“Have you ever fallen for the devil before?” he asked.
“Enough with the bullshit questions!” Martyr hit him again, harder this time. “What does any of this have to do with anything anyway?”
“I’m dating the Devil.”
Hernan quirked a brow. “He’s weirdly telling the truth.”
“Who killed Fly? Last chance,” Martyr warned.
“My boyfriend.”
“What’s his name?”
Nate tilted his head and caught Hernan’s eye. “I’m not going to tell you.”
Hernan sighed. “He’s telling—”
The sound of the blaster going off a second time was just as deafening as the first, only this time, the pain wasn’t just the ringing in Nate’s ears. A startled sound slipped past his lips, followed swiftly by a groan as he processed he’d just been shot.
Blood instantly started to pool from the hole in his thigh, seeping through the material of his black jeans around it. The pain was excruciating, shockwaves flashing through Nate as he tried to breathe through it and not give in to the burning sensation or the threat of more to come. Instead, he dug his nails into his palms, trying to focus on that lesser sting and block out the agony his leg was undergoing.
“Going to take this seriously now?” Martyr asked, crouching in front of Nate. He shifted the blaster so it was aimed at his other thigh. “Or we going to keep going until you crack anyway?”
“Wait,” Hernan pursed his lips, “Aren’t there devils on this planet? Like, not real ones, but that’s what they’re called. I think we were ordered to steer clear of them. Something about political entanglements. Do you think that’s why the boss left without investigating the death?”
His partner rolled his eyes. “What, are you saying you want to quit now? Kind of too late, don’t you think?”
“Now that you’ve blown a hole through him?” He grunted. “I mean, yeah.”
Martyr heaved a sound of frustration and slammed the handle of the gun into Nate’s face, on the side he’d yet to touch. “Name.”
“No.” Nate’s stomach twisted in knots, and he waited for the all-consuming guilt over what him refusing to give up Kaz meant for his friends and family. Only, while he did feel guilty, he was surprisingly unrepentant.
“Does your boyfriend really deserve this kind of loyalty?” Hernan asked, and since he’d know, Nate told the truth.
“No,” he confirmed. “He really doesn’t. My boyfriend is an asshole.”
“Then why not just give us his name? We’ll take care of him for you.”
“I said he was an asshole,” he reiterated. “I didn’t say I wasn’t into that sort of thing.”
“Well, that’s just messed up.”
“Yeah,” he nodded. “There’s something seriously wrong with my psyche, that’s for certain.”
“What’s for certain is I’m about to give you a matching wound,” Martyr stated angrily. “What’s your boyfriend’s name? If you don’t tell me this time, I really will shoot you again, and then we’ll be moving onto your arms. Did you know you can survive getting shot by a blaster there? At least for a while, until you bleed out. We’ve got at least an hour, is what I’m saying.”
“Come on, kid,” Hernan motioned at him with his hand. “What’s your boyfriend’s name?”
Nate opened his mouth to refuse again, hoping they couldn’t tell how scared he actually was, but before he could, another voice echoed through the empty hallway at the Mendax’s back.
“You should have waited until I arrived.” Zane stepped in when Hernan moved to the side, eyes immediately taking in the scene. His expression was empty, gaze barely lingering on Nate’s before he slipped a crystal blade from a hidden sheath at his back and offered the handle to Martyr.
Nate frowned. The blade was the same as the one Kazimir had always carried around. Did they…have matching knives, or had Kaz given it to him?
If not for the pain he was in, he probably would have laughed. How ridiculous of him, to be concerned over something like this while he was currently tied up and bleeding out.
“Here,” Zane directed. “Use this instead. It’ll slice through flesh without causing too much blood. You could dice him up for hours this way. Using a blaster is just crude.”
