The shock of it flings my head sideways, whiplash-fast, so hard, the chair slams off-balance on the tile, both my feet scraping uselessly for purchase. There’s copper in my mouth, thick and instantaneous, and a spray of something hot and wet across my lip and down my chin—blood, definitely blood.
My ears are singing now, every nerve ending flaring with the shock, but the real pain is so sharp and bright it feels weirdly clean, like the split second before you actually start to cry.
I can’t even get a breath before Gabriel’s hand is fisted in my hair again, wrenching my head upright so I’m forced to look at him through the blur and the tears gathering in my eyes.
The hatred in his face is clinical, surgical. He could be taking apart a watch or a bug, something small and infinitely beneath him.
“We arenotblood,” he spits.
The knife presses in just enough to sting.
“Do not insult me like that.”
My chest is heaving now.
He leans closer.
“You are our father’s mistake,” he says quietly. “Don’t forget your place, Ayla.”
Something in me shrinks anyway, no matter how hard I try to keep my face blank.
He sees that too.
He releases my hair. He straightens and takes one step back, knife still in hand.
I can barely feel my fingers now. The rope has cut deep enough that my hands are starting to go numb behind the chair.
Gabriel looks at me like he’s recalibrating.
Then he says, “I don’t care how you get away from him to bring me information.”
My stomach drops all over again.
“I don’t care what you have to do, what lies you tell, or how suspicious it makes you.” His voice never rises. It doesn’t need to. “You figure it out.”
He nods once toward the bag on the floor.
“You got me something useful this time. Good. Next time, I want more.”
My throat feels tight. Dry.
He starts toward the door, then pauses. Looks back.
“And if you get too comfortable again,” he says, “I won’t hesitate to kill you.”
Emir moves after him, quieter, carrying the ledgers under one arm. At the door he glances back once.
Not long.
Just enough for me to catch it.
Pity.
I hate that more than everything else.
Then they’re gone. The door shuts. Silence drops over the apartment so fast it rings. I don’t move at first. Don’t breathe right.
Just listen.
