Page 106 of The Devil

I’m understanding more and more who he is.

What this is.

My father. He raped my mother.

“They’re here,” a soldier says.

“About time,” Senna says, checking his watch. “I have a damn flight to catch.”

“I’m certain Master Robertson would appreciate a bit more respect, considering we took care of your Blackstone problem,” Jameson says.

Senna’s jaw tightens. His eyes narrow. But then he grins a wicked grin. “What is the expression? I scratch your back you scratch mine?”

Jameson’s grin matches Senna’s and for a moment I wonder if either of them possesses a heart. A soul.

“Bind her,” Jameson orders the soldiers whose grips are bruising as I struggle against them.

“Let me go!” I demand as I’m marched to the very center of the room, to that chain bolted to the floor. I hear the sound of it dragged across the stones and feel the weight of it as it’s hooked to the ring at the back of my choker.

Jameson follows, calm as he was when he was showing me to my room, telling me the history of the castle, quietly watching.

I’m forced to kneel and it’s useless to fight them. They’re much stronger than me and there’s only one of me and so many of them.

“Let me go you fucking bastards!” I shout and the instant I do, Jameson slaps me hard, creating a matching handprint to the one he left on my other cheek. He grips a handful of my hair that’s come undone throughout this insanity and forces my head painfully backward.

“You will quiet your wicked tongue, or I will cut it out. Do you understand?” he asks as my vision dances. When I don’t answer, he asks it again, punctuating with a firm tug of my head.

I have no doubt he would. Like a coward, I try to nod, make some sound of acquiescence, and when I do, he releases me with a shove, and I barely catch myself before hitting the stone face-first. The look on his face is one of utter disgust. He steps away, looking down at me as I sit on my heels on the icy stone floor and look up at him, and beyond him, those portraits of all the women who have come before me, my face throbbing, my lip swelling from Jameson’s slap, the tang of copper in my mouth.

“Finally,” Jameson says, tugging a wrinkle out of his sleeve. “We are ready to begin the ceremony.”

36

JET

“How the hell did you find us?” I ask Cassian as we stand inside the cabin watching the rickety old boat finally take in too much water and disappear beneath the dark waves. It’s as if it had never existed at all. The captain’s body was on board. That of the woman I hauled onto the ship with us. I doubt she signed up to be sacrificed like she was.

“Tracked Malcom’s phone. He switched his location on at some point.”

“Clever. Have you heard from him?” I ask, remembering what Senna said. You killed two of ours. You’ve been repaid in kind.

Cassian turns to me and gives a shake of his head.

I nod gravely, my jaw clenched tight. So, he’s one of the two they killed. Well, I hope they’re fucking ready for me because I will wipe out a dozen of them to avenge him. And that’s just for starters.

“How did you find us here? Out on the water.”

“Something one of the guards they left half-alive said. I know your past, at least enough of it to start to piece the puzzle together. From there, learning where their headquarters was wasn’t too hard. Your phones came back online a little while ago. Bribed one of the crew from this boat and, well, here we are.”

“And the rest of the crew?”

“They’re where they were going to dump you.”

Bottom of the sea. Good.

Sev comes up the stairs in fresh clothes. He’s carrying a second set including boots for me. He’s wearing his usual scowl whenever he’s around Cassian. Well, to be fair, whenever he’s around most people. It’s comforting, actually.

I’m about to open my mouth to say something about it when I hear something so unexpected it takes me a minute to make senses of it because it’s so very out of place.