Savage reached back and closed the door behind them and strode down the aisle toward the six men. “Gentlemen,” he greeted them softly.
There was no child in the room. Bitters hastily tried to get to the computer projecting the image of a small boy in a dog cage sitting on the floor holding a blanket to his chest. The four guns went off a second time and Jarvis, Kent, Bernard and Churchill dropped to the floor with very loud thuds.
Torpedo Ink used silencers, but silencers only muffled the sound of a shot. The gunshots could still be heard if anyone was close. Bitters looked hopefully toward the exit that was directly behind him. George Durango edged closer to him.
“I’ve got money. Whoever is paying you, I can double it,” Durango said.
Ice shot him through the heart and for good measure shot him a second time between his eyes. Durango fell into Bitters, who automatically caught the falling body and then dropped it with a small squeak of fear.
Ice and Storm moved together right past Bitters to the computer. “Where is he?” Ice snapped, staring up at the screen. “If you don’t tell me the first time, that man right there, standing in front of you, is going to take you apart piece by piece. No one is going to come save you. The back exit is ours. The alley is ours. The front desk is ours. The cameras are not working. Where is the kid, Bitters?”
Storm worked on the computer, using a few keystrokes to allow Code to break in. It wouldn’t take long to find the boy on their own if necessary. “Code’s in,” he said.
Bitters looked around at the dead bodies as if he couldn’t believe what had happened. He was clearly still in shock. Killing nine people inside the room had taken less than a full minute. He took two steps back and held up his hands. “If you want him, of course I’ll take you to him.”
“We have a team that will pick him up. You’re going to tell us where he is,” Ice reiterated.
Savage had shoved his gun out of sight and pulled out a wicked-looking knife. The blade caught the lights from above and gleamed, drawing Bitters’s eye. Savage had no expression on his face, and his eyes were flat. Cold. Dead. It was very clear he could do exactly what Ice had said he would do.
Bitters looked to Lana. She was a beautiful woman, elegant and classy. “Please, I don’t know what’s happening.” He took another step back.
“Look over your shoulder,” Ice suggested.
Bitters turned, his face a mask of fear. Reaper, Savage’s older brother, filled the doorway, looking like the Grim Reaper. Bitters’s frightened gaze jumped from man to man. It was impossible to say which was scarier.
“In the basement, but you’ll never get into his cage without me. There’s a device—”
Ice’s head snapped up. “You fuckin’ put a device on the cage? Like a bomb? You put a fuckin’ bomb on the cage of a six-year-old boy you’ve been molesting for two years and now he’s too old and you want to sell him? You put a bomb on that cage?” He stepped closer. He could kill the bastard with his bare hands.
“You don’t understand,” Bitters said. He straightened, putting on his public face, the one he gave to the cameras and that made everyone believe. “This boy, these children, they’re sexual beings. They want love. They want what we give them. You need to open your mind. I was born to love children. To teach them.” He gave that exact rhetoric to the other pedophiles on the website they all visited. Maybe he’d said it so many times he believed it.
Ice hit him hard. He was wearing a thin pair of gloves like his brothers and Lana. Beneath the gloves they wore fingerprints that didn’t belong to any of them. He shoved a knee into Bitters’s chest when his body went down like a felled tree. Ice hit him a dozen times, smashing teeth and his nose, and breaking his cheekbone.
“Ice is losing it, Czar, with good reason,” Storm reported.
“Ice,” Czar said softly in his ear. “We need information. Back off for a minute.”
Lana put a hand on Ice’s shoulder. “Get him up, brother,” she said softly. “Don’t get any blood on you.”
Ice glanced at her over his shoulder and took a deep breath to still the beast crying out for more blood. More death. Reluctantly he stood up, jerking Bitters with him.
Bitters wiped at the blood but it kept coming.
“We’re at four minutes and counting,” Storm reported. “Move it along.”
“You hear that, Alena? Bomb on the cage. Check it out. Code says the kid’s in the basement,” Savage said and took a step toward Bitters.
Bitters let out another squeak and held up his hands in surrender. “I’ve given you the kid. I can give you the code to open the cage. You can have him. I don’t need money for him.” He mumbled his statement and coughed blood.
Savage slapped him hard. The blow was so strong, Bitters rocked back and to his left. Stumbled. Nearly went down. Blood sprayed across the floor.
“You can’t do that,” Bitters said, grabbing his face and holding it with both hands. “You have to arrest me.”
Ice looked around the room at the dead bodies. “This look like law enforcement to you? We want to know who the man is that sold the kid to you in the first place. He killed the boy’s family and took him nearly out of a crib in order to have him without repercussions. He didn’t want anyone looking for the boy. He’s established quite an MO with his ‘kill families and grab the kids’ technique. He’s a supplier. That’s what he does for sick fucks like you. Who is he?”
Bitters glanced up at the camera and then shook his head. “I don’t know him.”
“You really aren’t of any use to us then, but we have to be certain.” Ice flicked a quick look at Savage. “Transporter has the truck waiting and the Demons have a small chapter here. They’re flying under the radar. They lent us their garage for a few hours.”
“I’ll get the information we need from one of them,” Savage said. “Ice, you’re with me on this one. Between the two of us, we can get anyone to talk.”
“Wait, wait.” Bitters held up his hands again as if he could ward them off.
Lana moved close and Bitters grabbed at her. She caught his wrist, twisted, and he went flying off his feet. She retained possession of his wrist while grinding one foot into his throat. She caught the syringe Savage tossed to her and slammed the needle into Bitters’s neck. His eyes rolled back in his head.
“Now I need another shower,” Lana said and dropped the dead weight of Bitters’s arm. “He’s disgusting.”
Savage reached down and hauled the man up easily. He put him on his shoulder, so the body dangled like a rag doll. “Leave the computer and all the evidence Code collected on these men. All of it. He has plenty of copies. He’s chosen several news outlets to leak the evidence to. Burn your clothes. Everything. Lana, you’ll have to get rid of the shoes. There’s blood on them. Use the routes given to you.”