Page 28 of Claimed

He inspects it then gives me a maniacal grin. “Sure. All I need is a thumbprint.”

“I like the way you think, Tek,” I reply, knowing exactly where he’s going with this.

“May I?” Razor inquires.

“Go ahead.” I gesture to Briggs.

Razor cuts the cable tie from one of Briggs’ hands and removes a pruning shear from his pocket. Briggs begins to squirm. I guess he can still see. For now.

“No. You can’t –”

His index finger is gone before he can finish his objection. He screams like a bitch this time. He’s crying now, tears running down his face.

“Oops. You said thumb, right?”

I chuckle at the expression on Razor’s face. Fucker enjoys this kind of thing.

“Move out of the way.” Venom steps up. “You play too much.”

He grabs the shears and I revel in the sound of metal cutting through bone. Seems the men want to have some fun because Venom took the tip of Briggs’ middle finger, from the first joint up. It’s a little cathartic listening to his screams. Raven screamed and no one helped her.

Allah steps forward next and Venom hands him the shears. He actually removes the thumb then gives Tek a confused look.

“Did you want the left or the right?” he asks.

“Which one did you get?”

“Left.”

“I need the right then,” Tek replies with a grin.

Crow moves toward Briggs and pulls out his knife. It’s nothing like mine. That shit has a nine-and-a-half inch, partially serrated blade. He keeps it sharp, too. Briggs can’t keep his head steady. The smell of blood fills my nostrils and it smells a lot like retribution. Crow drags a table over to Briggs and cuts his other hand loose, splaying his fingers on it. One clean slice and his thumb is gone. Briggs barely makes a sound.

Tek opens the briefcase, pulls out a laptop, and then starts rifling through the papers in it.

“Why...why are you doing this?” Briggs asks, his voice barely audible.

I stand and stare down at this pathetic excuse of a human being, now as helpless as the victims of his drug. “What were you thinking when you created Dutch Wife, huh? What? No woman could stand to be with a bitch like you, so you decided to take their choice away?”

His head lolls back. He’s losing a lot of blood and may not be conscious much longer. I need to get something out of him fast.

“Who’s your distributor?”

“Prez,” Tek calls out to me. “Found something.” He shows me a document. “It’s where the truck was headed. Address in ATL.”

“Well,” I say to Briggs. “Looks like I don’t need you anymore.” I jerk my head at Allah and Crow. “Torch it.” There’s no way I’m leaving this place standing.

“Please,” he begs. “I’ll pay you...whatever you want.”

I pull out my Glock and aim it at his head. “I don’t want your money.”

“Whoareyou?”

“Me?” I ask, right before I pull the trigger. “I’m the Grim Reaper, motherfucker.”

CHAPTER 8

***Gage***