I’m a second away from wrenching the door open and storming in there to demand what the fuck is going on when Sawyer’s final words come back to me.
We might have to lie to him. Say some things to provoke a response. You trust us, right?
It’s a ruse. Sawyer knew Harold would never talk. He’d be all too aware this is the end of the line for him, he would have beenplanning to go out in a blaze of glory. This would be the only thing to give him pause.
I watch as Harold’s face breaks out into a delighted grin as he begins to chuckle.
“Oh my boy! My dear boy! I knew you could do it! Don’t you see? This changes everything! This will forfeit Amelie’s place and put a Knox in charge! My perfect boy, well done! You should have told me sooner, all of this drama could have been avoided.”
“Like Amelie being forced to kill Laura?” Kalen retorts and Harold pales. “She didn’t take it well, grandfather. I’m worried about the stress all this has put on the baby.”
“You must take the reins at once!” Harold cries. “She must be put on bed rest. If anything happens to that baby the whole plan will fall apart! All our hard work will have been for nothing!”
I know Kalen is lying to lead his grandfather on, but it still smarts that they’ve clearly had this conversation before. There was a plan in place, at least on Harold’s part. If he couldn’t control me, couldn’t get rid of me in the skin rings, and couldn’t knock me up, then what? Today’s attack would suggest he just wanted to wipe me out now.
“Imagine if you had sold her into the skin rings while pregnant, grandfather,” Sawyer chastises.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know. Thank God no harm came to her today – right? They’re both okay, aren’t they?”
“She’s in the medical wing. Your men came to kill, did they not?”
“I thought it was the end. I didn’t think there were any options left.”
“There are always options for us,” Onyx murmurs darkly.
“Do you really think we’d let you take over?” Slate asks. “That we’d place Kalen at the helm?—”
“Hey!” Kalen cries indignantly, sniffing like he’s hurt at the suggestion he would be a poor leader.
“You’re even more stupid than we thought.” Onyx sneers. “We’ve weeded out all of the traitors in the organisation, and they’ve all been interrogated or disposed of. Laura is dead. You have no connections and you can’t flee the country. The rings are days away from being shut down…there’s nothing left for you.”
Harold laughs. It’s the most terrifying sound I’ve ever heard, and it isn’t forced or fake at all. Tears stream down his face as he gasps for breath.
“You’ll never be able to shut down the rings or discover the extent of my corruption,” he brags, sending a feeling of dread right down to my toes. “My legacy will live on. I didn’t put all of my eggs in my son’s incompetent basket.”
And that’s the crux of it. We know nothing, and he isn’t going to tell us anything.
I pull out and text my last resort.
Pocketing the phone, I look up in time to see Onyx land the first punch, Harold’s head snapping to the side and blood spraying from his mouth.
Yeah, I don’t need to watch this.
I exit the room knowing Harold’s fate is sealed. He was never going to tell us anything worthwhile, and he’s too well trained to survive interrogation and torture tactics. Hell, he helped write the book on them. No, it’s time to hand him over to the master.
“All set?” His voice rings out along the well-lit, clinical corridor. Considering all that takes place down here, it’s surprisingly clean. I would’ve thought white was a poor decor choice, but I can’t see a spec of dirt – let alone blood – anywhere.
I nod to Baxter, loving the chilling, psychopath grin he gives me in return, before noticing he is being flanked by three gentlemen. Two of them I recognise.
“Who’s this?” I ask, nodding to indicate the stranger.
“The third.”
“Musketeer?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t mean to judge,” I say. “But he doesn’t look old enough.”
