Page 113 of Born into Madness
“Of course I worry. I love you.”
I groan at the sound of those three words and kiss her once more, losing myself in her for a few precious minutes before I feel my phone start to buzz. I’m already late, I tell myself. There’s no way in hell I have time for a quickie. Usually, I’d be racing out the door to get started on what’s about to happen, but Cyn makes it very difficult to leave her. If anyone could get me to stop being who I am, it would be her.
There’s no changing what or who I am, though, so with another pained groan I pull back from our kiss and then quickly give her one more before standing back up.
“As soon as I get back I want you naked,krovinka.”
The corner of her mouth quirks up. “Maybe,” she says, fighting a grin. “Or maybe you’ll have to catch me first.”
“Jesus,” I groan. I point my finger at her. “I knew the second I saw you that you were going to be trouble.”
She laughs and then looks down and raises a brow at what she sees. “You might want to get rid of that thing before you leave.”
I adjust my painfully hard cock and say, “This is completely your fault. You’ve made me insatiable when it comes to you.”
She grins and then gives me a cute wave before I open the door to the garage. I send a quick text to my dad, letting him know I’m on my way, and then get on my bike and head to the warehouse where I usually do all my killing. Last night after I’d brought Cyn home, Damien and Luka had gone out and paid a visit to the Alpha frat house. They’d grabbed Tom, and now the bastard is tied up and waiting for me, and I can’t wait to ask him a few questions.
When I get there and walk into the familiar room, my family is already there and waiting. We all want to make sure this shit gets taken care of, and Tom is our way to Cupid. I didn’t want to scare Cyn, but what we walked into last night wasn’t just a bunchof frat boys drugging women and having a night with them. It was bigger than that. You don’t hold girls for days, and you sure as fuck don’t keep adding to the numbers, unless they’re part of a much bigger scheme. We suspect that might be sex trafficking, but we need Tom to confirm it.
“I’m not used to you showing up late,” my Uncle Vitaly says in Russian. He grins at me and asks, “Have you lost the urge to kill now that you’re in love?”
I pull my knife from my belt sheath and say, “No, it’s still there, but I don’t think I’ll get hard when I do it anymore.”
“Jesus, kid,” he says and then waves a finger around at my uncles and cousins. “We all sincerely hope that’s true.”
My dad laughs and claps me on the back. “Okay, son, do your thing. He hasn’t said a word since we took him.”
I look over at the man who’s tied to a chair in the middle of the room. He’s lanky, looks more like the kind of guy who spends his time in a library instead of a gym, but my dad’s right. He doesn’t look scared. Cautious, yes, but not scared, and that’s not normal.
When I start to walk towards him, Damien says, “We took his laptop and phone. I’m going to fly out later today and give it to Niki myself.”
Tom’s eyes dart around the room, watching and listening even though he doesn’t understand a word of what we’re saying. His blond hair is cut short, his clothes about as preppy as you can get, and there’s a sneer to his mouth that reminds me of all the spoiled little fucks I went to high school with. He’s the kind of guy who will always look down on others, no matter how much money they have, no matter where they’re from—if you don’t fit his exact criteria, then you’ll always be below him. I’m guessing my tattooed, law-breaking family doesn’t check a single one of his boxes.
Even though he doesn’t have a gag, he’s not saying a word, not screaming in fright, not begging to be released, just silence. I’m curious to see how long he can hold out.
Not wasting any time, I step closer and ask, “Who’s Cupid?”
He lifts his eyes to mine, but keeps his mouth shut. I point my knife at him. “You’re the one who gets to decide how bloody this gets, Tom. I can make your death as quick and painless as possible, or I can make it so that you slowly bleed out all over the goddamn floor. Your choice.”
When he still doesn’t say anything, I grab his zip-tied wrists and haul his ass up. He doesn’t fight me when I drag him to the nearest hook that’s hanging from the ceiling and attach his wrists to it so he’s hanging with just the tips of his toes hitting the ground.
“Still don’t want to talk?” I ask.
He finds his voice and says, “I can’t tell you anything, so you might as well kill me now.”
“Don’t rush me, Tom. We’re just getting started.” I let him see how sharp my knife is as I cut through his nice Polo shirt. Hanging from a hook in a warehouse full of Bratva men is bad enough, but doing it naked is a whole other experience. I can feel the change come over Tom as I start to strip him. There’s a vulnerability to being naked that usually tips people over the edge and gets them talking, and sure enough when I cut through his plaid boxers, he opens his mouth.
“I’m not being stubborn,” he insists. “I genuinely don’t know anything. I would tell you if I did.”
“That’s very kind of you,” I say, ripping the last bit of fabric from his body and then relieving him of his socks and shoes. “The problem is that I don’t believe you. You’re the one he got in contact with. You’re the one in direct communication with him.”
I step back and run my eyes over Tom. “You really should’ve eaten more protein when you had the chance, Tom. You are skin and bones.”
Despite what he might think, I take no pleasure in exposing a man’s dick and making him feel weak and useless. I don’t feel bad about it, but I’m not getting off on it either. It doesn’t excite me the way stabbing him will, but what I told my uncle is true. I really doubt I get hard from it. Cyn hasn’t taken away my need for this, but she has changed it. There’s no longer any sexual arousal at what I’m about to do, but I do still love the control, and I’m still fascinated by how the body works and how the mind cracks when the body breaks.
“What were they going to do with all those women?” I ask him.
“I don’t know,” he says.
