Secret Mayhem (Back Down Devil MC #4)(55)

“Get him back up. We can’t kill him.”

Shay closed his eyes and felt himself being lifted. Once he was back in his original sitting position, he opened his eyes. The room stopped spinning, but the pain got worse.

“Are we done?” Shay asked.

“Not quite,” the man on the left said. “Now it’s my turn.” He reached into his suit and pulled out a pair of cutters. “I’m going to send your club a little joke. Wouldn’t it be great for them to receive two of your fingers? Just like your friend.”

Shay looked at the man and spit a glob of puke and blood. It hit the guys jacket and shirt. He turned the cutters point down and stabbed them into Shay’s left forearm.

Shay let out a harrowing scream.

“That’s enough!” a voice boomed.

Silence filled the room except for Shay’s heavy breathing. He wasn’t going to pass out. Not like this. Not tied to a chair. If this was the end of his life, he would accept it and take it all in. He wouldn’t close his eyes and succumb to it.

A set of footsteps echoed and Shay watched his brother come into view.

Caius.

Still a few inches shorter than Shay, skinnier, his face long and slim. He had a devilish grin on his face and his eyes were tiny dots of pure evil.

“You hurt my brother,” Caius said. “I said to keep him still. Loosen him up.”

“We did sir,” the man on the left said. “He threw up. Then he spit on me.”

“So you stabbed him?”

“I was going to cut off two fingers,” the man said. “For fun.”

“For fun,” Caius said. He looked at Shay. “See the help I have?”

“I see,” Shay said. “Pussies who fight a guy when he is tied up. Punch him with brass knuckles on. Stab him. Yeah, that’s the kind of help you would have. The kind that does all the dirty work because you're not man enough to do it yourself."

Caius’s lip curled. He charged at Shay and wrapped his hand around the cutters buried in Shay’s arm.

“Weak?” Caius asked. “You think I’m weak? Look what I’ve done.”

Caius pulled the cutters from Shay’s arm. The pain surged again and blood seeped from the open wound. Shay gritted his teeth and hissed, refusing to show any pain in front of his brother. That would please Caius too much.

Shay kept his eyes open wide and stared at his brother.

Caius lifted the cutters and rubbed his thumb along the blades. He collected the blood on his thumb and then licked it. He smacked his lips together.

“My blood, your blood,” Caius said. “Our blood, Shay. We’re brothers. Until death.”

“Fuck you,” Shay said. “Look at you. Look at this game you’re playing. You’re weak. You should be the one fighting me."

Caius pulled a gun from his jacket and looked at it. He nodded. “Maybe you’re right. I just needed to secure the area, that’s all. I didn’t tell these guys to do what they did. They just… respect me that much.”

“That’s right, sir,” the man on the left said.

Caius pointed the gun at Shay. Shay braced himself to be killed.

One shot rang out and the head of the man on the left damn near exploded. Then he pointed the gun at the man on the right and one more shot did the same.

Both men dropped and Caius tucked the gun away.

“There,” Caius said. “My apologies for what they did to you.”

Shay looked to his left and right. He’d seen hundreds of bodies in his life, but this started to bother him. His brother was a f*cking sick man.

“Why?” Shay asked. “What is all this? You just decide to blow up my car? Start a war?”

Caius nodded. “It wasn’t that. I just wanted you to die, Shay. I wanted you to suffer. Seeing the control that f*cking club has over you pissed me off. You’re not meant for that life. You’re not meant for any life. When the bomb exploded, and you weren't in there, I saw the way it affected your club. And the more I researched… the more I talked to Strokner… the more I realized how powerful you really are, Shay. I mean, Strokner's lips flap more than a f*cking hooker’s do. Come on, you guys trust that man? He damn near led me to everything. To the land with the bodies. To the fights. Everything.”

Shay swallowed hard.

Fucking Strokner…

He hated that pompous businessman *. And the only reason he had been involved in the club was because his daughter had been shot and killed at a fight.

“Wasn’t my decision to get in bed with Strokner,” Shay said.

“So your club has weaknesses.”

“Everyone does.”

“Not me,” Caius said. “I just proved that to you. Those men were good to me. But it was time for them to die. I made that decision.”

“That’s right… I forgot Caius was short for God.”

Caius laughed. He touched Shay's face. “Oh, my brother. Look at you. You need a shower. A suit. A purpose. I’m sorry this has to be like this. But I’m going to take over your town. It’s perfect for what I want and need.”

“You’re doing a hell of a job.”

“Where’s your club at now?”

“I don’t know,” Shay said. “They threw me here because I lied to them.”