Sleeping With the Enemy

Chapter Forty Nine- Brandon

"You're sure you're ready for this?" My dad leaned against the desk with his arms crossed, eyeing me as I tossed my sweatshirt to the side and changed my shoes. The last thing I wanted to do was get them dirty while I was dealing with Dante and go home to Sadie covered in blood. I think she at least understood why I had to do this, but that didn't mean I had to blatantly shove it in her face. She was already uneasy, and all I could think about was ending this as fast as I could.

"I'm fine." I clenched my jaw, preparing myself for what was to come. Alex and Ro were down in the tombs with Dante already. Generally, we handled matters like this at the ranch or stockyards, but this required a little more care than normal. Dante was first on my agenda, but that wouldn't take me long. He was already so insignificant to me that I had considered just putting a bullet in his temple and calling it good. It couldn't be that easy though. He had betrayed me in the most personal and gruesome way possible and every time I thought of how Sadie must have felt when she saw him there, I wanted to rip him to fucking shreds with my bare hands. He had to be made an example of. And what better way to send a message than to include my men in his punishment? They'd get their own revenge, and be warned off of crossing us in the process. I only wanted a few minutes with him myself and then all of my guys who wanted a go at him would have the chance. He was one of their own, their brother and friend, and when he turned on us, each and every one of them was just as fired up as I was. He wouldn't last through the night.

I was planning to save all my energy up for Herrera. Even though I knew the purpose of it, torture had never been my favorite part of the job. This time though, I was looking forward to it. I thought a little bit of time might dull my need to him suffer, but all it had done was give me time to come up with the most creative and effective ways of causing him pain. And it wouldn't be over quickly. I'd take my time with him, draw it out for days, making him feel every twist of the knife. I'd push him within an inch of his life and let him recover just so I could do it all over again, inventing a creative way of torture for every single way he'd wronged our family in the last two decades. For the Sorentos, for my father, for Adam, for Sadie. I'd make sure he regretted it all. Herrera would begging me to kill him by the time this was all over and when it was finally time, I'd be glad to.

"He'll still be here in a few days, Brandon. There's nothing wrong with taking your time with Sadie." My dad said, still trying to talk me out of this. he thought I was rushing into it, but of course he wouldn't flat out say.

"Sadie is home resting, I think we both need this time." I gritted my teeth. I hated being away from her, but it was honestly the best thing for both of us for me to end this, and I couldn't do that if I never got started.

My dad scratched his head, realizing he wasn't getting anywhere. "Okay. Let me know what I can do. I'll see you in a little while."

I nodded, taking a deep breath. I knew my father wanted to join us, but he was really making an effort to step back and let me work and I appreciated that. I had expected him to hang on to the very end, but the transition so far had been smooth.

I pushed all other thoughts out of my mind and headed down to the tombs. The building that housed all of this was off from the main house, but it had been enforced with sound proof walls and all kinds of extra security so that no one could just wander in. They had to know exactly what they were doing. It was almost completely empty down here, Herrera and Dante being our only prisoners. I didn't have too big of plans for Herrera today, I wanted Dante out of the way first.

Dante was sitting in the middle of a cell, tied to a chair. He was already bloody and brushed and his head hung against his chest. I hadn't seen him in weeks, not since I knew that he had been a part of all of this, and he looked absolutely pitiful. Alex was on one side of him, standing over a table with different tools on it. Ro stood on the other, his arms crossed, glaring harshly at him. They'd already roughed him up pretty good, and I was starting to see the remorse overtake Dante. He probably had no idea what he was getting in to by working with Herrera, and if his transgression hadn't involved my wife, a sliver of my heart may have felt sorry for him.