Dead Drop (The Guild #2)(54)
My lips parted, but I was at a total loss for words. So I just did as I was told and picked up the dead weight of her unconscious attacker. If she wanted to torture him, he must still be alive.
“Good choice, Big Man,” she muttered, leading the way through to the kitchen and grabbing one of the dining chairs. She placed it dead center on the tile floor and indicated for me to drop the body onto it.
I watched, utterly transfixed, as she deftly loosened the ropes she’d trussed her prisoner up with, then re-tied him to the chair with almost artistic knots and crossovers. He was still dead to the world, but I’d felt a pulse while I carried him, so he would wake up sooner or later.
“I take it you’ve done this before,” I commented, as she tightened the last of the knots around the man’s legs. She was crouched on the floor in a sleep shirt and bare feet, her white hair a tousled mess and her face clear of makeup, yet I’d never seen a woman so gorgeous in my life. Her feral, violent smirk only made me fall harder.
“What?” she quipped. “Torture a man? Or tie him up?”
My dick twitched. That definitely sounded sexual.
“Don’t worry, Big Man, this isn’t my first rodeo. Why don’t you pull up a chair and watch? Based on the way you tried to get intel out of me on your island, you could definitely do with some lessons on data extraction.” She pulled a shockingly long knife from under her shirt where she had it tucked into the waistband of her panties, and I swallowed hard. Fuck, that was hot.
“Yes, ma’am,” I murmured, doing exactly as I was told and sitting my ass down on a barstool.
She wet her lips, reminding me of how she had them wrapped—ever so briefly—around the tip of my dick earlier. “I give it twenty minutes, and this prick will sing like a bird.” She winked at me, and I needed to adjust my pants. “Time it.”
Placing her knife down on the counter, she filled a bowl with cold water from the sink, then doused her captive to wake him up.
Well shit. Color me intrigued.
24
Kai’s expression was shuttered and dark, his emotions impossible to read as he shifted on his seat and scowled in my direction. One second, I thought he was going to fuck me right here on the kitchen floor in front of my captive, then the next, he seemed like he wanted to be anywhere but here.
Big Man needed to figure his shit out, but now wasn’t the time for that chat.
I hurled my bowl of cold water in the unconscious man’s face, and he woke with a gasp like a big old fish out of water. I waited while he blinked and spluttered, disoriented, then finally settled his gaze on me with heavy resignation.
“Did you have a nice nap?” I asked sweetly, picking up my knife once more.
He wasn’t a handsome man, but I couldn’t put my finger on any one feature that made him unattractive. Maybe a combination of a weak jaw and prominent brow bone. Not that it mattered much, he’d be dead soon.
“Fuck you, bitch,” he spat, tugging on his bonds. Like I was enough of an amateur to offer even the slightest opportunity for escape with my knots. Idiot. All he was doing was tightening them.
I ignored his rather clichéd response and cast a look over at Kai. “You see, this is how you properly restrain a prisoner. None of that pathetic cable tie crap your team uses. You know how easy those are to break?” I scoffed. It had been an actual effort not to free myself while in his captivity.
Kai gave no response, and irritation flickered through me. If he was so horrified by this version of me, he could fuck right off. I’d be fine without his help; it had only been a moment of weakness that I’d reached out in the first place. But that thought still stung like acid on my insides. I didn’t want him to be horrified by me… I wanted him to see my strength and capability and actually like that about me. Wishful thinking, I guessed.
“What is this, a fucking instructional?” the asshole tied to the chair sneered.
I shrugged. “Why not? Never waste a learning opportunity, I always say.”
His lip curled in disgust. “What the fuck is a slut like you gonna teach him? How to spread your—”
Whack. The butt of my knife smacked across his face, and blood sprayed from where his eyebrow split open.
“Whoops,” I murmured. “A little too hard. I’m out of practice.” Not that my victim was listening; I’d knocked him out again. The embarrassment was all for my audience and the heavy way Kai’s gaze rested on me. I felt like a fucking rookie, not knowing how to control the power of my hits.
Biting the inside of my cheek, I refilled my water bowl and woke the fucker up once more.
Start over, Danny. This is not the time to fumble around.
“Let’s try that again, shall we?” I asked rhetorically. “I’ve really only got one question I want answered, and you will answer it eventually. How long that takes, and how painful it is, well, that’s up to you.”
The dripping wet hitman glared up at me with venom. “Fuck you.”
I laughed, and it wasn’t a kind sound. “You wish. Who hired you to kill me?”
His lips pulled up in a sneer again. “Santa Claus.”
That answer wasn’t even remotely shocking. He’d be a pretty lousy assassin if he caved that easily. So I smiled sweetly and slashed his shirt open with my blade, making sure it nicked his skin plenty in the process. When I was done, his jaw was tight, but he wasn’t in pain. Not yet, anyway.