Page 39 of Bride By Initiation

Sean

Two Weeks Later

Liam has kept me from focusing on anything but work since our meeting a couple of weeks ago. I only get to think about The Underworld or my father's involvement when lying in bed. And Liam hasn't given me much time to do that lately either.

All O'Malleys go through specific training, so I'm used to running on no sleep. It's important we can function without it at any time. So, while it's annoying that Liam's keeping me on a short leash, the lack of sleep isn't affecting me.

The first few days, his jobs bored me to death. Brax wasn't happy he got chosen to be my sidekick, claiming it wasn't fair he was in trouble when I wouldn't tell him what the meeting was regarding. But I stood my ground, maintaining my silence.

Mid-week, Brax caught one of our enemies attempting to hack into our gambling operation. He tried to figure out who it was, but it wasn't clear who had the balls to fuck with our business. So we moved most of the money out and left a few million.

Declan instructed Brax to install a bug on the remaining assets. Then, he reduced the level of security and made it easier for the hacker to access our account.

Once he was in, the bug traced the money to an account owned by the Baileys. As soon as the first transfer hit, it was all hands on deck at O'Malley Cybersecurity.

It took me two days to hack into the account and determine the culprit behind the novice operation. And it was so weak, I kind of felt bad for the guy. Only an amateur would move the money directly to the real account instead of several ghost ones.

Paddy Bailey's only saving grace was he hid pretty well. Except he wasn't that good. It only added ten days to his freedom.

Yesterday morning, Brax and I picked him up. The rodent-infested, crappy apartment in a beaten-down building on the south side of Chicago showed how low he was on the Bailey totem pole.

We took the skinny computer geek to headquarters. Decades ago, Liam's father, Darragh, transformed an empty warehouse space into a combination storage unit and torture chamber. We keep enough ammo and firearms to take out the entire state of Illinois if needed, along with fleets of vehicles and other items. Any device you can think of to make someone suffer is in a separate section. And a huge room full of screens allows us to hack into any security camera or public footage as needed.

The first thing we did was tie rope to Paddy's wrists and ankles. Then we got rid of all the slack. For the last twenty hours, he's been hanging in the air, stretched out in the shape of an X.

Once we had him shackled, I made sure there wasn't a bug on the money. When assured, I transferred our money back into our account, along with another four million of Bailey assets. Brax erased their account and the digital trail the second the money moved out.

On Liam's orders, we programmed the thermostat to rotate every two hours between forty degrees and one hundred ten. We turned on a recording of several men screaming from our past torture sessions, shut all the fluorescent lights off, then left.

Today, around noon, Brax and I were called to the warehouse. It's now time for Paddy to pay for his sins.

When we arrive, Liam's sitting in a metal chair, wearing a thick winter coat. He presses his gloved palms together, his lips pursed and eyes blazing at Paddy.

"P-please," Paddy cries, covered in sweat but shaking from the cold, his breath coming out in a fog. Crystalized frost covers his nipples. His nose, lips, fingers, and toes are dark purple.

"Fucking cold in here, what temperature is it?" Brax questions.

Liam's lips twist. He casually glances at us. "Thirty-three. Go bundle up."

Brax and I don't question our orders. It's one degree above freezing, and our egos aren't big enough to want to fight the chill. We go into the closet, grab coats and gloves, and put them on.

Liam rises and pulls out his pocket knife. He approaches Paddy, puts the blade against his throat, and snarls, "You think you can take what's ours?"

"P-please. I d-didn't. It w-wasn't m-me," Paddy claims.

It's a lie. We all know it, and nothing Paddy says will stop his fate.

Liam slowly drags the knife across his throat. A thin line of blood appears, and Paddy sobs. Liam murmurs, "While I'd love to do the honors, I allow those who do the work to have the fun." He turns to Brax and me and nods his head toward Paddy. "Finish him off, boys. I have to get to Hailey's school. It's teacher appreciation day. I'm bringing cupcakes."

"You could have brought us some," Brax whines.

"Send me some videos of the next few hours, and I'll have some sent to your house. They're from Sullivan's," Liam replies with a twinkle in his eye.

"Are you getting the strawberry champagne ones?" I ask.

"Of course," Liam affirms.

Braxton adds, "Toss in some peanut butter cup ones in my box."

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