Page 208 of Reaper

While Darren’s wounds that Lark gave him don’t necessarily prevent him from being strung up from the wrists again, the table that he’s strapped to has been repositioned so he is across from Elijah. Right now, he isn’t our main focus which is why I’ve allowed him to stay strapped to the table. However, I want Darren to see everything that’s going to happen in a bit in case we need to get more information out of him.

A sliver of guilt eats at me about killing the fucker, but that’s only because of his and Kelly’s daughter. I know the guilt is eating at Lark, too. If we kill Darren, then she thinks Kelly will most likely concoct some ‘accident’ for Genivieve since she’s already proven she doesn’t want her. That’s also theonlyreason why Doc’s been treating Darren We need to figure out how to protect Genivieve first.

As for Elijah, he’s been stripped down to his boxers and is hanging from his wrists from the hook in the ceiling. To put even more pressure on him, his wrists are supporting his full weight,and his ankles are chained to eye bolts so that he can’t kick out at us.

Elijah’s wide eyes take in all the wounds on Darren and a sense of pride fills me that it was my woman that did that. Grabbing a knife from Punisher’s toy cabinet as he calls it, I step up in front of him. He tries to glare at me, but I can still see the fear in his eyes.

“I see you’ve been eyeing my fiancée’s handywork on Darren.” I smirk when his eyes widen slightly in surprise. “What, you didn’t think we were man enough to allow women into our club or down here to dole out vengeance? Before long, Lark will be a fully patched member of our club.

“Now, to quote a friend of mine, we can make your end relatively painless, or I can make your pain endless. That is really the only control you have. How much pain you endure by our hands before you die because youwillbe dying by our hands. Tell us what we want to know, and you’ll earn a less painful death. Refuse,” I pause as I look over my shoulder at Punisher whose face is lit with an almost dark, maniacal grin as he twirls a knife in his hand before I turn back toward Elijah, “refuse and we’ll make itextremelypainful until we get the information we need. So, what’s it going to be?”

Elijah’s arms and legs tense as he continues to glare at me, and my smirk deepens when he says nothing.

“Well, Elijah, you just made my Enforcer’s day with your refusal. Punisher?”

I step back and Punisher takes my place. He lightly runs the blade of his knife down the side of Elijah’s neck, not hard enough to draw blood, but enough to get Elijah’s attention.

“So you decided you could alter your appearance to look like Zac, lead us on a wild goose chase, and demand our Queen hand over everything her family has worked hard for for generations?Do you really think our Queen would just fucking hand over all that just because Richard-fucking-Cox wants her to?”

Elijah clamps his jaw closed which has Punisher chuckling darkly.

“Was hoping you’d take this route.”

Punisher lowers his blade to his pec, right over his heart, and digs his blade into his flesh. Elijah’s body strains from the pain. So much so, that it looks like the veins in his neck are about to burst.

Punisher looks over at me as if to say ‘this shouldn’t take too long’ which are my thoughts exactly. If the kid is squirming that much just over one cut, then maybe we won’t have to get our hands as dirty. He turns back to the kid and by the time he’s placed a half dozen cuts or so on various parts of his body, Elijah begs for him to stop.

“R-Richard is ruthless. He’ll do whatever he h-has to to get what he wants. If Lark w-won’t sign over her properties, h-he’ll take them by force.”

Now we’re getting somewhere.

“What kind of force?” Punisher asks him as he holds the blade up against his cheek.

Elijah starts to shake his head, but stops when it causes the blade to cut deeper into his cheek.

“I-I don’t know. I was n-never allowed to be in t-those meetings.”

Punisher hums and goes back to slicing into Elijah’s skin.

“I swear! I swear!” Elijah cries out as he tries to pull his body away from the blade. “I swear I’m t-telling the truth! I don’t know!”

Punisher frowns at Elijah, but he doesn’t move his blade away from where he’d been cutting into him.

“Then whatcanyou tell us about Richard and his plans?”

“H-He’s got investors and c-contractors already lined up for his r-resort. All he n-needs is the land. Once he h-has Lark’s land, he’ll use that to pressure the o-other families even more than he a-already has been into s-selling their land to him. Once the r-resort is under way, R-Richard will m-make his move to b-buy out all the mom and pop shops d-downtown. He’s got stores a-all lined up to t-take their places. He also p-plans to put in upscale a-apartments and condos. He p-plans to make this a mini-resort town like Wisconsin Dells but more upscale. H-He already has plans d-drawn up for everything and has p-permits to start as soon as he owns all the l-land.”

My lips curl at the thought of Junction Creek turning into a tourist trap like the Dells. I also happen to know that that’snotanything that interests most of the residents here.

Then my brain latches back on the last thing he said.

“How the hell does he already have permits when he doesn’t even own the land or the buildings?” I ask as I step up next to Punisher.

“R-Richard has some people on the c-city council in his p-pocket.”

Elijah pants and I notice his face paling from the blood loss. I look over at Punisher and he gives me a chin lift before stepping away. A moment later, I hear the acetylene torch flare up. Elijah squirms as Punisher steps forward and then his screams bounce off the walls as Punisher cauterizes the worst of his wounds. Looking over my shoulder, I tilt my head toward Cannon who lowers the hook Elijah is chained to and he groans in relief when his feet fully touch the floor.

Chapter 77