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Considering I want this man’s head in a pickling jar, I doubt we’ll all be happy in the end. “Do I get a say in this?”
Kai shakes his head at me, his eyes serious. There’s no humor there, not like the last time we faced down a member of Sal’s insipid family, which means he knows something I don’t. I stay quiet, intent on letting them figure it out, at least until I can come up with some kind of plan that doesn’t involve both of us dead.
The man’s breath fans my ear as he speaks, and it’s enough to make me gag. “I don’t want to kill either of you. My instructions are to take you both alive. But she’s expendable so…play along, and then we don’t have to clean blood out of our clothes today.”
Kai takes one step forward, and the gun digs into my head so hard I close my eye on that side to protect it. “What do you want?”
“All I want right now is for you to put your gun on the floor and take one slow step backward. Then we’ll all get out of here in one piece.”
I sigh. It seems the one somewhat clever of Sal’s cousins got to come out and play now. I open my eye again and meet Kai’s intent gaze. He looks sad, tired, and like he’s given up. It’s not a look that agrees with him, and I hate it. He fights me at every turn, never surrendering, and now is the time he stops?
“Are you going to fight me? I will shoot you both and drag you behind me if that’s what it takes,” he says.
I’m not listening to him because I’m focused on Kai. His sharp cheekbones, the jut of his collarbone. At least he put on pants at some point.
“I’m sorry,” he whispers, and I shake my head, telling him I don’t want to hear it. Not here, not now. This isn’t where we end.
Kai bends and slides the gun across the floor to the other man. I don’t even think about it since his focus is on Kai. I scramble to grab the gun out of his grip, the one pressed to my head, but it slips from my fingers as he tips forward and takes the other.
Then all I know is darkness and a sharp pain at the nape of my neck.
29
KAI
When I wake, I know immediately something is wrong. It’s dark, blackout dark, and I roll over and retch on the concrete floor. I promised myself I’d never be back here unless I came to burn this place to the ground with the council bitch locked inside.
I slide away from the puke and sit up. Once again, they’ve taken my clothes, my shoes, everything, and left me in my black boxer briefs. Which means she’s planning to do the same things to me she did the last time. The thought is enough to make me want to throw up again.
My vision waves, and I try to clear it, but my head is fuzzy too. They must have dosed me before tossing me in here.
I raise my arm and let it fall to my lap. Yep, definitely sluggish. It feels like the same cocktail they gave me before. There are no noises in the hall, none of the sluggish paths of guards outside my door. Even though it’s dark in here, I can’t hear anyone else, which means they must be holding Rose elsewhere.
I clench my fists. If they hurt her, then nothing will be able to stop me from destroying this building and every person in it, council member or not.
Carefully, I stand and trace the edge of the bench until it ends, then the wall around to the door. It’s locked, of course, but I press my ear to the surface, hoping to at least catch the sound of her voice so I know she’s okay.
It’s dead silent outside the door, and I curse, sliding down to sit on the cold floor. I hate this fucking place and everything it represents. The last time I was here, that bitch told me she wanted to break me. I told her she’d never be able to do it. Looks like she found the one way in the world she might succeed. If I lose Rose, then I have nothing left.
She doesn’t realize that if she breaks me, I’m taking her ass with me. Hopefully, painfully and drenched in her blood.
Those thoughts comfort the blood lust in me, pressing away the darkness and the memories of the last time I stayed in this place. I dread the moment I hear her voice again, but I can’t control that. At least for now.
I close my eyes, the grogginess still very present. She’s going to need a lot more drugs if she hopes to find me willing. The last time it didn’t matter as much. This time, I won’t do anything to hurt Rose, and letting this bitch use me would definitely hurt her.
Not that I have much of a choice if she continues to drug me. Even now, I can feel it coursing through my body, slowing me down, pulling at the edges of my concentration. Like this, I’m useless to protect Rose or myself.
I pound my head into the door once, hoping to clear things, but it doesn’t help.
There’s only one solace to all of this: Rose isn’t trapped in this endless dark box with me. Wherever she is being held, I hope it’s better. Adrian or maybe my sister’s people will come for her soon. Can’t have the lost Barone heir resurface only to be lost due to her negligence. Nope, can’t have that.
I stand again, wobbling on my feet so hard I hit the door. First, I test the knob again, but no luck. Like last time, I move around the seams of the door, checking the hinges and the floor for any way to break free, but it’s as impenetrable as before.
The other side of the room matches its opposite, but I tread carefully, not knowing exactly where I’d been sick earlier. I can smell it in the air, but I’m not willing to get down on the floor and seek it out.
Hopefully, they will clean it up. Thankfully, they did the last time, not leaving me in the stink of sickness for my incarceration. The council bitch wouldn’t like that. She wants me clean and unsullied when she uses me for her own pleasure.
The worst part was that I found a little pleasure in it too. Not voluntarily, but between the drugs and the warmth of her body, however much it disgusted me, I had little choice. Sometimes biology wins out.
