No Way! Who Did It?!

No Way! Who Did It?!
Mason

I made it to the address Joey had texted me in 32 minutes. I had never driven so fast in my life. I wish I had thought to ask him to elaborate on what was going on. I should have at least asked if Laurel was okay, but I wasn’t sure if he would even tell me. The fact that he had called me for something other than business, told me that this was directly related to Laurel. Worrying about Laurel immediately led me to the thought that Carl might have tried something. That thought in itself had me flying down the freeway, whipping in and out of traffic at speeds that were so fast I could barely read the signs as I passed them. The only thing I could do was follow the navigation, and trust that it was taking me to the right place.

When I arrived at the eerie, sinister looking bar the navigation led me to, I didn’t hesitate to jump out of the SUV. I didn’t care if this was just a ploy to get me to go somewhere so Joey could kill me or not. It didn’t matter. As long as Laurel was okay that was all that mattered. I raced inside, looking around frantically for Joey, but when I didn’t see him, I hurried over to the bar, where the woman behind it eyed me curiously.

“May I help you?” she asked pleasantly, shocking me.

I hadn’t expected her to be so warm when she looked so tough and fierce.

“Umm, yes, a man named Joey sent me this address and asked me to meet him here, but I don’t see him,” I explained, hoping that she would know who Joey was.

She gave me a small smile. “Let me see your ID.”
I frowned deeply at her before fishing my wallet out of my pocket to show her my ID. She studied it for a moment before handing it back to me. “Oi, Trigger! Take Mason downstairs.”

I clenched my jaw together tightly as a big, burly man dressed to the nines in leather immediately got up from his table to amble over to us.

“Follow me,” he grunted gruffly.

I gave him a sharp nod before falling into step behind him as he headed to a door at the back of the room. We went down a flight of stairs before walking down a short hallway to the last room on the left. He gestured inside, making me narrow my eyes on him before moving past him. As soon as I entered the room, I drew up short as I took in the sight before me. A badly beaten and bruised, almost fully nude Carl was chained to a table in the middle of the room while other men sat around other tables, chatting and drinking beers. A few feet from the table that Carl was on, Joey was mopping what looked to be an already clean floor. I cleared my throat, drawing everyone’s attention.

“Umm, what’s going on?” I asked.

“Mason, hey! Thanks for coming,” Joey said as he put the mop he was using back in the bucket before coming up to me with his hand out. “My brother doesn’t usually allow outsiders to come here to the bar and witness what goes on here, but with everything this motherfucker has done to Laurel, he gave us the okay. He thought that you might want to participate in punishing him.”
I turned my attention back to Carl, who had yet to regain consciousness. “I don’t think you need my help with that. It seems like you guys have it under control.”

All the men in the room burst out laughing, while Joey grinned at me as he patted me on the shoulder.

“Actually, we haven’t touched him,” he said.

“If you didn’t then how did he get so badly beaten?” I inquired, not believing him.

“Laurel was here.”

My eyes widened as my head whipped around to look at Joey. “No way!”

He  chuckled as he nodded. “Yep. She was very scary. She really gave it to him.” He paused to look at Carl. “He deserves a lot more than he got from her, but she seems to be satisfied.”

I turned my attention back to Carl before moving over to the table to walk around it, surveilling the damage that was done to him before meeting Joey’s eyes again.

“You sure my Little Bunny did this?” I asked, still not believing that she was capable of the anger it would take to do this kind of damage to another human being.

“Absolutely!”

“Well, I’ll be damned. You go, Laurel!” I smirked down at the man who wreaked so much havoc in mine and Laurel’s relationship. “Serves you right, asshole!”

“I don’t know if you want to add to his injuries or if you just wanted us to make sure that he can never hurt Laurel again,” Joey said.

“Hmmm. One question, was Laurel okay when she left?” I inquired.

“Yeah. I had Maddie go over to her house to spend the night with her. She’ll let me know if anything happens,” Joey informed me, making me relax slightly.

“Okay good.” I walked around the table again studying Carl’s body closely before crossing my arms over my chest. “She did a really good job.”

He nodded. “Yeah she did.”

I rubbed my hands together eagerly. “How do we kill him?”

Joey shrugged as he gestured to the shelves across the room. “Your choice.”
“I want to slit his throat and watch him bleed out,” I answered immediately, making him nod.

I knew I should be worried about them recording me and turning it over to the police, but I didn’t care. If I had the chance to end this motherfucker, I was going to take it. I would happily serve life in prison, knowing that this bastard could never pose a threat to Laurel ever again. Joey nodded his head toward the shelves.

“There are blades over there. Take your pick!” he told me.

I meandered over to the other side of the room, where I paced back and forth in front of the shelves for a few minutes before picking up a dull, rusty pocket dagger. When I got back over to the table, one of the men in leather joined me. He tilted Carl’s head back before touching two areas.

“The carotids are here and here. Cut there and he’ll bleed out. If you don’t, then it’s going to be harder. You’re going to have to use some pressure, and with that blade, you might have to saw your way down. If you don’t think that you can handle that, you might want to get another blade,” he told me.

I shook my head as I gripped the dagger tightly in my hand. “Nope! I got this!”

“As you wish.”

He stepped back and I shifted my weight before digging the blade into the side of Carl’s neck before slowly dragging it across his skin. When blood almost immediately started to well up in the wound, I silently celebrated.

‘Okay. Just a little more,’ I thought to myself as I started having to saw through his skin to the other side of his neck.

When blood started pouring from his wounds I was completely shocked to see that it only made it to the edge of the table before disappearing. I thought it would end up all over the floor.

“Tubes were added to the table to take blood directly down to a tank below the floor. The bikers made it after I shot the man that threatened my wife,” Joey explained when he noticed my curious gaze.

“You shot a man?” I asked in shock.

He nodded as he began to push the mop bucket across the room. “Absolutely. There is no mercy when it comes to Madison. Just like for you there is no mercy when it comes to Laurel.”
I sighed as I glanced at Carl again. I had just slit his neck practically from ear to ear without hesitation. I stuck my hands in my pockets as I watched blood continue to flow from the wound.

“I suppose so. I never really thought about it until just now,” I admitted.

“It’s okay, Mason. I never thought about it either until she had been threatened. Trust me when I say that I understand. You know for the last week, you’re all Laurel can talk about. She is ready to come home,” he told me.

Hope immediately blossomed in my chest. “Has she?”

“Oh yeah! She loves you more than anything. She’s the reason I sought your company for my PR needs, “Joey laughed. “She was even willing to pay the consultation fee if I would give you guys a chance.”

My chest immediately puffed out in pride. My Little Bunny had confidence in me. “God, she’s incredible.”

He chuckled as he nodded. “That she is, but please take her home. She had me practically pissing on myself.”

I burst out laughing. “As soon as she’s ready, I promise you I will save you from her.”