Her laughter cuts off completely as the door closes behind us. I peer up at Aven.
“Soundproofing,” he says.
“And thelittle friendshe spoke of? Does she mean Desmond?”
“Not yet, lass, but soon. That’s what we’re preparing you for.”
“We?”
He huffs and urges me forward. “You know, if you stopped asking questions and started walking, you’d have all the answers you need.”
Okay, fair. I hurry toward the metal door at the end of the hall. Excitement pings within me, and I’m a bundle of anticipation as I wait for him to use his key card to let us inside. His muscles tense as he grunts and swings the slab of metal open, revealing a square concrete room. A single bulb hangs from the ceiling, right above an empty wooden chair with leather straps on the arms and legs. Weaponry and tools of all kinds line the back wall.
King and Jim stand beside another door built into the right wall. As we enter, they give us a wave and come closer.
“Ready to practice your interrogation techniques?” King asks.
I smile up at Aven. “Really? You set this up for me?”
“Isure did,” Jim says. “Had the team work through the night to build this room just for you.”
“Well, it was my idea,” Aven says.
“And my capital,” Jim adds with a raised finger.
King looks between them. “Yes, you both did a bang-up job. You can yank your dicks over it later. For now, the young lady needs to meet her victim.”
“Ah, yes,” Jim says. “Gary, bring him in!”
The door behind them opens, and Gary leads a man by a metal collar fastened to his neck. When the man sees the chair, he balks, but Gary gives the chain a sharp yank and pulls him forward.
“I think you should start with his teeth, same as those lemurs he abused,” Gary says as he shoves the man into the chair.
Jim laughs and rocks on his heels. “Gary, is someone getting a little taste for blood?”
Gary’s eyes widen, and his jowls quiver as he shakes his head. “Not me, boss. I still don’t have the stomach for it. This asshole needs to pay, though.”
“This is Brickle,” Aven says to me. “He’s the jackoff we were talking about before. Think you can get him to tell us where those lemurs are?”
I look at the weapons against the far wall. “Yeah, I think I can.”
“That’s my cue to exit stage left,” Gary says with a laugh. He hurries out of the room before I get started.
All eyes turn to me, including Brickle’s. His lips haven’t been glued or sewn shut, yet he remains silent and stoic. He tries to intimidate me with his glare, and I hate to admit it’s kind of working.
“I like it better when they’re scared,” I mutter.
King steps behind me and places his hands on my shoulders. With a firm but gentle touch, he guides me a step closer. “Look at him. Not at what he wants you to see, but at what he’s trying to hide. He wants to appear unbothered, but see how his hands grip the chair?”
Brickle’s fingers relax, but not before I notice what King wanted me to see. He was clinging to that wood with everything he had.
“It’s an act,” King continues. “When you corner a spider, it may rear back and display its fangs, but that’s not because it’s brave. It knows the boot is coming, dear girl. It’s sore afraid.”
I look again, and he’s right. The unbroken eye contact is this man’s attempt to seem unbothered, but it’s so intense that it can’t be real. He doesn’t scream or plead, but his eyes aren’t theeyes of an unaffected man. There’s fear there, even if it’s buried beneath a whole lot of posturing.
I nod and step out of King’s hold as I inch closer to Brickle. Gary strapped his ankles to the thick legs underneath the chair, so I have no fear of a kick as I kneel in front of him and look up.
“Where did you put them, Brickle?” I ask. “This doesn’t have to be difficult.”
