Page 52 of The Sinners Gambit

“Toward the car. It’ll be convenient not to have to drag him back. We’ll go to the secondary location now.”

We match his stride and trickle in formation behind him, allowing him to continue to tire himself out. He makes it to the road, where our limo still stands. “Help! Help!” he screams to no avail.

Killian punches his uncle, and we stuff him into the trunk of the car. After a few minutes of driving we make it to the abandoned warehouse we outfitted for the occasion. We set up a bed with harnesses and brought many fun toys to play with.

Axel and Killian help situate Andres on the bed while Quinnly and I look through the weapons we want to use.

“What do you want to learn first, guys?” I ask as I hold up my tried and true tool—a scalpel.

“I’ve always been curious about the digestive system!” Axel states.

Quinnly rolls her head up, thinking. “I don’t really care, but we should aim for his balls and dick too.”

“Arms and hands,” Killian whispers. “The same ones he used to hug us, his family. And the ones that he used to make the deal to have them killed.”

“Sounds like a long TED talk. You ready, Andres?” I ask. But he’s just moaning because we duck-taped his mouth—he was trying to bite when we pulled him out of the car. Glancing over the table of tools and items, I furrow my eyebrows. “I’m sorry. Looks like we forgot the morphine. Guess you’ll have to stay awake and alert for us.” His screams grow louder despite being muffled.

“You can learn something too,” Quinnly chimes in.

“I’m just kidding, there was never any other way besides you feeling every moment of pain.” I move toward him with the biggest smile on my face.

We all take our sweet time with Andres, not finishing for a couple hours. I made sure to pack smelling salts in case he passed out from the pain. Thankfully, we only had to use it once. He wasn’t allowed to miss out on a second of agony. For what he did, he deserved so much more. By the time midnight strikes, he takes his last pained breath. Which helps Killian and me finally be able to take a relieved one for avenging our parents.

Killian’s holding me by my shoulder as we look up at the moon. Our mess is being cleaned up by the crew Axel has on standby. No one will ever know what happened here. Axel and Quinnly are a few feet away, talking about their favorite ways to torture someone.

“Thank you for bringing me some peace,” I tell my kidnapper-turned-saviour.

He kisses my forehead. “I could say the same to you.”

I turn to face him and envelop him in a hug. “Here’s to our next adventure together, without the weight of this trauma looming over us. I’m excited to continue to get to know you, from you . . . not by stalking you.”

I feel him laugh into my head. “Yeah, that would be nice.”

“I really like you, Killer.”

“I really like you too, firecracker.”

“Let’s go home.”

“I’m coming too! Plus you need to meet Lincoln!” Quinnly says.

“Family dinner, anyone?” Axel says. In the end of this long twisted game, it seems like we’ve all come out winners.

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