“And you would know,” I said. He folded his arms over his chest and stared down his nose at me. Everyone knew he hung out with Meredith a little too much. Some of us had taken bets on when the two would become a couple. If it had happened, they were keeping it secret.
“What the fuck?” Doolittle stood. “What the hell does that mean?”
Demon sighed and pinned Doolittle with a glare. “You think no one notices the amount of time you spend with Meredith?”
“She’s only eighteen,” Doolittle said. “You think I’ve spent the last two years screwing a teenager? Is that what you’re saying?”
“Glory is nineteen,” I pointed out. “Meredith is of legal age so if you went there, no one’s going to bust your balls over it except maybe Grizzly.”
Doolittle retook his seat. “I haven’t gone there. We’re friends. She needed someone to talk to, and she likes coming over to hang out with the animals at my house. It’s therapeutic for her.”
I’d let him have his delusions a while longer. Even if he didn’t look at Meredith in that particular way, she’d certainly been eyeing him. The girl lit up whenever Doolittle was around. Far more than she would if they were just friends as he claimed. If she made a pass at him and he walked away, I had a feeling it would crush her fragile heart. I hoped he knew what the hell he was doing.
Demon played the video over and over. Every time was worse than the previous, and it didn’t get us any closer to discovering the dickhead’s location. The walls were a plain white. The floor had what looked like cheap carpet. It could have been anywhere. Motel. Apartment. Hell, maybe he even used his own home. Sick bastard probably would get off walking through the room where he’d tortured her, remembering every twisted moment.
If it hadn’t been for the cyclone tattoo on his forearm, peeking from under his shirt, with RIP written under it, I may not have ever pieced things together. As it was, assuming he was related to Twister was taking a bit of a leap. Except, once the idea had lodged in my brain, I’d noticed a lot of similarities between the two. It made me question if this was personal. In which case, there likely wasn’t a connection with the patient from the clinic. So who the hell was the woman who’d come in? And was someone else after the patient who’d been there?
“Wait, back that up,” Blades said, leaning closer. He pointed at the far corner of the screen. “Is that a shadow?”
I squinted and realized he was right. “There’s someone else there.”
The doors to Church swung open and Outlaw came in, taking a seat across from me. “You done trying to figure it out all out?”
“No, asshole. We just realized there’s another person there.” Demon slid the laptop over to Outlaw.
The broken hacker cracked his fingers, wincing, before he started typing. I didn’t know what the hell he was doing, and I didn’t much care as long as he could get us a lead. Well, more of one than we had so far.
“No one checked the drive to see if there was anything else on it?” Outlaw asked.
“The other file wouldn’t open,” Demon said. “I figured it wasn’t important.”
Outlaw smiled. “It’s encrypted, but look…”
He spun the laptop so we could all see it. Two men were on the screen this time. I recognized the one who’d tortured the doc by his mismatched eyes. The other must have been the shadow we’d noticed in the corner.
“Didn’t see that one coming,” Dagger said as the sounds of sex filled the room.
“So it seems Twister’s brother is bisexual. Or… maybe he doesn’t like women at all. Could that be why he rapes and tortures them?” Frost asked. “He could despise women and that’s how he deals with it. I mean, rape isn’t about sex. It’s not the fact he’s going to fuck them that gets him hard. He gets off on the pain, the agony on their faces, the fear.”
The two men finished, and Twister’s brother flipped the other guy onto his back, placing his hand over the man’s throat. We watched as he squeezed and pinned the man to the floor. They fucked again, and Twister’s brother kept going, even after the other guy passed out. My stomach knotted at how sick the bastard was. If I hadn’t thought the shadow we’d noticed was the guy on the floor, I’d have worried he was dead.
“He’s coming around,” Dagger said.
Sure enough, the one who’d passed out shook it off, rubbing his throat as he stood. The depravity continued for another hour and included a third man and later two women. Seeing all the men tear those women apart nearly made me throw up. It seemed we weren’t dealing with just one psycho.
“I think it’s a club,” Blades said.
“What?” I asked, turning to face him. “Why would you say that?”
“You saw the tattoo on the main guy’s arm, but did you notice anything else? Look closely, along the hairline on their necks. Every last one has a tiny pitchfork inked right there. Same size, location, and color.” Blades ran a hand down his beard. “I’ve seen that before. Fucker in prison. Got arrested on three counts of rape, torture, and murder. Guy was untouchable inside. Kept saying something about the Sons would protect him. I didn’t understand it and didn’t care to. Now I have to wonder… is he part of a club that has Sons in the name, or refer to themselves as sons?”
“I have a feeling this is way bigger than we first thought,” Demon said. “Wolf, go home to Glory. The rest of you with women do the same. I’m calling Badger and Slash. I’ll fill them in on what we’ve learned so far. Outlaw, can you pass along all this info to Wire and see if it helps his search?”
“On it,” Outlaw said.
“Don’t let
