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His eyes fluttered close. A low and desperate moan from a throat marked for demise. "I didn't want to believe it."
"You should've trusted me. Come to me once she approached you.”
His shoulders shook, his low sobs filling the air as he slouched against the rope. His hair flopped over pain-filled eyes. Words came out a strangled sob. “Willchu…let…let me go?"
"Do you want me to?"
He didn't answer for a long time, eventually his choking sobs grew softer, until finally, he shook his head. "No.” His head tilted upward, his voice low and filled with regret. "It would be faster. This way. Wouldn't it?"
He was finally getting it. Either I killed him, or the Veritas would—slowly.
Though, I wasn’t going to give them the chance.
He had nudes of her—no one should see her like that. A possessiveness I’d never felt before roared to life. The asshole deserved to die by my hand.
I met his eyes, my own hardening gaze the only response he needed.
"I thought…so.” His eyes wandered towards the construction in the room that he would never see fulfilled. Even now, he was still dreaming of the what if's. Still wishing for a different outcome. He’d believed her.
“Tell me,” I asked. “Do you think they’ll bury your body in this basement? Your bones would be here for eternity.”
“No,” he groaned, “you do it.”
“Then tell me what I want to know,” I demanded.
“You already know.”
“I need to hear it.”
He sighed, defeated. “They want what they always want.”
“Which is what? I need specifics.”
“Secrets. Her money and blood. Future children. Anything they can take from her.”
“Specifics,” I hissed, pulling his hair back to force him to meet my probing gaze.
His eyes glinted, his voice suddenly clear. “Revenge. For Douglass getting out. For taking her from them when she was little.” The black under his eyes shadowed his expression. “They never forgave him for escaping the Magnolia, and they want her back in. Her blood alone assures them wealth and power. Do you know what people would pay for that?”
“Those people are idiots. It’s just blood, nothing special.” At least, to them, she wasn’t.
“Not to Vashti. Duvall blood would increase the power of the witch’s spells a thousand-fold.”
“You sound like you believe all that bullshit.”
His eyes slid away from me, staring at the floor. "You think I'm greedy."
"I know you are. Otherwise we wouldn't be in this situation.”
“But she said?—”
“Scarlett Ravenna belongs to the Veritas, and she took you down as easily as squashing a bug. Scarlett isn’t even her real name.”
“But…”
“Idiot,” I scoffed. “Scarlett O’Hara?”
His silence was telling.
