“Ever seen someone fillet a fish? It’s a true masterpiece when you get someone who knows what they’re doing. Slick and fast as hell. You see, when I was a kid, my dad took me fishing all the time. He was an expert at filleting and he taught me everything he knew. I found since then that you can fillet a man just as easily. And like many other things I learned, you can either kill that man quick or make it last. Your fate rests with you. Let’s see what it is.”
Payne set about making incisions all over Archer’s chest and back. They were bleeding a lot, but not enough to kill him. He hissed every time the blade went in. He hollered and cursed, but he wasn’t saying anything. After Payne felt he’d made enough incisions, he stopped and looked at him. You could see the pain in Archer’s eyes. He was panting and sweating. Shaking his head at him, Payne came back over to Spot. He held up the knife so he could get a good look at it. Spot started to shake and moan. Before Payne could touch him with the blade, he folded.
“No! No, don’t cut me. I’ll tell you everything I know,” he pleaded. Archer and those in the cells all yelled at him to be quiet. He ignored them. I know he thought this would save his life. Too bad for him, scum like him didn’t deserve to live. Payne gave him an encouraging nod.
“We were told to wait outside the fence until the fire department came to put out the fire. We didn’t figure Jonah could get her on his own. Once we got her, we were to take her back to our compound. Mr. Diaz is there waiting for her. Once he had her, he’d pay us for the contract.”
“What about her stepdad? Where is he?” I asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Where does Diaz intend to take her once he gets her? How is he planning to get her out of the country?” He hadn’t told us anything we didn’t already suspect other than to confirm Diaz was in Tennessee at the Horsemen’s compound. I wanted to know more.
“I don’t know. That’s all I know,” he assured me. I wasn’t sure if he was telling the truth or not, but time would tell. We had five others who could tell us if there was more. I left him there to think he was safe. I went to Jack. He was eying Payne and his deboning knife. I slapped his face to get his attention.
“Anything you want to tell us before my brother gets started on you?” He looked around the room frantically. Seeing no help or way out, he shuddered.
“It’s like Spot said. We were to take her to our compound and Diaz would take her from there. What his plans were after that, we weren’t told. I think some of the officers might have been in on that part of it. They had more than one meeting with Diaz and her stepdad where it was just them, though I did hear one of them mention an airfield.”
I shot a look at Outlaw. He nodded. He’d get to work on looking for an airfield close to their compound or the Bloods. As I talked to him, Bull went over to the cells. He whistled.
“Hey, boys, it looks like we might have an officer. This one’s cut reads Loco and Sergeant at Arms. Well shit, we should have let you talk to him officer to officer, Payne. Let’s see what he knows as soon as you’re done with those three.” The rest of our guys all laughed. Payne nodded and then turned to look at Archer again.
“Anything you want to tell us?” Archer shook his head. Payne gave a chin lift to Demon. Demon grabbed a bag and brought it to him. Reaching inside, he pulled out a handful of salt. From there, he proceeded to rub salt into all the cuts he’d made to Archer’s body. He yelled and struggled but to no avail. Once Payne was done, he grabbed a bottle of alcohol. That would just add to the burning. This was the last straw for Archer.
He cried out, “Stop.” Payne waited. “The stepdad is at the Bloods’ compound. Once we get her, he’s supposed to be helped out of the country and to a new life somewhere in Mexico. Not sure where. They also agreed to give him some money so he has something to start over with. I heard he’s been talking about how much he hopes Diaz fucks her up. That guy has a real hard-on for hurting her. That’s it. That’s all I know.”
Like the others, we left him alone. Four of the guys stepped up and cut them down to drag them back over to the cells. They threw them in with Jonah. His eyes were about to bug out of his head, seeing what we’d done to them. The pissant wouldn’t have ever made it to being patched into our club. Those same four pulled Loco and the other two out of the other cell and hung them up like we’d done the first three.
Payne started the whole process over with them. They were tougher than the first ones. I’d give them credit. More of us got involved with the beating, cutting and salting of wounds. None of them broke. But when Payne pulled out the blowtorch, that was enough for Muppet and Poke. Both of them started yelling out they would cooperate. From them, we didn’t find out much more, other than Diaz had some of his guys with the Horsemen and the Bloods keeping eyes around town, watching for her to leave the compound. They described what those men looked like.
That left Loco to talk. He threw disgusted and pissed looks at the other guys. He was beaten to hell, bleeding like crazy, had salt in his wounds, but he hadn’t said a word. I saw the fire in Payne’s eyes. He was looking forward to taking this sergeant at arms down. He held up the blowtorch and raised his eyebrows at Loco. All Loco did was sneer and spit at him.
Payne asked me to hand him the bottle of alcohol. As soon as I did, he walked around to Loco’s back and poured it down over the tattoo he had there. It was a whole back piece depicting the Horsemen’s club emblem. After soaking him well, he lit the torch and began to run it over the tattoo. The smell of burned flesh permeated the room, making me want to gag. Nothing smells worse than burned flesh, unless it was dead body decomp. He made sure to make pass after pass until his back was nothing but a massive lump of raw and blackened oozing meat. The pain had to be unbearable. In places, the flesh was gray. I knew white indicated a third-degree burn. By this point, Loco had passed out.
Turning off the torch, Payne poured ice water down over Loco’s head to wake his ass back up. As he resurfaced, Payne looked at him again. Loco was sweating and shaking but he said nothing. Payne shrugged and fired up the torch and stepped behind him again. That was when Loco finally broke.
“Please, dear God, don’t. Not any more, please. I’ll tell you what you want to know. If the grab during the fire wasn’t successful, they plan to make a grab for her when she goes to her next doctor’s appointment. I guess Diaz found out she was pregnant and he’s not happy. I overheard him saying the first thing he’s going to do once she’s his is getting rid of that bastard in her belly. He knows who she sees and the last time she went. Someone was able to find out when her next appointment is. They are going to hit you on the way back from the appointment, after you get out of town. Some of us are going to stay outside the compound so they can’t call for backup. We’ll take out any of you who try to go help and if we get the chance, we’re to take the other two women you have here. They will sell for a good price as soon as they have those babies. Hell, the babies will bring in a profit too.” This last part not only had me growling, it had the guys holding back Bull and Ace. We couldn’t afford to kill him yet. He continued spewing information. “As soon as we got her, we’re to call Diaz and then take her to the airport. There’s a small private one not too far outside of Sparta. He has his private jet there. We hand her off, they leave, and we get our money and continue to serve the cartel’s drug interests here.”
“And didn’t they wonder what we’d do to those of you who remained? Surely, no one thought we’d just sit back and let you all go free?” I asked him incredulously.
“We didn’t think you guys had any idea who we were. We’ve been careful to stay out of sight and not wear our colors. Well, until the other night. How did you even know about us, the Bloods, and Diaz?”
“Oh, we have our ways. Just so you know, when this is all over and done, your whole club and the Bloods will be wiped off the face of the earth. Heraclio Diaz and Paul Butler will be put in the ground. And the Diaz Cartel won’t be trafficking anything in Tennessee soon after that either. We have the means to eliminate every single one of you bastards. You should have stayed away,” Bull told him.
Knowing we’d gotten all we could out of him and the others, Payne slit Loco’s throat. The others all cried out in surprise and fear. Working quickly, we did the same to Muppet and Poke. When we went to grab the three in the cell, they were all begging us to spare them. We dispatched them the same way. This left us with Jonah. He was as white as a ghost. He was pleading and shaking so hard he couldn’t stand up. It was harsh, but he’d done too much and seen too much for us to ever let him go. Taking a little mercy on him, I pulled my gun and shot him between the eyes rather than cut his throat. It was quicker. He’d been a dumb kid. His death actually bothered me a little bit, but the others, not a bit.
Those of us who were involved in the torture stripped and showered right there. Some of the guys took the bodies down to the crematorium to burn. All evidence would be burned, and the ashes spread miles away from the compound. Everything would be thoroughly bleached and scrubbed down. Pulling on clean clothes I kept there, I went outside. Bull went with me. He nodded at me.
“Go see your girl. We’ll meet tomorrow to go over what we found out. I’ll call Sean and get them here. Try to relax and spend the evening with your girl. I plan to do the same. We’ve got this Rebel. We’ll make sure they never get their hands on her or anyone else.” He clapped me on the shoulder. I thanked him and headed back. It was time to hold my woman and child. The next few days would be stressful and busy, but the end was in sight.