When she was still sputtering, just not as much, I rasped, “How did you arrange it?”
“I brought Cillian Donahue in,” she whispered miserably, but she said it fast. Her words tripping over themselves as she hurried to give me what I wanted. “Told him I needed dirt on you. If he didn’t give it to me, I had a nice little cop murder I could pin on him. So he did. Easily. He wasn’t happy with you after his sister died, so I made arrangements for him.
“He went into WITSEC after we figured out a way to make him look like he was dead. He sang like a canary.”
“About what? There’s no way your superiors would put him through WITSEC unless he gave them something good.” When she fell quiet, I reached for the corner of the duct tape I’d rolled over her eyes and yanked it good and hard.
She howled as I took off a few eyelashes and half her left eyebrow.
When she screeched some more as it ruptured her balance, I folded my arms, just waiting for her to find her new equilibrium.
“They’ll kill me if I tell you,” she whispered, blinking at me through pain-dazed eyes.
“I’ll kill youtonightif you don’t.”
“They have eyes and ears everywhere.” Her mouth trembled, and she cut Brennan a beseeching glance. “I’m a Fed. There are repercussions for doing this. If you let me go now, I’ll tell them I was mugged.”
Brennan snorted. “Muggers don’t wax half your eyebrows off.” His smirk turned deadly. “We don’t make deals with pork byproducts. You ain’t good enough to even be called bacon, bitch. Youwilltalk.”
She started trembling, but I sensed that whomever she was scared of, she was more terrified of them than us.
Well, we couldn’t have that, could we?
I strolled off, leaving her with Brennan, and I headed over to the table that was just out of the light, hidden in the shadows. Finding the wire cutters, I hefted them in my hand, tossing them slightly as I returned to her. With each step, tension filled her, especially when I approached from behind.
She started to twist, then she’d stop as it pulled on her hair, but each time, I sensed her growing panic, and I let it build and build until I snapped out my hand, grabbed hers, slotted the cutters onto her pointer finger, and let it chomp through her bone.
She didn’t even scream, just passed out.
I moved around her with the finger in my hand which I wrapped up in a napkin, and tossing it at Brennan, murmured, “Go and see what she has in her safe.”
“Can’t believe Conor couldn’t hack it open,” he grumbled.
“Whatever’s in there must be worth hiding.”
“What if it needs a retina scan?” he joked. “Gonna plop out her eye with a melon baller?”
“A major component of every torturer’s bag of tools,” I replied wryly, watching as he strolled out of my warehouse, leaving me alone with this bitch.
I was covered in blood, but before the night was out, I’d be covered in plenty more.
Taking a seat on the stool in front of her, I grabbed my cell and dialed my woman.
“Hey, baby,” she greeted, and because she knew more than she ought, she asked, “Is it done?”
“Part one, sure. That’s over. Part two, not so much.”
“Having fun?” she asked dryly.
“Plenty. Not my usual scene. Do it for the job. This is different.”
“I expect no less.”
“My bloodthirsty wench,” I replied with a grin, but it tapered off as I inquired, “How’s the kid?”
“Better. Hasn’t screamed yet.” She let out a breath. “First time in three weeks. You know who the woman is yet? The woman he saw get killed?”
“No. It’s on the to-do list. She just doesn’t realize she needs to be more scared of me than whomever she’s working for.”