I was pretty sure that global threat I was so worried about would come to pass.
Maybe…
There was always a maybe, but in this case I didn’t know.
The situation was pretty bad.
The minute my mind started clearing up, a jolt of electricity ran through me and Giovanni’s face came into my view.
Holy fuck!
I screamed. It was so fucking painful. So damn painful. Like a thousand knives piercing through my body. That was what it felt like.
Knives, swords, blades.
Pain beyond belief. Pain beyond measure.
They turned up the voltage again and administered another wave that made me heave like I was going to vomit. I was pretty sure I would have if I’d eaten. But there was nothing to come up.
Fucking hell.
How was I still alive?
Giovanni came right up into my face and snarled.
I’d foolishly thought he’d left me but he hadn’t. Neither had the prick who was giving me the electric shocks. He was still very much here.
My ass was still being tortured. It hadn’t fucking stopped.
Giovanni held up a hand and the electricity zapped away as it was switched off.
“Xander Cage, I’m growing tired of this. As you know I’m a very busy man. Very busy. I don’t have time for shit like this,” he taunted.
Fucking asshole. I didn’t give a flying fuck about his schedule.
“Tell me what I want to know and this will be over. I’ll kill you and you’ll be dead. No more pain, son. Why would you prolong the torture? I never figured you for a man who liked pain. Come on tell me who sent you? Who sent you to steal my prints?”
The one fucking kick I got out of this was watching him squirm every time I gave an answer. It gave me strength to find my voice.
“A clo...wn. And, the prints aren’t yours.”
This time he didn’t squirm, he answered me with a kick to my stomach that would have made me double over if I wasn’t cuffed to the fucking pillars.
The pain from the kick and the electrical shocks were just too much. Once again I saw stars and felt my consciousness slipping.
Slipping away.
“You’re a fool, you know that. I keep telling you you’re the fool. Being used. Being fucking used. I told you The Ra wouldn’t have gotten involved if somebody hadn’t alerted them. Those prints are mine while they are in my care. The whole thing was covert. Oh so covert.Shhhh.” He pressed his fingers to his lips. “Covert and silent. I shouldn’t have people like the Ra on my ass. No, and the Spades? Fucking hell Xander Cage. You know as much as me that mobsters keep their noses out of anything they don’t belong in. No, no, no. We have enough wealth, but we still want more. Too dangerous, and we say no. We actually say no to things that are beyond us. This thing wasn’t beyond me when I first agreed to it, then it became so. Like fuck.”
He was talking out of his fucking ass. I wasn’t sure if he expected me to feel sorry for him or, what his point was.
If I were even ten percent myself I would have told him to go fuck himself.
He leaned forward again and dropped a playing card.
The queen of hearts.
Jia. That was her.
