Her Brother, Her Mate

Vincent POVAll rights © NôvelDrama.Org.

“Your grimy f**k buddy left you high and dry as camel s**t. Why are you trying to protect the b***h boy?” Casey crouches down in front of the chair Suzie is tied to in the pack’s interrogation room.

“Camel s**t? How do you know camel s**t is dry? There a lot of camel s**t up in Canada?” one of Matt’s brothers, Mitch, asks from where he is leaning against the wall in the corner, filing his nails like he’s bored.

“What the hell are you doing?” Matt hisses at him, slapping the nail file used for…. interrogation purposes back on the table of tools.

His brother shrugs, “Girls keep complaining about my nails when I fing-”

Matt cuts him off with a slap on the back of his head, “You’re here to do a job, Mitch. Quit f*****g around, he hisses.”

Carlos is being held in the room next door, though I know he knew nothing of his sister’s actions. Simon is in there with him with Laura, filling him in on what we found in his apartment. Carlos stuck up for his sister when no one else would, not even his parents. I know he is feeling deeply betrayed right now.

“I want my brother,” Suzie whimpers. No one has hurt her, except for when Casey knocked her out. She has been treated pretty well, all things considered. Lady Delilah is on her way, though, and Suzie knows it.

For Lady Delilah to be coming here personally, I would be scared too. She is absolutely terrifying when you get on her bad side.

“Your brother isn’t going to save you from the grave you dug yourself,” Parker levels with her, not threatening her, but telling her the truth as it is. “The only thing that will help you now is telling us the truth. Everything you know about Aiden Gallagher.”

“I don’t know!” she cries out, eyes roaming around the room until they land on me, “Vinny, help me.”

“Vinny?” I lifted a brow at her. “Are we close enough for nicknames? I am the employer who gave you a chance when no one else would, and you repaid me by putting my future wife at risk. You were helping the man who wants to take everything from me, and you want me to help you?” I crouched down in front of her, right next to Casey, reaching up and caressing her cheek softly, “If it wasn’t for your brother, I would be asking you these questions myself, and I would not be as kind as my furry friends here.”

I leaned forward and whispered in her ear, “I’d start with your eyes, my dear. I’d pluck them out, but leave them hanging by their roots. Without your sight, all the other senses would be so much more intense,” I ran my fingers gently down her arms, making her whimper and shiver in fear, “I’d remove each finger, one by one, making sure you would never play that lovely instrument you cherish so much again.

“Then,” I grip the hair on the back of her neck, tugging it back violently, “I’d skin you alive, starting with this full, luscious head of hair you have,” I lift the ends of her locks with my other hand, inhaling deeply, relishing the scent of her anguish and horror, “Once I finally got you to tell me what you know, and believe me, you would tell me, I’d cut that flippant tongue from your mouth, watching as you drown in your own tainted b***d. Right before death is granted to you, I’d rip the very fangs from your mouth, the instruments of your addiction, and leave you to die here, alone without any hope of a savior. So tell me, my dear Suzie,” I run my knuckles down her face one more time, then grip her chin firmly, “Do you want my help, or will you be helping yourself by telling my friends what they need to know?”

A broken sob leaves her throat, and the pungent stench of urine fills the room. “I’ll talk,” she whimpers, trying to turn her face from me, but my nails are digging into the flesh of her cheeks, nails elongating with my anger, piercing through the fatty tissue. I want her to know there is no escape from this, and if she tries, Lady Delilah will be the least of her worries.

I tear my fingers from her face, nails ripping through her flesh as b***d trickles down her chin. She shakes and sobs uncontrollably as the other men in the room look at me like I have 3 heads.

“Holy s**t,” Mitch stares at me in awe, throwing a rag my way so I can clean her b***d from my fingers. Parker is the only one who has seen this ruthless side of me. He has done enough work for the council with me to know how I can be when agitated. He’s staring at me from across the room with a smirk on his face.

Casey’s eyes lingered on my face for several seconds before turning back to Suzie, “Want to talk to me now?”

She nods furiously, tears running down her cheeks and mixing with the b***d trickling down from the cuts on her jawline.

“He,” she hiccups, snot running from her nose, “He came to me. I was on my way to the b***d bank and…..he came to me. He said….he thought I was pretty. He accidentally gave himself a papercut when he wrote down his phone number to give me and,” she sniffles, sucking the snot back into her throat, “I don’t know. The l**t took over. When I came out of it, we were naked in my bed, his b***d,” she shivers, but it’s a different kind of shiver from fear. It’s a reminder of the bloodlust and the magical current in her veins, “He asked me to do him a favor. He asked for, uh, information.”

“What kind of information?” Parker asks.

She looks over at him in disgust. Mitch grabs the nail file back off the table, walks over to her, almost in a seductive stride, then kneels down next to her right hand.

“What information did he want from you, sweetheart?” he asks in a purr of a voice.

“He, uh, wanted to know, uh, just stuff about me and my brother. He wanted to know about Carlos and where he was working. He wanted to stay with me while Carlos was away.”

“Is that all?” Mitch asks.

She nods, clearly lying.

Mitch clicks his tongue, flashes the nail file in front of her face, sticks the pointed end under her pointer finger’s nail, and jams it quickly underneath, taking her nail clean off. Her screams fill the room as she thrashes in the chair, wailing in a high-pitched screech.

“I hear musicians need to keep their nails as short as possible. Let me help you out with the other ones while you rethink your answer,” Mitch muses, lifting her next finger and pressing the red-tinted tip of the file underneath the nail bed.

“Please,” she screams, trying to pull her hand free from his grip, “Okay! He wanted to know about your pack! He wanted me to get information from Carlos about Vincent and that tramp, then he wanted me to find out about the alpha and luna here. And the previous luna and alpha for some reason. I didn’t tell him anything that everyone doesn’t already know! Carlos doesn’t tell me much, and I could only tell him pieces of what I overhear coming and going from here! That’s it! I swear!”

“What did he want to know about me and my luna?” Parker’s leveled tone had the hint of a threat to it now.

She shakes her head back and forth, feeling the pressure from his alpha aura crashing into her, suppressing her and drawing out more of her fear.

“Just stuff everyone knows! You and she are step-siblings and all that s**t. I think he just wanted to know because of the drama of it all! Everyone knows about you and her anyway. I didn’t tell him anything he couldn’t find out on his own!”

“What did you tell him about the previous luna and alpha?” Casey asks, pacing in front of her. His eyes are downcast as he thinks deeply about what information she could tell Aiden about the pack that he could use to get to my Simone, his sister.

“Just that the current luna and the previous don’t get along! Everyone knows!”

“Did you tell him any information about me and Simone?” I asked, coming up to stand behind Mitch.

She bites her l*p nervously, drool dripping down onto her chest. She looks scared, more scared than before, and I know I’m not going to like what she has to say. Casey stops pacing and stands on the other side of her to hold her still if Mitch needs to continue to pry for the information we need from her.

“I,” she sputters, “I told him about….about your night by the pool. He,” she looks at Casey nervously, then back at me, “He wanted to know your schedules and about your relationship. I could only tell him the little bit I heard from Carlos, but it wasn’t much.”

“Did he tell you his plans?” Casey asks. She shakes her head.

“He just asked me questions. If I questioned him, he got mad.”

“Do you know where he is now?” Parker asks.

“No,” she whimpers, “He….he left me. He said,” a broken sob escaped her, “He said I was worthless and left me.”

Her uncontrollable sobs fill the room. Mitch stands dropping the nail file back on the table and walks back to kneel beside her again. “I remember seeing you around, always clinging to the fairy boys at parties and clubs. Was Aiden worth all this pain you’re feeling right now? He used you, and left you to deal with this s**t on your own.”

“What do you know?” she sneers, spitting into his face.

Mitch doesn’t flinch. He just wipes the spit from his cheek with his palm, then runs his hands down his thigh. “I know about being used. I also know that addiction is not something you can get over on your own. I don’t think you were trying to hurt anyone, but your addiction clouded your judgment. For your own sake, not anyone else’s, I hope you get help.”

With that, he gets up and walks out of the room. Matt’s eyes followed him the entire time, questions written all over his face, just like the rest of us.

Matt is about to follow his brother out when his eyes glaze over as he gets a mind link. Parker’s do as well. They both turn to me after it’s over.

“She’s here. Lady Delilah.”