Page 61 of Conquered
“Good man. See? When you play nicely, no one needs to get hurt,” I tell him condescendingly.
“What do you want?” he asks again, looking back at Ash.
“One day in the near future, you’ll be receiving a phone call, detailing instructions on what you will do next. You just need to follow those instructions. Simple.”
Brandon barks out a laugh. “Why the fuck would I do that?”
“Because,” Kai interjects, turning the screen of his tablet around where we can see a picture of Brandon in flagrante with Summer, his current mistress, who also happens to be an employee of Black Knight Corporation. “If you don’t, then this will go out to the worldwide media, plus your wife on the same day.”
“So? Who cares who I fuck?” Brandon counters, obviously still not understanding that we hold all the cards in this situation.
“Did you know that Summer is only fifteen years old?” Ash informs him. There’s disgust in his face, but also a kind of glee at being the judge, jury, and executioner.
“W–what?” Brandon stutters, face going ashen.
“That’s right, you sick fuck,” Jax growls, fists clenched. He finds it difficult to switch the rage off once it’s started. It makes him a great punisher, but is hard for him to live with. “She’s underage.”
“And then there’s that pesky prenup you signed before getting married, the one with the adultery clause. It would mean you’ll be left destitute,” Ash says, cool as a fucking cucumber.
“H–how do you know about that?”
“There’s also the small matter of child porn on your computer,” Kai adds, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose, and ignoring Brandon’s question.
“What child porn?” Brandon’s sweating now, visibly shaking as he finally starts to realize that he’s backed into a corner.
“This is your work desktop screen, is it not?” Kai asks, turning the iPad around again and showing us a picture of anattractive middle aged woman with two young blue eyed, blonde children, with folder icons running down the side.
Brandon stays silent as Kai hits an icon, and a horrific image pops up. We all wince at this, bile rising in my throat at the picture. Kai quickly turns the screen back, but I don’t miss the haunted look in his eyes. He hates this aspect as much as the rest of us. Ironically, the song changes to Ruelle’s acoustic version ofMonsters.
“Th–that’s not…” Brandon starts, voice going quiet as he sees our stony stares. “Those are not my pictures. I swear.”
He’s telling the truth. We, well, Kai, put them there.
“That’s not our concern. But I’m sure the federal police would be interested to see them,” Ash replies, inspecting his nails, then looking back up into Brandon’s eyes.
There’s a look of resignation in them, and a twinge of guilt flashes in my gut. The small shred of humanity that’s been growing in size lately, feels unease at what we’re doing.
“Okay,” he whispers, hanging his head. “I’ll do it.”
“Excellent.” Ash flashes him a wolfish grin. “Jax.”
Jax steps closer, full of dark black violence and barely contained rage. There’s a manic look in his blue eyes, his monster is in full control.
“W–w–wait! I said I'd do it!” Brandon cries out, trying to move back in his chair.
“Yes, you did,” Ash agrees, giving Jax a nod. “But don’t worry. Jax spent a summer training as a medic in South Africa, so he knows how to leave you alive.”
Before Brandon can say anything more, Jax pulls his fist back and hits him so hard in the chest that the chair topples over. Brandon lets out a scream of pain, but Jax just hauls him back up and keeps going, his fists becoming splattered with blood. Brandon’s screams eventually turn to moans and gurgles, soon stopping completely.
Ash, Kai, and I stand sentinel, witnesses to the rage that lives in our brother.
“That’s enough, Jax,” Ash commands.
The sound of fists hitting meat stops and is replaced with Jax’s panting breaths. I watch as blood drips off his still clenched hands, leaving drops of red on white, creating another pattern on the tiles.
“Let’s untie him. I’ll call clean up and tell them to dump him outside Brompton General,” Ash orders, and we follow like the good soldiers that we are.
LILLY
