Two men were inside, guns held at the ready.
“I wouldn’t.” Conner grinned, his face splattered with blood. He looked maniacal.
“Who the fuck…” The man whose trigger finger looked twitchy went down from Jasper’s knife, leaving only the man sitting behind the desk.
“Julio.”
The man’s nostrils flared.
“You made a mistake, Julio, or your boss did, at any rate.” Conner walked over to the desk, deftly dodging the shot aimed at him. He smashed his fist against Julio’s head and disarmed him. Then he took the hiking pack he’d strapped on earlier and set it on the desk.
“A hand, Jasper?”
Jasper came over and helped him secure the man’s hands and feet, then they hoisted him using rope and the rafters.
“You don’t know who the fuck you’re messing with!” Julio screamed.
“Oh, I do, but you obviously don’t know who I am. I must be losing my touch if you don’t recognize me.” Conner pulled a blowtorch out of his bag and lit it, coming to stand in front of the suspended man.
Julio snarled at him.
“I’m The Executioner.”
Jasper smelled ammonia and was astonished to see the man pissed himself. What the fuck?
“You see, you messed with my family. My nephew almost got shot. His woman did get shot.” Conner handed the blowtorch to Jasper and set about cutting the man’s clothes off.
“We only had a hit out on a girl who could testify. Your family wasn’t part of it. I swear!”
Conner smiled and took the blowtorch. “That witness, she’s now part of my family, so I have to make sure your bosses understand what will happen to them if they try to make sure she can’t testify. You’re going to be my example, Julio, because you came onto my brother’s property and almost killed my nephew. No one messes with my family.”
“I’ll call, I’ll make sure the hit’s called off…please…”
“Keep everyone out.” Conner nodded toward the door. “They don’t need to see this.”
He agreed. Kade would lose his shit, and this fucker deserved what he was about to get.
But Jasper still winced when the man started screaming.
He locked the door and stood guard while Conner worked. There was pounding at one point, and he recognized Viktor’s voice. He told him to secure the building and wait for them.
It was several long minutes of screaming before Viktor walked away from the door. Conner was right. No one needed to see this shit but the two of them.
“I’m done.” Conner stood back to admire his handiwork. Curious, Jasper walked over and saw Conner had painstakingly carved a large scythe on the man’s back. “It’s my signature. They’ll know who did this.”
“Aren’t you worried they’ll come after you?”
“I’m the boogeyman who comes after the cartels.Theyrun fromme.” He pulled out a note in a plastic baggie and used a thumbtack to secure it to Julio’s chest. “This note explicitly says what we will do to Marco if he doesn’t call off the bounty on your woman’s head.”
“Marco?”
“He runs the cartel. I’ve never gone after them before, but they know my work. He’ll stay away.”
Seeing the mess that was Julio, Jasper didn’t doubt his word. It took a sick, fucked-up mind to do what Conner just did. Even Julio’s dick didn’t escape the flames of the blowtorch.
Conner picked up a phone on the desk and came back to Julio, snapping a picture. He then texted a message to someone and tossed the phone on the ground in front of Julio.
“Let’s go.”