Page 62 of Ricochet
I started laughing, the sound echoing around the room. “And I will tell you again, none of your business.”
Another hit to my cheek, then he pulled my head back into the position, holding my hair.
“We can do this easy way, or the hard way. It’s your choice.”
I spat at him. My blood mixed with saliva decorated his face, trickling down his cheeks. He grabbed my throat, squeezing harder than Tristan did, and I started gasping for air.
Show me your fucked-up, baby. Show me how far you could go.
“Hard way it is then.” Black dots danced in front of my eyes, yet I could clearly hear the clinking sound of a knife hitting the ground. So, no more knife party? Such a shame.
“I… will,” I wheezed, “enjoy this.”
He ignored me, spreading the blood from my cheek, over my lips, a faraway look in his eyes.
“Heat up the iron, Cillian.”
“K—”
“Now, Kill.”
The noise in the background was completely lost to me, as he twisted the middle finger on my right hand, pulling it into an unnatural position. The bone cracked, the ligaments tearing, my stomach roiled, the urge to puke strong as he pulled the bone from its natural position.
I bit on my lip, refusing to scream for him.
“Answer the question, Ophelia.” He let go of my neck, only to pull me closer to his face. “You look beautiful in red. Maybe we can put you in a red dress when we send your body to your father.”
“I look beautiful in everything. Too bad it wasn’t enough for you.”
This time, a fist connected with the right side of my face, and a buzzing sound started in my head. My ears were ringing, my head was pounding, and my eyes couldn’t focus on his face anymore. This would be a headache from hell, if I managed to survive this night.
“Where is your father hiding, Ophelia?”
I had a feeling I was under water, drowning, sinking… Another hit.
“What is Project X?”
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Something hot pressed against my collarbone, and a scream tore from me, my skin burning under the pressure.
“Where have you been all these years?”
A tiny moment of relief flooded through me, as he removed the scorching iron, only for it to get pressed into the other side, pulling another scream from me.
“You can burn in Hell, Kieran,” I gritted through my teeth, and the pressure of the iron increased, his full body weight pressing down on me. It felt as if my shoulder would fall off next, or the iron would exit on the other side. My, my, they wanted to know everything about Syndicate. Color me surprised, but I thought that Theo already shared everything there was to know about our family. I guess Papa didn’t really trust him, and it was probably driving Theo mad.
“We are already in hell, baby girl. You put us here.” He removed the iron, throwing it to the floor. “You made us this way, and now you gotta pay the price.”
“You have no idea what hell really is, Kieran. You have no idea how it feels like to be ripped from the inside and stitched back together. You walk around with your woe-is-me attitude, but the only real pain you ever experienced was Ava’s death.”
“Don’t you dare mention her name.” He pressed into the wound on my hand, and my eyebrows scrunched in pain.
“Why, K? Is it because you failed her? How did it feel seeing her lifeless body there, huh? How did it feel being ripped apart by your biggest fear? The loss of somebody you love, somebody you wanted to spare from this world. I would also want to kill every person that ever hurt my sister.”
He flinched at my words, confusion and a flicker of fear painting his face. That’s right K, I would kill every single person that laid a single finger on Maya. That was one of the rare things we had in common.
“I won’t ask you again.” He stood up, masking all of his emotions. “Where is your father?”
