Page 126 of Love Thy Brother
Get him out of here.
For a long moment, nothing happened. Then Riverslow-blinked, and something seemed to change. He caught Cam as he stomped forward and tugged him back. “Let’s go.”
Cam planted his feet. “Not until he tells me what the fuck’s going on.”
“He can tell you later.” River reinstated his grip, stronger this time, and pulled harder. “Comeon.”
Cam was the stubbornest motherfucker, but River knew his weak points better than anyone. He murmured something I didn’t catch, and Cam relented.
They left the house the way they’d entered, through the flimsy rear door. I waited for the weak bolt to slide back into place. The quiet snick. Then I expelled a stressed breath and returned to the hellscape I’d left behind in the front room.
Folk had been busy while I’d been gone. He’d raided the kitchen for supplies, tied our mark’s hands with rolled clingfilm, and hung him by his collar from a sturdy and convenient wall light.
The mark was barely conscious. I’d already kicked seven bells of shite out of him before my careless gaze had fallen on his laptop screen.
Now the fucker was lucky he could still breathe.
Nausea rolled in my belly, rising in my throat. I forced it down and took a seat on the futon these cunts were using as a bed. I tapped a couple of laptop keys with gloved fingers, clicking through photos and videos that made my skin crawl. “I ain’t gonna make you look, but you should know this dude isn’t just watching this shit. He’s filming himself too.”
Folk had drifted to the doorway to keep an eye on the other mark. “I already looked,” he said flatly. “I wiped the webcam and disabled it.”
Like he knew silly old me was gonna come park my arse in front of it. “The other one still out?”
“Stirring a bit.”
“Bring him in.” I kept tapping on the laptop, hoping for some luck that I found in the next open tab. “Bingo.”
Folk hauled the other rat into the room and dumped him by the wall. “What have you got?”
“Facebook page. Wide open.”
“Check his messages.”
“Nah. I’ve seen enough. Wake the other cunt up.”
Folk obliged with a brutal kick to the ribs.
The dude on the floor coughed himself awake, gaze flying around the room until it landed on me.
His eyes widened with recognition. If there was any doubt we’d hit the wrong crew, it was gone in that moment.
I channelled Alexei and smiled with no joy and a hundred percent malice. “Remember me?”
The dude gulped and scrambled to a sitting position. “It wasn’t me, man. I was just a passenger.”
“I don’t give a shit. Put your back to the wall.”
Dude bro didn’t move.
Folk stepped closer and pointed to the woodchip. “The wall. Now.”
He spoke with zero aggression. Gentle, almost. Later, I’d concur he was the scariest motherfucker on the road tonight. Right now, I needed his deathly calm to function. I clicked back to the freak show we’d walked in on and spun the screen to show gang friend on the floor. “Your mate’s a turbo-nonce. This a bit of you too?”
“What? No. Fuck.No. Turn it off.”
The dude cringed enough that I believed him, though it was hard to discern anything from a face as fucked up as his. River had got him good.
I left the vid playing, angling it so me and Folk didn’t have to face it again. “What’s your name?”
