She wails in pain, making my heart pinch.On instinct, I stand, preparing to offer her comfort.
Jabali extends his arm to halt my steps. “Don’t.”
That single word, delivered with venom and menace, stops me cold.
I didn’t know evil could be conveyed by sound alone.Fear, in its most primal form, pierces the armor I worked so hard to surround myself in.
My legs tremble, and I lower to the couch. I’m a shell of the woman I was when I stood just seconds ago.
All my bravery vanishes so rapidly, my lungs seize until I force them to expand.
From the floor, Kenzie flicks pleading eyes my way. Mascara streaks down her puffy red cheeks. The skin around one eye is badly swollen. Red swirls from a broken blood vessel have tinged the white surrounding her brown iris.
Reed doesn’t react outwardly. He remains stoic and steady. Either his fury at his sister has rendered him unable to care about her condition, or he’s putting on a brave front.
After Kenzie manages to struggle to her feet, she takes the seat on the other side of Reed.
“Thanks for joining us,” Jabali mocks her through a sneer.
She bares her teeth at him. “Like I had a choice, you fucking asshole!”
“You want the other eye to match?” he taunts in a barbed wire tone.
Kenzie curls in on herself.
Our captor drags over a barstool, setting it about five feet in front of the couch. He climbs on it, facing the three of us.
The scene reminds me of a library story time.
For the first time, he’s physically higher than us. If he had taken a regular chair, he’d still be below us, where he belongs. The humor of that thought begins melting a layer of frozen fear.
I find the courage to address him. “Well, we’re here like you wanted. Now what?”
Kenzie laughs darkly. “As if he knows. The idiot hasn’t had a plan all day.”
“And whose fault is that?” he roars at her, eyes flashing wild. “If you had done what you promised, none of this would have happened. But you failed me. Turns out, Lila isn’t your puppet like you thought, huh?”
Unable to bite my tongue, I whip my head toward Kenzie and snarl. “What did you promise him?”
Carcass throws his head back with murderous laughter. While chuckling like a madman, he tucks his knife into a holster and swaps it for the handgun.
In the next breath, he turns deathly serious. “Go ahead. Tell her.” He points the gun at Kenzie to emphasize his order.
Her eyes fall to the floor, and she mumbles, “I promised I’d get you away from Reed and bring you here so we could find out what you told the FBI.”
Ire coats my throat, making my next question come out scratchy. “Why would you do that?”
Enraged, she screeches her defense. “I was trying to save you from making a stupid mistake and ruining everything. You stopped taking my calls, so I didn’t know what was happening. I figured if I brought you to Carnage, we could work out a plan to fix whatever you fucked up. Together.”
“Together?” I parrot, my volume spiking. “You thought I would want to work together with a murderer. Seriously, Kenzie? For what possible reason?”
“In case you forgot, the plan was for you to get info fromhim.” She tips her head toward her brother. “Not the other way around.”
Clearly enjoying the show, Jabali saws out a wicked, brittle laugh.
Despite the goosebumps it gives me, I ignore it. “And in caseyouforgot, the goal of theplanwas to find a way to turn him in to the cops without allowing him to use whatever evidence he had of me marking cards. Because I was an innocent victim, same as you. Or so I thought.” My spine stiffens with indignation, and my nostrils flare. “But you weren’t innocent, were you?”
When she doesn’t deny it, my stomach clinches around a thorny ball. “Was any of it real, Kenzie? Did he even kidnap you to begin with?”
