Fierce Queen (L.A. Ruthless Series Book 2)

Jax and I stepped out of the car and walked along the tarmac to the container in the shipyard where my men were holding Joey Ortega. We walked inside and saw Joey strapped to a chair. As per my instructions, he was unharmed.

‘Buenos Dias, Joey,’ I said as I approached him.

‘Alejandro,’ he replied, his voice trembling.

Jax walked to the table nearby and picked up the small pair of long-nosed pliers before passing them to me.

‘You can leave now, gentlemen,’ I said to the three men who had been holding him for me. They nodded and left the container silently.

I held up the pliers and Joey looked at them before he pissed himself in the chair.

I smiled at Jax who shook his head with silent amusement.

‘You’ve heard what I like to do with these, Joey?’ I asked.

He nodded as his whole body started to shake.

‘Free one of his hands,’ I said to Jax.

Jax walked over to Joey and cut the ties on one of his hands, freeing it from behind his back, before holding it out to me.

‘No, please?’ Joey shouted as I leaned down and placed the pliers on the tip of his thumbnail. ‘I have some questions, Joey. And if you don’t answer me honestly, this will be a very, very long and painful day for you. You understand me, Cabrón?’

He nodded as I pulled and tore the nail from his thumb in one swift move.

He shrieked loudly and started to sob.

‘That was just a taste of what is to come. I will start with your fingernails, and then I will take your teeth. And after your teeth, well …’ I looked at Jax.

‘Fingers?’ Jax suggested.

‘Hmm? Or maybe as we’re so time pressed, we go straight for his cock?’

Joey wailed at this. ‘I’ll answer any questions you have. I swear,’ he cried as the snot and tears ran down his face.

I pulled up a chair and sat in front of him. ‘This is how it will work, Joey. I will ask you a question, and every time I think you’re lying to me, I will remove something. I will keep going until your heart gives out because of the pain, or I have the answers I want. So, how this ends is really all on you, isn’t it?’

‘Yes,’ he nodded. ‘I’ll tell you whatever you want to know, Alejandro,’ he sniffed.

An hour later, Jax and I walked out of the container. I was confident that Joey Ortega knew nothing about my father’s shooting. He had lost three fingernails and two teeth proving that to me, but he was lucky he was walking out of that container. The truth was, I didn’t have time to keep pursuing dead ends, and that made Joey a very lucky man indeed.

What he had given me was lots of very useful information about his crew. He had turned his back on every single one of them to save his own skin. While that information would come in useful in the coming months when I had more time to act on it, it didn’t help me right now. I was letting Joey go, but I suspected that once his crew found out he had sold them out, he would be a dead man walking anyway. In the meantime, I had his nuts in a vice.

‘What next, amigo?’ Jax asked me.

‘Back to fucking the drawing board,’ I said with a sigh.