Page 28 of Stone

“I don’t know anything,” he pants out, his skin pale and lined. His eyes squeezed tightly closed. The pain that he’s in must be excruciating, given the way his whole-body shudders. “It was before I’d even met Jimmy and the Dunne’s”.

I laugh out loud. He opens his eyes and stares at me. I lean in closer, the grin on my face bordering on demonic. “You thick fuck, you don’t even realize, do you?”

“What?” he splutters. “I’ve told you. I don’t know anything.”

“Fucking liar,” I spit in his face. “You must know something. You said, and I quote, ‘It was before I’d met Jimmy.’ You know exactly what I’m referring to, so if you have any hope of leaving this place without your scrotum sliced, and your balls removed with a rusty box cutter I suggest you tell me exactly what you know.”

You can tell by his facial expressions he’s terrified. Eyebrows up and pulled tight together, raised upper eyelids, tensed lower jaw, lips stretched, a horizontal split towards the blood crusting around his ears from the cuts inflicted by Edge prior to my foot torture. One can only imagine what is going through his mind at this very moment.

Smoke takes the few steps needed until he’s stood behind him, and starts to lay out his options to help speed up his decision.

“The way I see it, you have two options,” Smoke’s hoarse voice from his forty-a-day habit rings out at the back of him. “You can keep your mouth shut, despite your loyalty meaning nothing to that Irish fucker, and die by our hand.” He grabs a handful of his hair, pulls his head back and flicks the built-up ash from his cigarette tab onto the gash at the side of his mouth where his skin has split from the impact of Edge’s fist. “Or you tell us what you know and you disappear to where the Dunnes can’t find you.”

“If you want any chance of getting out of this alive, you better start talking, simple as.” I roll the nail sticking out of my mouth across the edge of my teeth before I pluck it out. I hold the point of the nail against the fabric of the crotch of his jeans, which are tight, making it easy to see where his balls are sitting. “Time’s a ticking,” I sneer, bringing the hammer down hard enough to break through the fabric and prick his skin. I’m careful just how far I go with this. If I go too deep, the pain will be agonizing, which could have him passing out with the intensity and rendering him incoherent. I need to know the truth behind my family’s devastation.

“Stop, stop, please,” he whimpers when I bring the hammer up for another hit. “Okay, okay. I’ll tell you what I know.”

“I’m all ears.” I stand tall, my arms crossed in front of my body, the bloody nail and hammer still held firmly in my hands. “Tell me every single word Jimmy said.”

“I never heard anything from Jimmy but I did overhear one of his men shooting his mouth off about how Jimmy was an ungrateful bastard, and how he was the brains behind the hit on this couple up in Billings.”

“So why was Jimmy pissed at him?” Smoke intervened.

“Something about how the fuck was he supposed to know they had a kid strapped in the back.”

“And the reason for the hit?” I prompt him when he goes all quiet again.

“It was part of a bigger plan against the Young Outlaws in retribution for the death of Jimmy’s brother and two other members of the Dunne family.” He tilts his head up to me, and I believe I see a hint of regret in his eyes.

“Guess he doesn’t give a fuck about the other three assholes then,” Edge sniggers.

“Like he’ll give absolutely no fucks about you, so you might as well tell us exactly how it went down.” The only way I’ll be convinced this guy is not just spouting shit is if he can give me enough information to collaborate with the police report Smoke has managed to get an unauthorized copy of.

“There were two of them on the job, sent to watch the family to get an understanding of their routine before they struck. Instead of waiting it out, they got impatient and went ahead without getting the nod from Jimmy.” He coughs, hocks up some snot, then spits out the globule of blood and shit to the floor. “When the car left the couple’s garage, they started to follow closely. It was then they hacked into the vehicle’s computer system and took control of the car. They froze up the steering and went heavy on the gas pedal. However much the driver would have tried to regain control, they never had a chance.”

“Fuck!” I hiss out between gritted teeth, my top lip curled back in a snarl. Anger and disgust seer through my body, my hands clenching with the need to annihilate something. Someone. I turn my back and stomp the few meters to take me out of the immediate zone. Sucking in a handful of deep breaths, I try to calm myself before I turn on my heels to take this guy out permanently.

“You okay, brother?” Smoke’s voice might be gruff, but it’s drunk with concern for me.

“I argued with Jacob about buying that fucking expensive car with all the hi-tech shit that came with it. It was meant to keep them safe. Said that when it came to his girls, money was irrelevant as only the best was good enough for them.” I let out a painful laugh. “How fucking ironic.

“Stone, you know as well as I do, if Jimmy had a hit put out on them, it was just a matter of time. They could have been driving a beater and they’d have gone old school by tampering with the brake line.”

I know that Smoke speaks the truth, but it still feels like my head is about to fucking implode. Of course, I knew that it was only a matter of time before the Irish made their move against the Young Outlaws, but not once did I suspect that my family, who had no connection to the MC or the sick side of life that we live in, would ever be a target.

A sharp nod in Smoke’s direction, and I make my way back to the one person who can give me the last piece of information I need.

“Names, I want the names of both of them,” I hiss into his face, not caring one bit that I could get contaminated by this asshole’s blood and crap that’s been spraying from his mouth as he speaks.

“I’ve no idea of their first names. Other than the Dunne’s themselves, the rest tend to use what I can only assume is their surnames. But the one who did the hacking goes by the name of Doherty. The driver, Lyons. While Doherty had a strong Irish accent, the other was clearly from New York.” He meets my eyes when he starts to plead. “I swear that’s all I know. Please let me go. I had nothing to do with the family’s deaths and I promise I’ll disappear; I’ll go back to my hometown in Iowa. The Dunnes won’t find me there.”

I stand back, scratch my beard with my calloused fingers, as if considering his offer.

“What do you think, Prez? You still want to leave this place clean so that Jimmy and his cunts have no idea we’ve been here? It’s your call.”

“That’s still the plan.” Smoke doesn’t even show a millisecond of hesitation when he pulls out a Glock from the back of his pants, aims and fires. “I always favor the element of surprise when it comes to taking down any cunts that are a threat to any of my MC family and the notoriety of the Young Outlaws.”

“You stole my kill,” I sigh, side-eying my president.

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