an important step.
“No. Not like that.” He coughed and then cleared his throat. “That fucker found us and offered a job to stop your shipment on the way back north.”
