Behind the wheel, I kill the headlights, moving like a thief in the night.
“Help me with him,” I grunt as I leap from the car in front ofThetaManor. Bo Turner, Scout’s younger brother, gives me his typical stoic stare. Then, one solitary nod.
He’s a starting offensive lineman for the NU Nighthawks. So when he picks up Talon and tosses him over his shoulderlike a rag doll, I’m once again pleased to have big friends. “Which way?” he asks.
“To the dungeons. Put him in the far one. String him up.”
It’s not ten minutes before Talon’s arms are suspended above his head in chains. Toes scraping the floor. Naked and half conscious.
My shirt is off. Because things are about to get messy.
“Grab my laptop,” I tell Henry as he pops his head in to see what the ruckus is about. “Bring it down here while I wake him up.”
I pop the cork on a bottle of bourbon, down some, swipe at my chin with the back of my hand, then splash him with it. The alcohol seeps into his wounds until he stirs.
“Wakey, wakey, sunshine.”
He moans and raises one bruised eyelid. “The fuck?” His body sways with awareness, rattling the chains as he attempts to steady himself.
“Where’s Ashlyn?” My voice is small. Clinical. It’s the voice that slices through the static and makes people listen.
Inside? I’m a fuckingwreckof desperation. But I keep my face sharp as a knife.
“I’m not telling you shit, Cardell…” It’s mumbled, difficult to make out between his split lip and thick tongue. He spits blood onto the stone floor.
I creep closer and hold out a spoon. “Obviously, time is short here. SomeonetookAshlyn. Who is it and where is she?”
“She’s safe…fromyou.”
Flashing the metal utensil around until it catches the light, I shrug. “That’s not helpful. I need more…”
He seems unbothered by my weapon but follows it carefully with his swollen gaze. Brown eyes almost black from my bruises.
“She was alwaysmine.” Talon’s words come out wet and small, the bravado leaking off like bad whiskey.
“No, prick.” I lean so close, my teeth hover over the damp skin of his cheek. Up close, he smells like sour cologne and paper-thin courage. “The baby was mine.”
Something in his face shudders. For half a second, he’s caught between a lie and a truth he can’t swallow.
“Iknowyou, Moretti,” I tell him, low enough that the sound seems to live inside his ribs. “You think I don’t know the lies you tell yourself at night to sleep? That you’re a saint for hurting a girl who wouldn’t look twice at you if she could be free. Now she truly is. And guess who shechoseto run to?”
Neck straining, he attempts to pull away, but I grit out what he doesn’t want to hear. “Me. The first one to get there. And the last.”
When his eyes latch onto mine, there’s a change in his demeanor to something like a child’s. “I’ve seen you two together. Watched you fuck her at Red Night and even before then… When you lost control and had her against the wall after one of your fights at the Lodge.” He gathers a ragged breath and spits out, “You couldn’t let me have one fucking thing, could you?Even if it was owed to me.”
“She’s not an object, you fuck. You aren’towedanything. Except death.”
He coughs with disgust. “Still won’t help you find her. She’s probably dead by now.” Like that’s avictoryto him, he smiles. “You’ll kill me anyway, robotic freak. I may have fucked up and hit her, but that’s the partyoulike—to make people hurt.”
A smirk, thin, uninviting, pulls at my lips. I take the spoon I’ve been turning between my fingers and drag it slowly down his cheek, so the metal whispers over his bruises. The gesture is almost affectionate.
“You’re right. I enjoy her pain—but not the way you do. That’s the difference between us. You beat her so you’d beremembered. I do it becauseshe begs me to.” Inching closer until my chest bumps his, I sneer. “Shecraves itwhen I do.”
Stepping back, I hold out my hands, showing I have nothing except my utensil. Oh, and a knife he doesn’t know about tucked into the back of my jeans.
“But since it’s soinevitablethat I’ll end you. May as well tell me now what you know. Keep it direct and to the point. And please don’t bore me, bitch.”
He huffs a laugh that’s all air. “I’m not telling you a thing. Do your worst, Cardell.”