Page 3 of Benedict’s Rejuvenation (Dark Patriots #5)

“I’d like to suggest we move him and his wife to the basement. They’ll be secure while we extract information. They should have to deal with those surroundings,” I snapped. Kensy stiffened.

Keeley had no objections, so Beau had me, Justin, and Dickie move Chase to the basement.

I hated to leave Kensy, but it wouldn’t be for long.

Beau then told Arnie to help Heath bring down the detective’s wife.

I left Beau and Keeley with her sister. Chase tried to fight us as we manhandled him to the basement door.

His resistance pissed me off. I punched him as hard as I could in the kidneys.

He cried out in pain. I knew from experience that those hurt like a motherfucker.

Some of the fight seemed to go out of him.

He was much easier to get down the stairs after that. It didn’t require three of us to do it.

As we brought him downstairs, I heard muffled screams from upstairs.

They sounded like a woman’s screams. It had to be his wife.

I listened to the muttered cursing from Dickie when he saw the basement.

He didn’t have much time to examine it, because I heard the others coming.

After getting Chase into a chair, I let the other two restrain him.

I wanted to be close at hand in case Kensy needed me. I moved back toward the stairs.

I heard Keeley’s anguished moan when she saw where her sister had been kept all these months.

I focused my attention on Kensy. She was walking alone with Beau next to her.

I could see she was shaking, and her breathing was rapid.

I knew what the others were taking in and processing, but it still made me sick and infuriated when I thought about or saw it.

A giant cage encompassed half the basement area, containing the luxury bedroom and bathroom I’d released her from.

While it appeared to be something out of a magazine, there was no privacy, no walls, or even an enclosed bathroom.

If someone were in the basement with her, they would see everything she did.

She had zero privacy or means of maintaining her dignity.

When you viewed the other half of the basement, you truly discovered what horrors she’d been subjected to these past three months.

Every piece of BDSM equipment and tools was there.

An array of whips, floggers, and other implements was on one wall.

Since they weren’t mutually pleasurable in this case, I refused to call them toys.

There were some ancient-looking ones that I had never seen before.

They appeared very capable of inflicting pain, drawing blood, and leaving scars on their victims.

I quickly cataloged a sex bench, what looked like a dentist’s chair, and a St. Andrew’s Cross with sharp spikes protruding from it.

Everything had restraints on it so that the victim couldn’t escape.

I’d played with some of these, but only after my partner agreed.

I hadn’t modified mine to inflict torture and unending pain on anyone.

Taken as they were, unmodified and unused by a sick and twisted mind, they could ultimately bring pleasure. Vadzim had corrupted every one of them.

I had no doubt they weren’t there for show.

Glancing over at Kensy, I found she was practically hyperventilating.

Her eyes were taking up half her face with how wide they were.

Her skin was pale. I saw Beau shift, but I beat him to her.

I moved next to her and lowered myself until we were face-to-face.

I was a good eight inches or so taller than her.

I said the first thing that came to mind.

“Kensington, honey, I want you to focus on me. Look at my face. Hear my voice. I’ll help you get through this, but that means you have to follow my instructions.

Take my hand and come over here with me.

I know you need this, and this place is the most logical to use to get the answers we need.

But if you find you’ve changed your mind at any time, you tell me.

I’ll get you out of here. Now, take a deep breath.

Another one. Good. See, it’s better already. Come with me.”

She surprised me when she took my hand and allowed me to walk her to an empty chair. She clung to me, but I didn’t mind. I had to place her so she faced the gruesome side of the basement. I remained beside her. We’d get our answers from Chase and his wife there. Her sister and Beau joined us.

We faced restrained, though not gagged, Chase and his evil bitch of a wife.

They were shouting at everyone about how we’d pay if we hurt them, and a lot of other threats.

Beau allowed it for about a minute before he walked over to stand before them.

The couple settled. Chase appeared almost resigned, but his wife glared.

Beau explained to them that though we usually liked to take our time with sick fuckers like them, we still had Vadzim and whoever came with him to deal with.

That meant we’d have to get the information we needed from them quickly and then kill them to prepare for the others.

Keeley let a protesting sound go when she heard that.

She scowled and shook her head. He explained why and reminded her they weren’t the ones who inflicted the pain on her sister.

Beau promised Vadzim and the others would suffer more.

The one to back up Beau was Kensington. “He didn’t.

You’re right. I only saw him once before, when he came here to meet with Vadzim.

As for her, that bitch did more than set me up to be taken.

She would come and sit outside my cage and taunt me about how I was never leaving and that I’d die without my sister ever knowing what happened to me.

She’d laugh about it. She deserves more pain than her husband. ”

My fury at Mona jumped after hearing this.

What kind of woman did that to another? A cold, unfeeling one who deserved everything she got and more.

The gleam I saw in Keeley’s eyes told me she wanted to be the one to take Mona apart.

Beau promised her that, but reminded her she couldn’t kill Mona until after we got everything we could from her and her husband.

Beau wanted to start with Detective Chase first. Keeley agreed.

I stood there, hoping Kensy was feeling my support.

The questioning went better than I imagined.

It seemed that Chase wasn’t attempting to hide his part in it or how he got involved.

His wife still tried to stop him. He appeared to have been a good cop until his wife pulled him into this.

She was the one who started it, and he wanted to protect the woman he loved.

Or that’s how it began, then morphed from there.

“I won’t shut up! I’m done with this. It’s because of you and your family that we’re here, and I’ve lost everything. You want to know what I know. Here goes.” He paused as Mona screamed at the top of her voice. It was a relief when Dickie shoved a gag into her mouth again.

“We got involved three years ago. It was because of Mona. See, her family is originally from Belarus, several generations back. You’d think that wouldn’t matter, but it does.

Some debt was owed to Boyko by her family.

He called it in. You didn’t turn him down unless you wanted him to have you and your entire family killed.

So when he asked Mona to help him, she said yes. Of course, I didn’t know that at first.

“She began finding him women through Hope’s Dignity.

She chose ones who fit the various criteria she was given.

Those criteria change all the time. It depended upon what the customer wanted.

She stuck to choosing those who had no family, or if they did, they were estranged from them.

That way, there wasn’t a lot of outcry when they went missing and couldn’t be found. ”

I knew that there were families all over the world who had these kinds of connections and threats made against them. It happened more often than people realized. But it didn’t excuse them. They tried to save themselves at the cost of countless others.

“When did you get involved?” Beau asked.

“It was a few months after she started. It seemed Boyko wanted a cop on the inside who was more than a beat cop. He knew what I did for a living and told Mona that I needed to help. When she came to me and told me what she’d been doing, I couldn’t believe it.

I never expected that from my wife. We argued and fought.

She cried as she told me why she was doing it—the threats against us and her family.

At first, I didn’t believe her, but then she showed me pictures of entire families he’d slaughtered.

He gave them to her to use as persuasion if I were reluctant.

Fuck, why didn’t I take it to the Feds? I should’ve.

Even if I ended up dead, it was the right thing to do,” he mumbled. That remark made me speak up.

“If you think saying you’re remorseful will save you, you’re wrong,” I growled.

Chase denied wanting to be saved. He stated he deserved death. He went on to explain how they spaced them out and used Mona’s position at Hope’s Dignity, an outreach program for people getting back on their feet. Kensington had volunteered there, which is how Kensy got in her crosshairs.

He was asked about other locations, auctions, and how potential buyers inspected the women they bought.

By then, I had put an arm around Kensy, which she didn’t shrug off.

Keeley was rubbing her arm. Chase denied knowing where the other women were kept.

He claimed this cabin was private and special.

He said Kensy was the only one he knew of that Vadzim Boyko had kept here.

It was apparent to those of us who did this for a living when Chase had nothing else to give us. It was time to question Mona. Beau glanced at us, his coworkers, and his friends.

“Boys, it’s time.”

Reed piped up before we could say or do anything.

“Beau, we’d appreciate it if you let us do this.

I know you’ll want more blood and pain for the likes of his wife and the big man himself.

We’re glad to help in any way we can, but we’d like to do this one.

Save your strength. Besides, we think a man of the law who turns this bad should get our attention. ”

Beau and the rest of us had no problem with it, not even Keeley.

They were given the green light. I had to admit, they were creative and didn’t go easy on him.

After Chase was dead, they moved on to Mona.

She resisted and showed how cold she was.

It was painful to hear and watch as Beau pretended to consider offering her immunity if she cooperated with us.

I thought Keeley was going to kill him. I knew it was a ploy to get the other information we needed out of Mona. However, she and Kensy didn’t.

They didn’t have doubts for long because Mona gave us her jump drive, which contained all the necessary information and passcodes to access it and prevent it from being erased.

The greedy, evil bitch fell for it. Once Aryan, another team member with computer experience, verified that it was good, Mona was handed over to the women to handle.

I stood back and watched the show, waiting for the real fun to begin.