Page 11 of Bound By Blood and Lies

“For fuck’s sake,” Riggs mutters, pushing off the wall. “Not again with this fucking song.”

“It gives me the creeps,” Victor says flatly from where he stands near the steel counter.

“So you keep saying,” I mutter.

“Who tortures people to a love song?” Victor questions.

I don’t turn around, nor do I respond to his question. The answer is obvious to someone who understands contrast. I breathe in once before moving toward the body tied to the chair.

Quinn is still slumped forward. Her wrists and ankles are bound in leather restraints and her blonde hair falls over her face. The sedative I prepared was precise. Enough to transport her without a scene but not enough to cause harm. Felix stands to my right; his arms are folded across his chest and his jaw is locked so tight I can see the muscle feathering beneath his skin. Riggs leans against the far wall like he’s watching a football match instead of an interrogation. Victor’s gaze is clinical. Atlas watches everything with his laptop in front of him.

We are all here.

Because she is the reason Fae is gone.

Quinn stirs.

Her head lifts slowly and confusion clouds her features. I see disorientation flash through her eyes, then calculation as she takes in the concrete walls, the restraints, the five men standing in front of her. Then the fear follows and my eyes light up with glee. It flickers across her face like a shadow passing over sunlight. Then, astonishingly, it transforms. Her spine straightens as much as the restraints allow as her lips curve.

“You won’t hurt me,” she says with a steady but hoarse voice as her eyes find mine immediately. “You’ve never purposely hurt a woman in your life.”

My nostril flares as the room stills. Is this why she did it? Did she think there would be no repercussions? Behind me, I can sense the boys reacting in their own ways but I don’t take my eyes off her.

Riggs lets out a quiet whistle, “bold strategy to poke the bear, don’t you think?”

Victor chuckles as Quinn throws a spiteful glare in Riggs’ direction. Rage flares in my chest at her indignation. Like somehow, she is still above all this. I don’t plan the movement. I just step forward and backhand her across the face. It’s not at full force but enough to make it sting. The crack of skin-on-skin slices through Marvin’s chorus like a gunshot. Her head snaps to the side and the confidence fractures. A thin line of blood appears where her lip splits against her teeth.

“Jesus, Roman,” Atlas barks as he pushes off the wall.

“She’s the reason Fae is missing,” Felix says coldly. “She’s lucky that’s all he did.”

Quinn turns her face back toward me slowly. The smile is gone now.

“You’re making a mistake,” she says. “My father will hear about this. You’ll be in trouble.”

An inappropriate laugh bubbles out of me before I can stop it. The sound doesn’t belong in my chest but it pushes through anyway.

Trouble, she said, like she’s not in the gravest amount of trouble there is.

All of them turn to look at me as my laughter echoes off the chamber. The only person who has ever heard my laugh and not flinched is Fae. The thought slices clean through the amusement and whatever twisted humour had surfaced dies. I inhale slowly, forcing the laugh back down as I look at Quinn again, properly this time… not as a woman or a socialite or even as someone’s daughter hiding behind her father’s name. I look at her as avariable. She made a deliberate choice that resulted in Fae being taken from me. I know it deep in my bones. I’m still not sure why but at least I now know who is involved.

The slap still tingles faintly across my palm but there’s no regret inside me, no moral recoil even when I search for it. It didn’t feel wrong, it felt necessary. I have never hurt a woman like this before. Not because I couldn’t… but because I never needed to. I make my way towards the tray holding all our instruments before a hand presses against my shoulder and I cut a look at who is touching me.

Atlas gives me a sheepish smile as he nods towards Quinn.

“Roman,” he says carefully. “We can try talking first. You know, old-fashioned interrogation not new-fashioned torture.”

“We just need information; it doesn’t need to be messy,” Victor states.

I sigh and my body slumps as Victor folds his arms across his chest out the corner of my eye. They’re right, of course. This could go one of two ways and the longer she refuses to give us information, the longer Fae isn’t home. Turning, I angle my body to look at Quinn.

“Who took Fae?” Felix demands and I cut him another look to see he is still grinding his teeth. If he continues, he will be walking out of here needing a dentist appointment before the rescue mission.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Quinn lifts her chin and I see the stubbornness returning as she realises she’s relatively safefor now.

“Who contacted you?” I demand but she stares blankly at me.

“You lured her out,” Atlas says from behind me. “We have the CCTV of you meeting her.”