Page 50 of Ash

Rule Six - Never leave a weapon in the room. Always carry them with you and keep them with you.

Rule Seven - Dispose of the body in a body bag and get it incinerated in the crematorium as soon as possible, along with the disposable suits, the person’s clothes and other personal belongings. Never keep a souvenir.

Rule Eight - Thoroughly clean everything, including the toolbelts and weapons, afterwards before showering in the separate wet room and then changing back into normal clothing.

These rules had kept us safe and out of jail and, hopefully, would continue to do so.

The big guy was hanging up in the main room when we entered, in a very similar position to the one I was in last night. His eyes widened when he saw us. I smirked. He wasn’t so sure of himself now.

We were a pretty scary sight, I guessed, because it was obvious from our outfits what we had planned. The guy was going to die here today; that was a foregone conclusion, and he knew it. The only thing for him now was to decide how much pain he was willing to suffer first because we wanted information from him, and unlike him and the little fucker Mohammed, we were very good at extracting information.

Luca and Vlad had already started by the look of things. The guy’s mouth was bloody, and there was an obvious swelling appearing on the right side of his face.

“Guy was mouthing off about beating you up, Ash, so we gave him a taste of Bratva justice,” Vlad said.

I smirked again, nodding in approval.

“Fucker,” Miki said, pulling a knife from his tool belt and, within minutes, the big guy was screaming for him to stop. Yet the asshole had only answered a couple of our questions.

My dad had taught us how to make shallow cuts so that they caused a great deal of pain but didn’t actually hit anything vital. Just in case we wanted the guys to live. Also, because, to tell the truth, none of us were into blood and guts, nor was it some sort of power trip for us. We simply wanted to get the information we needed as quickly as possible and then put an end to things.

If someone ended up here, it was because they were a real threat to our family or our allies and not someone we could deal with legitimately. Never anyone who was innocent or who could be otherwise persuaded to talk, and only ever men! No women. If we ever found ourselves needing information from a woman, there were other methods of persuasion that didn’t include direct violence.

We tended to go for maximum pain with little effort, but we could and would get far more brutal if the need arose. That tended to be determined by how resistant the person was to our brand of persuasion or the reason they ended up here in the first place.

We gave the asshole a short breather before my turn.

This guy had beaten me and was probably going to kill me so that in itself had signed his death warrant. However, his actions had also put Gracie in danger, and that made me absolutely furious with the bastard. Also, considering he and Mohammed were the reason I was in no fit state to slake my lust with Gracie tonight, I was going to make sure he suffered a bit extra for that.

I planned on getting a few punches in and then continuing with the questions. However, as I approached the asshole, he decided to taunt me.

“That is one cute little blond bitch you have there, Ash; bet she’s a great fuck. I bet she tastes really good, too,” he said, and that was it. The red mist descended, and I spiralled.

I punched his stomach. My body ached with the effort, but I paid it no attention. I punched him again and again, enjoying his grunts of pain.

I kept hitting him. The sound of blood rushed in my ears as my whole body shook with rage.How dare the fucker talk about Gracie like that. I was going to fucking kill him!

I was vaguely aware of voices shouting, but I was too far gone for the words to penetrate. At some point, I became aware of hands on me, pulling at me. I fought against them, but eventually, I was pulled off the asshole.

I continued to fight for a minute as bodies pressed me to the wall. Finally, the red mist faded, and when I saw that Marko and Miki were the ones holding me, I stopped fighting.

Miki was talking, but I was panting hard and couldn’t hear. I concentrated on bringing my breathing back under control, and eventually, his words penetrated the fog in my brain.

“Calm down, Ash!”

“Fuck, you were playing into his hands. The asshole wants us to kill him before he gives us the information we need, and you nearly gave him his wish. You know better than that!” he cried.

He was right. We needed information, and I needed to get myself under control. I held my hands up in surrender, and my brothers let me go. Still shaking with fury but more in control again, I managed to step away from the wall. I walked further away from the asshole so I wouldn’t be tempted to turn around and finish the job anyway. I dragged air into my lungs, taking deep breaths to calm myself.

A few minutes later, when Miki was sure I was calmer, he nodded to Marko. It was time for baby brother to do his thing. Out of all of us, our little brother Marko was the most vicious when he wanted to be.

After a few minutes with Marko, the guy was ready to talk.

His name was Abshir. It turned out that he was the brother of Leyla, who was Mohammed’s girlfriend. Apparently, Mohammed had been planted as our informant by the Malia Boys’ boss, Siri, over a year ago. He had been feeding us information that Siri wanted us to know, although Abshir had no idea why.

Kidnapping and torturing me had been Mohammed’s idea. It had been an attempt to impress their boss. Siri wanted the location of the Lab, and they wanted to be the ones to provide it. They’d hoped for a slice of the pie when the Malia Boys’ plan came to fruition.

Leyla had been driving the SUV when I was kidnapped. She was ambitious and had egged Mohammad and her brother on. She had left them to take me to the basement while she went to tell Siri that they had captured me.