My hands started shaking as Brandon and Arkin got ahold of Jack. They took him to the chair and began to tie him down. To my surprise, there was no fight in him. My eyes traced his injuries. It looked like Vincent and the others had taken out quite a bit of anger on him. It made my lips twitch in a perverse sense of joy to know the amount of pain he had to be in. His eye was nearly black, and there was fresh blood dripping off his chin from my assault as well.

A familiar presence pressed against my back, and I leaned into him. Vincent's chest shook with silent laughter, and he reached up to cup my throat in his hand. With the slightest pressure, he encouraged me to tilt my head and meet his gaze.

"I thought you wanted Angel to go at him first?" he murmured, his breath washing across the shell of my ear.

"It was my intention." Another laugh rumbled through him. "Oh, shut up."

"Are you sure you want to be here for this?" he asked, voice softening as he spun me to face him.

"I need to be."

He nodded, cupping my face in his hands. His thumbs ran over my cheekbones as his eyes searched my face. I knew what he was looking for. He was still double checking to make sure I was ready for this. Arching my brows, I made sure to meet his stare dead on.

"Alright." He pressed a kiss to my forehead before moving past me. Angelica was propped against the table, her lip curling as she examined Jack. The man in question leered up at her, and it was everything I could do to keep from decking him again. Angelica looked to Vincent, and he nodded.

"I take it you remember me?" she asked Jack, giving him her back as she ran her fingers over the knives on the table.

"You're Alana's bitch."

Her spine locked up, but by the time she glanced at him over her shoulder, there wasn't an ounce of emotion in her expression. There was, however, a wicked looking hunting knife in her hand. In one smooth movement, she had whipped around and driven it deep into the fleshy part of Jack's thigh.

He screamed, and it was a beautiful sound. I watched, fascinated, as Angelica picked up a scalpel and moved in between Jack's spread legs. He was tied so tightly to the chair, the only thing he could move was his head. He dropped it back as he hissed a breath through his teeth. Angelica just laughed, running the scalpel from the inside of his elbow to his wrist. The cut wasn't deep, but it was enough to start the blood flowing.

Brandon eased up beside me, and I had to focus over the roaring that was starting in my ears to hear what he was saying.

"Did I mention that Angel likes knives just as much as she likes guns?" That startled a laugh out of me, which drew a pair of tawny eyes in my direction. The smile I gave him was dark, something I had learned from the man standing just a few feet away from me.

Vincent was watching the exchange with amusement. And as Angelica began making small, precise cuts along Jack's other forearm, his grin was a mirror of mine.

We were all insane.

"So, Jaxon," Vincent said, moving until he was in Jack's line of sight. Angelica didn't stop her ministrations. The cuts she was making were deep enough to draw blood, but no more than half an inch long. She had made nearly twenty at that point. "Care to talk before you bleed out?"

"What do you want to know?" Jack asked, his voice strained as he fought not to react to the pain.

"Who's your contact?" Vincent took his gun out of his waistband and placed it on the table. Then he leaned against it, crossing his arms and ankles. He was the picture of ease, if you didn't know what to look for. But that tick in his jaw was back, feathering as fast as a hummingbird's wings. But I knew he wouldn't rush this. We needed to know who the rat was. "How did you get into the party? How did you know where Juliette was?"

"Have you ever considered that maybe she was my contact?"

I blanched.

Of all the outlandish, hair-brained shit he could've come up with. That was what he had decided on?

I wasn't sure what surprised me more. Jack's utterly ridiculous claim, or the laughter that spilled from Arkin. It was a loud, boisterous sound that was completely out of place in the dank room. But his baby blues were sparkling with unshed tears he was laughing so hard. Jack glared at him, barely able to turn his head far enough to see the man in question.

Arkin wiped at his eyes. "Jules? That's the best you've got?" he asked, circling so that Jack could see him. "The woman that has saved Vincent's life, that's who you're accusing of siding with you?"

Vincent's lips were twitching as our gazes connected. At least he knew what Jack was doing. Although, I don't know how he could possibly think he was going to sow any discord with the group we had here. These were our most trusted people.

My most trusted people.

"You're an idiot," I told Jack, moving to Vincent's side. "You're never going to convince my people that I would deceive them like that. Which is what I think you've failed to realize." I cocked my head to the side as his brows furrowed. "You really didn't know, did you?"

"Didn't know what?" he seethed.

"Angel, stop."

She paused; her scalpel poised to make another slice against Jack's bicep. Her head tilted in my direction. Jack's eyes bounced back and forth between the two of us, and it was with no small amount of satisfaction that I watched the realization dawn on his face. In the span of a heartbeat, he was appraising me in a different way. No longer was he looking at me like I was just the gang-leader's girlfriend, but someone who stood on even footing with him.

The second most powerful person in the room.

Angelica flipped the scalpel in her hand so that she was holding the end with the blade. She offered it to me. "Did you want a turn?" she asked, sapphire eyes sparkling even in the dim light.

"Just making a point," I told her with a shake of my head. "Proceed."

She struck before Jack could take another breath. This time, the blade sunk deep. He screamed through gritted teeth, starting to try and jerk at the bonds that held him. It was useless. Angelica's tinkling laughter filled the room before she did it again.

"I'll ask you again," Vincent said, reaching between us to take my hand. He tucked me into his side before addressing Jack. "Who is your contact? And no useless accusations this time."

And so, it went on like that.

It had been hours, and I had lost count of the amount of cuts Angelica was making in Jack's skin. Once she had run out of room on his arms, she had cut his pants off at the knee and started on his legs. He was a mess of blood and skin that was barely holding itself together. And he still wasn't breaking. He was still holding that name close to his chest.

"You're going to bleed out if you wait too much longer," Angelica cooed from where she was sitting on the floor, just close enough to be able to reach the blade out and make another slice. "Death by a thousand cuts is a slow, but awful way to go."

"I think you surpassed a thousand a while ago," Dante muttered from the back corner, his eyes tracking Angelica's every movement. She grinned, winking at him before making a long cut along the back of Jack's calf.

"I'm not telling you anything," he panted. I knew he wasn't going to make it much longer. His skin was starting to leech itself of color, and the blood on the floor was slowly slipping through the drain in the floor.

I touched Vincent's arm, and he turned to look at me. Our gazes held for a moment, and somehow, he read the question in my eyes. With a nod, he let me take over.

"This can all end if you tell us what we want to know," I told him. He struggled to raise his head, and his tawny irises were dull when they met mine. "Tell us who your contact is, and Vincent will end it. Quickly."

"No."

"Then bleed out. We're done here."

With a feline grace, Angelica got to her feet. She pitched the scalpel onto the table, and it hit with a metallic clatter. The sound bounced around the room as she crossed to the door. With her hand on the knob, she spared one glance over her shoulder at the man she had shredded.

"You deserve so much more, and I hope you rot in eternity for what you've done," she said, a fire lighting in her eyes as they met Jack's. But there was a weightlessness in her walk I hadn't seen before as she left the room.

Brandon, Arkin, and Dante followed her. Dante squeezed my shoulder as he walked past. Once they were all gone and the door had fallen shut behind them, the only sound in the room was Jack's ragged breathing. He struggled to raise his head but was finally able to do it on the third attempt.

"You going to stay here and watch, Jules?" he taunted. "Didn't think this was something you'd have the stomach for, considering the scared little girl that first walked into my studio."

He was trying to get a rise out of me, trying to goad me into ending him quicker, but it wouldn't work. His words were useless, and they rolled right off me as I leaned against Vincent. In fact, I let a smirk form on my face as I watched him.

He wasn't wrong. The girl I had been all those months ago would never have been able to sit here and smell the blood permeating the air. I never would have been able to pick up the scalpel Angelica had dropped and take it over to him. A small laugh fell from my lips as I stood over him. Leaning forward, I braced my hands on top of his wrists. He hissed as I applied enough pressure to dig the injured skin harder into the arms of the chair. We were face to face, and he could barely keep his eyes open long enough to meet mine.

So, I stabbed the scalpel into his leg, directly opposite the hunting knife Angelica had placed earlier.

"You're going to tell us who betrayed us," I told him. "And then I'm going to let Vincent blow your brains out so we can dump you in the river."

"Why would I tell you anything when I'm going to die either way?"

"Because the other option is to continue to endure this." I twisted the hunting knife, and the scream that escaped him was music to my ears. "And that could go on for a very long time."

"I can handle it."

"You know," I mused, ripping the knife free as I stood. Blood flowed freely now that there was nothing to obstruct it. "Brandon is a phenomenal doctor, even if he didn't graduate. I bet I could have him come in here and cauterize every one of these wounds." Jack's eyes narrowed. "And then, I know he'd be able to give you a transfusion to replace all the blood you lost."

That was panic beginning to flit across his face.

I could hear the smile in Vincent's voice as he picked up on my train of thought. "Just think how much fun Angel would have torturing you to the brink of death over and over again."

"No."

The word was a single breath as it fell from Jack's lips. And I knew I had him. I moved closer, using the tip of the hunting knife to force his chin up so he could meet my gaze.

"Who invited you?"

"Henry."

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Slippery, slimy, Weasel-Faced Henry. tsk tsk.

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