I shrug and grab a TAC knife out of my bag and tuck it into the sheath strapped around my ankle. “Don’t care.”
Crow clamps a hand around my wrist. “Fucking stop, Wraith.”
I drop my arms and blow out a loud, frustrated sigh and turn my entire body to face him. “What? Because every minute I waste doing this with you is one more minute Jamie’s alone with that psychotic prick. So, what the fuck do you want? Me to do it your way and have him slit her throat and toss her body over the wall? Or play it his way, and at least I might get her out in one goddamn piece.”
“One-way ticket, is that it, asshole?” Malice’s quiet growl draws my attention to where he’s standing, arms crossed over his bare chest, in the open doorway of his motel room.
His dark hair’s wet and shadowing his face. Half-dressed in black jeans and boots, he’s watching me with rage in his eyes.
Every cum-stained room faces the parking lot, and we threw enough money at the owner of the two-story, pastel-painted motel to flip on the no vacancy sign for the next few days. Said owner is on a temporary—and involuntary—supervised vacation in one of his rooms to prevent a warning being sent to a particular sadistic psychopath.
“If one of us gotta die today, it won’t be her.” My tone dares Malice to fight me.
He doesn’t.
Instead, he storms into his room and comes back out tugging a black shirt over his head. Once it’s on, he jabs a hand through his hair, shoving the wet strands off his face. He looks as tired as the rest of us after the nonstop drive. “How about neither of you die today, because if you think we’re letting you go alone, you’ve lost your goddamn mind.”
“He’s right, Wraith,” Dirt says. “No way you’re heading out by yourself. Tell him, Crow.”
I step back from them, the monster raging so loud, I can barely hear past its screams. “This isn’t up for debate. You don’t know this sick fuck. If I don’t follow his instructions to the letter, he’ll peel the skin off her bones. And if you think I’m exaggerating, I’m not, because I was in his torture room, and he fucking did it to me.”
For the first time since I’ve known Malice—which is, literally, all my life—I see him cringe.
But Crow comes toward me and puts a hand on my shoulder. “Like you said, you know this man. We don’t. You say he’ll kill her if he sees us, fine. We hang back. But once you’re in, we strike. You understand me? I don’t give a fuck. You’re not a martyr, Wraith. You’re Unholy. We don’t make noble sacrifices.”
“Damn right, I’m not noble.” My hands fist at my sides, and I bare my teeth in a snarl as the monster breaks free from its cage. “We’re gonna kill every one of those motherfuckers.”
* * *
Islam my truck into park, kill the engine, and hop out. My feet kick up dry dirt as I stride to the camera. No one’s manning the guard tower. I don’t hear any sounds of life coming from behind the concrete wall surrounding Crane’s mini metropolis. For a sickening second, I wonder if I was set up. If he didn’t purposely bring me here but have Jamie somewhere else.
Bullshit.
Crane would never leave his kingdom. And he wants me dead too much to send me on an empty chase. He wants me locked behind this wall and at his mercy. Where he thinks he can torture me because this is where he feels safe, the stupid bastard.
Joke’s on him, because we’re going to take that false sense of security and shove it up his ass.
Not gonna lie, though. The Coliseum makes me want to vomit. But I never thought it’d it look so…ordinary. An average red-brick building. Nothing about the place alludes to the horrors inside. To what I suffered in there, and the pieces of me that stayed behind after Jamie busted me out.
I give the camera the finger. “I’m here, motherfucker.”
Don’t have to wait long for the gate to slide open. There’s one of those big no-neck assholes in tactical gear waiting for me on the other side. He’s holding an AK-47 like I’m supposed to be scared. Sorry, but no. A thick brown beard covers his face, and he’s wearing mirrored sunglasses. The guy looks like an extra in every action movie I’ve ever seen.
“Get a load of who’s back,” he remarks. “My favorite prisoner.”
I give him a lazy once-over. “Sorry, dude, don’t remember you.”
Only guards I know are the ones from the dungeon. This dickhead wasn’t one of them.
He glances up and down the road before grabbing me by the arm. I laugh at how easy it is to rile these guys as he hauls me into Gomorrah. When I jerk out of his hold, he gets all up in my face. “You better trust and believe we’re gonna have fun with you, boy.”
I give him my best smile. “I’m counting on it.”
A predictable pat-down results in my weapons being confiscated. Brought them with me just in case. It’s never a good idea to head into a fight defenseless. We came strapped with enough firepower that we won’t feel losing these pistols.
He steps back and pokes me with the tip of the AK. “Oh yeah? You eager to die?”
I walk toward the Coliseum. Toward Jamie. “I’m going to bleed. No way around it. But it’s all good, because the endgame is that you’re all going to die with me.”
