I let out an agonized scream.
“There. I knew you still had a voice. Now use it!”
“I’ve got nothing to say to you,” I croaked. “What do you want from me?”
“What doIwant fromyou?I’m clearly holding all the cards right now, and you’re a spider’s web away from death. What could I possibly want from you? You’re pathetic.” His boot landed on my abdomen in a sharp kick.
I let out a grunt and curled into myself, clasping my one good leg to my chest. “Why don’t you just kill me then and hasten the process?”
“I’m not done with you just yet. You’re still the perfect bait for me. Olivia hopes to see you alive again, so she’s scurrying around like a mouse to try to find the journal. Would you like to see what she’s up to?”
Olivia.A faint glimmer, like the dim glow of my heart, forced its way into my ribcage. I couldn’t imagine ever laying eyes on her again. Balthazar would make sure of that.
“No,” I groaned.
“Come now. Let’s see what she’s up to.” He crouched next to me, holding Olivia’s blade before my face.
A listless heartbeat kicked to life inside my chest as I gazed at the reflection of my beloved Olivia.
Dark circles ringed her eyes, and her gorgeous hair hung unkempt around her face. She seemed to be on a journey somewhere, with Marcellious and Emily flanking her, protecting her.
I reached for the dagger, wanting to press it to my chest and keep her close.
Balthazar snatched it away from me and placed it on the floor out of my reach. “That’s enough. We have other matters to discuss.”
“Like what?” My eyelids fluttered shut, unable to stay open.
“Like you. I want you to know your life, gladiator scum,” Balthazar said, adding a cackle of laughter at the end.
“Go ahead. There’s nothing you can show me that will hurt me.” My abdomen ached from the blow of Balthazar’s boot.
Another cackle of laughter left Balthazar’s throat. “You can’t be serious.”
“I’m dead serious. My mother did her best to raise me. End of story.”
Good God, I was weak. Even speaking exerted precious energy.
“So, you never loathed the man who gave you life,” Balthazar stated rather than asked.
I struggled to open my eyes. “What do you mean?”
“You. You lived a blissful existence as the only child of a single mother. Is that what I’m hearing?” Balthazar grinned down at me.
“Pretty much, yes. We had our share of turbulence, but nothing dramatic,” I said. “My mother had to work hard as a seamstress to put food on the table and a shelter over our head, but she never complained.”
My body began to tremble. The cold stone kept me constantly shivering when I wasn’t delirious, burning with fever.
“So, why did you spend so much time looking for your father? You’ve always hated him for abandoning your mother. You despised him, a wealthy sheik, for not providing for you.” Balthazar’s grin faded, and his expression grew more predatory as if waiting for me to react.
I stiffened where I lay.How did he know that?
I’d never shared that with anyone, not even Olivia. My most hidden secret was my longing to know who my father was.
“Oh, I’ve seen your pathetic attempts to find your father,” Balthazar said, pacing around my prone form. “I even followed you once when it looked like you were getting close. This was in downtown London when you were a mere youth. You tried to pretend you were much older and had the balls to swagger into a saloon where your father was said to be. Only, they threw you out, tossed you out the door onto the street like the cur you are. If I’d been two minutes faster, I would have been able to confront your father rather than witness you being tossed on your ear. He apparently left out the back door when he sensed my imminent arrival.”
I remembered that day with vivid clarity. I’d heard from a friend of a friend that a Turkish sheik who matched my father’s description was seen traveling through London with his entourage. And that he dined nightly at a public house called theThistle and Swan. I’d always been told I looked older than my age, so I thought it would be easy to swagger in and confront my father, demanding recompense for my mother.
Only the door had been guarded by a hulk of a man who took one look at me, laughed, and said, “Not a chance, lad.”
