Disfigured Her!

Disfigured Her!
Collins’s POV
Jenny’s laughter drove me over the edge, “Collins … you really came to see me?” Her bloody lips twisted into a smile, and her eyes glimmered with the insanity of a fanatic, and I felt sick to my stomach. She was slouched in the chair, her little wheelchair abandoned, her bandaged shoulder starting to ooze red through the gauze. Bruises colored her face, her hair tangle with sweat and blood from my men’s questions, but she gazed at me as if I were her hero, not her murderer. Her defiant, delusional face, her complicity in Amelia’s suffering, flared  rage so white-hot in me. 
I advanced, and my shadow passed over her, my voice low. “Where is she, Jenny?” I snarl, my fists balled, craving her throat in my grip, to choke the answers from it. In my mind, Amelia’s face appeared — her blood on a warehouse floor, crumpling under those blows in the footage from the CCTV camera. For every second Jenny dragged her feet, that was another second Amelia was vulnerable, and I was through playing games. “You took my wife. You hurt her. Tell me where she is, or you’re gonna wish you never lived.”
Her laugh burst out once more, a high pitched voice raucous,  as her head tilted back as though my threat amused her. “Oh, Collins,” she purred, all but mocking the way she said my name. “You’re so dramatic. I’m not telling you anything. She doesn’t deserve you. She’s nobody —— a gold digging nobody that stole you from me. I’m doing you a favor.”
My vision tunneled and the room narrowed to just her and the anger surging through my blood. I nodded to my men, two massive, silent men who’d been lurking, their faces blank but prepared. “Make her speak,” I said, my voice cold, merciless. One of them stepped toward her, his fist connecting with Jenny’s jaw in a sickening crack. Her head whipped to the side and blood sprayed from her mouth, but she laughed harder anyway as though possessed.
“You think this hurts?” she mocked, as blood leaked out of her mouth and onto the floor. “I’ve endured more for you, Collins. I shot myself for you. I’d die for you. She wouldn’t. She’s weak.”
I could feel my rage flicker hot. I snatched her chin and turned to face me, my fingers pressing her skin painfully. “You’re insane,” I snarled. “Amelia is my wife. My everything. You’re nothing to me, Jenny. Nothing. You better tell me where she is, because if you don’t, I’ll guarantee that you suffer in ways you can’t imagine.”
She chuckled, her eyes shining with a dark sort of love. “You’re so beautiful when you’re mad,” she murmured, her voice almost gentle. “I love you, Collins. I always have. Let her go. Be with me. I’ll make you happy.”
I let her go and stepped back, my chest heaving with revulsion and rage. She is sick with obsession, poisoned by it – it had ruined everything for dear Amelia. Her madness was too ridiculous for me to bear. I looked at my men; my voice, my weapon. “Break her. Whatever it takes.”
They didn’t hesitate. One seized her arm, twisting it until she gasped, and then punched her again in the stomach, blocking the sound of her gasp. She doubled over, coughing, but even as she did, she laughed, the laugh fainter now, filled with pain but no less maddening. They struck her again, a fist against her cheek, a knee to the ribs, her body shaking as it absorbed the blows. The blood was trickling down her nose, lips, on the floor, but she wasn’t breaking and her laughter was a defiance, laughing at my fear.
“Talk!” I yelled, hitting my palm against the wall - feeling my skin being driven into by the concrete. “Where is Amelia? What did you do to her?” My voice broke and the fear I had suppressed exploded. I could see her in my mind — beaten, terrified, alone — and it was destroying me. I wanted her back, I needed her safe, and Jenny was the only obstacle.
She tipped her head up, her face puffy and one eye almost swollen shut. “Never,” she hoared, laughter bubbling back to the surface. “She’s gone, Collins. You’ll never find her. She’s getting what she deserves forstealing you. She’s—”
“Enough!” I cut her off. I turned to my men, my voice quietly deadly, giving an order that would not be disobeyed. “Get the iron.”
One of them wavered, his eyes shifty, but the other nodded, melting into the darkness. He came back with a metal rod, the end of it red hot from a portable forge they’d stationed in the corner. The air quivered with heat and the stench of burned metal filled the room. Jenny’s laugh faded, her eyes widened when she realized the danger to her. For the first time, her face registered fear, and she stuttered for words, the facade cracking as if it were brittle thin ice.
I drew nearer and loomed over her, my voice a low, cruel whisper. “You think I’m bluffing? Do you think I won’t kill you for this? Let me know where Amelia is, or I’m going to burn that pretty face of yours until no one knows who you are.”
She caught her breath, terrified lips quivering, but she shook her head, grumble mixed in her voice despite the tremble. “You wouldn’t. You’re not that type of fellow. You’re—”
“Burn her,” I commanded, over her. This time, my man didn’t hesitate, moving forward and pressing the glowing iron against her cheek.  Jenny’s scream was a high-pitched howl, her body writhing beneath the restraints, tears streaming from clouded eyes as the iron scorched her flesh. The sound was annoying but I didn’t duck. I couldn’t. Especially not when Amelia’s life was at stake.
“Stop!” she screamed, raw, and desperate. “I’ll talk! I’ll tell you! Just stop!” But I wasn’t convinced. Her lies, her games—they’d already cost me too much. I wanted the truth, I wanted it now.
I shook my head, my expression cold and unrelenting. “You’re not selling me, Jenny. You'll say anything, in an attempt to save your own skin.” I nodded to my men. “The other side. Disfigure her completely.”
The man took up the iron once more and the dull red light from it made queer shadows on the sides of the wall. Jenny’s face was a ghostly white under the blood and the burns, her body shuddering with unrestrained fear. “No! No, please!” The laughter vanishing, replaced by primal fear, she sobbed, her voice cracking. “I’ll tell you everything! I swear!”

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