Why didn’t he tell her? If he hadn’t been honest about that, what else had he been lying about?
“I guess he was using you until he moved on to his next piece of ass.” Big Mike shook his head.
“Why are you doing this?” She glared at him under her lashes.
“Torturing Guardians?” Bike Mike looked at her and cocked his head. “Well, because number one, I hate how they are always in my fucking business. Damn Guardians were always in my club causing problems. They want my girls pampered, no sex and no drugs in the club. They don’t understand I have a business to run. So I had a chat with Edward Boudier, our own Pack Master. Told him I didn’t appreciate his Guardians making trouble for me. He actually agreed. Said he was going to get rid of his own Guardians.” He glared as he stalked over to a table where numerous knives and operating items were laid out.
“Number two, when your Pack Master of your home state gives you an order and a hefty salary to hunt down Guardians, you don’t question him.”
“How did you capture them?” She had to keep him talking. As long as he was talking he couldn’t hurt Lucien.
“Well, after I got a list of the Arkansas Guardians, I got one of the girls to call Heimy. She said that his mama had been in a car accident and he needed to come on back to New Orleans. He was so worried, he didn’t even tell Barrett what had happened. Just rode on down to New Orleans.”
“When he captured him, he was in the parking lot of the hospital. Managed to knock him out long enough to get him down here.” He smiled. “Heimy was one tough fucker. Even after we skinned his back and cut off his hand, that asshole held on for hours. Refused to die.” Big Mike shrugged. “So I finally cut his head off and had them dump him in the swamp.”
“Mitchell, that’s him.” He pointed at the figure on the wall. “Well, we just got lucky with him. He was on the border of Arkansas and Louisiana and one of my hired werewolves followed him into a bar. Injected him with silver, which weakened him, and then carted him back here. For me to play with.”
“Oh, my god.” She couldn’t stop the tremble that ran through her entire body. She was going to die. Lucien was going to die. In a tunnel filled with blood and waste and hatred.
“How is Edward Boudier’s Guardians going to feel about him allowing the Arkansas Guardians to be killed?”
“Edward don’t give two shits what the Louisiana Guardians think. Why do you think he’s firing them right and left? He wants to rule the state himself, without having to answer to anyone.”
“You don’t have to do this.” She pleaded.
He picked up a horrific instrument “Know what this is? This is a rib spreader, like they use for open heart surgeries. Have you ever seen the inside of a man’s chest before, Catty? Do you know how exciting it is to crack open the rib cage and see his heart beating inside his chest? Or hear him scream when you pull his heart out?”
“You can’t kill Lucien. He doesn’t have the Guardian tattoo on his back.” Her heart jackhammered in her chest. He was going to kill Lucien, but first he was going to torture him. She had to somehow stop him.
“Well Arkansas seems to have to have some lax rules concerning their Guardians. Not all of them have a tattoo. I would have missed him. He wasn’t on my list. Good thing I’ve got some intel of my own in Arkansas.” He glared at Lucien. “Enough of all this jabbering. Let’s get down to business.”
He looked at her over his shoulder. “I’m going to skin your wolf alive and you’re going to watch.”
***
“Don’t you fucking touch her.” Lucien ground out. The pain from being beaten over the head with a baseball bat was nothing compared to the anger he felt at what Big Mike was going to do with Catty. He wanted to shift but the silver cuffs on his arm prevented him.
If he could just get down…
“I tell you what, Guardian. If you make a sound while I’m peeling the flesh from your bones, I’m going to stop and I’m going to let Catty take your place.” His manic eyes flashed with glee. “I’ve never seen a female without her skin. Think she will look so pretty after I do that?” He laughed.
“You’re one sick fuck.” His body pulsed with anger.
Big Mike stopped laughing and grabbed Lucien’s face. “Don’t call me that. I’m not sick. I’m the only one around here in my right mind.” He sneered. “I know what you’re doing. You’re stalling, wolf. Well, it’s not going to work. Let’s get started, shall we?”