Page 53 of Scar Tissue

“I already crossed that line the moment you laid a hand on her,” I say. “So here’s how this is going to go. You call off your men. You let her walk out of this building. And then you can turn that phone on me and ask whatever questions you want.”

Fletcher sucks in a sharp breath beside me and I can sense the scolding he wants to give me burning at the surface of his skin.

“And if I refuse?” Harrison asks.

“Then you kill her,” I say evenly. “And I make sure the rest of your life is short, public, and unforgettable.”

Beats of silence pass between us before he speaks again. “Well, that explains it.”

“Explains what?” Fletcher snaps.

Harrison leverages his gaze on me. “Why she was so willing to suffer.” My blood turns to ice.

“She believes you’ll come,” he continues. “Belief like that is rare. Powerful. But the question is, are you worth it?”

Every rule I’ve ever been taught screams at me not to answer. I step forward anyway. “Yes.”

I already know Fletcher is furious with me, but he ought to understand this better than

anyone after what he went through to get Dylan back. Harrison’smen take me away, and Fletcher was actually free to go, but I have no doubt he’s going to have a tail on him from the moment he exits this building. Men like Harrison Clark don’t take to being threatened lightly. That’s why I knew he was bluffing about letting Thea go, but as they drag me into the room where she’s being kept, I find solace in the fact that I can keep a closer eye on her. I have no idea what will happen from here, but we sent her in here, the blame is on us alone, and I won’t let her suffer through whatever comes alone.

As they secure me to the chair across from her, I get my first good look at her. Her head is lolled forward, hair covering her face, and I see droplets of blood dripping onto the floor. Is she knocked out? What have they done to her? The only saving grace is that her clothes are still intact.For now, the voice inside my head says. Fear unlike I’ve ever known ricochets through my body as I realize what sort of things they could do to her to get the answers they seek from me. Then her head moves.

“N-Nathan?” she stutters as she looks at me through a black eye that has already formed and a cut on her eyebrow. That’s where the bleeding is coming from. Other than that, she seems to be in one piece.

“Thea, I’m?—”

“No talking!” one of the guard’s yells as he slams the butt of his gun into the back of my skull, causing my vision to blur as pain lances around my head. I catch the sound of a scream while I try to gather my bearings. Thea. She’s crying, begging them to just let us go, but her pleas fall on deaf ears.

The blow has left my ears ringing, but it also buys me something I wasn’t expecting. Time. Not much. Seconds, maybe. But Harrison has now entered the room and is watching our reactions, not just answers, and that means he’s slowed the pace to savor the control he desperately loves. Her crying has quieted into shallow, uneven breaths and I wonder briefly if they hit her, too. But I know at least she’s still conscious, still with me. I force myself to go still.

That’s the hardest part of this. Not fighting, not lunging, notgiving him the satisfaction of my rage. He feeds on emotion, desperation, on proof that he’s winning. “Easy,” he says mildly, as if I’m a horse that might spook. “This goes much better when everyone cooperates.”

“You want your answers,” I say. “Then you don’t touch her again.” He arches a brow. “You don’t set the terms here.”

“No,” I agree. “But youdowant information. And you won’t get it if she passes out or bleeds out.” I glance pointedly at the blood on the floor, calling out the lie that he doesn’t like violence. Just because he doesn’t get blood on his hands himself doesn’t make him any less responsible when the orders come from him. “You’re careful. You don’t waste assets.”

I can tell by the look he leverages my way that he doesn’t like being read. However, he offers some reprieve when he says, “Loosen her restraints, enough that she is comfortable, but not so she can get up and walk out.”

“Good,” I say quietly. “Now ask your questions.”

Thea turns her head toward me, fear bright and naked in her eyes. But beneath it, there is something else. Resolve. Trust. Despite the fact I’m the reason she’s here.

“Don’t,” she whispers. “Nathan, don’t?—”

I cut her off, voice hoarse. “I’ve got you; I won’t let him break you.” But the concern that lingers on her face isn’t for herself or the fact that she knows Harrison will make us pay withherblood, it’s for me. After everything she’s been through, she’s still putting others first.

I intend on showing her that she doesn’t have to be the shield anymore. That for once, she gets to be the one protected. That she can choose herself, and that this time, I will be the one who stands in front of the blade.

Chapter

Thirty

THEA

“You know, I thought something was familiar about you when we first met, Thea. At first, you could be any other girl I’ve taken under my wing.” The innuendo in his voice makes my stomach churn. “But then I realized two things.One: You’re much prettier than most girls I take in, which of course increased my interest in who you were. Andtwo: you have your brother’s eyes.” My blood runs cold then, breath locking, and my body goes deathly still. So he does know.

“His accident did cause a great deal of inconvenience. It was bad for business. My partner, Mr. West, is a high paying client and I couldn’t just let someone like him fall off the map for a simple mistake.”