Psycho by Onley James

“Why do I even bother to say things like ‘no mistakes’?” Thomas asked over the speaker of August’s truck, then sighed. “It’s like you boys take it as a personal challenge. A way to spite me. Have I not given you everything?”

August rolled his eyes. “You’re being very dramatic, Dad. Did Archer get you drunk again?”

“He did not. I’m just tired of cleaning up after you boys for the last six months. You’re all getting sloppy. Distracted. You would never have made these kinds of mistakes last year.”

“Atticus makes mistakes monthly, yet you still let him be your favorite,” August reminded, uncertain as to the reason for his father’s suddenly poor mood. “Did Aiden call you? You always get grumpy when Aiden calls.”

“I told you that nobody does anything without my say so. Yet, somehow, here we are with you driving down the freeway with a federal agent hog-tied in your backseat in broad daylight.”

Lucas gazed at August with wide eyes, clearly unnerved by Thomas’s irritation. August knew it was just his father’s way of processing things that didn’t go the way he’d wanted. “He had a gun pointed at Lucas. What should I have done? Just let him shoot him?”

“It’s too late for should haves. But what you should have done is called me before you barged in there and cattle prodded a federal agent.”

August sighed. “As you said, it’s too late for should haves. We’re at the old denim factory. I’m probably going to need help with the clean-up once I get the information I need.”

Lucas kept glancing over his shoulder to where Kohn was out cold in the back.

They sat parked between two cement buildings. The old factory was good for privacy. It was an abandoned sixty-thousand square foot space surrounded by a grouping of smaller, equally empty, buildings. The only people they ever had to contend with were the occasional vagrants and they would run at the first sign of trouble.

Thomas muttered something under his breath before saying, “Text me when it’s done and I’ll send in reinforcements.”

Once they dragged Kohn inside, August rigged a chain over a metal beam, securing it around the solid steel cuffs before Lucas helped him truss Kohn upwards, stopping only when his toes barely scraped the ground. August cut Kohn’s clothing free, kicking the fabric out of the way. Kohn was sweating profusely, and he reeked of urine and fear. He was conscious but pretending he wasn’t. August let him maintain his illusion for just a bit longer.

Lucas had retreated to the side of the room, leaning against the wall, his arms folded over his chest. He wasn’t sure if Lucas could handle what was about to happen, but knowing Cricket’s life hung in the balance would likely keep him from completely caving to Kohn’s inevitable mental breakdown. August opened the duffel bag he kept hidden beneath the panel in his Mercedes. He unrolled his knives, smiling when Kohn scoffed as if they were inferior to the grotesque instruments he’d fashioned himself.

August didn’t need to rip off body parts to break Kohn, but he would if he had to. He was just getting started. He took a set of small earbuds and shoved them deep into Kohn’s ears. Once the speakers connected, he keyed up his death metal playlist and turned it on, cranking the volume up as high as it would go, watching Kohn’s face contort as the music assaulted him from the inside out.

“Fuck you,” Kohn spit, fighting to stand on his toes, trying to take the weight off his shoulder joints. “You think some loud music is gonna break me?” he screamed. “Fucking amateur.”

August snatched a knife from the display, crossing the room. Lucas gasped as he grabbed the man’s nipple, pulling it away from his body before slicing it clean off, tossing it to the floor as Kohn screamed. August flinched at the noise.

Lucas crossed the room and pulled something from his pocket. August’s air pods. “I saw them in the center console and figured you could use them. I know the screaming bothers you.”

August wrapped his arms around Lucas, dragging him in for a deep kiss, swallowing his cry of surprise. Kohn grunted in disgust.

“It’s just headphones,” Lucas said.

August shook his head. “It’s not just headphones. I don’t know what love feels like, but I imagine it’s like the feeling I’m having right now.”

Lucas’s face went soft, his smile radiant. “That’s the sweetest thing anybody’s ever said to me after cutting off another man’s nipple.” August chuckled. “Are you going to keep slicing off body parts until he talks?”

“No. That was just for fun. I’m going to give him about thirty minutes with the headphones, and then we’re going to really get started.”

“So, what are we going to do in the meantime?” Lucas asked, letting his hands slide down to cup August’s ass.

“Mr. Blackwell, are you suggesting we fool around while there’s a man being tortured five feet away?” August teased, already backing Lucas up against a large metal cylinder that dominated the space.

“I mean, you once told me that you could get me off in thirty minutes or less,” Lucas reminded him.

There was the sound of boots scuffing over the concrete floor, then a voice called out, “Keep it in your pants, you little perverts.”

Lucas shoved August away from him like they were kids caught making out in a janitor’s closet. Asa and Avi appeared from the back of the building. Lucas frowned when he saw Avi swinging a two-liter bottle of soda.

August rolled his eyes. “What are you two doing here? I told Dad I needed help with the clean-up. We haven’t even started.”

Avi raked his gaze over Lucas in a way that made August contemplate gouging his eyes out, especially when it lingered at his crotch. “Strangely, Dad thought you might need some backup just in case Ms. Cleo here doesn’t have the stomach for the blood and guts.”

Lucas shot Avi his middle finger. Avi blew him a kiss. August gave Asa a look that let him know he better get their brother in check. As usual, it was ignored.

Asa walked to where Kohn dangled, giving the man a push, watching as he swung. “This him?”

August nodded.

“He doesn’t look like much,” Asa mused.

Kohn spit on him. Asa calmly wiped the spit from his cheek with the back of his hand before reaching between Kohn’s legs, gripping his balls and twisting with enough force to make all of their testicles attempt to climb back in their body. Kohn opened his mouth in a silent scream, then promptly threw up.

“Gross,” Avi muttered.

“Um, what is the two-liter bottle for?” Lucas asked.

Avi looked down at the bottle in his hands. “Oh, this? I thought we could test the soda bottle theory.”

“Soda bottle theory?” Lucas echoed apprehensively.

“Mm, you’ll see.”

“Well, I was going to give him another few minutes with the death metal, but what the hell? Might as well get started. He looks pretty worse for wear,” August muttered.

“You said he was mine,” Lucas reminded, looking back and forth between the twins.

Asa laughed. “Okay, psychic-friends-network. You wanna play? You can play.” He yanked the headphones from Kohn’s ears. “You gonna tell us where the girl is?”

“Fuck. You,” Kohn wheezed.

Asa snickered. “I was hoping you would say that.” He looked to Lucas, crooking his finger. “You ever waterboarded anybody?”

Lucas gave Asa the absurd look his question deserved. “No. I’ve never had the opportunity.”

“Well, now’s your chance. Only we’re going to use soda.”

Lucas frowned again. “I don’t follow.”

Asa handed him the bottle. “Don’t worry. I’m going to walk you through it. Take the cap off.”

Kohn scoffed, swollen eyes glaring in Lucas’s direction. He did as Asa instructed. Asa gave a look in August’s direction, making sure he was okay with where this was heading. “When you’re ready, put your thumb over the top and shake the shit out of it. We want to build that pressure good and high.”

“And then what?” Lucas asked, putting his thumb over the top but not agitating the soda.

“Then it’s up to you. If you’re feeling particularly spicy, you can jam the top of the bottle up against his asshole and give him an enema he’ll never forget. But you could also rupture his intestines and he’ll bleed out without giving us the necessary information. So, instead, once you get that soda good and shaken, you’re going to put that thing right up to his nostril and let it go.”

August was certain Lucas would refuse, but the slow smile that slid across his face made August proud.

“Hold his head up.”

“Woohoo!” Asa cried, wrenching Kohn backwards by his hair, steadying his swaying body with his own. “This is gonna be epic. Do it.”

Lucas shook the two-liter until it appeared to be nothing but froth, pressing the bottle to Kohn’s nose. “Last chance.”

“Fuck you, you little bit—” Lucas took his finger off the top, sending a water cannon of pressurized carbonation into Kohn’s nasal passages and down his throat. The man’s eyes bulged, soda spewing from his mouth even as he made gurgling sounds and his body convulsed.

When the bottle was empty, Lucas tossed it aside, but there was no way to question Kohn. He was still hacking, his body trying to forcibly expel the soda from his lungs.

“That was everything I thought it would be,” Asa said, gazing at the mess beneath Kohn. “What should we do now? I brought hedge clippers. We could start playing this little piggy with his chunky little sausage toes?”

“What about it, Kohn? All you have to do is tell us where Cricket is. Then you’ll at least meet the devil with all your toes.”

“They’re going to carve that bitch up and leave pieces of her scattered along the freeway for you to pick up like trash,” Kohn rasped.

Before August could react, Lucas turned and grabbed a blade from the table—one August never bothered with—a clunky looking meat cleaver, much like the one his brother had once plunged into a pedophile’s skull. Before any of them could even guess at his plans, he dropped to his knees and swung, ridding Kohn of four out of five toes in one go.

Kohn’s screams echoed through the hollow building, making August’s ears ring. He was going to have a migraine for days after this.

“Nice,” Avi said, voice full of admiration. “Now, do the others.”

“No. I’m done fucking around with him,” Lucas snapped. “Tell me where she is or the next things I take are your fucking balls, followed by your dick.”

“He’ll definitely bleed out from that,” Asa said, earning a glare from Lucas. “What? I’m just saying.”

“We could cauterize the wound?” Avi suggested.

“If he’s not going to talk, I don’t fucking care if he bleeds out. I want him to bleed out. Let him fucking die trussed up like the fucking pig he is.”

“Here, use this one. It will slice through him with far more precision,” August said, handing over a small paring knife. To Kohn, he said, “What’s it going to be?” When Kohn didn’t answer, Lucas pressed the blade against his balls until his face contorted and he began to make animalistic sounds between bared teeth.

“He asked you a fucking question,” Lucas snapped. After another thirty seconds passed, he scoffed. “Fine, have it your way.”

Lucas tugged down on Kohn’s testicles, likely to make it easier to cut. “Wait!” Kohn shouted. “Fuck. Wait. Just…just fucking wait.”

“Where is she?” Lucas asked again.

Kohn’s whole body sagged. He’d accepted that he wasn’t walking away from this. “There’s a junkyard on the corner of Bramford and 2nd Street. In the back, there’s a shipping container. If she’s still in one piece, you’ll find her there.”

“That wasn’t so hard, was it?” Asa said, patting Kohn’s red face.

“Who the fuck are you people?” Kohn muttered. “I thought you were a fucking college professor.”

“I am,” August said, bored. He pointed to Avi. “And he’s a fashion designer.” Then Asa. “And he’s an architect.”

“But together, we fight crime,” Asa said in a mockingly cheerful tone.

Avi grinned at Kohn’s frown. “Millennials. We’re all about the side hustle.”

Asa snickered, but Lucas just continued to stand there, staring down at the knife in his hand. “You butchered those women,” he said, almost to himself. “You raped and tortured them, destroyed their bodies, did unspeakable things. For money. For entertainment. Because it got you off.”

Kohn shook his head. “Hey, I only did what the audience wanted. It’s them you should be pissed at. They paid to play. I’m just the sword. I didn’t care about those bitches one way or the other.”

“That’s not true. You very much enjoyed what you did,” Lucas said. “I felt it. I saw how excited you got, felt how much you enjoyed their pain, their torment. You wanted them to be not just scared, but broken, hopeless. Some of them were fucking children. I know you liked it. You made sure I knew. Remember?”

A slick smile spread across Kohn’s face. “Yeah. Yeah, I fucking did.”

Lucas’s hand flicked upwards, and then Kohn gave a strangled wheeze as blood poured from between his legs. Lucas’s lip curled in disgust as he dropped what was left of Kohn’s manhood on the floor. The man was chalk white now, his life draining rapidly, but he was still conscious when Lucas said, “I enjoyed that, too, you demented fuck.”

August pulled Lucas back. He was coated in blood, and there was a near feral look to him. He gently took the knife from his hands and gave it to Asa. “Can you two handle that while I try to clean him up?”

“The showers in the old locker rooms work. I dropped the go bag from your trunk in there, too.”

August nodded, already pushing him towards the back of the building. Once they made it back there, he turned on the water, undressing a near catatonic Lucas and setting him beneath the scalding spray. He didn’t try to wash himself, just stood there staring at his feet, maybe watching Kohn’s blood circle the drain.

August called Calliope and relayed the information they’d gleaned from Kohn. “I need eyes on that red room. I’m almost positive Kohn was talking out of his ass, but just in case, make sure the clock hasn’t run down.”

There was a series of rapid-fire typing. “They’re still counting down, but Kohn wasn’t lying about them pushing up the timeline. They’re planning on opening the room tonight. We got three hours.”

“Can you get satellite images of the yard? I’m guessing this is where Kohn’s little band of Nazis hangs out. I imagine, on a show night, they’re all in attendance. Can you get somebody to recon the space so we can go in and clean house?”

“I’m on it.”

August grunted his approval. “Let me know how quick we can get in there and get her out.”

“Wait. How’s Lucas?”

August sighed. “I honestly don’t know.”