Page 31 of Justified (Ruthless Vigilante #1)

“About the property development in the projects, right, ma’am?” I provided, keeping up pretenses. “Ma’am, are you okay?”

“I… I don’t… feel… good,” she slurred as she swayed again. Finally, the sedative was taking effect.

“Carl, please pull over, something is wrong with Cecily!” I exclaimed.

The bodyguard turned. “Ma’am, what’s wrong?” he asked.

As our car pulled off the expressway, the other car followed, and our guard was relaying to them through his com that Cecily was ill.

Once our car stopped, I promptly kicked them both in the back of their heads.

Both men slumped forward, the driver leaned to his side and the guard’s head hit the dashboard.

I made sure to strike them hard enough to knock them out but not kill them.

As far as I knew, they were just doing their jobs. If I could spare their lives, I would.

I looked at Cecily and she was now leaning forward, completely unconscious.

The rest of her coffee had spilled on her outfit, the seat, and the floor, but it did its job by knocking that bitch out.

I grabbed my purse, which contained my tranq gun, and climbed out of the car.

I jogged like I was panicking and the two guards in the sedan behind us climbed out to assist.

“Ma’am,” one of them said as they both approached me.

“Something is wrong with Cecily,” I shrieked, and both guards ran past me, heading towards our car.

One was on his com, trying to get in contact with the other guard in the car whom I’d knocked out.

As soon as their backs were to me, I shot them both, rendering them unconscious.

I hated that this had to be out in the open, but I had to do what I had to do.

Hopefully, no cops would be interrupting me anytime soon.

I ran back to the car, popping the hood to disable the tracking GPS.

I quickly pulled both the driver and other guard out of the car and climbed in behind the wheel.

With everything falling to place, I drove the Mercedes sedan to a different location because if she had a meeting with the councilman about the property I had intended to take her to, chances were good it wasn’t going to be as abandoned as I had hoped.

Had to be prepared to make those last-minute changes.

It was good there were enough rundown and boarded up properties on the poor side of town, giving me plenty of options.

So, I didn’t have to stress too much. I pulled in behind an abandoned storefront that had a large drop-down door to receive truck packages.

I climbed out of the car and lifted up the door with ease, breaking the lock.

I loved having superhuman strength, it made doing such tasks like this so much easier.

I still wasn’t entirely sure what all I could do.

In the past week, I’d ripped the door off a drug dealer’s safe.

He was none too happy about it, but with his legs broken and his eyes blinded, there wasn’t shit he could do about it.

His two hundred-grand sure came in handy as it was well spent.

Getting back to the present, I pulled the sedan inside the building, knocking over dusty crates and empty boxes.

With Cecily knocked out, I was able to do what I needed to do to get her ready.

I stripped her down to her underwear only.

Seeing her naked, I really had to give her props for keeping herself so fit.

I continued to get her ready by laying her on the hood of the sedan.

I took some rope I had in my bag and bound her wrists, then ran the rope back to the car doors, using the doors as anchors by closing the ends of the ropes inside the doors.

I bounded her ankles and ran the rope around the car’s front tires and made a nice set of knots around the front axle, which kept her body spread eagle.

I transformed back into my own skin and endured the pain of the transformation until I felt my balls drop, which was always a welcomed relief.

I dressed quickly, adding my mask last, then I went to my bag and began pulling out several knives and other torture tools.

I laid them on the hood of the car beside her body.

I wanted her to see what I’d be working with as soon as she woke up.

I set up my battery-powered light, directing it at her, which would make it hard for her to see her surroundings.

I wanted this bitch confused and terrified.

Finally, with everything in order, I cracked open a pack of smelling salts and waved them under her nose.

She twitched as her nose wrinkled a bit.

She sniffed some more, her nostrils flaring before her eyes fluttered open.

I tossed the smelling salts aside, then receded behind the glare of the light as I waited for her to gather her wits about herself.

Cecily’s eyes opened wider as the panic began to settle in. She didn’t know where she was or who she was with. She couldn’t see my face because the light shining in her eyes was so blinding. Good, I wanted her discombobulated enough to make mistakes.

“Oh my god!” she shrieked once she realized she was bound to the car. I watched as she struggled to break free, twisting and pulling on the ropes. “What the fuck?”

I remained silent as I watched her go through a bunch of emotions, finally settling on panicked.

“Where…where am I? Where’s… where’s Nancy?” she asked in a shaky voice that made her sound more fragile than she was. That feminine timbre wasn’t going to fool me. I knew what she was capable of. “Please… Please, I can give you money. Please don’t hurt me,” she begged.

Maybe my silence would prompt her to provide information without me even having to ask. She already knew she was guilty of doing evil things, maybe she’d start spilling the beans on her own.

She lifted her head off the hood as much as she could and tried to look around.

The rest of the room was pitch black, but even if she could see everything, she’d only be able to see the discarded garbage and shelves of a business long since passed.

I doubted if she’d even be able to recognize what the store used to be.

I watched as she tried to squirm and twist out of her bindings, but she wasn’t going anywhere.

I knew how to tie a fucking knot. Soon, another level of panic set in and she began to cry.

“Please, whatever it is that you want, please tell me,” she pleaded in her desperation to be set free. “If it’s money you want… I… I don’t have much, but I’ll give you everything that I have. Please, just don’t kill me.”

Again, I was silent, but I moved into the light a bit so she could see my form. By the way her eyes widened and her body begin to tremble, I knew I was having the desired effect.

“What do you want? Please tell me!” she cried.

“You know what I want,” I said, finally breaking my silence.

“Is it money?” she asked again.

Well, truth be told, I always wanted money.

This vigilante shit was costly. Having to replace my costumes when they got riddled with bullet holes or shredded to pieces was a hassle.

Then I had to eat, pay rent, buy gadgets, not to mention everything Jordan needed.

Yep, money was always on my list, but right now, it was a secondary desire. I wanted information first.

“Tell me what I want,” I said, really fucking with her mind.

She licked her trembling lips as she tried to figure out what I wanted from her. “I… I wouldn’t know what you want. If it’s not money… is it sex?”

Bitch, please. Even if I was straight, after seeing what you did to that man, I wouldn’t be able to get my dick hard enough to fuck that sixty year old pussy of yours.

“It’s not sex,” I said. I wanted to get her off that road and put her on the path I wanted her on.

“Jesus Christ,” she whined as more tears streamed down the sides of her face.

“Tell me what I want to know,” I demanded.

“About what?!” she yelled in a half frustrated, half angry tone.

I gave her the silent treatment again.

“Listen, I can pay you. If someone put you up to this, I can pay you,” she whimpered.

While I listened to her try to weasel out of what I had in store, I thought about methods I could employ to get her to fess up without coming right out and asking her what she knew or could tell me about this Killing Game bullshit.

Fucking murder syndicate for bored, sick, rich bastards.

Well, I knew she always paid cash, thanks to her assistant giving me the info on that. Maybe that would be what I’d go with.

“You were short in your last payment,” I said, just throwing that out there to see where it’d get me.

She blinked and frowned as if she didn’t know what the fuck I could be referring to. “What? What is this about? Where’s Nancy?”

“Dead.”

“Oh my god!” she shrieked. “Please, I’m just the mayor. I don’t have a lot of money, but I can give you what I do have.”

Now the bitch was just insulting my intelligence.

I knew for a fact that although she wasn’t rich like my last target, she was using city funds for her own personal pleasure.

To cover up the illegal spending, she came up with property deals she never planned on following through on.

I had put a lot of that together last night.

Cecily Danvers was one clever psychopath.

“You gave the money to my associate last month. It was short. I’m who they send when it’s short,” I lied, though with me telling that lie, I could see that she was coming around to understanding what I was talking about.

Her eyes bulged and her mouth dropped open. “That’s impossible! I made sure every cent was there,” she exclaimed. “I swear, I would never cheat your boss out of his money.”

Jackpot. Now to just word my interrogation questions correctly and I’d be making real progress. “It was short, and as you know, my boss doesn’t take too kindly to being robbed.”