Page 39 of Till The Sun Dies (Checkmate 2)

“Almost done, big boy.”

Now that he’s stopped throwing his weight around and is nothing more than a slumped bag of bones, I drop to my knees and yank his underwear down.

“Ah, Riggs?” Spence watches on with a grimace. Slicing a man up does nothing to his sensibilities, but kneeling in front of a naked man gets him all queasy. “What are you doing?”

I look up and meet Graham’s terrified eyes. “You know how they castrate a lamb?”

“No.” He throws his head back. “No! No! No! Stop!”

“It’s okay, Grant, I YouTubed it. You can trust me.” I turn to Kane. “You gotta hold his dick.”

“I’m not touching his dick! Get the fuck outta here.”

“I’m cutting his nuts out whether you want to or not. Someone’s gotta hold his dick so I don’t accidentally cut it off.”

“I’m not touching his dick!”

“I got it.” Spence steps forward with a pair of long nose pliers. “I didn’t even know this was something I wanted to do until now.”

He opens the pliers and maneuvers Graham’s soft cock between the teeth. When he closes them further than any man could handle and Graham’s screaming turns to something animalistic, I take what I need from my pants pocket and look up into his eyes.

“Your forehead will tell women the truth. But if they’re too blind or stupid to understand it, then I’m making sure you won’t touch a woman again.”

Remorselessly, I slide my blade along the underside of his testicles and scrunch my nose at the surge of blood that fills my hands. “I feel like a doctor.” I lean in indecently close and work on pulling his testicles down through the slit. “I feel all powerful and shit.”

When I get no response from Graham, I glance up and find him out cold. “Pussy. Anyone’d think his dick was caught in a pair of pliers.”

Spence cackles. “You’re a sick motherfucker, Riggs. But I’m gonna keep you around. I like you.”

Ten minutes and a pair of balls later, we wrap a still unconscious Graham in a plastic sheet and toss him back into my trunk.

“Forest?” Kane stops in front of me and works a wet towel over his hands to clean Graham’s blood away. “Desert? Dealer’s choice.”

Oz’s kids flash through my mind. “Not the forest; lots of kids live around here. Let’s just take him home. Dump him back in his bed. We don’t want him walking through town tomorrow and getting the cops involved.”

“Home?” He shrugs. “Works for me. Tuck him back into bed and wish him happy dreams.”

“Exactly. He’s not gonna die.”

“Unlikely. You closed him up nice and neat. You’ve got skills.”

“Mm.” I close the trunk and move around to the driver’s side. “A kid learns shit when he’s gotta stitch his mom up three times a week.” I shake Spence’s hand when he stops beside my car. “Nice to meet you.”

He chuckles. “I know you mean that. You’ve got a pal now, Riggs. I’ll see you around.”

“Yeah.” I slide in and start the loud engine. I don’t hear the words spoken between Kane and Spence, and I don’t much care. I’m ready to get rid of Graham.

I’m ready to go back to Laine.

And even if I can never tell her what we did, I’ll know in my mind I made her safe. I avenged her pain.

I’ll spend the rest of my life fighting her monsters back just so she can sleep a little easier.

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