He growled and dropped the knife. It clattered loudly against the concrete, the sound echoing through the basement. Without a word, he turned and stormed up the stairs, slamming the basement door behind him.
“What the fuck, Knox?” I called after him, but his heavy footsteps were already retreating overhead.
I turned back to her. “Well, little mute. Apparently, my brother needs to chat before we get started with you.” I unbound her wrists and guided her toward the cells. “So I’ll stashyou right here until he’s ready.”
She didn’t resist. She didn’t react. She just stared ahead, her expression empty.
I suddenly realized I was pissed off. It infuriated me that the omega wasn’t more frightened. That instead of fighting, or begging for her life, she had folded inward.
Someone had broken this woman,badly.
Not just someone.Marco Bellini.
The thought rattled around my skull, threatening to leak pity into places it didn’t belong.No.There was no room for pity in my line of work. Results were what mattered.
We had spent years waiting for Arca to sanction the fall of Marco Belini's empire. Knox and I orchestrated it all from behind the scenes by moving pieces on the board and patiently waiting for our chance at revenge.
Plus, there were other omegas who needed our help. Recovering them was essential to destabilize the criminal organization responsible for the highest volume of omega trafficking in the region. Responsible for murdering helpless women.
One woman in particular came to mind.
After five years in captivity, Lena had answers.
And she was going to give them to us.
I left her locked in an empty cell and killed the lights, giving her time to rest and consider her options, while I went in search of Knox.
All that interrogating had worked up a hell of a thirst, so I grabbed two beers, one for me and one for my brother.
He wasn’t inside. I found him slouched on the stoop outside our residence, hands laced through his hair. The city hummedloudly around us, lights bright against the night sky.
“What’s got you in a twist?” I asked casually, sitting beside him and passing him a beer.
He growled.
“You’re reallythisworked up over interrogating the girl?” I said. “We’ve interrogated women before. It’s never been an issue. What’s going on? You want to game plan?”
“No. No game plan.”
“What do you mean, 'no game plan?'” I snapped. “She just killed the only intel source we had in custody! We barely got our hands on him. If any more of Marco's crew go missing it’ll alert him; send him into hiding. Open mouths will close fast. We have a job to do.”
“You saw what I saw,” he said, turning to me.
“What? Her stunt with the knife?”
“She leaned into it, Silas,” he said. “She wanted to die. You can’t fake fear and instinct. We both know that.”
I said nothing, staring into the dark hollow at the top of my beer.
“That woman is broken,” he continued, quieter now. “And the depth of it is only just becoming clear. Whatever Jacob was about to tell us,it was bad.”
“Sowhat?You feelsorryfor her?” I asked. “Is that what this is?”
“It has nothing to do with pity. Think about it, Silas. You can’t break what’s already broken. There’s nothing we can do to her that hasn’t already been done!”
“And?” I shot back. “If we refuse to interrogate her, Command will find another unit who won’t hesitate, and we’ll bepulled from this case. The case we orchestrated and dropped ourselves right in the middle of! Then those omegas? We may never recover them…” I took a drink. “I know you don’t enjoy this part of the job the way I do, but there are other reasons you do it.”
He snorted.
