Page 99 of After All The Wreckage

“Nemesis, here for retribution,” I replied.

He looked down at the object pressed to his neck and snorted, starting to pull away. “Is that a fucking flashlight?”

“Stun gun, asshole.” I pushed it harder into his skin. “Feel the nodes pressed against you. They’ll shoot a hundred thousand volts into your body. Enough to completely immobilize you. It’s a lot more painful than the television actors make it look. Hurts like a son of a bitch for days.”

He raised his left arm, fisting his hand as if to take a swing, and in a flash, Gage had twisted it behind Walden’s back. He grunted out in surprise and pain. He’d been so focused on me that he hadn’t seen the other, much more intimidating, body in the room.

I stepped forward to push the gun into him again. “Looks can be deceiving, don’t you agree? Take you for example. You look like a respectable CEO saving the world one rain cloud at a time, but instead, you’re just a murderer in a thousand-dollar suit.

“Me? I look like a sweet co-ed instead of La Femme Nikita, and this”—I pushed the barrel farther into his neck—“looks like a hapless flashlight, when it can almost stop your heart.”

Walden kicked out at me while trying to take a swing at Gage with his free arm. In response, Gage yanked the arm he held upuntil Walden’s shoulder was fully strained and his face contorted in pain. Even then, Walden didn’t stop fighting.

The two men stumbled backward into the room. The asshole got a jab into Gage’s side that made him grunt. But Walden had completely forgotten about me, and I moved with rapid succession, sweeping his legs out from under him and landing an elbow to his spine.

He crashed down, head bouncing into the dresser, and falling face-first on the blue-and-gold carpet. He’d barely groaned and reached for his temple by the time I was straddling his back, pulling his already strained arm backward and pushing the stun gun into his neck again.

“Grab the ties from my pocket,” I told Gage. When I risked looking at him, concern mingled with awe on his face.

He did as I asked, reaching in and grabbing the zip ties. Between the two of us, we moved the dazed and befuddled CEO to a straight-backed chair at the table in the corner. We tied his arms behind it and his ankles to the legs.

When I stepped away to look at him, I expected to see anger or even fear on his face, but instead, it held a strange calm that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

“I didn’t recognize you at first, Rory,” Walden said. The fact he knew who I was carved a little thread of worry through me, but not enough to stop what we were doing. “You’ve made a huge mistake.”

“I don’t think so. You’re the one who made a mistake.”

“West isn’t just going to let you walk away from this. He told you to back off.”

“As you weren’t at the conversation I had with him, I’m pretty sure you don’t know what he said. Maybe he’s where I got the information about how you murdered your own brother.” Walden didn’t react. “You have one chance to come clean before we turn you over to the cops.”

He scoffed. “For what? What exactly do you think you have on me?”

“Why don’t we play a round of twenty questions and you can tell me?” He just stared at me, and I stepped forward, pulling my pen-like stun gun from my pocket. I leaned into his face. “Did you know my mother was investigating Argento Skies?”

He didn’t respond, so I shoved the pen into his neck and hit the button.

His entire body convulsed as a grunt of pain escaped him.

“Jesus,” Gage said, looking at me with wide eyes.

“That little beauty was my backup, Shawn. She hurts, don’t you think? But not nearly as much as my friend here,” I waved my Vipertek at him. “So, I’ll ask you again. Did you know my mother was investigating you?”

“Yes,” he said, struggling against the ties and the tremors the zap of electricity had sent through him.

“Did you send her car off the road?”

He just glared, but when I went to push the button again, he caved. “I didn’t, but they did.”

“You can say their names. We all know who you’re talking about.”

“Look. None of this was what I wanted. I didn’t have a choice.”

“What are you saying? You were blackmailed into killing your brother? Nearly killing my mom?”

“Do you even know who West is? You’re playing with fire, little girl.”

Gage stepped forward before I could push the button and said, “She’s not a little girl. She’s a fucking brilliant woman who just immobilized you in less than a minute. So stop tossing around half-assed, ignorant insults and explain yourself.”