Authors: K.A. Merikan
“You know his password?” asked
Grim, and he licked his lips, uncomfortable with the thought Misha could just
as easily sneak into his own tablet.
Misha shook his head. “I tried
‘password,’ then ‘drowssap,’ then the same with zero instead of the ‘o.’ It
worked. I had a few more guesses I could try, but otherwise, I wouldn’t try to
crack it and would just go past the operating system altogether.”
Grim scowled, staring at Misha
with a sense of inadequacy. It took him several seconds to figure out that “drowssap”
was ‘“password” written backward. He had no idea how one overrode a system
either, but then again, everyone had their strengths. This was Misha’s, even
though Misha had so far gone out of his way to bury those skills along with the
suffering they brought him.
Even in the gloves, he was quick
on the keyboard, and Grim didn’t understand all that he was doing as he opened
several windows in which he wrote in code, so all Grim could do was watch and
wait.
Grim slowly pulled closer the
empty wheelchair and sat in it, looking over Misha’s shoulder with his heart in
his throat, as if this were a thrill ride. “Are you gonna look through his
e-mails?”
Misha shook his head. “I won’t
find anything there. I’m sneaking into their system and trying to find him.
They might have a location for him. Or a video feed if he’s being kept
somewhere. I know his codename was Denny.” The words sounded cool and detached,
but sweat beaded on Misha’s face and neck. His fingers tapped the keyboard at a
rising speed.
Grim exhaled loudly and squeezed
his shoulder, hypnotized by the letters and signs rapidly changing in a black
window on the screen. “It’s fine. I’m here with you. We can disappear if they
somehow locate you.”
Misha’s only acknowledgement was
a nod, and his face stayed tense as his eyes scanned line after line that
appeared on the screen. When a new window popped up on the screen, Grim thought
it was yet another one in which Misha was performing his digital mumbo-jumbo,
but Misha froze, the skin of his arm burning Grim even through the glove. There
was one sentence in the new window.
[Are you looking for something,
Misha? 0]
Grim could physically sense blood
dropping lower in his body, and it left his head light and weirdly hot.
“Misha?” he whispered, staring at the window and all but smelling Misha’s fear.
“Don’t say anything you don’t
want him to hear,” Misha hissed, already breathless as he put his hand over a
camera built into the screen of the computer.
[I didn’t think we had any
secrets between us. We’ve been through so much together, after all. 0, appeared
in the next line.]
“He can hear us?” Grim rushed to
his feet, frantically looking around for a place where Zero could have hidden a
bug. How could they have known Misha would visit this place?
[Is this what you’re looking for?
0]
Another window popped up on the
screen. This time, it was a video of a young guy, naked, curled up in an empty
room. He still had all his limbs intact.
[Or have you come to reminisce? 0]
Yet another widow appeared next
to what seemed like a live-feed of Dennis’s captivity. This one was handheld,
and Misha screamed out loud, pushing away from the computer and letting go of
the screen.
“Misha?” Grim steadied him,
pulling Misha’s head against his chest, but his gaze turned to the video, and
as he looked on, the film moved into a closeup of thighs that were fastened to
two smooth boards with a whole array of leather straps, but they still twitched
around a bare, soft cock.
Misha bared his teeth and reached
out to turn off the computer screen.
[I wouldn’t do that, unless you want
to see Denny hurt. 0]
And you don’t, do you? 0
Misha’s shoulders trembled, but
he wrote back. [Don’t hurt him.]
“What is that?” muttered Grim as
the camera in the video moved up the naked chest. His body already knew, but
when Misha’s face, so much younger, came into view, he couldn’t even breathe
anymore.
[Who is your friend? 0]
“No one,” Misha muttered.
[Same no one who helped you pass
through the hospital in Charleston without a record? 0]
Grim smirked. “Everyone has a
price,” he said, but his mouth tightened when the camera switched to a wider
shot, and this time, there was a man in a white suit standing between Misha’s
spread, strapped-up legs. A white rubber mask covered his head, making it look
like old school bubblegum. And all at once, it hit Grim what was going to
happen in the video. Then he spotted a glint of serrated metal. Before young
Misha’s frightened cry tore through the air and stabbed Grim in the heart, he
knew what Zero wanted them to witness.
This fucker was a maniac.
[Walking down memory lane … ah. 0]
[Not that you can walk down it,
but you do have a wheelchair I see. 0]
“Fuck you,” Misha hissed and put
his face against Grim’s stomach as the cries for help escalated, barking
through the speakers.
[Language. You don’t want poor
Denny to go through all this as well, do you? 0]
Grim exhaled and slowly turned
his head toward the screen, finally noticing the yellow light on the webcam.
Fucker had them figured out. Grim’s reflexes told him to maul the computer with
bullets, take Misha, whether he liked it or not, and drive far, far away, where
no one could find them. But he knew he couldn’t do that. This wouldn’t solve
anything. Was he to run all his life because some freak sadist found the chase
amusing? The guy didn’t understand whom he was dealing with. Yet another bloody
animal who believed he was the top predator out there.
His thoughts froze when the
hacksaw touched Misha’s shin, and a streak of blood slowly slid down the pale
skin.
“Turn it off,” Misha whimpered,
tears rolling down his cheeks and shaking underneath Grim’s arm. “I remember
what you did.”
[So pretty when you cry. 0]
Grim exhaled and looked straight
into the camera. “Don’t make this worse for yourself,” he said, fighting off
the urge to just smash all the machinery with his bare hands. He couldn’t do
that, not with Misha trembling so hard in his arms.
The young Misha on screen
screamed all the way to the heavens once the hacksaw bit into his body and
began a grueling ordeal. Misha clenched his fingers in Grim’s T-shirt.
[You don’t know who you are
dealing with. 0]
[But I do have an offer that
could save you both your skins. 0]
Grim smirked, even though he had
a feeling it was more like a grimace than a smile, as he couldn’t look away
from the man in white calmly sawing through Misha’s leg as the boy thrashed and
screamed, delirious from the pain.
“What do you want?” Misha rasped,
only glancing to the screen every now and then.
[You survived the amputation,
survived the raid at the compound. I suppose even a cockroach deserves to get
one more chance. 0]
Grim bit his tongue, not wanting
to give Zero a hint at who he was dealing with, really. He might have foolishly
revealed too much already. He took a deep breath and gently petted Misha’s
back. The sight of Misha’s lower leg breaking off and hanging on a bit of
tissue made food rush up his throat. Only sheer willpower allowed him keep it
down.
[You have access to dirt on me. I
need dirt on you. There’s only so long I can depend on your conscience wanting
to keep Denny alive. 0]
[I want a video of you and your
new best friend killing someone. I don’t care who. Your faces need to be in the
picture. No masks. 0]
[If you can get that for me, I’ll
let you go. 0]
“What about Denny?” asked Grim in
a tight voice.
[You can take him back. He’s just
a safety measure for me. I can get another boy. 0]
The blood dripping from the raw
stump on the screen had none of the appeal Grim’s usual victims had.
The younger Misha had passed out,
and Grim was already grateful for that. In the video, the masked man was
unstrapping his legs as blood slowly seeped down the table despite a tourniquet
applied above the wound. It was sickening to watch, but maybe at least, they
wouldn’t have to witness the other leg being taken.
“I’ll do it,” Misha uttered and
only looked up to Grim for a second with his bloodshot eyes.
[Is that your phone? 0]
Grim’s phone rang once, sending
Grim’s nerves into overdrive.
[Good. I’ll stay in touch. You
have one week. 0]
All the windows on the screen
closed.
Grim exhaled, staring back at
Misha, then rushed forward, and pushed the computer off the desk: the box, the
screen, the cam, and all. He hurled it to the floor with a scream of breaking
plastic and shattering glass. And yet it wasn’t enough. He kicked the desk next
and shoved it on top of the broken electronics.
“Fuck.”
Misha curled into a ball in his
wheelchair, sobbing, and seeing him like this made Grim regret coming here.
“This will never end,” he whined.
Grim’s natural reaction was to
hug him, tell him it would be fine, but he would not do that here, not now.
“Birdie, let’s go,” he said and
took the reins, pushing Misha’s wheelchair out into the corridor and then
straight toward the exit. His joints were so stiff they felt like they’d break
if he walked on, but he would do it for Misha, who needed help much more than
Grim did no matter how much it hurt to see his lovely boy brutalized. Zero
would pay the price. He would be hunted down and mauled just like anyone else
who’d ever dare hurt Misha again.
Misha looked like a shadow of
himself when Grim helped him up into the cab. His eyes had that haunted,
fearful look like when Grim had found him under the desk in his room in
Louisiana. Grim needed to take him away from here as soon as possible or his
bird would stumble into his own mind again.
He drove straight back to town,
mentally exhausted as they passed the community center, the gas station, and a
small school. It’d been an hour since they last saw those places, and yet
nothing was the same. No matter how hard he tried, Grim couldn’t wipe out the
image of Misha’s severed bone and the blood gushing out of his open body. The
echo of Misha’s screams meddled with his brain, and as much as he wanted to
provide support, every time he tried to say something, he couldn’t bring
himself to.
Misha patted his arm. “Stop the
truck,” he muttered, and Grim instinctively looked into the rearview mirror,
thinking that maybe they were being followed, but there was no one there. Just
an empty dark road between the trees. He pulled over and looked at Misha,
aching to do something, even though he felt painfully helpless.
Misha pushed open the door and
bent over, leaning out. Seconds later, he threw up, his whole body shaking.
Grim petted his back, shifting in
the seat to be closer. He kissed Misha between the shoulderblades and slid his
arms around his midsection. It was the first thing that gave him some sort of
relief since they left. “I’m here.”
It took a while, but Misha finally
pulled himself back up, first washing out his mouth with some water and then
turning to Grim for a hug. “He’s
sick
,” he whispered. “Who does things
like this?”
“He likes it,” said Grim
breathlessly, hugging Misha as tight as he could without breaking his bones. It
only now struck him just how tense he’d been as well as how much his body
needed this moment of tenderness. “But he won’t touch you again. I promise.”
“He wants us to kill someone. I
can’t just kill someone else to save myself and Denny. Or can I? Is that me? I
don’t know ...” Misha’s voice was soft and trembling, and he wouldn’t move away
from Grim by even an inch.
“We won’t kill just anyone. I can
get a contract. Someone despicable who no one will ever miss,” whispered Grim.
Misha looked up at him with those
big eyes full of hope. “You can do that?” And with those words, Grim finally
felt capable again. He pushed hair out of Misha’s face and nodded, smiling at
him as best as he could.
“Ask me what I can’t do.”
Misha’s screams echoed in Grim’s
skull as soon as there was nothing to distract him. He listened to them all the
way to Detroit, because Misha was distant and spent the whole time pretending
to be asleep. Grim could still hear the cries when he sat at the oval table in
the Coffin Nails MC chapter. It was slowly getting darker outside, and with the
blinds only partially open, the room looked as if it had been covered by a
widow’s veil—greyish and flat. Some of the members of the club were already
here.
Don, the oldest, was cooped up in
the corner with cigarette smoke matching the white of his long thin hair.
Blitz’s bald head reflected the faint light coming from the window behind him.
The president, Priest, sat at the top of the table with his arms crossed on his
chest, the white dusting of hair on his forearms showing off his age much more
than the bright, attentive eyes that looked at Grim from underneath wickedly
crooked eyebrows. Everyone seemed to be holding their breath since Grim
arrived, for once driving a truck, not the old-fashioned motorcycle that hadn’t
been between Grim’s legs for far too long.
This chapter might have been the
first to have an openly gay permanent member, but that didn’t mean all the
patches were completely comfortable with Grim showing up with a man for the
first time. He could feel their judgmental stares even as they gave Grim a key
to a room on the second floor and agreed to hold a meeting when he asked for
it. He was so angry from sensing the heat behind those stares on his skin and
yet too pumped out to make a big deal out of it. At least they made an effort
and didn’t say any stupid shit.
A new guy, tall and longhaired,
glanced at Grim every now and then without a word, and an anonymous prospect
leaned against the wall, biting his nails and spitting them to the floor. Grim
was on the verge of smacking him for that and telling him to collect all the
biological waste, but considering he came seeking a favor, he needed to play
nice.
“Can’t we start already?” groaned
Milk, a blond guy in his thirties with a big nose and an even bigger mouth.
Grim had heard quite a few tales about the guy’s stupid escapades.
Priest sighed. “Tooth’s still on
his way. Play with your phone if you’re that impatient.”
Grim smirked despite the gloomy
atmosphere. For a long time, Tooth had been the only gay Coffin Nail Grim knew of,
and they even shared some good times when they were still both unattached. It
would be nice to see the man again.
Milk wouldn’t get to play any
Candy Crush though. The sound of Tooth’s heavy boots resounded outside, and he
rushed in seconds later with his wild dark hair in disarray, partially
flattened from wearing a helmet, but his beard was as immaculate as always. One
of the perks of having a barber for a boyfriend.
Grim stood up and reached out his
hand to Tooth, who looked at it, pulled off his glove, and gave Grim’s palm a
firm squeeze. “What’s the occasion?” he asked and nodded at the prospect, who
stormed out of the room, closing the door behind him.
Priest leaned back. “Grim wanted
to talk to the whole club. Sit with us, apparently this will take a while.”
Tooth glanced at Grim and slid
into his chair at Priest’s side. “What’s up?”
Don breathed out a cloud of smoke
that could kill a three-year-old child with its sheer toxicity. “Grim has a man
now. He brought him here.”
Grim clenched his jaw but didn’t
say anything, knowing he could not afford a violent argument when Don wasn’t
openly confrontational. Not at a time like this.
When Tooth frowned, Grim leaned
back into his chair, focusing on the VP. “That’s true. I’ve had him for the
last month.”
Tooth put his forearms on the
table and groaned. “Good for you. You brought us here to tell us about your
wedding plans?”
“Why, you want to host it?
Wouldn’t mind a nice haircut,” said Grim, keeping a straight face when Milk let
out a strangled chuckle.
Tooth pinched the bridge of his
nose. “Stop with the bullshit. You wouldn’t call us all for a meeting if it
wasn’t important. Spill.”
Grim tapped his fingers on the
glass of water he was treated to and raised his eyes to all the men present.
All humor was gone from his mind. “You surely heard about the issue with a
trafficking gang in Louisiana,” he said, and just like that, all eyes were on
him.
He made sure to leave out some of
the more intimate details, but he related the whole story of Misha’s capture,
the hunt after Misha, the chip in his leg, the abuse, the torture, and finally—the
newest development—Zero. By the time he was done, the need to find Misha and
hold him close was so overwhelming he had to convince himself not to go.
There were no silly gay jokes and
not even a hint of a smirk on the faces of his brothers. Priest nodded. “What
can we do?”
Grim clawed his fingers into the
armrests and looked Priest straight in the eye, with fire blazing in his chest.
“Can’t let this fucker live. No one will disrespect me, and no one will torment
my property. But to get close to him, I need that kill.”
Priest exchanged glances with
Tooth. “We have enemies, but there’s no one we can have just disappear right
now. We’ll have to talk it through, think of the options, ask if another state
has anyone convenient.”
“Doesn’t have to be anyone
important,” said Grim. “Come on, there is always some rogue dealer or a guy
that looks at you funny.”
Tooth frowned. “We’re not a slot
machine full of prospective deadies. We have to think about this
strategically.”
Grim huffed. “Is there really no
one you really want to fuck up, but your morals won’t let you touch? I am your
man. Just use me.”
Milk leaned closer over the table
just as Tooth was about to answer. “I know a guy who fuckin’ deserves it.”
Priest’s sharp gaze strangled the
air out of him even before Grim could ask. “Shut up. We can’t have him take
care of some petty personal vendetta.”
“Well, I need to kill someone.
Might as well be a guy who owes Milk a hundred bucks. I don’t care,” said Grim,
increasingly agitated.
“That wouldn’t have my approval,”
said Tooth. “You’re way too precious for the club to take a risk over something
petty.”
Grim’s fingers were itching to
strangle and maim. All he needed was a target. And then, once he got into
Zero’s proximity, he’d find a way to kill the shitstain.
Milk groaned and leaned back in
his chair.
“We’ll find a way,” Priest said,
and it seemed that was the last word on the topic.
Tooth nodded, stroking his beard
with a deepening scowl. “This Zero guy and his whole organization … It’s some
dark shit.”
“No kidding,” said Grim, playing
with the glass. The damn flash drive burning in the fire came to his mind and
made him scowl. If only Misha hadn’t gotten rid of that data, maybe they could
go after Zero with more ease. “The fucker’s a sadist. He’s only gonna get more
ruthless if he goes unpunished.”
“Considering the raid in
Louisiana, we’ve practically already gone to war with them.” Priest shook his
head. “I feel your thirst for vengeance, but we need to think this through.”
“The two of you can stay here in
the meantime. You know it’s safe,” added Tooth.
Grim nodded, utterly unconvinced.
He only had a few days left to go through with Zero’s demands, and if the club
wouldn’t give him anything, he’d have to pick out a random person, something he
hadn’t done in years. Since he’d joined the club, the guys at Charleston had shaped
him. They made him realize that attacking random people was not the way
forward. There were too many ruthless bastards who needed to be executed
instead. Grim kept to that rule, killed only when the club asked him too, but
Misha’s safety and Zero’s demise were of utmost importance now. Grim would break
the neck of an old lady if it got him any closer to getting his hands on Zero.
Once it was settled that the
meeting was over, Tooth got up and patted Grim’s back. “We’ll work this out for
you, brother. Just need to be smart about it.”
Grim sighed but accepted the
gesture. Tooth was so tight-assed sometimes. He was all about the rules, and
while that was sometimes beneficial, this wasn’t one of those situations. “Did
you guys move the issue I talked to you about?”
Tooth stepped back, and behind
him, Grim saw Milk glancing back at Grim, but for now, it was wiser to ignore
him. “The documents ... they were for that boy? Your … boyfriend?” Grim nodded,
and Tooth folded his arms on his chest. “We’re close to finalizing everything
you asked for.”
The rest of the guys got up from
the table as well, some of them already leaving, but the atmosphere was somber.
It seemed that no one really wanted to talk about torture and broken birds with
no legs.
Grim nodded and smiled at Tooth,
relieved that at least something was going his way. “Thanks, brother. I
appreciate it.”
Tooth gave him a nod. “Come down
for a drink in the evening. I should be at the club.”
Grim patted Tooth’s shoulder.
“I’ll try to convince Misha to come with me.”
They exchanged a few more words,
but then Don wanted to speak to Tooth about some accounting, and Grim was free
to go and see how Misha was doing. His feet guided him up the old creaking
stairs, but instead of an empty corridor, he saw Milk leaning against the wall
by Grim’s door and smoking a cigarette.
Grim stretched and slowly
approached the brother. “You want a word?”
Milk nodded and looked behind
Grim to make sure they were alone. “I don’t care what Tooth and Priest say.
I’ve got a kill for you.”
“Oh, yeah?” asked Grim and leaned
against the wall, already sensing the buzz of a lead at the back of his mind.
“Who is it?”
“There’s a guy who molested kids
and got off on a technicality. Those kids were in the same class as my own
daughter. It could have been my kids this sick fuck targeted.” Milk clenched
his fists and rubbed the butt of his cigarette into the wall. “I want justice
to be served, but I’ve got a family, man. If I go there and leave some
evidence, I’m fucked.”
Grim smiled. “I like that,” he
said, lighthearted for once. “Give me all I need to know, and I’ll be on his
case. Should he just disappear?”
Milk pulled out a piece of paper
and passed it to Grim. “It’s best if the body doesn’t resurface.”
Grim looked at the little card
and smacked Milk’s back. “You’re a lifesaver. Thanks.”
Milk finally smiled. “No. Thank
you
.” He put his hands in his pockets and quickly walked off.
Grim didn’t hesitate and rushed
inside his and Misha’s room, with his heart drumming. “Success. I’ve got us a
kill,” he said as he closed the door.
Misha was sitting on the bed with
yet another book of sudoku. He gave Grim a faint smile. “Who is it?”
Grim laughed and rolled on the
bed, spreading out on his stomach and playfully grabbing Misha’s stump. “A
child molester.” The muscle in the stump twitched, and Grim glanced at the
other one, where the fresh scar was healing nicely.
“That’s good. I suppose.”
Grim crawled closer, resting his
cheek on the stump and lazily breathing in its clean scent. “Just don’t tell
anyone. It’s off the books.”
Misha frowned. “I wouldn’t.”
“I mean, don’t tell anyone here,”
explained Grim and pulled on the paperback, itching for Misha’s undivided
attention. Why wasn’t he happier? Grim could relate to him being nervous during
the ride here, but everything would be fine and dandy from now on.
“That’s fine. I get it.” Misha
put away the book and looked into Grim’s eyes as if he were searching for an
answer to a question he didn’t ask.
Grim brushed his fingers over
Misha’s stomach, looking up into his tense face. “What is it? Aren’t you
happy?”
“I don’t know. We’ll be just like
those people who paid to watch me suffer. They won’t know it’s a bad person
getting what he deserves. They’ll justhave another horrific thing to fap over.”
“I can’t kill every single sicko
on the planet. Better him than someone innocent. Don’t you think that was the
merit behind public executions? Apparently, people loved that shit. Humans are
bloodthirsty. Even now.”
“Sure, I’d want to see Zero’s
brains all over the wall, but that’s not what I’m saying. We’re going to be another
cog in Zero’s meat grinder. He does whatever the fuck he wants.”
Grim got to his knees and grabbed
Misha’s hand. “I’m not gonna let him live after ... seeing what he did to you,”
he said quietly, chasing away the memories of the film. “You know that, don’t
you?”
But Misha looked away. “I don’t
think we can stop him. I think he’ll get what he wants, suck even more out of
me, and leave to hurt someone else. We’ll be lucky if we get Dennis in one
piece.”
Anger simmered somewhere deep in
Grim. “Why do you believe in him more than you believe in me?”