Page 20 of Chase

“Fuck,” the other one, a mere boy probably around eighteen or nineteen, wheezed, realization dawning across his face. His fear coated the room. It was so strong, I could almost taste it.

My blood pumped hotly through my veins, and I quickly lit another cigarette to keep myself calm.

“Fuck is right,” Tango mused, amusement shining in his blue eyes. “You look like you’re ready to piss your pants, kid.”

Kid was definitely right. He was too young for this shit. Too young, in my opinion, to prospect for a club, much less be sent out to do dirty work like they’d been doing. How the fuck he got roped into whatever shit he was doing, I’d never know. But if he was lost and looking for a place to belong, it made sense.

Kids at that age were very impressionable.

“Fuck you,” he spat, but it wasn’t as strong as I was sure he wanted it to be. His voice trembled, and his pupils were blown wide with fear, his body trembling in his restraints. His teeth even began to chatter.

He wasn’t cut out for this.

Tango chuckled and kneeled in front of him. “I’ll make you a deal, kid. I’ll make this quick and painless if you just tell me what I want to know.”

“Don’t you say a fucking word,” the older man hissed at the boy.

Mark hummed, twirling his knife between his fingers. “Why not?” he asked, drawing the older man’s attention to him. “Neither of you are getting out alive.” The boy whimpered, but I didn’t remove my eyes from the man Mark was speaking to. “But if you don’t cooperate, I can make it really fucking hurt. I’llmakeyou cooperate.”

“I’m not telling you a fucking thing,” he hissed. “You can do whatever you want to me.”

The boy next to him squeaked in fear when Tango trailed the tip of his knife up his throat. The end was sharp enough to easily break the skin, and blood trickled from the wound. The boy sobbed, tears already spilling down his cheeks. “You might not, but I’ve got a feeling this sweet boy will, won’t you?” Tango asked, softening his voice, playing with the boy’s emotions. Tango was a manipulator through and through, which was why he was the best when it came to torturing information out of someone. Even Johnston had used him a time or two.

The boy gulped, fear making his pulse rapidly beat at the base of his throat. He would be our link to finding out what we wanted, no doubt about it.

“Shut your fucking mouth,” the older man snarled at the boy, making him flinch.

Mark gripped the man’s hair and yanked his head back. “You open your mouth again, and I’m going to shove my cock so far down your throat, you suffocate, you hear me?” Scorpion snickered beside me. Mark was bisexual. He didn’t flaunt it, but he wasn’t shy about it either. He fucked whatever his flavor of the night happened to be.

“Gay fucker,” the man seethed. “Fucking hate faggots.”

Mark barked out a laugh. “Getting a dick sucked is just getting a dick sucked,” he told him. “Only fuckers not secure in their sexuality would feel a need to call another man a faggot.” He placed his knife in the man’s mouth, the blade gleaming under the harsh lighting. The man paled, his jaw open. “Now, shut the fuck up and don’t say another word, or I’ll shove this through the back of your thick-ass skull. Understand?”

He didn’t say another word, not that I blamed him. Because Mark didn’t remove that blade from his mouth. He kept it there while Tango eyed the boy.

“Who do you work for?”

“I’m a prospect for the Ghosts of Chaos,” the boy whimpered.

I looked at Scorpion. Nothing showed on his face, but I knew what he was thinking. We’d definitely been dragged into the problems Johnston had because the Ghosts of Chaos MC had recently been causing a lot of problems for the mother charter. We’d known it was going to happen, but now we were eyeballs deep in it.

Wouldn’t be long before it was threatening to drown us.

Fuck.

“Good boy,” Tango crooned. The boy sniffled. “Why is our club being targeted?”

The Ghosts of Chaos MC used to be a clean club. They didn’t dabble in the shit we did. They worked hard and repped the whole Blue Lives Matter shit. I didn’t know what changed, but I had a feeling we’d find out tonight.

“P-Pressure,” the boy stuttered, clearly terrified. But it was clear he thought answering Tango’s questions and dying fast was the easiest way to go. He was at least a smart kid. Too bad he made the decisions he did. Prospecting for the Ghosts of Chaos would cost him his life. “Prez formed a d-deal with the R-Russians,” he said, tripping over himself.

I gritted my teeth, my hand curling into a fist at my side. My fucking cigarette was done, and I tossed it to the floor, stomping it out with my boot. Dammit, this was the last fucking thing we needed.

“Fuck,” Scorpion whispered so low, the only reason I heard him was because he was standing right next to me.

The Russians were going to be a fucking problem. If they were pressuring the Ghosts of Chaos to start a war with us, they wanted our territory and our power. It would be a bloody war. And the chances of coming out alive were slim as fuck. This puteveryoneconnected to us in danger—our women and other clubs.

“Why target our clients?” Tango asked the boy, his voice calm and soothing. I hated to admit it, but I was getting soft for the boy. It was clear he was terrified as fuck and hadn’t wanted to do any of this. Especially when I thought about his reactions to the older man he got caught with. He’d been scared.