Page 41 of King of Cruelty

“Awww.” My hands flashed. As quick as my left rose to yank the sack off, that’s how quickly my right flew at his face. “If only I felt the same about you.”

Wide-eyed shock blew up his brows just in time for me to punch him dead in the nose, cracking the cartilage beneath my knuckles.

“Argh!” Edwin snapped back, bumping the back of his head against his headrest. He scrambled for his gun as Bee dove inside.

Ripping it free off his waistband, Bee leveled it between his eyes—her grip firm and steady staring down the barrel of her revenge against the soulless monster who chained her to a wall like an animal.

Chest heaving, nose weeping, Edwin slowly sat back, his gaze darting between me and the gun.

Smart guy. He knows I’m just as deadly.

“Now, then, Edwin.” I reached around, grabbed his seat belt, and wrapped it around his wrists—securing him. “We don’t have much time, so let’s get straight to business. Where’s the bomb?”

Edwin’s throat bobbed with a hard swallow. “Okay, look, this doesn’t have to go down this way. Let’s all just calm down and—”

“—have a nice pleasant chat with the psycho mass murderer planning to bomb a house full of innocent people?” I finished—my voice just as calm and pleasant as his. “No, thanks.”

His brow twitched. “No one in that house is innocent.”

“Really? Please, tell me all about the sins committed by the random hiking couple that happened to knock on the wrong door? Please,” I hissed, anger bleeding into my voice. “Explain how you’re justifying in your sick and twisted mind that they deserved to be beaten, raped, and blown up.”

Edwin’s jaw tensed, eyes flashing. “No one wanted that couple caught up in this. Or those women that disgusting scum roach Luca forced into his business.Iwanted to let them go! It was Brother Abraham who said they had to stay upstairs with the others. We couldn’t risk them telling anyone about all the guys in that house in the woods who helped them.”

“Well, Brother Abraham is dead now,” I dropped without a twinge of conscience. “You’re making the decisions now, and this is your chance to make the right one. Tell me where thebomb is and who’s holding its trigger because”—I patted him down, checking all his pockets—“it’s not you.”

Edwin didn’t move. He didn’t say a word.

I sighed. “Look, I’m not going to mess around and lie to you. I’m going to kill you.” My conscience wasn’t disturbed by that either. “You call Luca a scum roach, but you’re not better than him. You’re clearly the one who was in charge of watching over these fools for Abraham, and even though you told Malcolm not to touch your hostages, you knew that he was.

“You knew he was beating and raping them, and you did nothing about it!”

“I didn’t know!” he roared, calm façade breaking.

“Then, you should’ve! You should’ve given a fucking shit, and made sure those women and that man were protected, but the truth is, you didn’t care what happened to their bodies, any more than you care about their lives!” I punched him again, ripping a scream from his broken nose. “For that, you’re going to die, but here’s the good news. You get to do one last good, kind, and moral deed before I send you to your maker.

“You can help me save the lives of those innocent women and man. You can be the hero you’ve been pretending to be, instead of going down as another deranged terrorist.”

“Argh!” Edwin lunged at me, getting as far as the seat belt would let him—which wasn’t very far. “Helping them means helpingyou!It means helping your slavish biker bitches and your rotten family! I will never—NEVER—help the Merchants!”

I blew out a frustrated breath, feeling the ticking seconds of my brothers, my Cardinals, and everyone in the house drawing down. “Fucking hell, we get it, okay! The Merchants hurt people. There was collateral damage in our bid to take over the criminal underground, and who or whatever you lost matters. Your pain matters.”

He jerked—fury cracking with the shock of hearing me of all people saying something like that.

“You want me and my family to face the pain and damage we’ve caused? Fine. You want to kill us? Fine. You want to go to war with us? Fine!” I shrieked. “But take the fight to us! Fight us like a fucking man! Face-to-face! Out in the open!

“Enough of this skulking-around, stalking, planting-bombs, and cowering-in-the-shadows bullshit! Enough dragging innocent people into it and using them as shields, because you fucking know you won’t and can’t win without fighting dirty!”

“We will win!” Spittle showered the opposite seat. “Just because we’re leveling the playing field, doesn’t mean any of us are fucking afraid of you! We have a plan!” His eyes bulged out of his head. “We know all of your weaknesses, bitch! You’ve already lost, and the best part is”—Edwin laughed out loud—“you don’t even know it.”

My lips peeled back at the gleeful malice on his face. All I could see was Jill’s bruised and bleeding face as she sobbed over having to beg for rape.

Right above his head, that woman was going through hell, and this fucker dares... to laugh.

“Bee.” My voice was light—dangerous. “What do you say you and I show this fucker what we do to winners?”

The smirk that twisted her lips was a joy to behold. Because it wiped Edwin’s away.

“With pleasure.”

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