Page 54 of Scar Tissue

“A simple mistake!” Nathan snaps. “He killed someone! And you just, you let him off the hook because of your sick fucking fantasies? It’s not a business. It’s a crime. You’re all fucking corrupt criminals and I swear to god we will get you for this.” He’s seething. His face is red and death is plastered all over it as he fights the restraints he is now in, in the chair across from me. Meanwhile I can barely stomachwhat I’m hearing as he reduces my brother to a mistake. As if he was fallible, replaceable.

Harrison smiles then as he kneels down in front of Nathan. “Your tenacity is inspiring, I’ll admit. But it’s rooted in fallacy. Besides, that isn’t what we’re here to talk about.”

He’s cruel. The worst of the worst. Inflicting harm for the pure pleasure of it, and I can’t imagine what he does to the children he steals away. “You don’t get to talk about him like that.” My voice is so quiet that Harrison cocks his head at me without saying anything.

“You’ll have to speak up, dear.”

I steel myself and lift my head to meet his gaze. “I said, you don’t get to fucking talk about him like that.”

Harrison chuckles low and dark, a venomous undertone to the rumble. “Now, let’s dispense with the theatrics and move on.” He stands up. “I recently had an…asset, escape my clutches with something valuable. And not long after, I have you and your little takedown group show up at my front door, infiltrating my operations, which begs the question,” he finishes smoothly, eyes cutting between Nathan and me, “did you follow her, or did she find you?”

My pulse stutters at the implication and the very real threat that’s laced under his monotonous tone. “She was clever,” he says, almost fondly. “Resourceful. Loyal right up until the moment she wasn’t.” His mouth twists. “I don’t begrudge her for the escape of course; ambition should always be rewarded.”

Nathan’s jaw tightens, but he doesn’t take the bait.

“What I do begrudge,” Harrison continues, “is the little souvenir she took with her. A USB drive. Encrypted, of course. But encryption only buys time, and time is something I usually have in abundance.”

He stops directly in front of me. “Until now.”

My stomach drops. He knows the timing is wrong. He knows the pressure is external. “And then,” he says lightly, a hand stroking my jaw, “you arrive. A group with just

enough reach to be inconvenient. Just enough precision to be dangerous. A group that doesn’t move like law enforcement or paniclike amateurs.” His gaze cuts to Nathan. “And you certainly don’t throw away an operation unless there’s something, or someone, worth burning it for.”

The pieces click together in his mind—I can almost see it happening.

“Yes, you’ve embedded yourself far closer to my operations than any outsider should ever manage. So it either means you’re protecting someone not in this room, or this is simply a lucky coincidence. Unfortunately for you I don’t believe in coincidences. I need to know whether Claire ran to you, or whether you were already watching me when she ran.”

Nathan finally speaks, voice measured, and I internally beg him to do the right thing. He’s here because he’s willing to risk everything for me, but I wouldn’t be able to forgive him if he threw Claire under the bus. She’s only a child. “You’re giving yourself too much credit.”

Harrison grins. “Am I?”

He gestures, and one of the guards steps behind me, pulling my hair, grabbing it roughly and holding a knife to the side of my face. I can see the moment Nathan stops breathing.

“If she came to you,” Harrison continues, “then you already have what she stole. Which means I have a problem that requires immediate attention.” His eyes sharpen. “But if she didn’t—if she’s still out there alone—then I have a different problem. One I plan to solve very creatively.”

My throat tightens. Claire isn’t here. She’s safe with Dylan. And Harrison is trying to decide which leverage hurts more.

“You see,” he says, “either you tell me how you found me and who sent you, or I assume the worst.” His gaze locks onto mine, calculating and cruel. “And I start pulling threads until something screams.” He nods and the guard starts to carve the knife into my face, dragging it from the corner of my left eye down to my chin. I cry out as blood swells and Nathan lunges forward in his seat.

“Stop! Fucking stop it!”

Harrison exhales slowly as the guard readjusts the knife to my forehead, prepared for his next command. “Tick tock,” he murmurs. “Every second you stay silent makes this uglier for everyone involved.”

The threat hangs heavy in the air. Not just for us, but for Claire, for the children still trapped in his network, for every truth he’s desperate to keep buried.

But that’s the moment I realize something.

He’s not interrogating us because he’s powerful. He’s interrogating us because for the first time, he’s scared. As he studies us, his expression shifts, his annoyance becoming visible. “Still nothing,” he says quietly. “Interesting. And here you promised me answers.”

“And I told you if you touched her again you wouldn’t get them,” Nathan says.

“You know what uncertainty does to men like me?” he asks. “It irritates. And irritation leads to mistakes, something I don’t make. You think I don’t know what that drive contains?” He walks behind me, moving his guard out of the way and my spine locks. “Shipping routes.

Payment shells. Names—some of which would surprise you. Some of which would disappoint you. Targets. Locations.”

Nathan inhales sharply, just once. I know that sound. He’s angry, but he’s also thinking. “I don’t care who you think you’re protecting. A girl who ran. A handler who pointed

you in my direction. A faceless agency hiding behind clean hands.” He leans forward, his voice dropping and his breath heavy on my ear. “I will find out, and then I will find them. The only question is how much collateral I collect along the way.”