Page 19

THEO

“ L iliana,” I groan, watching as she hits the call button to insist on being released. “Can you just be patient?”

“I have people to torture, I don’t have that virtue in my body, Theo,” she snarks. “What am I supposed to do when this happens to someone else? You heard the doctor, it’s definitely a blend of Rohypnol and GHB.”

“Can you even walk?” Elijah asks pensively, watching as a nurse comes in to see Lili.

“I feel wonderful, no ill effects from the drugging. Can I leave please?” Lili asks, lying her ass off.

“I bet wonderful is a stretch,” the nurse says with a snort. “I’ll get the doctor to sign your discharge paperwork. There’s no reason to keep you.”

“What if she, I don’t know, has a seizure or something?” Jared asks, tossing his hand up in disgust.

“Guess you should watch her… or something,” the nurse says with a smirk, walking away.

“I don’t need that,” Liliana says, shaking her head. “I do, however, need to change, out you go. I’ll call a car to come get me.”

“A ride-share?” Elijah scoffs. He’s still a rich boy, regardless of his current financial portfolio. “Absolutely not. We’ll take you home.”

“I don’t really want you to know where I live,” she says honestly. “Now, I’m changing.”

Lili unties the back of her gown, and we hightail it out of the room. It’s not because she isn’t beautiful, but none of us want to be stabbed for seeing her naked. Standing in the hallway with the door closed, we wait for her to be done.

“You don’t think she’d go out the window, do you?” I muse, glancing at my watch.

“For fuck’s sake, she’s had five minutes to change, I’m going back in,” Jared mutters, feet already moving. “If she stabs me, then so be it.”

We’re on the first floor, jumping out the window is something that she’d totally do. Twisting, I pop my head into the door as Jared catches her before she disappears out the opening of the window.

“We’re going to have our hands full,” I grumble as the nurse walks back in to watch Jared dump Lili into a chair.

“Dude, easy,” the nurse admonishes. “Do I need to call security, Liliana?”

“They probably wouldn’t leave even then,” she sighs, glancing over the paperwork she’s handed.

A couple of signatures later, we force her into a wheelchair to roll her out to our car.

“You look so cute in there,” I tease her.

“I hate you,” she grumbles. “I need to find a place for interrogation outside of my usual ones.”

“That sounds ominous,” Jared mutters, helping her inside the vehicle. “How bloody is this torture getting?”

“If you have to ask, then you have your answer,” Lili says as we enter the car.

“We may know a place,” Elijah says slowly.

Glancing at him as I pull away from the curb, I raise my brow. “Please enlighten us,” I tease him.

“Well, we have a section of the basement that we cleared for private matters,” he reminds me, glaring at me to remember.

Smirking, I nod. The drain in the basement of our house definitely is meant for interrogation purposes. It’s important to keep your options open in times like these.

“Yeah, I guess that’s true,” I drawl as I drive.

“Speaking in code isn’t cute, come mierda ,” Liliana mutters.

“We are not shit eaters, we’re trying to help you out,” I say with a chuckle. “We’ll haul the asshole out to our house for you too. Then, you won’t have to worry about leading us to your house.”

“I just need a ride to my car,” she grumbles. “I can drive myself.”

“If you can walk into the building and into the speakeasy without so much as a stumble, we’ll revisit it,” I mutter, pulling into the back of our club. I back the car right next to one of the back doors so we can throw the dickhead she wants to torture into the truck.

It’s the middle of the day, we’ll need to be quick so as not to draw attention. We’re all in yesterday’s clothing and appear rumpled from sleeping in them, so I’m honestly not sure how long we’ll be able to fly under the radar.

Turning off the car, I push open my door and we all get out.

Liliana manages to make it to the door before her legs threaten to collapse underneath her.

She hasn’t eaten much since she’s been in and out of consciousness for most of her stay at the hospital and the drugs are going to take a little longer to recover from.

“Oh, look at that!” I crow as Jared lunges to ensure that her knees don’t hit the rough asphalt. “Guess we’re driving you after all. One of us will drive your car back so you can take yourself back to your house.”

“You’re so pig-headed,” Elijah sighs as he unlocks the back door to the building.

“I don’t like owing you anything,” she mutters, blowing out a breath as Jared helps her inside.

Honestly, the unsteadiness on her feet worries me, but I already struck my bargain with her in our favor. That’s what she understands, not the simplicity of helping her because we want to.

We’ve made her our enemy now. By the time we’re through a hidden hallway, her gait is a little steadier. Elijah leads the way into the speakeasy, and calls out our appearance. We aren’t open until much later today, which means there’s time to play.

“Hey boss,” William grunts as he peeks his head around the corner. “You back for this guy? The fucker didn’t want to talk much. Oh, hello Miss.”

“Did you help me earlier?” Liliana asks with a small upturning of her lips. It’s a pitiful smile if you ask me. At William’s careful nod, she adds, “I appreciate that. It was a stupid move for me to accept gum from the red-headed bitch.”

“Redhead, fuck, I saw her,” Jared sighs. There hasn’t been much time to discuss what she remembers, and it was foggy at best until recently.

Lili explains that a redhead offered her a stick of gum, and she didn’t think about why she shouldn’t have accepted it until it was too late. The girl and this guy that we caught trying to leave with her did this to offer him more fun in the bedroom.

“She must be an awful lay,” I mutter.

“If raping a girl is a better one, then it seems so,” Lili throws back at me as she follows William to the storage closet. “I think he called her Lexie or Livie. That part is a little foggy for me.”

“I may have softened him up a little for you,” William says with a wince. His knuckles are split and he’s wearing his undershirt with his nice black pants.

“As long as he’s alive enough to feel pain, I don’t care,” Lili says sweetly. “No one likes a rapist.”

“Fuck no,” William grunts. “I have sisters and this pisses me off.”

Unlocking the door, he kicks the guy in the chest as he rushes the entry point. While his hands are zip tied behind his back, his legs aren’t restrained.

“Can I get him to go?” Lili asks. “I’d like his legs ziptied too, please.”

Listening to her ask William to help her as if she was asking for a burger to-go makes my lips twitch with amusement. This girl has always had an understated flair for the dramatic.

“No problem, miss,” William says, doing as he’s asked.

“Do we have a name yet?” Elijah asks.

Liliana walks over to the man William has laying on his stomach as he maneuvers his ankles to be tied and snaps his finger in half without flinching.

“Name, please,” she says pleasantly, in the scariest voice I’ve ever fucking heard. It’s innocent and sweet, almost doll-like.

I fucking hate creepy dolls.

“Lincoln!” he screams. “Fuck, I didn’t mean anything by it. You wouldn’t have remembered me fucking you. Why is this such a big deal?”

“There’s a drug problem in Santa Barbara,” Lili says patiently, despite how disgusted she must feel.

I’ve killed people on her behalf for less than this. My blood is boiling.

“I’m not dealing, I just got some for fun,” Lincoln yells.

God, he’s so damn loud.

“Are you having fun yet?” I ask, smirking in derision. “Lili is about to be.”

“I don’t really like men,” she says, pursing her lips. “Your girlfriend on the other hand, she was kind of cute. I might sleep with her, take her away from a giant baby like yourself.”

Every word is a lie, but if you don’t know her, it’s impossible to tell.

“Livie would never,” Lincoln growls, making Jared bark out a laugh.

Liliana is a really good interrogator. Damn. She glances at me, and I can tell she wants to continue to work from here. He’s already talking, I don’t see the harm in it.

“Watch the blood please,” I sigh.

“Of course,” she murmurs under her breath. “Girls who lick pussy just do it better, Lincoln. It’s not your fault for being unable to satisfy your girl. She said you liked your girls spicy, didn't she?”

“That’s just for me,” he complains. He’s face down on the floor, trussed up like a pig, and still talking back to her with his broken finger. Idiot. “I like to fuck a variety of girls. Livie gets it.”

“I think she gets off on drugging people,” Lili snorts. “That’s the excuse of power, Lincoln. She caught me in a moment of conversation. I’d rather kidnap and kill you, all while you know that you’re going to die. That’s the type of high I enjoy. Who are you getting the drugs from?”

The change of conversation is fast enough that it confuses Lincoln, and he struggles to process it.

“You’re tall for a girl, but there’s no way you could kill… ow!”

There goes another finger. Some people will never learn. Jared, Elijah, and I watch as Liliana keeps Lincoln off balance. I find her fascinating, but not enough to take her apart to see what makes her tick. I already know anyway.

Lili has always been savage, but we made her into this. Grief and blood lust is why she’s eager to dismantle Lincoln, and the slightest wrong move will pull her attention our way.

“Fine, there’s this guy in Goleta,” he says. “He goes by el Tigre and nothing else. I call him up when I need drugs, he sends one of his guys to drop it off, and I pay him cash. I never see any of them, I drop the cash in a paper bag on a park bench.”

This guy sounds like an amateur.

“I’ll take that help now to transport him, please. Someone grab his phone and text Livie to meet him close to here,” Lili says. “I want to peel her skin from her body.”