Page 146 of Four Fiances & I

“Jason, can you show him while I speak to our friend here?” I don’t need to look at Jason to know he will do as I asked.

Stepping in front of Eddie, I squat down, ensuring I’m still a little taller than him.

“Do you know who I am?”

Eddie nods as blood runs from his nose.

“So you are aware of what happens to people who come for my family?”

Again, Eddie nods, only looking at me for a millisecond at a time. I look at him cowering on the concrete floor and can’t believe Abigail would lower herself to something so pathetic.

“Head up.” Eddie looks up at me, and I take in an inventory of his injuries that I can see. His nose is broken, and his lip and cheek are split, and I think his eye socket may be broken. McIntire doesn’t mess around that’s for sure.

Eddie looks around, no doubt checking where McIntire is before whispering to me.

“He’s mad. I haven’t done anything. He has been trying to scare me off for a while, so now I think he wants to kill me.”

“Too right, I’m going to kill you, you little shit. I’m going to enjoy every second of it,” McIntire shouts, walking back over to us. “Here.” I barely manage to catch a phone as it's thrown at me. “See if you can get into that; otherwise, I will have to do this the messy way.”

I stand and look down at Eddie.

“Do you want to make this easy?” I arch one brow in question and don’t miss the way he starts to sweat. “Am I taking that as a no? What have you got on here that you don’t want us to see? Proof of your recent activities? Names of people you know? Accomplices, maybe.” Touching the phone, I can see it is fingerprint-protected. They are difficult to unlock without said fingers, but when I see McIntire leaning over our guest, I realise he has already thought of a solution.

“I don’t have all day, so last warning before I let him take over. What is on this phone?”

“Just pictures,” he mumbles, going back to looking at the floor. “Pictures Abbi wouldn’t want you seeing.”

I look over to McIntire; if possible, he looks even angrier. Fuck, this man is going to lose his shit. He stalks forward, grabs Eddie's hands, which are still tied to his back, and brings down a butcher's knife.

Eddie's screams fill the room, echoing off the walls as his blood splatters onto the ground. McIntire throws the hand onto the floor in front of me as Eddie brings the two arms in front of him, one with blood spraying from where his hand was only seconds ago.

“Jason,” McIntire bellows over the screams. Jason walks forward with a handheld blow torch, which McIntire takes as he points to Layton. “Hold him down.” Layton looks at me, and I nod, giving him the go-ahead to follow someone else's orders. Layton and Jason pin Eddie down, and McIntire starts the blow torch.

The smell of roasted skin fills the air as he cauterises the wound. It takes everything in me not to gag. Maximus moves as far away as possible; he has never had a strong stomach for this kind of torture. Show him blood, broken bones, even internal organs, and you would think he didn’t even notice. Add the smell of burning flesh, and he’s a goner.

Looking over my shoulder, I nod, giving him the go-ahead to leave if he needs to, but he shakes his head. This is too personal; I know he will need to be here to discover why everything has come to this.

McIntire moves away and turns off the flame as the others release Eddie, who curls up in the foetal position and cries loudly.

“He’s all yours. Do what you want, but I will be the one to kill him.” McIntire doesn’t wait for my response; he grabs the severed hand from the ground, holds out his hand for the phone, and heads to a seat in the far corner, no doubt to search the phone.

Turning back to Maximus, I nod to the other side of the room. “Get the other chair.” He does as I ask without a word. Placing it beside the withering Eddie, my brothers grab him under the arms and heave him into the chair. Judging by his colour, I’m pretty sure he’s about to pass out.

“Here’s what’s going to happen.” I unbutton my cuffs and slowly start folding up my sleeves. “I’m going to ask you some questions, and if you take too long to answer, you will get punched. However, if I think you are lying…” I pull my flip knife out of my pocket and open it in front of him. “I will stab you.”

“Why should I bother? That psycho is going to kill me anyway!” Eddie shouts, drool and snot hanging from his mouth as he lifts his arm to wipe it away; he sees the burnt stump and cries harder.

“How did you think this was going to go?” I ask, frowning. “When you joined this little crusade, how did you see it ending?”

“I haven’t done anything. I swear!” He starts to sway, but Jason grabs his shoulder and holds him in the chair. There’s nothing gentle about the gesture; I can see his knuckles turning white where he’s gripping him hard.

“He’s lying. It's all here on his phone. The locations and times of the girls’ meetings, the vendors, everything,” McIntire's face darkens, but I know better than to ask what he has found. I trust him to tell me if it concerned Jasmine.

Turning back to Eddie, I sigh.

“Who have you been working for?”

“No one.” The wind is taken out of him as Maximus punches him. He falls to the floor, crying out as he lands on his burnt stump.

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