I can’t wait anymore; I want this done with so I can get back to getting my errant wife back.
Sitting beside Casper, I lean forward, over the edge of Jack’s bed. His wrists are bleeding from all the pulling he’s doing on the handcuffs cuffed to the lowered sides of the bed.
“Where is he?” Leo asks Jack, his voice devoid of any emotion.
Jack shakes his head without so much as a peep. He knows Leo’s asking about their grandfather.
“Okay.” Freddie stands beside Leo, arms crossed over his chest. “Here’s the thing. You’re going to die regardless of what you tell us, but the more you do, the less I’ll hurt you.”
When he drops his arms to his sides with purpose, Jack tries to fumble himself higher up the bed, feet kicking, fingers spasming from the way his limbs are pulling taut. “I don’t know.”
“Sure you do, you’re his favourite grandson.” Leo yanks him back down by his calf.
“I don’t!”
Throwing the bottle of water he brought with him from the car at Freddie, Leo says, “Give him a drink. His mouth is too dry to talk.”
Slowly Freddie pours him a drink into one of the plastic urine cups Leo left open on the trolley, and taking it from him, Leo brings it to Jack’s lips. He’s whimpering as he refuses to sip it…
“Drink.” Squeezing his cheeks together, Leo tips some water into his mouth. When most of it pours out of Jack’s mouth, Leo holds out the cup to Freddie, who fills it back up.
“Where is he, Jack?” Holding his chin, Leo pulls the cup away to give him a chance to answer him.
“We need to hurry this shit along,” Casper says beside me.
“Well?” Standing, I take the cup from Leo. I don’t have time for this shit. I don’t want to play. I want to kill and be done with it.
Squeezing Jack’s mouth open, I ask, “Where’s Kinsley?”
“I don—” Before he can finish, I crush the cup to his mouth. The hard plastic stabs into his mouth, and blood dribbles down his chin. Holding my hand over his mouth, I pinch his nose closed.
It doesn’t take long for the snivelling prick to start kicking with his lack of breath, and I wonder how long it would take to drown him like that.
His face goes from pink to red to purple, and it’s only when his eyes start to roll that I remove my hand, slapping him on the back to get the water out.
There has to be something he knows that we can use to our advantage.
“Let’s try it again.” Leo raises the side of the bed to bring Jack’s hand up, and taking one of the blood-drawing needles he’s got lined up on the top of the trolley, he holds it over his fingers so he can see his intentions.
Pressing the sharp tip to his nail bed, Leo inches the needle in, wiggling it from side to side as he separates the nail from the flesh holding it in place. Jack is desperately tries to tug his hand back in vain.
“Tell me where he is and who he’s working for or I swear to God that I’ll let him keep going until every one of your fingers bleeds.” I lean right over his skinny frame. He looks like he’s shrunk a couple of sizes from the moment we walked into the room.
Pulling the needle out, Leo shoves Jack’s finger into the pot of alcohol-based sanitizer. A scream starts to erupt from his mouth, but before it fills the room, Freddie’s plugging it with the wad of gauze.
“Is this what you want, Jack? Do you want to die like this?”
Leo chuckles vacantly as he takes Jack’s finger out of the sanitizer. When Jack doesn’t answer my question, he pulls another finger. As he’s about to push the needle in, Casper stands over him and says, “I want nothing more than to rip you apart—give me an excuse not to.”
Jack shakes his head frantically.
Still not talking.
Motherfucker!
Leo presses the needle all the way in, as deep as he can. He pushes and wiggles it so violently that I’m waiting for it to poke back out or snap.
The gauze does nothing to stop his screams from making my insides loosen.