Chapter Six
Kinzer slapped Hayde across his face.
The still-nude Hayde sat limp, his wrists tied to the sides of a chair, his ankles tied to its legs.
After Kinzer had knocked him unconscious, he and Maggie had restrained him and created a sort of interrogation room so they could press him for intel. It was evident by what he’d said to Kinzer he knew Janka… and that could mean he was in league with him and Veylo and that he might have known where they and the Christ were.
“Come on,” Kinzer said, slapping him again.
“Maybe if you hadn’t beat the shit out of him,” Maggie said, “he would’ve woken up sooner.”
Kinzer glared at her.
“Just a thought,” she said.
Hayde stirred and grunted. “Shit.”
“Hello, Hayde,” Kinzer said. “Or is that even your name?”
“Of course it’s my fucking name.”
Kinzer punched him across the face.
“Um…” Maggie said like she was about to warn him against such a hasty response. “Never mind.”
Hayde’s eyes filled with rage. Kinzer didn’t think the guy who’d just tried to kill him had a right to be so full of indignation.
“Now,” Kinzer said. “You want to tell us what the fuck you were doing in that place… or why you offed that guy?”
“I don’t want to tell you anything.”
Kinzer hit him again.
“Fuckin’ A.”
“You can play this game all you want, but it’s only gonna make it hurt worse.”
Hayde took a breath and glanced around like he was considering the consequences of sharing the information.
“How do you know Janka?” Kinzer asked.
“How do you think I know Janka?” Hayde said, looking him directly in the eyes, as he had when Kinzer was fucking him. The look made Kinzer want to hit him again, but he stilled the urge, knowing it was more important for him to ask questions than to lash out.
“I don’t have a clue,” Kinzer said.
“Think really hard about it. Where do you think Janka was all those times he wasn’t with you? Who do you think’s been there for him while he was allegedly working for the Leader? Hmmm?”
As if Kinzer needed more reasons to hate his deceitful ex-lover. It was bad enough that he’d clipped his wings and thrown him into a sex slave operation, but to hear that, on top of all that, he’d never been faithful, was another reminder that he’d known nothing about the creature he’d loved. Although, he couldn’t be sure he ever loved him because clearly he hadn’t even known him. He just knew the lies and fabrications Janka had devised to manipulate him.
“Oh, great,” Kinzer said to Maggie, who looked sad on his behalf.
“Fallen, really? Did you actually think you’d capture the interest of such a flawless, magnificent higherling?”
Kinzer’s demeanor shifted. The rage that flowed through him evaporated, and an eerie calm took its place.
Maggie’s expression filled with concern.
“You’re making this real easy for me,” Kinzer said. He retrieved Hayde’s dagger from a table he’d set it on after they’d bound him to the chair.
