Deadly Chaos (Steel Roses Book 2)

by Samantha Bee

  He's been under Romano's thumb for long enough to not be a complete idiot. He's picked up on the different ways there are to stay off grid. He won't be able to last as long as Ciar though. I know that. I know he's bound to slip and soon. I can practically taste it in the air.

  Nothing in his financials. I start to go through his closest known associates. Of all the players on the board, Drew is the most likely to reach out to someone he knows for help. I check his parents and siblings first but find no sign of suspicious activity or chance for them to see each other. No signs of communication. Of course, there are ways around that, I just don't think he's smart enough to think of them. Or if he is, he's far too arrogant that he won't bother to cover his tracks so thoroughly.

  I continue going through the list, flagging, and digging deeper into any activity that seems out of the ordinary or suspicious. The guys pretty much leave me alone as I work through each person. I don't know how long it's been since I started doing this.

  The guys confirmed that the car and license plate was a dead end hours ago. Declan briefly stops me to force some food down my throat. I eat a little bit while I continue working, knowing that fighting him will only make this take longer.

  "This is it," I whisper to myself, a smug grin spreading across my face. I knew he would get overconfident it was only a matter of time. Laughter bubbles up out of me, breaking the heavy silence of the room. Even I can acknowledge that it sounded more than just a little bit manic.

  The guys are all immediately surrounding me as I pull up the coordinates I just found. "Andrew Greene," I answer their unspoken question.

  Kade and Luca begin to grin. We had talked about him being the most likely candidate to fuck up first. "Ciar's second?" Ryder asks, a bit hesitant.

  I nod and see both of the other guys do so as well. Declan leans back, looking over my shoulder at the information I've collected. I watch as his eyes fly over the words on the screen.

  "His cousin sent ten thousand dollars to an account he's never had any interaction with before. The account was almost immediately activated, and a withdrawal was made." I click a few more buttons and pull up the footage I was able to hack into from the ATM machine.

  Declan whistles as it begins to play. We all watch as Drew pulls out the money. I was already fairly positive it was him, but the footage confirms it. I grin. I find the identity he's using based on the withdrawal and account. It takes me only a few more minutes to get an address under that name. We've got him. He's not Noah, but it's a good first step to getting him back.

  "Let's go."

  I drag my knife down the center of his chest. He whimpers behind the gag. I dig in a little deeper. Not enough to cause permanent damage. Just enough for blood to trail down his chest in these beautiful little streams.

  I love making wicked men bleed.

  "How long do you think you could stay conscious for if I split you open and let your organs spill out on the floor?"

  His color pales and I throw my head back and laugh as he turns even more ashen. I would like to experiment with him, but I can't risk him dying before we have our answers. I plan on wringing every drop of information out of him before I let him die.

  If I weren’t so desperate to get Noah back, I would be almost disappointed by how easy this truly is going to be.

  Andrew Greene is weak.

  He has no loyalty.

  He won't be hard to break.

  Too bad he doesn't realize that no matter what information he gives up, his death won't be an easy one. Oh no. I'm trying to inflict the maximum amount of pain and suffering as I can in the shortest amount of time. I would love to drag it out, over days even. But I can't wait that long for Noah. Can't leave him for that long with those fucking bastards.

  I walk around him, handing one of my blades to Kade. I take my time as I light up a cigarette and hand him the lighter with a wink. Based on the savage gleam in his eyes, he already knew exactly where I was going with this.

  I walk back around to face Drew, my eyes drawn down to the way blood is still flowing freely down his chest. The cut starts razor thin, just below the hollow of his throat. It gradually gets bigger as I look lower.

  I inhale on my cigarette as I get closer to him. I press my index finger to the top of the cut, applying a small amount of pressure as I trace down along it. He flinches and I smirk around the cigarette in my mouth, pressing harder as my finger slides through his blood.

  As I get about halfway down, I can feel where the cut gets deeper, rather than just superficial. I'm able to slip my finger in the wound, causing the skin around it to stretch and tear more as I go. His face turns red as he screams behind the gag.

  "Oh, honey. I'm only getting started." I slide my finger in deeper. The tearing of the skin so much more painful than the clean cut of my blade. I work all the way down, stretching out the entire wound. Smiling as the blood pours that much faster.

  I hum to myself, ignoring the way he pants and yells behind the gag. I can only imagine just what he is saying to me. I'm guessing he's still at the cursing me out phase. That's okay. I'm still in the punishment portion of our night together. We can get to spilling his guts in a bit. I smirk, I guess we can both do our own versions of that one.

  I grin up at him as I take the cigarette out from between my lips. I burn it into the cut where it just starts to go deeper. Digging the cherry end into his flesh. Tears and sweat pour down his face as he screams, but I just push it in all the harder.

  "Ah, you're right." I tap my forehead like I just realized something. I probably have more fun than I should fucking with my victims. I just can't think of them that way. Victims. Nah. People like Drew fucking Greene here are the tormentors. Even as he comes under my blade, he's not a victim. He chose this. He asked and begged for this. Not in the way rapists always say their victims did. No.

  Every action Drew took against an innocent human was another black mark against him. Karma collects those and I just so happen to be on good terms with her. Both being bitches and all. I'm more than happy to deliver some karmic justice on her behalf.

  I'll even accept the damage to my own soul, though I really feel like I'm doing a good deed.

  Kade walks behind me, still holding my lighter to the blade I handed him. He stops just where Drew can see what he's doing. See the gleaming blade in his hand, just as it starts to glow.

  "That's not the way to properly cauterize a wound," I say, and glee fills me at the way his eyes widen as understanding dawns on him.

  Kade moves closer to hand me the blade. I don't bother with any questions, not yet. I move the blade until I'm pressing it against his skin and the scent of burning flesh fills the room. It shouldn't make me so happy, but fuck, it does. I've long since accepted I'm not quite right in the head.

  I hold it in the same spot, digging it in before moving it up an inch higher and starting all over again. Luca chuckles from behind me. "I like the way you hold your hand so steady. Really makes sure to seal it."

  I can hear the amusement in his tone. I chuckle as I move another inch up. Drew strains against his ties, desperate to break free and get away from the way I sear his flesh. Too bad no one is as good at knots as Kade is. He's nice and safely stuck to that chair until I deem otherwise.

  Luca is a smart ass. We all know that if I were trying to actually heal him, I would be going about it in the worst possible way. You only truly need to hold the hot metal to the flesh for a second or two. Not nearly as long as I'm enjoying pressing it into his skin, leaving behind angry third degree burns.

  By the time I'm done, letting Kade reheat the blade once more as I poked and prodded the burns, Drew's chest looks like a mosaic of all the pain I've been forced to endure. I hum to myself. The cut and burns remind me of the laces on a football. Destruction is just so damn pretty.

  I'm done playing now though. I hand my blade to Kade once more to reheat.

  I keep my voice calm and measured. As I look into his eyes. I truly do love the pure te
rror I find there. "I've been wanting to try cutting someone's tongue out," I admit to him. "It seems like so much fun. Sends a nice message too, you know?" I pat his shoulder as if he agreed with me. "I'm sure you know all about that. Romano is big on sending messages, isn't he?"

  He tries to shake his head, but I grip his chin in my hand, squeezing until I know it's hard enough to leave bruises. Possibly even cut the inside of his cheeks as I grind the delicate flesh into his teeth.

  As soon as Kade hands the knife back to me I move closer to Drew and straddle his lap. I hear growls behind me, but I ignore them. I'm going to need the leverage and the proximity for what I have planned.

  Plus, won't it be fun when he tries to buck me off and realizes just how helpless he is? Completely under my will. No power to be spoken of. Hmm. Karma at her absolute finest.

  "The only problem is, if I cut out your tongue, you won't be able to tell me what I need to know." He starts trying to shake his head again now that I've released his chin. Guess he didn't see the way I had positioned the knife so that as soon as he turned to the right, the flat of the blade pressed into his cheek, scorching the fragile skin there.

  I click my tongue in disapproval, even as I move my other hand so he can't turn or lean away from the hot metal now. "I wonder if I could burn a hole right through your cheek?" I pull the blade away slightly from the now smoking flesh. "Should we try?"

  He doesn't move. "Good." I pat his head in mock approval. "You can learn. I'm impressed."

  Kade grabs my blade once more. "I have questions. You're going to answer them." I flick my eyes pointedly at the blade. "You lie, refuse to answer, or try to hurt me or them. You even hesitate in your answers," I pause. I wait until I have my blade in hand once more. I hold it up directly in front of his left eye. "I will carve your eyes out of your head and send them to your mother."

  I dig the glowing tip into his skin, just under his eye. He shakes as he fights from flinching from the pain, not wanting to risk my hand slipping. Wouldn't that be fun?

  "Do you understand?" He doesn't dare move and I grin. Too bad I think that's going to be all it takes to gain his cooperation. I could have had so much more fun. But I'm eager to get to Noah.

  I pull the blade away and he gives me one slow blink. I cut through the gag and free it from his mouth. A part of me is disappointed he stays quiet. Well not totally quiet, he cries like a little bitch.

  Without the gag smothering them, I can hear the sound of his whimpers. I roll my eyes.

  I ask every single question I can think of and Luca takes notes of all his answers. Cross checking them with everything we already knew. We go for what seems like forever. He adds answers to questions I didn’t even think to ask. He seems convinced that Ciar has stayed local. Is biding his time but is determined to get back what he considers his. That little bit of knowledge sends me down a whole new path of questions. Until I can't think of any other single thing that he could tell us. There are no signs or even hints of him lying to us. Damn. I wish I could punish him a bit more.

  I look over to Luca and Kade, trying to gain their opinions. They both nod. We should have everything we need and based on the way that Luca is tapping away at his tablet, I'm guessing that he's already started putting plans into motion.

  I hum, turning back to Drew. "Seems like our fun is over." His body sags in relief. I don't really understand why. It's not like we were ever going to let him walk out of here. He has to know that. I barely even tortured him. He deserves so much fucking worse.

  Kade kept my blade glowing the entire time we went through this process. Just the act of Kade holding the flame to it enough encouragement for him to keep talking. He just handed it back to me only moments ago for the last time. I look down at the way it still just faintly glows with red.

  I shrug as I scoot back so I'm sitting on his knees. I wrap my legs around the legs of the chair to anchor me into place. I take the knife and slam the flat side of it hard to where his dick is. The punch of it knocking him breathless for a second before the heat kicks in.

  I take great pleasure as the thin material of his basketball shorts and boxers burn and melt into his dick before the blade itself reaches the skin. Wails of pure agony are ripped from his throat as he sobs and convulses. He does his best to get me off of him, the blade away from his flesh, but I just push all the harder. My legs anchor me, so I easily am able to keep my balance.

  He can't manage any words, but I can see the confusion in his eyes.

  "You touched my daughter," I hiss between gritted teeth. Understanding dawns on him half a second before I remove the knife and slice it across his throat in one smooth motion.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  I look over at Ian as we make our way down the street. The late afternoon sun bearing down on us feels wrong for what we are here to do, but we couldn’t wait for the cover of night to narrow down our search for Noah.

  None of us have had more than an hour of sleep since he was taken yesterday, and I know Scar hasn’t slept even a wink. She’s living purely off of the adrenaline and the need to find him that is devouring her. She’s going to fall apart if we don’t get him back soon. She can’t continue the way she has been going without deteriorating.

  She won’t survive without getting him back. I don’t think any of us will.

  Ian and I continue to move casually down the street, baseball caps pulled as low as we can without garnering suspicion from the other residents. I was surprised when Luca sent this address through. It’s in the center of a middle class suburb of St Graves. Not where you would expect someone like Romano to have a safehouse. I guess that’s the whole point though.

  Still, I can’t shake the nagging feeling in my gut that this isn’t where Noah will be. Too many neighbors and not enough space between the houses to work well as a place to hold someone captive.

  I check my phone and share my doubts with Luca, not that we can’t search out every single lead we get regardless. Hopefully one of the other teams is having better luck at their locations. We had a long enough list to make our way through.

  Ian and I both look out for any signs of activity or surveillance, but we see none. Nothing seems out of place on this quiet street even as we get closer to the address we have. We make our way past the house but there’s no signs of movement or even cars in front of the driveway.

  Ian taps my shoulder and stops as he lifts his phone to his ear and pretends to take a call. I lean back against a wall and tilt my head slightly down to appear as if I’m just staring at my phone while I wait for him. The dark lenses of my glasses allow me to scan around the house, but I see no signs of anyone being here recently.

  Ian steps a few feet away from me, moving in circles as he nods his head. I know he’s searching for anyone watching the house. If they were keeping Noah here, there would be some sign of security. Someone watching the front of the house. But there’s nothing.

  He isn’t here.

  I’m sure of it.

  Ian shakes his head as he hangs up the phone and I know that he agrees. Without saying anything, we continue to casually move down the street until we hit the next block and begin to circle back. I shoot a quick text to Adam and it doesn’t take long before I see the familiar black sedan ahead of us. He stops just long enough for us to hop into the vehicle before we head to the next location on our list.

  I avoid texting Scar, knowing that she’s still pulling any relative information out of Greene that she can manage and instead let Luca know to cross that one off the list of possibilities. It just doesn’t make any sense for that to be the place where they’re keeping him.

  Ian grunts from the front seat as he shakes his head, slamming backwards. The frustration is hitting all of us. Even with information pouring through, it’s taking too fucking long to get anything concrete. He presses his eyes closed tightly. “Mikey and Ronan met a dead end too. Holden and Ty are still coming up on their first hit.”

  I sigh, the anxiety creeping up on me
the longer this takes. There’s just no faster way for us to do this. Every single location we check off has to be surveyed with stealth as to not tip our hand too early. Even if it isn’t the house he’s at, if they’re even half as thorough as Scar, they will have surveillance on all of their safe houses. We can’t afford to go in guns blazing until we know we have the right targets to take out.

  Adam pulls onto the freeway as we head farther out of town for our next address. All of us started with the ones in the city and are branching out in different directions until we find anything that looks like it could be the place.

  I check in with Declan and he assures me he’s back at his place. I can feel his ire through the simple message, and it makes me smirk. Scar had told him in no uncertain terms that he would be moving in whether he liked it or not. I think we all felt more than a little relief that he didn’t bother to even argue with her and just went along with it. That isn’t why he’s annoyed with her though.

  Scar demanded he stay home until we pick him up. I know she just wants him safe, but I could see the way he wanted to be a part of this just as much as the rest of us. Noah is his family too. But none of us were willing to push her, not when she’s on the verge of breaking.

  Instead, as they headed out to collect Greene and the rest of us met up to chase down any leads we could, Declan did his part by getting his medical supplies ready. He made the valid point that they would come in handy if Noah needs medical attention. Then followed Scar’s instructions to head home to sit and wait. I’m sure it chafes to not be able to do more, but she also wasn’t wrong. Declan has had no training with us on how to handle these situations. The rest of us have had months to prepare for something like this. Her peace of mind is just as vital to getting Noah back as anything else. She can’t be worried about Noah and Declan.

  We drive for maybe fifteen minutes before Adam slows the car down once more, letting Ian and I hope out as he continues on. We repeat the same pattern of easing our way towards our destination, seemingly in no hurry even as my heart beats to an erratic tune with my anxiety. I can barely hear over the rush of the blood flowing in my veins, driving me to want to move faster.