Page 39 of Billion-Dollar Ransom

“STOP IT!” CASS shouted. “You’re going to kill him!”

All this time, Cassandra Bart had been watching the fight scene play out as if they were on a stage. As if she weren’t sure if this was real or not. Maybe she was clinging to the hope that this was some kind of reality show. Or an extreme screen test.

Five smirked. “Maybe. Maybe not. But you have nothing to worry about, honey. You, I like.”

Tyler spat out another thick wad of blood and struggled to catch his breath.

Five could see the defiance building up again.

What a stubborn son of a bitch! Five almost respected him for it.

But still, he needed to extinguish that tiny flame of resistance for good.

He didn’t want to have to worry about this prick, especially if the ransom money was slow in arriving.

Five grabbed a fistful of the man’s hair and pulled back hard, exposing his neck. He was tempted to punch him in his Adam’s apple. Oh, man, did Five long to do that, let him struggle to breathe until he simply couldn’t.

But instead he grabbed Tyler’s left ear and twisted it almost ninety degrees.

“I’m begging you!” Cass said. “Don’t!”

Five gave her an icy glare, then raised a finger. And then he turned his attention back to her boyfriend.

“Saw this TV show once,” Five said, “about some rich kid just like you who was kidnapped. He grew up in an oil-money family. Grandpa was a stubborn fuck, though. Refused to pay the ransom. He thought the grandkid was, like, faking it and shit. The kidnappers were Mafia or something. I’m talking about the old-school kind, from Italy. ”

“That rich kid was John Paul Getty the Third,” Tyler said through gritted teeth. “And you know what happened to the gangsters who kidnapped him? They went to prison for life, just like you’re gonna, you stupid f—”

Five gave another painful twist to his ear: Not your turn to speak.

“When the grandpa refused to pay, the Mafia took the rich boy and cut off his ear. Mailed it to Grandpa. Said, ‘Pay up, or we’ll send more pieces in the mail until there’s nothing left.’”

Another hard turn of the ear, to the point where even Five wondered if he’d taken it too far. “Let me tell you a little secret, rich boy. I might cut off your ear for fun.”

Before Tyler could react, Five kneed him in the face. Blood spurted everywhere.

Five straightened up and realized he had a lot of this guy’s blood on his clothes, which annoyed him. He dragged Tyler across the room by his arms, then reached into his jacket pocket and found a few zip ties. He tossed them to the actress. “Tie his wrists to the bed nice and tight.”

She didn’t even attempt to catch them. They landed at her feet.

“I’m gonna change my clothes. Don’t bother trying to bust open the door. It’s reinforced.”

Cassandra didn’t move.

“Hey, honey? His wrists aren’t going to tie themselves, you feel me?”