Wires and tubes ripped from my body as Andrew kicked the machine monitoring me. He drew in a breath, running a hand through his hair. “Fucking piece of shit you are. I should’ve killed you that day alongside your men, but then you’d be celebrated in honor, and scum like you deserve far less.”
“Should’ve,” I chuckled, fixating on the crack I’d carved in his near-impenetrable walls. “But you didn’t. So tell me, Andrew. Who’s really thepatheticone here?”
If I could get him to focus on me, then his hunger for inflicting pain would undoubtedly shift—away from Oren.
“I’m not pathetic,” he laughed, but it was void of its normal menacing undertone. “I assumed you’d climbed the ranks as a commander toobey, but it seems your tongue is rather loose these days. If my son’s presence is becoming aproblem, it’s best to remove it totally,permanently,to put you back in line.”
“Careful, Andrew,” I crooned, subtly trying to slip one of my hands through the restraints confining me. “You’re starting to sound a little manic, like I strummed a nerve a little too hard. Tell me. Why’re you so against your son being gay when you were the one taking dick at?—”
Andrew lunged; that calm disposition was gone. He’d engaged in rage before, but this? This solidified that I was poking at an old, unhealed wound. His hand wrapped around my throat, and there was no mercy in his eyes. Eyes I defiantly stared into as his grip tightened beyond mercy.
He wanted me dead, his body language saying it all in the way he screamed, spit flying as he choked me beyond anything he’d done before. “You. Are.Trash.” His laughter was deranged. “Me? Hit a nerve?Fuckyou!”
The strength he used made speaking impossible, but it didn’t stop me from grinning. My face warmed, blood frantically trying to make its way to my brain, only to be stopped by the blockage Andrew had created. The pressure in my head increased tenfold, my lids fluttering slightly as oxygen failed to fill me.
Checkmate, bitch.
If this was how I died, strangled by my superior in the medical wing of this hellhole, then so fucking be it. I didn’t give a damn about the nuances anymore. All I cared about was that, after a decade of kneeling at his feet, I’dfinallyuncovered what haunted Andrew Valens—his own insecurities.
“Sir,” a voice rose above the noise.
He didn’t pay any attention as one of the guards from the door entered. He was too gone, rage consuming him because I’ddoneit. Made the great General Valens crack beneath my words.
“Sir!” The man yanked on his arm, and on instinct, Andrew shoved him away, but the hold around my neck was gone.
My lungs filled with air, an uncontrolled cough escaping me as breathing became an option once again. Chest heaving, I fumbled to gather my bearings, my innards burning with the sudden influx. With each wheeze, I slowly slipped from the edge of unconsciousness he’d forced me to.
“Sir,” he reported quickly, hoping to ease the fury beneath General Valens’ stare. “Matthew’s currently with Oren.”
“Then fucking stab them both!” he yelled, shoving himself from my bed. “I gave you a command, and you do whatever it takes tocompletethat order.”
His walls were crumbling because, whether he wanted to admit it or not, things weren’t going according to his plan. His pillar, hiscastle,had its first crack.
Laughter, unfiltered and manic, escaped me. Shaking my head, the first genuine smile crossed my face in years as my rasped taunt slithered from my lips. “Uh-oh,General.Whatever will you do?”
Seething was an understatement for the expression on his face. He was bright red, a color I’dneverseen the man wear before as he plowed to the door. “Fine. If you fuckers can’t get shit done,I’lldo it.”
He grabbed the guard by the collar, tossing him further into the room. “He moves, I shoot Matthew. He so much asbreathesincorrectly, Oren will have more than one scar and a fucked up knee for the rest of his life.”
Scoffing, I licked my lips. “Running away as you’ve done your entire life? Figures,Valens.”
“No,” he answered. “I’m runningexactlytoward the source of your heart, and I’ll personally make sure this time it bursts.”
Hours.It felt like I’d been in that room for hours, waiting for word on whatever the fuck was going on in the world beyond.
I’d been holed up before, but in a place far darker—a place buried beneath the pristine mirage Andrew had created. The dungeons beneath us were another world, a realm that’d been coated in my blood, sweat, and piss far more times than I cared to admit. Its cement casing contained the sharp pitches of my screams and cradled the sobs that man had robbed me of.
At least here I had a bed.
I glanced at the soldier who’d remained obediently positioned at the door since Andrew left. “Damn. He’s got you ten inches deep, doesn’t he?”
He ignored me, staring out the window.
“Does he at least fuck you well? I mean, hell, he must know what he’s doing in the bedroom for you all to drop to your knees and kiss his feet, no matter how much shit he trudges through.”
The guard smirked. “You’d know, wouldn’t you? How many times hashefucked you to make you complicit? Bet you’ve kissed his boots to save one of your punk-ass friends.”
The corners of my mouth curled as I crooned, “I’ve never had thepleasureof getting to know his little pecker. The man prefers blood and bruises over lube when it comes to me. Though I hope he’s been able to stimulate your prostate and give you the ego boost you so desperately need. Nothing like being called agood boy, right?”
