Was he sitting here? Doing what?
I lean on the sill and look out. The gardens are lit below, a view I rarely appreciate. My gaze sweeps across the estate until it lands directly in line with this window… the black steel door to the basement.
My throat tightens with a flicker of fear. Did he see Ray and me go down there? No… no, surely not. But what else would he have been doing? He was here long enough to drag that stool over. Was he sitting here theentiretime I was gone?
So, where the fuck is he now?
My eyes widen. No… Kit wouldn’t be stupid enough to go down there. He wouldn’t even be able to get in; you need a key. Still, I slam the window shut and rush back out.
I meet Ray on the stairs; he was probably heading to his room on the second floor for the night.
Ray frowns the second he sees my face. “What’s wrong?”
“With me,” I say sharply.
He nods without question and follows. We head straight back outside. The night air feels colder than it did before, maybe it’s just the dread. The fear that Kit somehow figured out his own birthday is the code to those cell doors.
A few minutes later we reach the steel door again.
Ray frowns. “We’re going back down? Did we forget something?”
I inhale sharply. “Kit was watching us.”
Ray’s eyes go wide, before he points at the door. “And you think… he’s downthere?”
I run a hand down my face. “Fuck knows.”
I unlock the door and we jog down the stairs.
Ray mutters behind me, “How would he even get down here?”
I storm down the long corridor, eyes scanning every door. Just as I feared, the Vanderburn cell window is no longer blacked out. Someone’s inside.
Ray notices my hesitation and steps forward, looking through the small, reinforced window. He lets out a disbelieving laugh. “Yep… there he is.”
I growl low. “Fuck.”
I’m about to push the door open when Ray holds up a hand. “Wait, boss.”
I stop, watching as Ray taps the screen beside the door, connecting to the internal audio. The thick soundproofing means this is the only way to hear what’s happening inside without entering.
Kit’s voice comes through, quiet, taunting, and carrying a new kind of steel I’ve never heard from him before. “No, no…first, let me tell you what your brother did to me.Thenwe’ll decide if you should leave this room.”
Ray raises his brow at me. I look through the small window at Kit, unsure whether I’m proud… or pissed.
Ray says quietly, “Let him have his moment, boss.”
I nod slowly, jaw tight. But I already know I’m not going to like whatever Kit is about to tell the brothers.
Kit’s voice comes through the speaker again, quiet and sad, but laced with trembling anger. “He never let me leave the chair.”
He pauses, breathing shakily. “Ninety percent of the time I was tied up with ropes,sotight,I couldn’t feel my hands after a while. And he’d just disappear for hours, sometimes half the day.”
Another pause. His voice grows quieter. “I’d justsitthere in the dark… rocking with the waves. Not knowing if he was ever coming back… or if I was just going to die out there alone.”
He pauses before continuing, his voice cracking slightly. “When hedidcome back… he always had demands. Or he’d bring drugs.”
A bitter, broken little laugh escapes him. “Orhe’d just want to hurt me.”
