Well, that was fucking stupid of her to believe, but this might just make her tell us what we want to know.
“You’re not the only one he’s done that to, and it was brought to our attention. One of the others also mentioned they were asked to share information with another client of theirs. Has he asked this of you?” I questioned, resting my chin on my hand.
She licked her lips as her eyes shifted over to Ryker then back to me. “No, ma’am, he has not.”
Liar.
“Okay, let’s try that one again,” I said as I gestured for her to rewind. “Before you answer, do you know who he is?” I asked, pointing to Ryker.
“No,” she murmured.
“Okay, Amanda, you need to stop lying to me. You’re not skilled at it in any way, and each time you do, the hole you’re digging is just getting deeper. So let’s stop making this worse for yourself and tell me the truth. If you choose to continue on this path, Ryker is going to get involved, and neither of us really want that. On the off chance you don’t think that’s a good enough threat, I’ll tell you right now he’s the lesser of two evils in this room,” I informed her.
Her hands started to shake as she clasped them together on her lap. “Wh… who’s the other evil?”
Sitting up, I felt the coldness take over me as I answered, “Me. The evil you don’t want to face is me, Amanda. So tell me what I want to know, and we might be able to figure something out where you get to walk out of this room alive. Keep fucking around, and you’ll find out just how evil I can be.”
Behind her, Braxton had a full body shiver and purposely adjusted himself so it was made clear he wasn’t scared of me. The darkness turned him on, and he wasn’t afraid to tell me so. I smirked at him, then returned my attention to the quivering victim in front of me.
Would she make the darkness come out to play, or was she smart enough to know that would be her end?
“When I first started out, I’d moonlight at some of Harvey O’Hagan’s bars that had amateur nights. Then things here started to take off for me, but Harvey always kept tabs on me. He’s tried more than once to bring me over to work at one of his clubs, but he doesn’t have the pull the Caprioni do in the city. There has been a time or two that I’ve been asked to deliver a sealed envelope to Harvey or from Harvey to Harrison,” Cherry divulged.
I stood and came to lean against the front of the desk. “Did you ever look at the messages?”
She nodded. “All of them. I wasn’t going to risk everything without knowing what it was about. It was a bunch of random sentences. None of it made sense when you read it altogether.”
“You don’t happen to have one of those letters now, do you?” Ryker asked.
Reaching down for her purse, she pulled out a small manilla envelope. “Harvey gave it to me two days ago. I’m supposed to meet Harry tonight after my shift ends at midnight.”
Plucking the envelope out of her hand, I offered it to Ryker, who opened it. “You won’t be meeting Harry tonight or any night from here on out. I’ll allow you to do your shift tonight, but if you want to continue working here with us, I’d expect a few things to change,” I informed her.
Her bottom lip started to quiver as tears filled her eyes. “I knew it was wrong of me, but Harvey had been so good to help me when I had nothing.”
My hand shot out and grabbed her jaw and squeezed tightly. “If you’d spoken up and asked for our help, we’d have been there for you, Amanda. Instead, you went to our enemy, the one man who’s actively trying to destroy the Caprioni Family and take it for himself. Look in my eyes and tell me, are you loyal to Harvey O’Hagan?”
“N… N… No,” Cherry stammered, but her eyes told me everything I needed to know.
We provided the income for the life she wanted to live, but the man who had her loyalty was Harvey. “I told you not to lie to me,” I whispered. “Now the last words you’ll ever utter will have been a lie. Let’s see how that loyalty works for you when you can no longer speak and your pretty face is scarred.” I leaned closer to whisper in her ear, “You picked the wrong side, Amanda. You made your choice, and now you have to live with it.”
With a gentle kiss on her cheek, I lifted one of my feet and pulled a thin blade I’d installed in all my heels. Leaning back, I lashed out with the blade slicing her face from chin to temple. Then another from her hairline down her nose and across the other cheek. She jerked back, screaming at the pain, knocking over the chair and landing on her back.
“Ryker,” I barked. “I want her tongue removed so she can never spill another secret and drop her off at Harvey’s club. He wanted her so badly, he can have her.”
With a nod, Ryker grabbed the sobbing and bleeding Cherry Pie and dragged her out of the room. Grabbing a few tissues, I wiped off my blade and put it back in my heel. As I stood, Braxton was there, eyes wild with excitement and lust, pressing his pelvis to mine. He took my hand, and I noticed there was blood on it I hadn’t cleaned up yet. Lifting it to his mouth, he flicked out his tongue, licking the blood off my skin.
“Are you a fucking idiot?” I snapped, jerking my hand back. “You have no idea what that bitch could be infested with. She openly admitted she was having unprotected sex.”
“She had her testing done yesterday,” Braxton countered.
I gave a frustrated growl. “That doesn’t test for bloodborne pathogens.”
“I know she doesn’t have HIV. We run full panels, Mistress. I’d never put you at risk like that,” he rebutted.
Pushing him back, I looked over myself and saw a few splatters on my sleeve, so I removed the jacket, hung it on the back of the office chair, and sat. We had another half an hour until our next meeting, and this hadn’t gone as planned. My phone pinged, so I grabbed it out of my jacket pocket.
Jace:I’ll be there in five minutes to back you up while Ryker handles things.