Tolerable Cruelty - Chapter 24 (Patreon)

Chapter 24

“What are you talking about!? This is a helluva time for a joke!” Piper yelled back at Grant.

But the hyper efficient nerves sent electric pulses through her supercharged mind, allowing her to form the connection quickly. Oh no. It must have been because of Bledsoe. Or maybe her angry, little stunt at Transient had given something up? Oh god. The fact that she wasn’t even sure why they were in trouble finally struck her. Her power, the indiscretions… Peter had been right after all.

“Piper! Are you listening!? It’s not a fucking joke!” Grant spat back at her in a tone saved only for his angriest clients. He did hate being ignored. And considering the importance of the subject matter at hand, she couldn’t blame him. She could only blame herself.

“Sorry. Sorry, Grant. What were you saying?” Piper tried to steady her quavering voice.

“Two agents, I’m guessing. They flashed a badge at me, not that I could identify what the shit those were. Looked real though. Tall, light skinned messy brown hair guy. And a blonde with a dyke haircut. You know them?”

Piper cringed. Grant really did not hold his tongue… it was amazing he hadn’t gotten in trouble at work yet. But then, she’d never heard him say anything quite as offensive as that. And it painted a picture in her mind immediately.

“I don’t.”

Were the police after her? The government? The feds? Or maybe… some underground group she didn’t even know about? Oh god, if Peter had created a serum like this, could there be other people out there like her? More powerful than her!? She trembled.

“That’s all I can give you, Piper. Are you in trouble? Do you know what it is? Do I need to call the cops?”

Piper didn’t answer. She was paralyzed with indecision.

---

After chugging three beers in thirty minutes, Carter did her obligatory beer workout late in the evening to try and offset the calories. Lean and cut, she really wore her horrible diet well.

After a quick rinse-off in a cold shower, she flopped into bed. Her short hair always dried quickly from a vigorous towel rubbing.

Flopping into bed, she replayed the events of the day. They had captured Maria Martinez at considerable cost. But they had captured her. After seeing what that Hispanic beauty had done to a large metal container with her dainty foot, Kim wasn’t sure they could have managed it. Or survived. It wasn’t like she was really worried—but the fact that it took multiple gunshot wounds to injure her far enough to sedate her was a revelation.

And now, Martinez was in their custody. Cuffed to a table and hoisted off the ground, metal bands around all of her limbs and kept under sedation. Like some sort of torture chamber.

Kim moaned at the thought and bit her lip. Oh, if only the video cameras weren’t rolling, the things she would do to Martinez. She wanted to taste, to feel, to experience that lightly bronzed skin so badly. To kiss Maria on her perfect mouth while the beauty cursed her out in Spanish. Oh, it was so delightful!

And then after wetting her appetite, Kim would really go to work. Break some of her fingers. Slap her across the face until she scarred the beauty, forever leaving her mark. Maybe play with a surgical knife…

But no. Martinez was apparently too powerful for that. And why did she deserve all that power anyway? No, that kind of power belonged to Carter herself.

She deserved it. She was the law, after all. What higher authority was there? And once she became like Martinez, it wouldn’t even be a question anymore. Carter could do whatever, with whomever she pleased. A dream come true. The unending scream of her torture victims made her so fucking wet!

Just what was the procedure like? Paloma, who was in their holding cells, was so extremely tight-lipped. Made sense. Maybe his high-powered lawyer sister had taught him not to speak. Goddamned civilians who knew the rules and how to play the game. Any other unhardened person like Paloma would have broken by now. They could tell not just from his lack of record, but from his pure fear and demeanor, that he’d never been in trouble like this before.

Maybe it was surgical. Bionic in some way. RecoGreen was where he worked. A laboratory. They put Carter under while Harris supervised, cut her open, graft indestructible metal alloy to her bones. That would explain the goddamn Martinez’s goddamn legginess. And those tits, those fuckin’ juicy tits that she’d slap people to feel… they were so fucking firm! Did the bionic implants go there too!?

She’d do it. She’d do it for sure. Come out of the operation like some sort of sexy fuckin’ unstoppable cyborg. Then she’d pay Martinez back for her physical savagery, tenfold. Harris and the rest of their agents would back her up. Then, she’d rip out Martinez’s implants and really have her fucking way with her.

Carter orgasmed in the bed of her Spartan bedroom, rolled over, and went to sleep.

---

“Carter!” Harris shouted.

“What? For fuck’s sake, what? Don’t shout!”

“Have you been listening at all!?”

She hadn’t. Her erotic fantasies had been plaguing her all day. “Yeah yeah, let’s interrogate the perp. Usual routine. Blah blah.”

“No! I mean, yes. But I was fuckin’ talking about how this could even happen. With Martinez.”

“What do you mean?”

“Private sector makes a super soldier before us. I mean, I don’t know if there’s actually some black ops covert yada yada area 51 shit going on, but come on. We really fucked this one up, huh?”

“Unless we have our own super soldiers and you just don’t know about it,” Carter snapped back smartly.

“Yeah, yeah. Bullshit. After what happened to our country last year in May? POTUS would have announced that shit so loudly and proudly and gone and declared war.”

“Yeah. You’re right,” Carter agreed, particularly because if the government had created super soldiers, that would mean that she wasn’t one of them. And that would have been the worst timeline.

“So, about Paloma. He’s been in there overnight. We haven’t given him his phone call. He’s scared of everyone else. He’ll break for sure.”

“Good. Or I’ll break him…” Carter muttered under her breath.

“Save it. You already did a number on his little brother. No worse cop here. I’m sure he’ll be begging to switch sides. Just look at the poor sod. Who knows how badly Martinez has fucked him up already. We tell him to join up, give him protective custody, give up his secret… he’ll be hailed as a national hero!”

Carter reluctantly played along. Getting the operation done for herself was definitely a higher priority than getting to “accidentally” break Paloma’s hand.

They had the guards bring Peter out of his shared holding area and into an interrogation room. He sat down, his orange prison fatigues stained with sweat. His stubble was unsightly, and eyes bleary.

“Paloma. You feeling okay?” Harris started.

“Anything we can get you? Burger?” Carter chipped in. But somehow it sounded threatening. Like some sort of trap.

Peter was tight-lipped. Harris gave Carter a look. She stared back, raised her open palms and shrugged, as if to say, “What did I do?” But she backed off.

“Look. We know you’re having a rough time. That… woman that we captured. She’s something else, isn’t she? Some sort of… super soldier, if you will. What did you do with her? We can help you. We can protect you from her.”

Peter drooped in his seat and refused to make eye contact, trying to give nothing away.

“Look.” Harris gestured to Carter, who brought over a manila envelope. In it were still photos of the gruesome scene at Sarasota County Max, followed by pictures of Maria cuffed to a table like some sort of laboratory experiment.

Peter tried not to look, but he couldn’t help it. He gasped at the mutilated body of Bledsoe, almost unrecognizable if not for the fact that he had tormented Peter’s family for so long. And then someone in a tan uniform, their head completely… flattened. Gone. Turned to red paste.

And Maria, too. God, what had he done to Maria? He had only wanted to help her. He’d gotten lucky that she was so gentle with him, that she hadn’t gone out and done anything crazy. And now, she was in here with him. Who knows what kind of sadistic shit they were going to do to her?

“See? She’s a monster. Whatever you did, she’s out of your control. And look how badly she’s hurt you. Peter. We’re the good guys here. You help us out, and you’ll be a hero.”

They waited in silence for his response. There was nothing.

“What’s wrong, pal?” Carter spoke after a long period of silence. “Got tired of your hot as fuck wife? Wanted a long sip of that longer margarita we captured? I totally understand, pal. Your little marital indecencies are safe with us. That’s none of our business. You can go back to your wife, safe and sound. That Martinez nightmare, you can act like it never happened. Piper will never have to know,” she emphasized her name, trying to get some kind of reaction out of him.

It worked. Peter began to laugh.

“Safe? With P…” he’d been about to mention how being by his wife’s side was the safest place on Earth. What they’d said was so comical that he’d forgotten that he should never speak to the police.

Carter’s eyes went wide with realization. She grabbed Harris by the arm and dragged him out of the small, soundproof room.

“Harris. It’s Paloma.”

“What do you mean, it’s Paloma?”

“No. The other Paloma. It’s her we’re after! Don’t you see it!? She’s the one who fits all the puzzle pieces!”

“But she never, we never saw her do anything super… she…” Harris paused to think. “He laughs when we bring her up. Mocking us for saying that he could go back safely with his wife. Fuck’s sake, the Transient incident. There’s no fucking connection to Martinez! It’s Paloma!” He was finally on the same wavelength.

“So what’s the deal with Martinez? He’s abused by his wife. She kills their family’s murderer. Rips up Transient’s shit. Everything’s going great, until it’s not. The first tiny little argument, and she hurts him. Shit gets ugly. Everything starts falling apart. And he…”

“He gets Martinez,” they said in unison.

“The new enforcer. I’ll slap my mama if we’re wrong about this,” Carter concluded.

“...FUCK! Where is Piper Paloma right this very fucking instant?!”

They both ran for their radios.

---

“Piper! Piper!” Steven’s voice was shrill as he shrieked into the phone.

“Steven! Calm the fuck down! What do you know!”

“What do I know!? What do you know, you… crazy strong freak!? Where’s my bro!? He’s vanished! Did you… did you kill him with your crazy powers!? Chop him up and bury him somewhere I couldn’t find him!? I saw how hurt he was when I visited you guys! You all think I’m stupid, that I’m not gonna amount to anything, but I figured that one out, didn’t I! I’m… I’m gonna call the police!”

It was all Piper could do not to laugh. She kept her voice cold and even.

“Steven. If you don’t calm the fuck down right now, I will kill you. Far worse than you described. Now tell me. When did Peter go missing? What do you know?”