Total pages in book: 159
Estimated words: 149148 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 746(@200wpm)___ 597(@250wpm)___ 497(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 149148 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 746(@200wpm)___ 597(@250wpm)___ 497(@300wpm)
“You talk too much,” the man on his right said quietly. When he took off his dark glasses, his face appeared vaguely familiar to James. A second later, he realized it was one of the friends of the Greek biker MJ had hooked up with in college.
Before he could even think of protesting his innocence, the younger man had knocked him out cold.
Yuri gazed reflectively on the bruise of his fist. “If I had hit him any harder,” he murmured, “I might have killed him.”
“Good thing you didn’t then,” Andreus grunted from the other side of James. “We can take turns after Helios has questioned him.”
Helios was waiting for them at the boathouse, his face stoic as he watched the other officers of Afxisi unload James from the backseat. The older man remained unconscious even as they tied him by the ankles and hung him upside down from a hook. At his nod, Andreus began reeling him up and stopped when James was at eye level with Helios.
Helios cracked his fists. Only common sense and sheer worry over MJ had kept him in the boathouse, waiting for the others to bring to him the man who had tortured his woman almost every year of her life. With them so close to finding clues about Manolito Chavez’s whereabouts, Helios knew he had to take greater care and not let Gracie suspect him. Right now, Gracie and the whole world was not even aware that MJ existed, much less the havoc her abduction had created in his life. But that could change any moment. All it took, Helios knew, was one stupid mistake, and it could cost him MJ’s life.
He took the lighter from the desk and clicking it open, he calmly held it close to James Cartwright’s arms. In seconds, James screamed himself awake at the smell and feel of his burning skin. He found himself staring straight into Helios’ eyes, the world around him upside down. It took another second of blazing agony for James to understand he was the one hanging upside down.
“Do you know who I am?” Helios asked.
James only glared at him, knowing there was no point in asking for mercy.
“I can see in your eyes that you do.” Helios bared his teeth in a smile. “Then you will understand if I do this to you, won’t you?”
James’ eyes shot up, following the movement of the man’s hand. His eyes widened in alarm when he saw where it was heading. “Fuck you,” he bellowed. But his words ended in a moan of excruciating pain as Helios Andreadis roughly cut his pants open and set his dick on fire.
Helios only tossed the lighter away when the flesh of James’ manhood had turned a different color. The man was likely in the most hellish throes of pain right now, but it wasn’t enough. He wanted James Cartwright to suffer the kind of life-threatening fear he had subjected MJ to every damn day of her life. He wanted to watch as rapists violated James the way James had sold MJ to be violated, wanted to watch the light go out of the man’s eyes as Helios slowly crushed his windpipe—
Kellion clasped Helios’ shoulder in warning. “Whatever you’re thinking, President, it’s not worth it. We need answers, and we’re running out of time.”
The words washed over him like a bucket of cold water, and Helios fought hard to rein his emotions in. In front of him, James was still screaming in between hurling invectives at him and MJ. But the man’s protests died when Helios crouched down to pick up the lighter.
“If you don’t want me to keep burning your dick until it falls off, you’re going to answer my questions clearly and completely.”
Kellion grabbed a steel bat lying in wait and used it to lightly “tap” the side of James’ head, just enough to have blood run down the side of his temple. “Understand that, asshole?”
James tried to spit at him, but Kellion took a swift step back.
Andreus walked over and used the butt of his gun to tap the other side of James’ temple. Again, blood ran down the side of his head. “Do you understand what our President said? We’ll keep hitting you until you get it right, you know.”
“Yes,” he forced himself to say, knowing he wouldn’t survive if his captors kept hitting him on the head. Pain from his burned skin and dick made his head even woozier. He began to hallucinate, feeling like a hundred MJs were going around him in circles. And all of them were laughing at him.
Damn you, stupid cunt.
Every one of the one hundred MJs didn’t answer, they just kept on laughing as if he wasn’t worth wasting their voices for.
Another hard painful tap to his head had James’ attention swinging back to Helios and the other men. The walls of the boathouse seemed to be shrinking closer and closer towards him, but surely that couldn’t be? It was all his imagination, just like the hundred MJs still mocking him with their laughter.