The next punch lands across his jaw, and laughter bubbles weakly through the pain.
I shouldn’t even be entertaining this, but I still remove my phone and call one of the men upstairs. He answers right away.
“Bring Sloane down here.”
“Khorosho.”
I end the call and slide the cell back into my pocket before turning to Eli again.
The tip of the knife drifts down his abdomen. “You’d better pray what you’re about to say is worth keeping you alive for.”
SLOANE
The second Kirill’s bodyguard told me he needed me in the basement, my mind went straight to the worst possibilities.
I know Eli is down there. What I don’t know is why Kirill wants me there too. Does he want me to hear something? See something?
Is Eli dead already? And if he is, do I even want to look at what’s left of him?
By the time one of Kirill’s men leads me down the hall and toward the basement stairs, my stomach is knotted so tight, I grow sick.
The second we start descending, a man screams from below. The sound booms up the concrete stairwell like something torn straight out of a nightmare, filled with pain so deep it makes the hairs on the back of my neck rise.
My steps falter, but the man ahead of me keeps going. Another scream follows as I take the next step, weaker this time.
Eli. It has to be him.
When we reach the bottom, the man pushes open a heavy door, and the smell hits me before anything else—thick and metallic, blood hanging in the air so heavily it makes me gag.
Then I see him.
My mind won’t make sense of it. The man chained up from the ceiling barely looks human, let alone like Eli. His body is covered in cuts and burns, skin torn open in places, and then my eyes drop lower and…
Oh my God. His feet are gone.
My knees almost give out at the sight, and before I can crumple, strong arms come around me from behind.
“I’m sorry I had to bring you here.” Kirill faces me, lips grazing my forehead, thumbs brushing over my cheeks. “But he had something to tell you.”
He draws to my side while I stare at Eli and wonder what else could possibly be left to say. I think he’s said enough.
Eli gradually lifts his head, his face so disfigured, I barely recognize him.
“You made it, Eden.” He coughs up blood as he attempts a laugh.
My hands begin to shake, but Kirill slips his into mine.
“What do you want, Eli?” I demand.
“You…you should know what happened to…” He fights for the words, blood slipping from the corner of his mouth before he forces the rest out. “…to your mother.”
I know what happened. I pushed her into the water, held her face under before Camille stopped me, and then left her there with my drowning mother.
“What about it? Is this another one of your games? Because that’s over now.”
Kirill’s grip tightens around me.
“No…no games.” He swallows hard. “You didn’t…didn’t kill her.”
