Page 34 of Always A Villain (Revenge Duet #2)

G lass crunches under my boots as I stalk through the mansion. Every step echoes the fury boiling inside me, each movement fueled by contempt, venom, and a hatred so black it rots.

This isn’t anger. Anger fades. This is something worse. Something that festers.

I’m going to get answers. And if I have to rip them out of her, piece by piece—I fucking hope so.

The basement door looms in front of me. My fingers twitch as I punch in the code, the lock clicking open.

Time to play.

I step into the cold, dim room, my gaze locking onto her bound, naked body in the center.

“Hello, Alicia.”

Her head jerks up, eyes blown wide, fear twisting her face .

“Axel! What the fuck?! Get me out of here!” she screams, her voice cracking. She yanks against the chains, wrists ripped and bleeding. Pathetic.

I let a slow, cruel smile curl my lips. “Not happening. We’ve got unfinished business.”

She thrashes against the restraints. “You can’t fucking do this! You can’t keep me here! You’re fucking insane!”

“So I’ve been told.”

I push off the wall and move, closing the space between us in a single, controlled stride. She tries to shrink back, but there’s nowhere to go.

“Where. The. Fuck . Is. Conrad?”

Her breath hitches. Lips tremble. “I don’t know!”

I drag a chair across the floor, the metal legs screeching before I drop into it.

“Don’t lie to me, Alicia.”

She’s shaking now.

“I don’t know!” Her voice pitches higher. “You have to believe me! I don’t know where he is!”

I tilt my head, studying her. “Oh, Alicia. Stupid, stupid Alicia.” I drag the words out deliberately, savoring the way she flinches. “You’re making this harder than it needs to be.”

Her ragged breathing fills the silence, her pulse a frantic rhythm in her throat. And then, her fear snaps into something else.

“I know you killed Travis!” she spits, hysteria creeping in. “You’re insane! He would never have left me like that!” She’s crying now, struggling against the restraints. “You’re a fucking monster! You’re not even human!”

I go still .

For a long, tense moment.

Travis Anderson.

We bled together. Dragged each other out of hell. Laughed in the face of death as we tore down cartels and gutted mafias. He was one of the few people I trusted.

Cold as death itself, my eyes narrow on hers. “Yeah, I killed him. And I enjoyed every fucking second of it.” My icy confession hangs in the air. “Found out about his little hobby, how he got off torturing and raping little boys. But you already knew that.”

Her face goes deathly pale. She shrinks back, horrified, words trailing off weakly. “He…he said he stopped…”

I lean in closer. “He lied. Just like you are now. I caught him with a kid, no older than ten, in Bogotá. It was a fucking mess, and I had to clean it up.”

Her face twists, and she turns away.

“I made sure his death was painful. Took him two days to die. He begged for a bullet to the head. I gave it to him—eventually.” I pause, a dark smile tugging at my mouth. “There’s a special place in hell for people who hurt little kids.”

Her face crumbles as more tears spill over. “I didn’t know—” she stammers.

“Yeah, you did,” I cut her off. “You just didn’t give a fuck. Too busy spending his money.” I lean in, my eyes locking onto hers. “You’ve got ten seconds to tell me where Conrad is.”

“I DON’T KNOW! He’s your Commander! Why don’t you ask him yourself, you psycho?!”

Wrong answer.

My gaze flicks to the workbench. The pliers sit there, waiting. I pick them up, weighing the metal in my palm.

“I was hoping you’d make this easy, Alicia,” I murmur. “But it looks like we’ll be doing things the hard way—my favorite way.”

“Please—No!” she thrashes, but I’m already prying her hand open, clamping the pliers around her nail.

“Ten seconds.” My grip tightens.

Her scream tears through the room.

“I don’t know where he is, I swear! He left for a meeting with the Dolore and never came back!”

Wrong answer, again.

I twist.

“No—Stop!” She trembles, head shaking rapidly.

“Nine.”

“FUCK! Okay, okay, please!” Her defiance shatters as another sob breaks free.

“Eight.”

She chokes on a frantic plea. “Conrad struck a deal with the Dolore—a trade, an arrangement! That’s all I know! Please, believe me!”

“Seven.”

Tears pour down her face. “They met at the old Sovereign storage warehouse! Outside the city! I swear, I swear that’s all I know!”

“Why did they take Rory?” My voice slices through her sobs.

Violent tremors wrack her body.

“Because…she was always meant to go to the Dolore.”

The world stills.

My pulse goes lethal .

“What the fuck does that mean?” My fingers dig into her jaw, forcing her to look at me.

She stares, her lips quivering.

“She was never supposed to be with you, Axel.” The words come out ragged, breathless. “Conrad…he planned to hand her over to Antonio after you killed Marco.”

“Why?!”

The pliers tighten. I pull.

She screams, her entire body jerking back and forth as I rip her flesh. Blood drips from her nail bed, staining the concrete.

“BECAUSE MARCO DELUCA IS HER REAL FATHER!”

I freeze.

The pliers slip from my hand.

“What did you just say?” My voice doesn’t even sound human.

Her tear-filled eyes meet mine. “Conrad isn’t Rory’s father. Marco is.”

“Bullshit. Explain. Now .”

She gasps for air. “I don’t know everything, I swear. I only know her mother had an affair with Marco. Conrad didn’t find out until years later, after she tried to leave him.”

My mind is a storm.

“Why now? Why make her go to the Dolore now?”

She whimpers. “Antonio needs her. For some marriage, some deal he made.”

It clicks.

The divorce. The push to break our Bond. She couldn’t remarry while still tied to me. Conrad never cared about her safety . He used me. Used her. Played us all.

My jaw clenches so hard I taste blood.

I grab her hand—her terror-filled eyes flicking between mine. Without hesitation, I rip off another nail. Her shrieks echo through the room, raw agony.

“AXEL! PLEASE! NO, STOP!”

“Where the fuck is Conrad?”

“I DON’T KNOW!” she sobs, convulsing against the chair.

I study her—every trembling breath, every tear, every quiver of her broken body. She might not know. Not the whole story.

Exhaling slowly, I force the rage to settle into something colder. More controlled.

“A team of mercenaries came for Rory last night. They knew everything. My security system. The layout of my house. The location of my goddamn bedroom.”

She swallows audibly.

“Not many people know those details, Alicia.”

I let the silence stretch.

“Only a select few.”

Her breathing turns erratic.

I tilt my head. “I can count them on one hand. Arsen. Griffen. Rosa. Henry, my butler. And…Travis.”

Her face drains of any remaining color.

“Travis has been dead a long time. Which explains why those bastards didn’t know about the new perimeter sensors.”

I crouch in front of her.

“You see, Alicia…when someone betrays me, when they harm what’s mine…”

Dragging a knife across the floor, I let the blade scrape the concrete.

“…they pay for it.”

I watch her body shudder.

“And they pay… painfully .”

I hover above her. Close enough that she can feel the warmth of my breath against her clammy skin.

“But before that? They suffer. I make them bleed. I make them beg for death. Do you understand?”

Her cry is soft, barely a breath.

“Axel, please.”

Forcing her to look back at me, I grip her jaw.

“Do. You. Understand?”

Her lips quiver. “Y-yes.”

“Good.”

I let go, watching her body slump.

“Because this will hurt.”

I grip my knife tighter.

“And you won’t die until I decide you can.”

Her sobs break loose.

I smile. “You blackmailed Rory. Sold my security to the enemy.” I glance at my bloodstained shirt. “And one of those motherfuckers stabbed my dog.”

Her whole body goes still.

I exhale.

Then I lean in once more, my lips brushing against her ear.

“When you get to hell, make sure you tell that cunt sister of yours the Reaper sent you too.”