Tristan met my eyes with a cold, dead stare. “I’m not at fucking liberty to say.”
I exhaled quickly. “Then I’m not at liberty to let you fucking live.”
I lunged, hands wrapping around his throat, squeezing. His body convulsed, legs jerking against the chair’s restraints.
A firm grip yanked me back. “We need to keep him alive,” Lee growled, wrestling my hands away.
I ground my teeth, my gladiator instincts screaming to finish this. But I forced myself to step back, heeding Lee’s warning. “Fine,” I bit out. “Then I’ll beat your father’s name out of you.”
Tristan squirmed, trying to pull his knees up, but his bound ankles made it useless. “No! Please—spare me. I can’t tell you who he is.”
“Can’t or won’t?” I demanded, hand drawing back to slap him again.
His breath came in ragged gasps. “I can’t. I just can’t,” he wailed.
Coward.
Frustration churned in my gut. I glanced at Lee, then motioned for him and Jack to enter the corner.
Lowering my voice, I asked, “What are the rules for getting information out of someone?”
Lee crossed his arms, his expression unreadable. “We’ll need to have a long talk about that.” His gaze slid back to Tristan, assessing him. “But he might crack if we offer the right incentive.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
Jack leaned in slightly. “The same way we got him over here for dinner when Olivia was with us—we’d offer him food, and suddenly, his ‘hectic schedule’ would clear up.”
I stroked my jaw, considering. “I see. We need to bribe him.”
Turning back to Tristan, I stalked around him in circles. “How about this? Tell me who your father is, and I’ll allow you to time travel with me.”
Tristan eyes turned toward me but quickly looked away.
Was that interest—or fear?
I kept circling, my voice smooth, coaxing. “I’ll take you anywhere. A place of your choosing. You can disappear.” I swept my arm through the air as if painting endless possibilities before him. “Or maybe… you’d like to see Olivia again? Apologize?”
Tristan stuttered, his face paling.
No interest. Fear.
I stopped before him and seized his chin, forcing his gaze to mine.
“I’m offering you a way out, Tristan,” I murmured, my voice low, coaxing, the kind used to soothe a frightened child. “You can escape. Be free of your father. No more running, no more hiding. Just say the word, and I’ll take you anywhere.”
The washing machine shuddered to a stop, the silence pressing around us.
Tristan shivered in my grip, swallowing hard. Then, in a shaky whisper, he said, “If you hurt me, my father will kill you.”
Then, with conviction, he added, “He is a dangerous man.”
“Really?” I pressed harder against his jaw, my grip tightening. “Why would it matter if something happened to you? You just said your father doesn’t care about you. So why would he give a damn if you ended up dead in this basement?”
Lee, who had been hanging back, stepped in beside me. “Is your father a Timehunter?”
I released Tristan’s chin, watching as he flexed and stretched his jaw.
Olivia’s warning echoed in my mind. The Timehunters were going to come after us and kill us. But when had she said that? Was it real or from one of those strange nightmares that haunted my sleep?
