Page 50 of Tico

None of them answer, and I give the signal. Five ofmis hermanos(my brothers) step forward and each of them takes one of the men.

I step in front of Spike, another Prospect, who is hanging to Ryan’s right. With how pale Ryan’s looking right now, I don’t want to push him too hard or too fast and have him die on us before he gives us the information we need.

It feels like hours but is probably only ten minutes when the guy Taco is torturing, Nathan, finally caves.

“S-Scooter didn’t know. N-None of the Chrome V-Viper’s did,” Nathan sputters as he tries to catch his breath.

Him and Ben are the two that aren’t part of the Chrome Vipers and we suspect they both work for Oasis.

“E-Ember’s right. She was n-never going to be h-handed back over to S-Scooter.”

Ryan’s head whips toward him. “You were g-going to double c-cross us? We’re p-partners!” he screams.

Nathan laughs hollowly, his voice heavy with pain. “It’s always the f-fucking same reaction with p-peon clubs like yours. You all t-think you’re the b-big shit when really, you’re just d-doing the job for p-pennies compared to what we w-work with.”

“You c-cheated us out of our r-rightful cut! He needs to p-pay for unlimited a-access to that b-bitch!”

“What else can you tell me?” I ask him, ignoring Ryan’s rants.

Nathan hesitates, but nods. “P-Pyper’s buyer was supposed to t-take her after the C-Collector got his hands on Ember.”

“Who is her buyer?” Ember asks, her voice ice cold as she comes up to stand next to me.

“I don’t k-know his name, but I k-know he’s in El Diablo’s inner c-circle. The m-man’s like a shadow. He n-never says a word and m-most people don’t even s-see him until it’s too l-late.”

Once again, Ember’s body goes stock still and I wonder if she knows who he’s talking about.

I hand my knife to Daemon and give him the signal to continue. Once again, screams bounce off the walls and I step close to Taco, lowering my voice.

“Get all the information out of them that you can but try not to kill them just yet. Especially Ryan. I want him alive when we get our hands on Drone and Scooter.”

“You got it, Prez. Take care of Queenie. I suspect she knows who those two men are and it looks like she might need you right now.”

I look over at Ember to find her staring at Ryan, and if looks could kill, he’d be dead.

“I think you might be right.”

Stripping off my gloves, I toss them down onto the plastic mat. Looking down at my clothes, I don’t see anything on them, thankfully. I grab my cut, slipping it on and then grab Ember’s cut before walking over to her. Gently, I take the whip out of her hand and she blinks up at me as if she didn’t realize I was standing beside her. I hand the whip off to Psycho who sets it off to the side to be cleaned later. She takes her gloves off and, after verifying no visible bodily fluids got on her clothes, she slipsher cut back on. Placing a hand on the small of her back, she thankfully lets me guide her out of the room. Both Xochitl and Poison silently slip out with us.

I lead Ember to the back door of the clubhouse and then up the back staircase as I try to keep us from running into anyone. Opening the door to my bedroom, we all file in, but Ember stands just inside the door, looking like a zombie.

“Ember? Are you alright?” Xochitl asks her carefully as she watches her closely.

Ember blinks and looks around, kind of like she didn’t realize we came back here.

“Em?” I ask her as I come up next to her, gently placing my hand on the small of her back.

She looks up at me and the pain, fury, and betrayal in her eyes almost brings me to my knees. Instead of answering me right away, she walks over to our bed and sits down. I sit down next to her while Xochitl and Poison sit on the armchair and loveseat. Ember takes a deep breath and shakily takes my hand in hers, threading our fingers together, almost as if she needs the touch to ground her.

“The first time I saw the Collector, I was twelve. Ever since then, Scooter met with him at the clubhouse at least once a year, but this past year, his visits increased to be almost monthly. Every time he came, it was always when I was scheduled to work at the bar so I couldn’t fully escape him. He’d stare and leer at all of us that were working.” She pauses and looks over at me. “I meant what I said in there. Those that he ‘collects’ never see the light of day again. There never would have been a hand-off to Scooter if he managed to get his hands on me.”

“How do you know?” Xochitl asks as she leans forward, resting her arms on her legs.

Ember gives a little huff and shakes her head sadly. “Because he likes to brag. He’s of a similar mindset as the ChromeVipers and Oasis—women are meant to keep the house, cook, clean, spread their legs and raise kids without question. He also believes he can do anything he wants to them and that they’ll just take his abuse.

“The last three times he was at the bar and clubhouse, he took someone back with him to his house. Each time, it was a young woman, probably not even sixteen.” She pauses and takes a deep breath. “And each time, he’d feel them up while watching me. A few times he cornered me and told me exactly what he’d do to me and for me if I became part of his collection. He likes to preach that he’s rescuing us, but he forgets that some of us have heard him brag about the darker side of what he does with his collections.”

“And the guy that bought Pyper?” Poison asks.