Tirone (The Night Skulls MC #2)(2)
A burning sigh moaned out of me, and I opened my eyes, almost thankful to the asshole. “You were a brilliant student, and you wasted it all.”
“There’s nothing I regret more than the time I left. Never again, Miss Meneceo. I promise you.”
I glared at him. “Tell that to your new teachers, if you’re ever going back to school. Like I said, I’m no longer your teacher. Never again.”
“Don’t say that,” he said in warning. Then his voice softened. “Who knows? Maybe you and I end up in the same school again. By the looks of it, we’re both moving in here, and the odds are in our favor.”
“Ah, Prez, hate to break that heartfelt family reunion, but we gotta get going, y’all,” Molar suddenly said. “Enzio is waiting in the garage and can roam free any minute now.”
Without any more waiting or hesitation, Tirone placed my arm on his shoulder and wrapped his own arm around my waist, as if he had a right to me, dragging me away. I reached out for Laius’s help with my gaze, but I didn’t fight. Any more resistance from me would confirm any suspicions Laius might have had. When he just nodded at me, I lowered my head and walked away in defeat.
“Go downstairs, then down the hall and turn left. Take the other stairs to the basement. There’s another hall. Take a right. It’s the room with the big padlock.” Molar took a key out of a chain and gave it to Tirone as I put my sunglasses on. “Got it or do I draw you a little map?”
Ty twisted his jaw. “I’m good.”
“Glad you are, Rex.” Molar slugged Ty on his back as we headed out of the room, but then he squeezed Ty’s shoulder, dragging him back a step, and leaned in to whisper in his ear. I was close enough to hear him, though. “This is Prez’s old lady, huh? She’s off-limits.”
My brows hooked at him. Where was that coming from? Did Molar suspect anything?
“She’s my teacher, asshole,” Ty whispered back with equal covert animosity.
“Don’t give a shit. Don’t think I’m fooled by your warm homecoming bullshit. I know you’re up to no good. She’s a woman you’re gonna be alone with in a locked room.”
Ty snorted. “Spare me your shit. I’ve known her much longer than any of y’all. She’s safer with me than with any of your sussy asses.”
“And I’ve known your daddy before you were even born. He’s my friend and my prez. I won’t let you do anything to hurt him.” Molar patted Ty’s shoulder heavily. “Good to have you home, Rex. Glad you’re getting that accent back, too,” he said for all of us to hear and made way for me and Ty to move. “Don’t trip on the way down, boy.”
Tirone ignored him and led us to the basement. The muscles around my heart contracted as I became alone with him. I wasn’t ready for whatever malice he had in mind when he’d have me completely isolated. It became hard to breathe. The musty smell didn’t help, and the fog around my head wouldn’t clear.
He held me with a tight grip, as if I was a prisoner he guarded, and didn’t say anything all the way. It spiked up my dread. The dark, dreary hall made it even worse. I took off the sunglasses and put them on my head so I could see. When we found the room with the padlock, he threw one glare at me before he unlocked the door.
The room looked like a cement tomb. It was empty of any laundry equipment. No smell of detergent either. Just an awful metallic scent like that of…blood. My gaze dropped on the floor, on the dark red brown stains on the cement. “What the hell is this place?”
He made me enter. “The infamous Boiler.”
“This can’t be a laundry room.” If the key hadn’t unlocked the door, I’d have thought we’d taken a wrong turn.
“Since when are you that naive, Jo? There is no laundry room.”
“Then what is this for?”
“It’s where your darling Furore tortures people into giving him what he wants.” He gestured at the spots on the floor. “And if they don’t, this is where he kills them.”
I faltered, my eyes widening at the actual dried blood marks. Tirone steadied me with a sickening smirk on his face, kicking the door closed behind us, where I, the woman who had drugged him and left him in a ditch, was locked up all alone with him, easy prey, in a fucking torture room.
CHAPTER 2
Tirone
A Few Months Ago
“You can’t be here.” Jo’s voice wavered behind the closed door of her apartment. She wouldn’t even open it for me.
“Let me in,” I whispered, clenching my fists.
“No. Go home.”
“Open the door and let me in.” I kept my voice down for the last time. “Or my next words will be heard by the whole building, Miss Meneceo.”
Clack. Squeak. Then I saw her brown, doe eyes, red and irritated, staring at me behind a chain. They darted around, right and left. “How did you get in the building?”
I have my ways. I pointed at the chain lock, fury shaking through my finger. “Take down this shit and let me get inside, Jo. I won’t say it again.”
Her eyes bounced around the story corners again before she looked down and closed the door. The silence lasted more than one second. Fist prepared to tear down that fucking door if she didn’t open it, I snarled, about to yell her name at the top of my lungs. But then the door opened a tiny crack. That was all I needed to slip in.