Page 183 of I Never Stopped Loving You

“And what is that going to do?”

“Paralyze his vocal cords. Can't have the neighbors hear him screaming as we rip him limb from limb…Literally,” I chuckle.

“No,” Alex gasps, causing himself to choke.

“You don't get a say in this, fucker,” Monty yells as he slaps Alex across the face. “Shame we won't be able to hear him scream.”

“He can still make grunting noises, but not anything remotely close to the sounds that should be coming out of him as he’s torn apart.”

“Please. I can change. I swear. Just give me a chance,” Alex pleads for his life as I cut off his shirt, then start wrapping the rope around his hand and wrist.

“Men like you never change,” Monty growls.

The rope is wound tight making sure it won’t slip off as we drive in opposite directions. Each wrist is restrained and his legs are bound together so he can’t try to run. The old ‘quartered by horses’ method was simple. Tie a rope to each limb then to four different horses. Then run the horses in four different directions, ripping the condemned person apart. Unfortunately, we don’t have four trucks, but two will do quite nicely. I don’t even want to think of the clean-up right now, but it’ll be worth it.

“Let’s go,” I say flatly as I yank him to his feet by his hair then bend to throw him over my shoulders.

He fights, smacking and punching against me until Monty grabs both the ropes and yanks them, putting strain on his wrists. I can feel the ribs Monty broke shifting as I carry him up the steps and out of the house. Thankfully, my driveway is sealed concrete and there’s a large enough area where we usually park that there shouldn’t be much splatter that lands off the driveway.

“Please. I’ll give you money. I have a whole farm I can sell. I can get you anything you want. Please. Just let me go. Please, don’t kill me. I don’t want to die,” Alex screams over and over begging for his life.

I can hear Monty laughing as he walks behind us. I seriously need to know the story behind his demons.

I drop Alex on the driveway letting him land hard on the broken ribs, then back my truck up close to him. I take one rope from Monty, and he follows what I do allowing only about six feet of slack between his wrists and our hitches.

“So, how do you want to do this? Three, two, one, go? Or what?” Monty asks as I finish securing both ropes to our hitches.

Alex has already thrown up twice from sobbing, but we don’t even pay him any attention at this point. It’s psychologically fucking with him more than anything we could actually say to threaten him right now.

I pull out my phone and call Monty’s. It rings in his pocket, and I watch his eyes widen as the sound echoes in the night. It’s the fucking Benny Hill theme song, Yakety Sax. He pulls it out and a picture of a bright yellow rubber ducky is flashing on the screen with the word “Boss.”

“So, um. I never thought you’d call me when you were right next to me,” he laughs.

“Benny Hill?”

“Yeah. I don’t know why, but whenever I know you’re going after the targets, I always picture you chasing them to this song.”

“And the ducky?”

“I just changed that on the plane,” he grins.

“What was it before?” I ask curiously with one brow raised.

“Um…I don’t want to tell you,” he laughs nervously.

“No, please. Indulge me.”

He pulls open his photos and scrolls for a moment before finding a picture of a very pissed-off-looking animal.

“A honey badger?” I ask confused.

“Yeah. Cause the honey badger don’t give a shit.”

We both start laughing, but the sounds of Alex’s uncontrollable sobs become annoying.

“Time to shut him up yet?” Monty asks.

“I think so.”