“I’m only here for my brother.”
“Bullshit. All this time together surely brought back some fond memories?”
Disgust curls in my gut. “No.”
“You sure about that?” Harris surges forward, but just as he reaches for my cheek, I lash out with my own hand and strike him right across the face.
“Don’t you dare touch me—ah!”
He slaps me back immediately, ten times harder than I hit him, and then he throws me down onto the desk and pins me there with the weight of his body. My mask slips from my fingers as I’m thrown, and every muscle in me recoils at his touch.
Anger burns hot in his voice when he shoves his face close to mine and grabs a fistful of my hair. “Who the fuck do you think you are, huh?” he snarls, shoving me harder into the wood.
Pain wells up across my face and blooms at my hips where the edge of the desk presses into my body. In a surge of panic, tears well in my eyes and I fight against the wood. “Let me go! Let me go, Harr?—”
His hand slaps across my mouth, silencing me, and my fear spikes. Every nerve inside of me screams in fear, but just as I kick out at his legs, he shoves into me once and then releases me.
“Are you insane?” he growls. “There’s a guy out there and you’re trying to yell my name? Fucking cunt. I wouldn’t want to fuck you again even if I paid you. That foul thing between your legs will probably kill you. I was just giving you one last chance to look at what you lost.”
Every word is like the lash of a whip as I pick myself up from the table and stumble back away from him. Wiping my eyes with the back of my wrist, I don’t take my eyes off him, although I’m torn between attacking him to feed my anger and running for my life.
“I just want my brother back,” I choke out. “Then we never have to see each other again.”
Harris snorts, flicking his ruined cigarette at me. It hits my chest and falls to the floor. “You and your fucking brother,” he mutters. “Fine. Take this.” Harris advances once more and with nowhere to go, I’m forced back against the wall. This time he shoves his handgun into my hands and I stare down at it.
“What’s this for?”
Harris’s lips pull into a cold smirk, and he jerks his head out the door. “I need to make sure your little conscience won’t get the better of you and send you running to the cops once your brother is free, so you have to kill the hostage.”
My heart stops and I jerk my head up, staring up at Harris in horror. “What?”
“Do you need me to spell it out for you? Go out there and kill him.”
The gun turns to dead weight in my hand and almost slips from my fingers, but Harris is there to catch it and crush my fingers around the grip. “It’s simple. Kill him or I kill your brother.Make the choice, cunt. And before you think of turning that gun on me, if I don’t make a call at a certain time, your brother is dead anyway. So be a good little girl…” Harris picks up my mask from where it fell on the floor and gently places it over my face. “And go out there and kill the hostage.”
I can’t speak, so Harris takes my silence for agreement and shoves me out of the office and back into the main warehouse. Across the floor, the two Voltos are playfighting with one another and the hostage is staring directly at me.
I have to kill him?
I’ve never killed anyone.
I’ve never even hurt someone.
My stomach twists itself into a thousand knots and my attention drops to the gun in my trembling hands.
“Oi!” Harris suddenly yells from behind me, making me jump right out of my skin, and then he snaps his fingers, drawing the attention of one of the Voltos. I don’t hear whatever is said, but one of them breaks away from the table and strides toward the man on the ground. They roughly grab him and drag him to his feet, then Harris’s hand appears on my back.
“Hurry up,” he murmurs through his mask. “Or I might forget to make that call.”
My feet move without thought, and before I know it, I’m following the Volto and the hostage out of the warehouse and down the embankment to the river’s edge. Water rushes past at high speed, taking almost all other sounds with it, and as the man is forced to his knees, I see the realization pass over his face and his brows knit together.
“You have your orders,” the Volto growls at me, then he walks off and waits up at the top of the embankment.
It should be easy. This man or my brother.
Everything I’ve done has been to save Peter.
What’s one more crime?
