“Come on, Declan,” Austin says as he slaps me in the face. “You got more in you, right?”
I lean away from him as much as I can, but he’s still in contact with my skin. “As much as you can give me.”
Austin smirks, but it’s sharp enough to cut me in two. “We’ll see.” He takes the pliers and walks behind me. I swallow roughly, trying to prepare myself for the agony, but can I really be prepared? He grips my nail with the end of the pliers, wiggling it from its bed.
“Fuuuuuuck!” I cry out as he yanks the nail from the bed. It’s something so small, so simple, but the pain is excruciating.
Austin laughs behind me, dropping the piece of nail onto my lap. “I can do this all day.”
I allow myself a soft sob before I look up at him, hoping to incinerate him with my gaze. “That’s all…you got? I…iced…your pops. You’d think…you had… something… more… painful.”
Talking hurts. My face hurts, my tongue feels dry andheavy and my head throbs. But I can’t give up. I can’t give him the satisfaction of knowing he broke me.
“Oh, I have more,” he says, standing in front of me with his arms crossed. “You know, you’re not as smart as you think you are. You almost had that thief Jadon put down when all he had was sticky fingers. He was a real whiny bitch when he was faced with death.”
I scoff, remembering the day in my office differently. Jadon was scared, but he wasn’t whiny. I don’t think he took my threat of death seriously. He was?—
It hits me suddenly and I look up at Austin as if I’m seeing him for the first time. “It was…you,” I grunt. “You…killed Jadon…and his…family.”
Austin smiles widely, but his eyes are blank and uncaring. “It would have just been him, but his bitch and spawn were home. No witnesses, right?”
Wrong.
I might kill a man or woman, but never a child. Even if they wanted to come back and seek revenge, that would be the price I had to pay. It’s against my family’s code to kill kids.
Mustering as much derision as I can, I spit, “You’re a…piece of shit. If your…pops still had his…brain intact, he’d be…disappointed.”
He places his thick hand around my throat, squeezing hard. My eyes bug out as I try to pull in a breath, but his hold is too strong. I meet his gaze, staring him down as he chokes the life out of me. If I die, I want him to see I’m not afraid.
Just before I lose consciousness, he lets me go and I drag in greedy lungfuls of air. My coughing fit hurts my ribs—most of which are probably broken—but that can’t be helped.
“Keep going with your fucking smug bullshit, I’ll cut off the rest of the fingers on your left hand,” he snarls in my face.
With my last ounce of defiance, I cackle and slur, “Too bad for you… I’m ambidextrous.”
He grabs my face, squeezing my jaw so hard I see stars. “If I don’t have my money in twenty-four hours, I’ll cut every last fucking digit off. You won’t ruin anymore families.”
When he lets me go, I groan and lower my head, fighting back tears. “Maybe.”
“You killed my father because he didn’t want to follow you. You’re a fucking infant and we were forced to defer toyou? My father proved himself foryearsand what did that get us? You as our fucking boss.”
“That’s hierarchy…for ya.” Looking up at him, I say, “You’re…a whiny…bitch.”
His fist connects with my face and everything goes black.
The sound of a door slamming jars me into consciousness. I whimper as fresh agony overwhelms me.
Tears spill slowly down my face as I’m consumed with pain. My head is fuzzy, clouded. I can’t think. All I can do is feel. Feel the aches up and down every inch of my body.
Blood runs down my hand from my missing digit, the slowdrip, drip, dripplaying in my ear.
It hurts. Everything fucking hurts. From my scalp to the soles of my feet. I just want it to be over. If that means they kill me, so be it.
A sob catches in my chest. I don’t want to think this way. I’m supposed to fight. I’m supposed to want to get out of here so I can kill every motherfucker that hurt me. But…it hurts so much.
A voice echoes in my head, soft and deep, like Nico when he gives me pointers on my stance while sparring or talking me through my orgasm when he makes me explode.“Don’t give up, handsome. Fight a little longer.”
I hang on to the voice, knowing it’s only in my head, but it’s all I have.
