Page 58 of Climbing Everest

Maddox

S he’s scared. I can tell she’s scared. Though I’m not sure about what, exactly.

Is it the man in front of her? She can’t possibly think either Brix or I would ever let him or any other cocksucker hurt her again. Especially not when we’re within touching distance of her.

Maybe she’s afraid of actually drawing blood. I can’t imagine my beautiful girl ever hurting anyone. At least not in the way we do, and the way I will if she isn’t comfortable torturing this fuck.

A quick death is way too easy for him. It’ll be the same when I find Eriks and Mikhail. Oh, and her fuckwad father, too.

Maybe I’ll line them all up and take turns torturing them. Leave their corpses to rot beside the others. Kind of the way I heard farmers used to tie ducks or chickens to a dog’s collar if they killed one. Let them see exactly how they’ll look when I snuff out their fucking lives.

This was my idea, but when Everest steps closer, I tense and prepare to lunge forward. I mean, there’s only so much this asshole can do when he’s zip tied to the chair, but I still don’t like her being so close.

Shit. Kato and Brix had valid complaints about this idea.

But while the three of us absolutely have the right to get revenge on Denis, Everest more than earned her right to a pound of flesh.

After all, it had been her who’d been beaten so badly. It had been her who carried scars, physically and emotionally.

It had been my girl who’d lost our child and had grieved that loss – along with the loss of me, Brix, and Kato – all alone.

I still wish she’d come to us, contacted us, let us know what had happened. We could have protected her.

But, unlike Kato, I refuse to live in the past. I’d known all that time she would never walk away from us willingly and had been right. Now, we can spend the rest of our lives making up for lost time.

That starts right now. If she isn’t up to the violence, I’ll get her ounce of flesh for her. I’ll make sure this motherfucker feels as much pain as she felt. I’ll prolong his life, torture the fuck out of him until he’s begging for death.

“Why?” she asks, pulling me from my thoughts.

“Why what?” Brix asks. He’s standing so close to her she can probably feel his body heat against her back.

She glances over her shoulder at him and shakes her head before turning back to Denis.

“I was talking to him ,” she says with a jerk of her head toward Denis. She looks up at me. “Can you remove the gag?”

My nostrils flare on a deep breath. I hesitate a moment, having a silent conversation with Brix with my eyes before moving forward.

Leaning down, I make sure I’m eye level with the Russian fuck before saying, “If you fuck with her, I’ll let the big guy back there rip your head from your shoulders.”

He doesn’t bother grumbling anything from behind the gag and duct tape, nor does he nod or shake his head. He simply glares at me through his one good eye.

If he’s lucky, I won’t pluck the other one from his head and leave him temporarily blind. Shit. Maybe I’ll take them both.

But if he deserves to lose anything, it’s his fingers first, then his hands at the wrist for daring to touch my Everest. My wife. My fucking queen.

I’m not exactly gentle as I rip the tape from Denis’s mouth then remove the cloth shoved in there. It’s soaked from his spit. I’d rather be covered in blood than this asshole’s slobber.

Wiping my fingers off on his shirt, I step back and step directly beside Everest.

“Now you can speak. I want to know why?”

Denis opens his mouth, but coughs when he tries to spit. To his credit – and something that’ll prolong his life a little longer – he turns his head to spit out a gob of blood and saliva.

“Why what?” he croaks out, turning his glare to Everest.

Oooh. This motherfucker is just begging to lose his eyeballs.

“As long as you’ve worked for my father…did you hate me? Why would you agree to beat me like that? I swear all three of you enjoyed it.”

His smirk…oh, that fucking smirk. Brix moves forward so quickly I barely have a chance to register that he’s gripping a knife until it’s wedged between Denis’s lips.

“Unless you want a permanent smile, I suggest you stop smirking at my fucking wife.”

It isn’t until Brix pulls away that Denis turns that burning glare on my giant brother. “She isn’t your wife. She’ll be Kato’s wife. She’ll only play whore to you two.”

Welp. That’ll do it.

I beat Brix this time, cock back my elbow, and let my fist fly forward, slamming it directly into Denis’s already broken nose. Blood gushes from his face immediately and he howls in pain.

Me? Yeah, I’m smiling. I love that sound. I love hearing the crunch of bones and the sounds of agony from pieces of shit like him. It’s a fucking symphony, if you ask me.

“Fuck!” He’s shaking his head like a dog, but he won’t get away from that pain. I kind of hope he aspirates on his own blood. That would be almost satisfying. Not exactly as good as torturing him to death, but drowning on his own blood?

Painful. Slow. What he deserves.

“One and only warning,” I say. I don’t bother wiping the blood from my knuckles because I have a feeling I’ll be covered in more before the day’s over.

He turns his head again and spits out more blood, but there’s no way for him to stop it from streaming down his face and soaking the front of his shirt further.

Everest is staring at me with wide eyes, her full lips parted. I can’t read the look in her eyes, whether she’s repulsed by the blood, the scene in front of her, or how easy it is for me to commit violence.

Maybe it’s fear. Most people don’t relish violence the way I do.

Or it could be envy. I’m sure she’d be more than happy to inflict a few wounds of her own if she could.

She might not be able to throw fists, but she can wield a knife. I’m not quite ready for her to shoot him. Of course, I’ll let her, but I really think he deserves more pain, more suffering first.

Brix’s arm wraps around her shoulders from behind and hugs her to his own body as though shielding her. From what, I don’t know. Denis is restrained, and I sure as fuck will never be a threat to her.

Brix lowers his head until his mouth is near her ear. “Go upstairs. You don’t need to see this shit,” he mutters.

Her head wags side to side as she keeps her eyes trained on Denis. “No. I want to see it, and I want answers.”

Pulling from his grasp, she surprises the shit out of both of us when she makes her way to the table full of our tools and seems to peruse them as though deciding which she wants to use.

Brix and I exchange a look but keep our expressions neutral. We don’t want Denis seeing our shock. Whether she’s intending to actually cause some damage or simply wants to scare him, we don’t want Denis to see the doubt and confusion in our expressions.

When she turns back to face us, she’s holding a hammer. Definitely not what I would have thought she would go for, but Everest has always been capable of surprising me at every turn. Why would that change today?

Denis’s eyes lower to the hammer and widen the slightest bit. His lips tremble as though he’s trying to think of something to say. Or maybe he’s weighing the pros and cons of spitting some vitriol at her.

In the end, he makes the right decision and keeps his fucking trap shut.

“Why?”

“Because your father ordered us to,” he says, zero emotion in his tone.

“I might actually be able to accept that answer, except all three of you smiled and chuckled like you were having the time of your lives. What the hell did I ever do to you to make you actually enjoy hurting me?”

Denis glances at me, then raises his eyes to Brix before focusing his attention back on Everest.

And doesn’t bother giving her an answer.

I’d always heard of moments where time seems to slow down. This is definitely one of them as Everest raises the arm holding the hammer then swings it down to slam into his knee.

Denis curses and tries to fold forward, but can only roll his shoulders in a little.

“What the fuck do you want me to say?” he grits out through his clenched teeth.

I know that shit hurt. I wouldn’t be surprised if she managed to actually crack his kneecap.

Got to say, I’m extremely proud of my girl right now.

“Did you enjoy it? Because I don’t remember my father ordering that part of it. Actually, what I really want to know is whether you knew I was pregnant?” She tilts her head, lifting the hammer as though to swing it again and smiles the most deceivingly gentle smile when Denis flinches.

Resting it on her shoulder, she leans forward until their faces are only inches apart. I don’t know about Brixton, but I’m strung tighter than a fucking spring right now. He could easily spit in her face, and it would be all fucking blood.

“Did you know?”

It looks like Denis is grinding his teeth before finally dipping his chin once in a nod. He doesn’t bother verbally answering, which is fine with me because I have a feeling the moment his lips parted, both Brix and I would have launched at him.

“You knew I was carrying life in my belly. You smiled and laughed while you punched me and kicked me.” The grin that has stretched on her face as she swings the hammer around as she speaks can be described as nothing short of maniacal.

Trust me, I know that look well. I’ve worn it more often than not over the past four years when the only way to numb the overwhelming ache in my chest was to spill some blood or commit an unnatural level of violence.

“Did I tell you I went to the doctor today?” she asks Denis, still wearing that creepy as fuck smile, still swinging the hammer around. “No? Must have slipped my mind. You know what he told me? Not to get my hopes up about getting pregnant in the future.”

“The fuck?” Brix blurts out. I’m sure my expression mirrors his right now.

A heavy mixture of grief and red-hot rage burns through my veins.