Page 48 of Tico

He won’t hurt me, Pyper, Rochelle, or anyone else ever again.

When all of his patches have been severed from his cut, Tico slices his knife through the leather and then he cuts down the front of Ryan’s shirt before cutting two more slices at the arms and ripping everything off him. My lips twitch when I see Ryan’s club tattoo on his chest and I secretly hope Tico fucks it up.

As if he’s thinking the same thing, Tico grins darkly at the sight of the tattoo. But then he surprises me when he turns to me.

“Vicious? I think this honor should go to you.”

I stare at Tico for a moment, surprised, but then a dark smile tugs at my lips. I set Tico’s cut carefully on the table behind me and then take off my own cut. Chief hands me some gloves that I put on. To my left, Daemon opens up a cabinet and I look through the collection of knives before choosing a blade with two edges—one that looks razor sharp and the other, serrated.

I walk over towards Ryan, but my first cut isn’t to mar his club tattoo. It’s a diagonal slash five inches long over his ribs.

“Payback for the scar you gave me,” I tell him, loving the sight of him clenching his jaw in pain. I raise my knife to the top of his tattoo.

“You worthless little—”

A scream rips out of him, cutting off his insult as I make a deep, angled cut just above his tattoo so that a flap of skin flips forward. Then his scream cuts off again as he clamps his mouth closed, most likely biting his tongue or cheek to keep another scream from escaping.

That won’t do at all.

Gripping his skin, I shave off his club tattoo, piece by piece. It isn’t long before his screams echo off the walls. In a few places, I cut a little deeper than needed, but for the most part, I keep my cuts shallow since I don’t want him to bleed out before we get our answers.

Section by section I work.

Cut.

Shave.

Violently sever it.

And finally, drop the skin on the plastic mat below us with a satisfying splat and start all over again.

By the time I’m done, Ryan is sweating profusely but the fight still hasn’t drained out of him. And he still hasn’t given us anything useful.

“What was the purpose of last night’s attack?” I ask, even though I’m almost positive I already know the answer.

Ryan grins, his teeth bloody from biting himself earlier.

“Like I said. You’re club property and your owner is quite displeased that you’ve left.”

My body bristles at the word ‘owner’. “Who is my supposed owner?”

When he doesn’t answer, I step back. “Daemon? What other toys do you have?”

Daemon chuckles darkly, which has a few whimpers escaping from some of the men hanging as they await their fate. He brings two things over to me—an acetylene torch and a whip that looks like it’s been modified to have several barbed tips along the vast majority of it.

Ooooh. That’s perfect.

I hum in approval and cut off Ryan’s pants, leaving him in his dingy boxers as I have no desire to see his dick. I want nothing cushioning what’s about to happen. Tico and a few other men step forward and cut off the clothes of the others.

Taking the whip from Daemon, I hand him the knife but then, I look at each of the men hanging in front of me.

“I can’t speak for Tico and the others, but when I’m asking the questions, those that answer me will get less of a punishment. Those that don’t… Well, let’s just say you’ll feel my wrath.” I pause as I look back at Ryan. “Who is my supposed owner? And I don’t mean Scooter. I mean who bought me for a month before I was supposed to be handed over to Scooter.”

Ryan glares at me and I smirk—a dark part of me pleased that he’s resisting.

“I was hoping you’d be stubborn.”

I walk around behind them and everyone, including Ryan, tries to keep me in their line of sight. I expertly roll out the whip without hurting myself which earns a few more whimpers. Both Daemon and Uncle Marcus taught me how to handle a variety of weapons while growing up so that if I ever did get into a sticky situation, I would be able to use almost any weapon in sight. And right now? I can’t even begin to describe how thankful I am for their foresight.