“Inland Empire Foothills. Redwood Valley Psychiatric Annex.”
“You’ve been holding people, using them for your sick pleasure,” I grit out. The urge to dump the bottle is strong.
“I don’t hold people, Daniel does. I just provided the funds.” He shrugs.
“Where are they getting the people to condition?” Lucian asks in my ear.
I relay the question to Gideon.
“The Inland Empire has a lot of economically vulnerable families. Most teens who disappear are misclassified as runaways. Plus, the police underprioritize these cases, believing they run on their own.” Gideon replies.
“Sick fuck.” I hear Luca.
“They’re just kidnapping teens,” Isobel says, her voice hollow. The beast rages at the despair I hear in her voice.
“How is Daniel conditioning them?” I’m gritting my teeth so hard, I wouldn’t be surprised if my molars cracked.
His jaw works, and I already know I won’t like the answer. “The people that need to be eliminated, they’re forced to eliminate them, or they get punished.”
I hear Isobel gasp in my ear. I’ve heard enough.
I hold the bottle above him and turn it over.
Letting the sound of his screams feed my beast.
38 THE ANNEX
Since he walked out of that interrogation room, everything about him is different.
His chest was heaving; blood speckled up his forearms, veins bulging. Strands of hair stuck to his forehead with sweat. His eyes were empty. Like someone had flipped a switch and turned the lights off inside him.
He hasn’t said a word since.Part of me wants him to speak.I didn’t realize the toll it would take. The interrogation plays through my mind. When Jace started carving into him…I had to leave.
But I saw the end result. The change in Jace. A chill runs through my body.
“You okay?” Luca murmurs.
I give him a sideways glance. “Define okay.”
“I mean, you seem okay.”
I smirk. “Noah already claimed the nervous breakdown quota today.”
“It was not a breakdown.” Noah snaps without looking up. “It’s important that all devices are set back on the chargers after being used. So they aren’t dead when someone needs them.”
I pat his knee.
Luca snorts. “Yeah, and somehow he almost looks prettier than me. Life’s unfair.”
“How is it unfair that he’s almost prettier than you?” I scoff.
He gives me that grin. “No one can be as pretty as me. Well, except you.”
I smile and roll my eyes.
“We’re here,” Noah announces as the van slows to a stop.
Preston opens the backdoors to the van and we all file out. Dry, heated air hits my jaw, the dust making me want to sneeze. The tire tracks can be seen in the dirt access road. I turn. Bleached, decaying buildings surround the area.
