Page 43 of Rattler's Revelation
“We’ve got something,” Puma says, stepping back into Spark’s office. “Tommy is at the storage place, loading the boxes into a van. Taylor is ready to track them.”
Rafe and I stand and move toward the door, but Chill enters with Rattler, Dice, and Viper following. “We have something, too. We have their location,” Chill says.
“How the hell did you get the location?” Rafe asks as Viper moves to his side.
Chill raises her eyebrow at him. “Do you really want to know?”
Rafe shakes his head before glancing at me. “No, we don’t want to know how. Just give us what you learned.”
Their interaction sets off warning bells. I search Rattler’s face for an explanation, but his refusal to look at me has my stomach in knots. What did they do? And why do I feel like I might not want to know?
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN: RATTLER
“We’ve warmed him up,” Chill says as I place the portable terrarium on the table so Walt can get a clear view of the venomous snake. Toro does us a solid by curling up and glaring at Walt as he flicks his tongue and rattles his tail. He looks as if he’s ready to sink his venomous fangs into Walt. Viper sets the other terrarium down, and Dalya joins in the fun of tormenting our prisoner by coiling like a spring as she expands her hood. Her fangs drip with venom as she prepares for attack.
‘What the fuck is that?” Walt chokes out.
“This is Dalya. She’s a spitting cobra. Legally, we’re not allowed to have her, but when a contact offered her to us in exchange for his debt, we couldn’t refuse. Her venom is quite helpful. A single injection in the limb of our choice ensures you lose that limb in the most painful way possible. However, we could just let her deal with you in her very special way. She could shoot venom into your eye from where she is. I hear the pain is excruciating, and you’re sure to go blind,” Viper says conversationally. I see the fear flit across Walt’s face, but he masters his expression and tears his eyes away from the snakes to glare at us.
“Kill me and you’ll never find the women. Isn’t that what you want? To find them and rescue them like the fucking heroes you are?” he sneers at us. He’s trying to come off cocky, but his fearful glance at the snakes tells the true story.
“Oh, we don’t need to know where they are,” Chill says with a chuckle. “We already have the location. We kept you alive in case we couldn’t find it. Turns out we don’t need you, so we’re going to have some fun making you suffer until we end you.”
I barely control my reaction to her lie. We need the location. I know it. Chill knows it. Deep down, I know Chill knows what she’s doing, but Bianca’s life is at stake. We need to find her and find her now, before those bastards can hurt her or worse, make her disappear. I feel Viper move up next to me, and I know she’s mentally telling me to keep my cool. It’s a struggle, but I focus on the fact that Chill is the best at getting information. She’s intelligent and resourceful; more importantly, she knows how to break a man into dust.
“You don’t know where they are,” Walt sneers. “My dad picked the perfect location to hide. Idiots like you will never find it.”
Chill chuckles. “I didn’t say we found it ourselves. Oh no, we had help. Lots of help. Some of that help came from your buddies, Tommy and Billy.” I see the shock on Walt’s face as Chill continues to gloat. “Talk about a couple of idiots. They led us right to the spot. It was relatively easy to follow them. All we had to do was bust open your storage unit so Stevie would call Tommy. You know what storage unit I’m talking about, right? The one where you stored the belongings of each woman you kidnapped?”
Walt jolts at the question. He works his jaw as he studies Chill.
Viper takes advantage of his distraction to swing the sap against his exposed ribs. He screams in pain. “Answer thefucking question,” she barks at him, yanking his head back by his hair.
“He’s probably in shock that we found the stash,” Chill says reasonably. “Do you want to know how we found it? It’s because you’re all so fucking stupid,” she chuckles. “One of the boxes had an AirTag in it. Led us right to the storage unit. We busted the lock, had Stevie call Tommy, and then just waited for him to show up and lead us right to your asshole father and the women. Easy, really.”
“What’s funny is Tommy wasn’t the only lead. Nadine helped, too. You remember Nadine? She was one of your victims. Turns out she suspected you all along of being an asshole, so she followed you. She kept a notebook and she took photos. You guys were sloppy at her place. You didn’t find the notebook and the USB drive. Rattler found it. She had pictures of you at the gas station on 160. Did you know she followed you, or were you just too cocky to think to look?”
I internally frown at her statement, but then I realize Spark must have called with some data they gleaned from the USB drive.
“If you have the women, then why do you need me?” Walt demands.
“Oh, we don’t need you. Not really. We’re just here to have some fun before your dad gets here. We want him to watch while we break you into a sniveling mess before we kill you.”
I chuckle at her statement as I watch the horror wash over Walt’s face. “Wade’s going to disown you when he sees you. You know what that asshole is like. He has no compassion for anyone, even his son. He’ll see you as weak when we break you. This is going to be good. Assholes like you attack women because abusing the weak makes you feel like a tough guy. The truth is, you’re a coward. So’s your fuckup of a dad. The whole Keepers of the Third Reich is just a group of weak men banding together toappear tough. You couldn’t make it on your own. No wonder you had to have a hideout.”
“You shut your face! We’re strong. We’re legion. We’re going to take out every one of you losers. We’re building an army of strong men. Slits are for sex. Men have balls, not slits.”
Chill clucks her tongue. “I’m a big fan of Betty White.”
Walt screws up his face and looks at her with disgust. “So, the fuck what?”
“Do you know what she once said about being tough? Why do people say 'grow some balls'? Balls are weak and sensitive. If you wanna be tough, grow a vagina. Those things can take a pounding. Let’s see how your balls take a pounding.”
Viper grins wickedly as she steps up to Walt with her sap. Fear replaces his sneer instantly. Viper swings the sap back in an arc before plowing it into Walt’s crotch. His scream pierces the air like a train whistle. Tears leak from his eyes as Viper rears back for a second blow. He’s begging and pleading, but she doesn’t relent. When the sap lands, his mouth opens, but no sound comes out. Viper lands blow after blow until Walt almost passes out from the pain. Viper drops the sap on the floor next to her feet before pulling the heated poker out of the fire. Walt’s eyes widen as she steps behind him. That’s when Chill steps up.
“What do you mean, you’re going after the Demon Dawgs?” she demands as she places the tip of a knife under Walt’s left eye.
He’s still dealing with the pain Viper inflicted, so he’s more focused on her. He tries to see behind him to see what she’s doing, but he can’t move because of the knife. He’s broken, and I know now is when Chill will get the answers we need. “Wade is creating camps near each Demon Dawg clubhouse. The first one is in New Orleans. They’re building a pipeline between here and New Orleans. That’s how we planned to get the women to their buyers.”
