“Honor? Their deaths were purposeful, meant to serve in yourbreaking. Extorting weaknesses is what we do, and they are yours now. You forgot your reasoning on their backs, and total obedience requires the elimination of such…issueswith loyalty.”
Shock flooded my system, then pure, utter rage washed over me. “Y-You didn’t…” I breathed, my hands twitching with every desire to inflict harm, tokillthis son of a bitch. Reaching down to my utility belt, my fingers brushed the hilt of my preferred blade. “You vile…corrupt…piece of shit!”
“You pull that shit out, and Matthew dies,” he said, gripping the ends of my hair tighter. “If you want to bitch and whine, I suggest doing it to my son. Your failures made you the obedient dog Imoldedyou to be. In here, you speak only when you’re fucking told to, and you offer your services to accomplish what I need done. If you want a fucking pity party, find it elsewhere.”
“Fuck what you need done, Andrew?—”
“Valens,” he spat.
Articulating every syllable, a snide smirk crossed my lips.“Andrew.”
It earned me another fist, cracking my nose and splitting it, but it was worth the cost to see the fury flash across his normally stoic face.
“Do you want the details of your failures? How theyscreamedwhen my men murdered them in cold blood while you continued on with your duties?”
I drew my blade faster than I could stop myself, slashing it across his stomach with an anger that consumed my rationality. A line of blood bloomed, confirming my strike and sparking my satisfaction. Swinging again, I didn’t give a fuck about the repercussions. I’d kill him, or he’d have to kill me before he’deverset a fucking hand on Matthew.
Valens plucked a knife of his own from his waistline, rotating it with the ease of someone with years of combat experience. As I went to slash my blade across his skin once more, he rammed his into my shoulder, twisting it to maximize pain. “A stab wound won’t fucking kill me. Your pathetic display of emotions?Useless. A baseless threat that’s going to get one of your men killed. Who should?—”
“You’ll have to kill me,” I snarled, interrupting him once more. “You won’t touch another one of my men. If you have pain you wish to inflict, then use my body as your bag. But the moment, the fuckinginstantyou touch one of them, you won’t have a right hand anymore. And we both know how worthless you are withoutme,considering I practically run this base.”
He snarled, metal slicing through skin. “And we both know howworthlessyou are without your men. If you want to be killed, I won’t honor such anoblerequest,” he mocked. “You’re forgetting I have the influence, rank, and status.”
“But who’s the one who contacted me, Andrew? Who’s the one who requestedmyservices toaidin breaking your son? Because last I checked, that pitiful phone call marked your failure as a father. Youneedme, and if you didn’t, you would’ve never requested my fucking help. Fuck your influence. Fuck your rank. And fuck your status. Without those medals on your chest, you arenobody.Just a poor excuse for a father and a man incapable of saving his own wife.You’re the worthless one.”
He laughed, shaking his head. “You think Icareshe died? You think I give a fuck about my son?”
“YES!” I screamed. “Yes, I fucking do! Because you have to have every line straight, every T crossed, and every fucking box checked. Your son is an anomaly, which impacts the respect your men have for you. If you didn’t fucking care, if you weren’t aninsecure cunt, thenhewouldn’t be here.”
“An insecurecunt?” he repeated, lifting me by the edge of the blade to meet his face. “The reason I need him fixed is to get him off my back. My menrespectme. Your men? They despise you. Hate the monster you’ve become at my hand because you can’t keep themalive. How many innocent souls have you murdered to aid me? To aid our cause?”
I swallowed the cry of anguish that nearly slid between my lips, allowing a near breathless laugh to replace it. “Respect you? Is that what you tell yourself?”
Snatching another knife from my waist, I drove it straight toward his neck, every desire to kill him clouding my knowledge of awaiting consequences. The light trickling in from the windows glinted against the blade, and just before it could make contact, he grabbed my wrist.
He bent it back, the crack of bone unmistakable as he tossed the blade to the far side behind his desk. “Pathetic. Everything you do is surface-level. You’ve earned your title as Commander, but this shit? This moronic display you’ve come into my office with? You’re worse than my son.”
He craned his neck before slamming me into his desk, hauling me over it far too easily. His knee crashed into my stomach, no pauses granted as he continued an onslaught with his words, too.
“I can overlook yourfuckingneed for praise, but even if you don’t respect me, you’ll listen to me. I can do far worse than sending Matthew to Iraq. You’ve seen me kill men, and his torture?Double.”
“F-Fuck you,” I wheezed, spots lining my vision. “You’ll have to break me all over again before I… obey. You have brainwashed me for too long… T-Too incoherent to anything other than your rhetoric for years…”
“Again.” He grinned. “I’ve broken you once before; I can do it again. I know your weaknesses, the nightmares you keep at bay while you drown yourself in liquor to subdue them. Why do you think I handed youmyson to break? Did you think it was only to subdue him?” He laughed as he tossed me into his chair, my back cracking at the force. “You’re breaking yourself all over again.”
He walked away, boots slapping against the floor as he opened the cabinet to various bottles of liquor. The sound of glass clinking echoed, a bottle of Jameson resting in his hand. He twisted the cap off and took a swig.
“You’ve forgotten your place. You take my orders, and youmakethem work. If I asked for the fucking sun, you would give it to me. No questions. No remarks.Order,” he said as he stepped closer, his hand twisting the chair until we were facing each other.
Narrowing my gaze, I spoke through broken pants, “And what if this is my fucking resignation?”
“Youcan’tresign, otherwise all this shit? It falls onyou. A drunk, worthless piece of shit I had no idea infiltrated our pristine base.”
“Blackmailing?” I laughed weakly, far weaker than I wished. “Blaming me for the polluted platoons you lead? You really are desperate, aren’t you,Andrew? It’s ironic?—”
Before I could spew another word, his fingers dug into my cheeks, prying my mouth open as the bottle was stuffed inside. He tilted my head back and pressed his knee into my stomach to hold me against the chair. Once positioned, his thumb and pointer finger snuffed my breath, and I was held relentlessly to the fate of choking on liquor.
Panic bloomed in my chest as I thrashed against him, struggling to battle his strength with my own. My fingers clawed desperately for air, attempting to rake away at any open patch of skin I could find. Driving my heels back into the ground, I tried to free myself from his hold, but every movement was inherently useless. The first drop of liquor ignited the back of my throat, and I did everything I could to hold my breath, knowing that once I caved, its vile influence would taint another part of me—my lungs.
