“What the hell did Luis do to him?”
“It’s safe to say that disobedience runs in the family,” he chortles. “You weren’t just being a brat all those years to make my job difficult.”
Tom’s level of disobedience is spelled across every inch of visible skin beneath the ripped, bloodstained shirt and trousers hanging from his starved body. Another chunk of my shattered heart splats against the floor of my stomach.
The single dependable constant in my life despite our ups and downs… is now almost unrecognisable beneath mottledbruises. Purple, angry blotches that tarnish his pasty-white face, neck and arms.
The crusted lacerations that slash each bruise appear to be oozing. He’s being dragged, his legs buckled and unresponsive, head swaying like a loose bag of change attached to his shoulders. A terrified part of me worries he’s already lost to us.
Pure hatred turns my words to icy daggers. “For every mark on him, I’m going to tear a chunk of flesh from your body with my bare fucking teeth.”
“Ah, the fighting spirit. Nice to see you haven’t lost it in retirement.”
Fuck this.I’ll go with Carlos just for the privilege of killing him myself. He’s taunted me for the very last time.
“What will it be, 768?” Carlos watches his men drop Tom’s lifeless carcass at their feet. “Perhaps I’m open to a trade after all.”
“Tom walks free. My team too.”
“Ember—”
“Shut up,” I cut Warner off.
“We don’t trade lives.”
With great restraint, I don’t scream at him.
“Em!” he urges. “Listen to me!”
Carlos studies the scene with visible exasperation. It’s the same glare that still features in my nightly torment. He spent hours watching me get beaten to a pulp just to criticise me afterwards.
“What makes you think we’d accept those terms?” he challenges.
My eyes narrow to slits. “Because you want me.”
“I personally couldn’t care less about you.” He flicks his wrist dismissively. “But what Señor Gael wants, he gets. My job is rather simple in that respect.”
“Then let’s keep this simple. Hand over Tom, and let’s go.”
“Just like that?”
“Just like that.”
“Compliant isn’t a word I’d use to describe you.” Carlos looks down at Tom’s still body. “However, the sooner I’m out of this cesspit, the better.”
“Then give me what I want.”
“Ember!” Hyland calls my name.
Biting my tongue, I glance over my shoulder at their frozen statures. Only Blaine wears an unreadable expression while the others boast matching masks of conflict and terror. None of them have dared to move an inch.
My lips mouth a single command.
Be ready.
Hyland angrily shakes his head from side to side.
Trust me,I mouth.
