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“Do you have kids, Denis? I’ve been gone a while. Did you get married? Knock up one of your girlfriends?”

“Fuck you, whore.”

Neither Brix nor I have a chance to punish him for his outburst. Nope. Everest decides she’s had enough of his mouth and slams the clawed end of the hammer into his other leg.

I’m man enough to admit I have to swallow hard to keep from puking when the prongs get stuck in his thigh just above his kneecap.

But the sounds pouring from his mouth. Ahhh. Music to my fucking ears.

“Wrong answer. Did you have any kids?”

“No!” he grits through clenched teeth. Dude keeps that up and he’s going to crack a few.

“Pity. Can you imagine how poetic that would have been to bring them down here and make you watch as I took them away from you the same way you did to my child?”

“I wasn’t the only fucking one there,” he yells, spittle and blood flying from his lips.

That dark smile is back on Everest’s beautiful face. “I’m aware, and all of you will pay for what you did to all of us.”

All of us. Not just her. Our child was taken away. Our wife was taken away, even if she came back to us.

Four years of our lives together was stolen from us.

Even with the pain she’d endured, I can’t imagine Everest hurting a child. Pretty sure that was nothing more than a bluff. At least I really, really hope it was.

She glances back at Brixton and the two silently stare at each other for a few heartbeats. Are they having one of those telepathic conversations? I mean, of course none of us can read each other’s minds, but we’ve all been in each other’s lives so long it usually doesn’t take much more than a look or a raised brow for the other to know what we’re thinking.

The giant fucker dips his head once.

Yep. They were making some kind of a decision that I’m not privy to.

“Tell you what,” she says, her eyes still on Brix’s face as that smile returns. Turning to look at Denis, she lifts the hammer and rests it on her shoulder. “You tell us where we can find my parents, Mikhail, and Eriks, and I’ll make sure this is over quickly.”

“You’ll make sure they kill me quickly,” he says.

She shrugs. “You had to know the moment Pakhan Yegorov handed you over to my husbands that you wouldn’t be walking away unscathed, but I can make sure the pain stops here. So, you die after long days of pain and torture, or…” She shrugs as though she doesn’t have a care in the world. “I can ask one of them to put you out of your misery here and now.”

When the motherfucker glares at Everest then spits at her feet, I can’t hold myself back. I lunge forward and slam my fist against his nose. Again.

It takes a few minutes for Denis to stop howling in pain as fresh blood streams down his face. I know that shit hurts. At this point, his nose is barely more than minced bone and ripped flesh.

“I should have fucked you before your father ordered your execution!” he bellows. “I would have fucked every hole, made you scream in pain, and, unlike Viktor, you wouldn’t have lived through it.”

Brix and I are both on the move but Everest…

Holy shit, our wife is a beast.

She swings the hammer down. Only she doesn’t aim for either of his knees.

Nope. Everest slams the head of the hammer directly between his thighs and I grimace when I wonder if she only got his balls, or if she managed to get a little dick in that assault, as well.

I thought it was bad when she buried her knee between Kato’s legs. I would take that all day every day over what Denis has to be going through right now.

Whatever. He earned that shit. How the hell did he think he could say shit like that and get away with it? Or maybe he thought we would just end his life.

But Everest did give him the option. He just picked the wrong one.

She huffs a sigh when Denis continues his screaming and whimpering, as though he’s putting her out and wearing out her patience.