Chapter Twenty-Nine

Rooney

Ted was dead, and I knew the fucker wouldn’t be missed. Why would he? He was a traitor to the club. Wiping my bloodied hands on the towel, I looked at Vincenzo. In the past couple of hours, he’d gone from being his cocky little self to being very quiet, his fear clear.

I loved seeing how afraid he was, especially as I knew I’d been the one to put it there.

“He doesn’t look so good,” Venom said.

I smiled. “He knows.” The begging and pleading began in earnest.

I had to give the guy credit, I didn’t expect him to fall so late. I guess I’d shocked him but skinning a man alive took skill.

Ted had felt every single cut and slice. The club wouldn’t mourn his loss. If anything, it was a reminder to never turn your back on the MC. There was no way in hell we’d let Ted die carrying our patch on his skin.

The Ruthless Rejects MC meant a hell of a lot to us. Our name and reputation was everything.

“I didn’t fuck your girl,” Vincenzo said. “I could have but I didn’t.”

I smirked. “You think that’s going to help your cause here with me?” I stepped up to him and couldn’t keep the smile off my face. “When you took Bryn, ordered me to kill Venom, you believed you had the upper hand. For a while you did.”

“Ted came to me. He told me how weak you all were and how you needed someone to be in control.”

“You just wanted a bunch of men to do your bidding. We’re not your fucking slaves.” Moving away from him, I looked at the arrangement of torture devices. Seeing the brass knuckles, I picked them up and slid them on. I always felt men cheated when they wore them. I’d always been the kind of guy who liked to be in a fair fight. There was nothing fair about this.

However, when it came to Bryn, this asshole hadn’t fought fairly and now it was time to even the score, or better yet, I was going to win.

“You sure about this?” Venom asked. “You’re going to take your time with him.”

“Why not? If we hadn’t come up with that plan, we wouldn’t be standing here now. I’m going to let this fucker have a taste of his own medicine. It’s the least I can do.” I walked back to Vincenzo and watched him tense up. He clearly didn’t like me being close to him, but that was okay. I could handle that.

Gripping his face hard, I glared at him. “You hurt my woman.”

“I never put my hands on her.”

“You got someone else to do your dirty work. I’m going to make you wish that you’d never heard my name. No one will remember you.” With that, I landed the first blow to his stomach.

His body, his flesh, became my blank canvas, and I started to make him bruise and bleed. Of course, I wouldn’t get to see the bruises unless I kept him alive. And I had no intention of doing that. Seeing him bleed, though, while I was already covered in Ted’s blood didn’t seem that bad to me.

When my arms started to grow tired, all it took was pictures of Bryn, the memory of her chained up, being hurt, and I was able to shake off the fatigue and continue beating the shit out of him.

The moment the satisfaction subsided and he went limp, I went for his pretty-boy face. Smashing his nose, I watched it break and saw blood pour from it.

His screams were nothing more than an echo around the room, and I took a great deal of pleasure in hearing them. This was what I’d been working toward. What I wanted to hear.

With his face a mess, teeth smashed in, no recognition of what he looked like before, I removed the knuckles and stepped back.

I was panting for breath, worked up from fucking him over.

Venom looked bored as he held up a scalpel for me to work with. I shook my head and instead went for the baseball bat.

I’d heard Vincenzo liked to use bats once he’d beaten men or women down to the ground and there was no way for them to defend themselves.

Dragging a stool toward his feet, I helped him stand on it and smiled.

Staring at him now, he no longer looked like the powerful little lord he thought he was.

Drawing the bat over my head, I brought it down on his feet, giving it all my strength, and in return I heard the smashing of bone.

I did the same to the next one, whistling as I did.

Once his feet were broken, I started on his legs. The chains barely held him up, and at this point, he’d passed out.

The guys had been drinking now, so we had another bucket of piss to throw at him.

I did that and waited for him to wake up.

The hours passed and along with it, my need for blood, for pain, and to hear his screams subsided.

Staring at him for a long moment, I knew I’d made him pay for everything he’d done to Bryn and to the club.

Grabbing the scalpel off Venom, I walked back to him, held his head, and jammed it into his throat, watching the life finally fade away. I made sure to look him in the eyes, so he knew without a shadow of a doubt I’d won.

His death belonged to me.

His pain was all on me.

I loved it.

This was what made me a monster, because no matter how much blood I spilled, how much pain I caused, I relished it.

The only thing I loved more than this feeling was Bryn.

A better man would walk away, allow her to find someone else.

I wasn’t a better man. I was a monster, and I was going to keep her all to myself.