He sadly sighs. “It wasn’t his fault,” he quietly says. “I wouldn’t let him keep it.”
“Doesn’t answer my question.” I mean, he sort of told me earlier, but I want him to spell it out for me.
“He promised to always take care of me. That I was His pet. That he’d never leave me behind again like he did when he broke up with Elsa. But when we got injured, I knew I didn’t have much of a life outside of the Army, so I fought the doctors to let me stay in and I wouldn’t go with Carter, even when he asked me to.”
“Why not?”
He slowly shakes his head. “I don’t know anymore. At the time, I didn’t want him to alienate his family. Yes, he has a lot of brothers. You have the right Carter. Two of them had already died. KIA before I met Carter. But he couldn’t come out to his family.”
“Is that what he told you?”
“No.” Eddie wistfully smiles. “He insisted he would figure out a way to make it work. But I couldn’t see how and I didn’t give him a chance to.”
Okay so, technically, little brodidn’tbreak his promise. Not really.
You can’t force someone to release their fear and love you.
Youcanforce them to do a lot of things, and manipulate them into doing many others, but there is a line that is impossible to cross short of holding them at gunpoint, and that’s not practical for a healthy, happy long-term relationship.
I keep Eddie talking for another hour. He drains and refills the tub several times during our chat, and I still don’t move. He’s starting to relax a little, which is good. I’ve shown him the stick, and now it’s time to keep bribing him with the carrot, as long as he doesn’t balk on me.
If he does, I won’t hesitate to break out the stick again to gain his compliance.
I haven’t yet decided on how to break the news to him about who I am. I want to go for maximum shock value to throw him off balance and hopefully get him to agree to my plan.
To help me kill Cunningham, that is.
He won’t have a choice about agreeing to becoming my pet.
I’ll make certain ofthat.
Chapter Eleven
Once Eddie’s out of the tub and has cleaned and dried the bathroom floor, I slowly reach over to a bag next to me and produce a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt, letting him see exactly what I’m doing so he doesn’t panic. I toss them in, remaining out of his reach. I also toss in the keys to his wrist shackles.
“Put those on so you don’t catch pneumonia. Take off the ankles first, put the pants on, and shackles back on. Then return those keys and I’ll give you the others. Then your wrists and shirt.”
The only hesitation he shows is from his pain.
Excellent. It means he’s already starting to trust me.
Once he’s dressed and returned all the keys to me, I toss him a light blanket and a pair of socks. “Go ahead and sit where you were.”
After he’s settled, I take two bottles of protein drink, sit them on the floor, and give them a shove across the tile with the toe of my boot so they’re within his reach.
“You’ll see the seals are unbroken,” I tell him.
He hesitates this time, but then licks his lips and grabs one, quickly twisting the cap off and greedily guzzling it down. He hasn’t eaten in at least forty-eight hours, or however long ago it was since we snatched him. I don’t know how long before that it was since he last ate.
With that done, he studies me. “Why are you keeping me alive? I thought you were ordered to kill me?”
“I’ll tell you that once we’re done talking. Meaning overall, not today.” I motion from me to him. “Give and take, Eddie. Quid pro quo. Pay close attention to what I say, because I am a man of my word, too. You keep talking to me, we can talk. You tell me the truth, we can talk. You start lying or bullshitting me or clamming up? The kick I gave you earlier will feel like a playful tickle. And if you keep talking to me, and telling me the truth, I promise your Carter will remain unharmed. I’m only looking for information and the truth, not to create more work for myself or hurt innocent people. Understand?”
He nods but I can tell he doesn’t believe me.
That’s why I take the zip-top bag of sliced cold roast beef out of the shopping bag and slide it across the floor to him.
His stomach loudly gurgles as he snatches it from the floor and rips into it.
