“We already know who it is,” she tells him.
“Fine,” he shouts when she slowly raises the knife to his chest. “It’s Brent, Carl Brent.”
“Good,” Eian murmurs. “Now tell us what the new auction website is. We know you shut down the previous one.”
“Man, I don’t know.” Weird, I actually believe him. “Brent has some super hacker dude in charge of that. I’ve never even met him.”
“Then what is it you bring to this enterprise?” Eian’s tone is mocking. His hand twitches, his fingers curling and uncurling three times, so I know he’s losing his patience. “What do you do, Cotroni?” He grips the man’s jaw tight, and Cotroni grunts.
“Just tell them,” Lucian says, defeated. But that’s an interesting reaction, and I’m not the only one who catches it.
“I make sure the merchandise—no, stop!” Cotroni shouts, horrified when Rory slices a clean line down the middle of Lucian's torso. The thin red line takes a moment to appear, and it’s obviously a shallow wound. “I make sure no one runs away or causes any trouble,” Cotroni hurries to answer when Lucian’s breathing speeds up and he lets out a string of curses through gritted teeth.
And now they have these two morons by the balls—even more than they already did. They obviously care about each other. The psychological torture of seeing each other in pain might be worse than their own pain, and so now I know we’ll get all the answers we need. And they better not involve the word “merchandise” anymore, because clearly Rory hates it as much as I do.
I’m genuinely wondering now if these two are in love or if they’re just the best of friends in the whole wide world? I mean, they’re evil, that’s not in question.
“Thank you,” Eian says, as mild-mannered as if a waiter just brought him his preferred drink or something. Then he reaches into the tiny pocket of his vest and slides golden brass knuckles onto his fingers and points at Lucian. “Nowyou’re going to answer, but you won’t be able to see what I do to him if you lie again.”
With that, he walks around Cotroni.
“I’ll ask you again, what do you do for Brent?”
“I smuggle all the people into the city.”
“Really?” Eian asks. “That’s all you do?” Clearly he doesn’t believe that.
“My men...” He hesitates, and I have to smirk when I realize he’s looking for a word that won’t piss Rory off. “Kidnap the people when they go get our regular merchandise.”
The tilt of Rory’s head reminds me of a cobra when it’s about to strike.
“So you’re in charge of everything before they’re sold,” Eian concludes.
“Yes,” Lucian says, and breathes easier when Eian moves to stand behind him. “And where can we find all the information about the clients? About the new site for auctions?”
“Brent has that, he—” Lucian stops himself to lick his lips nervously, but that’s enough for Eian.
He slides back to Cotroni and punches him right in the kidney, then again.
“Fuck,” Cotroni screams, and swings from the force of the blows.
“He has a secret room in his basement!” Lucian shouts now too. “We always meet him there. Any information about the auctions has to be in there.”
“Was that so hard?” Rory taunts. Cotroni’s still groaning, and Lucian’s worried frown finally gets me to move.
“Now you’re going to tell Rory exactly how we can get into that basement, and quickly.”
“Sure, whatever,” Lucian mumbles, like he doesn’t even care, like he—I can’t stay back anymore.
“You’ve been sellingpeople! For years! To be raped and tortured and god knows what else, but a few blows to this fucker’s kidneys and you turn into a snitch?” I take only two steps closer because the sight of his wounds—while satisfying—isn’t something I particularly enjoy. “Whatever they do to you, it won’t be near enough what you deserve.” I spit the words out and hope they see how happy that makes me when I look them in the eyes.
Then I turn on my heels and don’t stop until I’m once more on the surface, in the gardens, able to breathe in clean air and look up at the gray sky.
“Are you okay?” Eian’s voice makes me jump and spin quickly to look at him.
He looks nothing like he did down there, his brows pinched with worry, his mouth softer somehow.
I don’t know how he manages that change so quickly, but it feels nice. I can’t deny that. It feels like maybe he really does love me as much as he said he does.
