Chapter 18

**Xavier Black**

"Can we make this quick? We have somewhere to be." I tell Gabe as we walk down the dark hallway and come to a stop in front of one of the many steel doors down here.

"We have plenty of time. Relax." He says as he pushes his thumb against the scanner as the door clicks open my mind goes back to all those weeks ago with Skyler in my kitchen.

*I don't want to know what you are capable of and I don't ever want to see you with blood on your hands.*

I step into the cold room behind Gabe and take everything in from wall to wall. The long table at the far corner, displaying all the tools I've ever used in my time doing this. Everything from your basic Swiss army knife to knitting needles and containers filled with salt. I look at the clean floor, that's been tainted with enough blood to fill a pool with over the years, that won't be clean after I leave here. Finally my eyes rest on the reason I'm even here today. The reason I'm not at the office or at home, living the normal life most people think I do.

"Why are you here?" Gabe asks the man, tied up and blindfolded in the middle of the room. I leave him to it as I walk over to the table and shed the jacket I'm wearing.

"I don't know." The man answers and by the smile that crosses Gabe's face I know he's going to enjoy playing with this guy.

"I know, so you should know too." He says, walking around the room with the silence of a ghost, causing the man to move his head around.

"I can't read minds man. I don't know why I'm here." The man in the chair answers and a shit eating grin forms on Gabe's face.

"I expect you to read my mind, so go ahead and read it." He says and the guy goes silent for a while, probably wondering if Gabe's serious about this.

"I won't ask again." He says and the guy swallows.

"Is this about the time I stole product from storage?" He asks and I raise an eyebrow at Gabe who looks just as interested as I am.

"No, but I'm glad you told me. I don't like thieves." He says and I can tell the guy is on edge now.

"Shit." The guy whispers and if the room wasn't this quite I wouldn't have heard him. I nod at Gabe as I start sorting through my tools on the table. Deciding witch ones I'm going to use today.

"Shit, indeed. You see, Nick, we're all here today because it seems you can't decide where your loyalties lie." Gabe says and Nick tenses.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh, I think you do. What I can't seem to figure out is who your other lover is. I thought we could be honest with each other, Nick. I thought we could trust each other." Gabe says, sounding very much like a lover that was scorned and he probably is. He takes the time to train these men, make honest criminals out of them and to find out that his judgement was wrong hurts him more than anything else. I don't blame him of course, no one's perfect.

"You can trust me." Nick says and I almost wish he would just give up and talk like the snitch he is because I can tell Gabe's getting mad at him, not that he wasn't before but...

"I don't think I can, Nick. Sneaking around at all hours of the night. Disappearing for long hours into the day, not picking up when I call. Snooping through my office. Constantly talking on the phone. You've gotten sloppy my friend." Gabe lays it out and Nick lets out a scared whimper.

"He'll kill me if I talk." He says and I cock my head to the side. This should be interesting.

"He's the last of your worries today." Gabe says and nods at me. I pick up the shaving blade and examine it for a minute before silently walking towards the helpless man in the middle of the room. I stare at the guy, who seems blissfully unaware that I'm also in the room as all emotion leaves my room. The hiss that leaves his lips as I slice a ling across his upper thigh makes me step back because I don't want to hurt him too much, not yet at least.

"He's dangerous and when he comes for you you'll wish you had kept me alive." Nick says and Gabe looks at him in confusion. I wait for another nod before I slice a second line across his thigh, watching as the blood drips on the floor. I remember the first time I saw my father doing this, how sick to my stomach I was. How I wished for it to be over already so I could go ahead and cry in my room.

"Is that so. What would I get out of keeping you alive?" Gabe asks, as if he's actually interested in what Nick has to say.

"Information, but only if I know you're not going to hurt me anymore." I must say I commend this guy for even trying to bargain with us.

"You would rat out your boss?" Gabe asks and Nick doesn't waist a second before nodding so Gabe nods at me and another line joins the first two.

"I just want to stay alive, man." He begs and I slice again.

"I don't trust you enough." Gabe says before walking towards the wall and leaning against it. I slice four gashes on his other thigh and ignore the screams that comes from him as each gash gets deeper and deeper. Then I move back to the table, grab a container of salt and dump it on the open wounds as each scream gets harder and harder. "I just need a name." Gabe says.

"Fuck you."

I look over at Gabe who shrugs so I move on to my second tool. I take the cigar cutters and the lighter and move about cutting his fingers of one by one before holding the lighter to the wound, to stop the blood flow. After that I put the tools down all together before grabbing the baseball bat and I start swinging. I would love to beat him up with my bare hands but I don't want to have to explain to Skyler why my knuckles are all bruised later so this will have to do the trick.

"I'm expecting the answer I want when I come in here again." I whisper in his ear before I drop the bat and walk out of the room. I know he thought it was Gabe hitting him the whole time so he should be scared shitless knowing I was there the entire time and that's exactly what I want. I need him to confirm my hunch before I do anything about that blue eyed bastard.

I make my way back up to the main floor and up to my room. I take a quick shower, making sure all the blood is washed away before drying myself and getting dressed. I dry my hair and run a comb though it before leaving the room and heading downstairs where Gabe is already waiting for me.

"Why am I even going again?" He asks as we leave the house and I grin at him.

"Because she's bringing her maid of honour and if I have to sit through them talking about place settings and cupcakes then you are too." I tell him and he flips me off causing me to laugh. It takes us about an hour to drive back into the city and another twenty minutes to navigate thought all the traffic but I arrive at the place ten minutes early. As I open my door Skyler's car pulls up to the parking spot next to mine and when our eyes meet as she gets out of the car I can tell something's changed in her.