Page 83 of Dark Knight (Knight's Ridge Empire 10)

I was never deemed worthy by either of them.

I was too small, too weak, too stupid.

I believed them too. Believed that Alex was the only one who would ever make my father proud. I mean, it may still be the case. He’s the only one who’ll achieve anything academically. I stand little chance of passing my exams in a few weeks’ time, even less seeing as I spend all my free time either obsessing over the girl I can’t have or working in the hope that just for a few hours of each day I’ll be able to think about something else.

“You look like you’re out for blood,” Boss points out as Dad continues to glare at me for talking back to him.

“What do you need?” I hiss, my fists curling with my need to unleash fury on those motherfuckers and finally get the answers we need.

“One of them dies tonight if we don’t start getting answers,” Dad finally says.

“Fine by me.”

Shrugging off my jacket, I throw it onto an empty chair and undo my cuffs. After rolling up my sleeves, I give my father one last look before I push through the door.

The scent of their combined bodily fluids hit me the second I step inside the room.

There’s nothing in here bar an old table that’s been sprayed with blood more times than I can count and dirty concrete floors and walls.

A pained groan rips through the air, the stench of piss getting stronger as they watch me walk toward the table to choose my first weapon of choice.

Grabbing a pair of pliers, I spin around, meeting each of their eyes for terrifyingly long seconds. Terrifying for them, of course. The only thing they’ll find in my dark grey orbs is excitement and bloodlust.

I think of my girl, the one that I’ll never be able to claim as my own other than in my head, and I step up to the weakest looking member of the trio.

“One of you won’t see the sun rise tomorrow. Although,” I mutter, looking around for the non-existent windows, “that shouldn’t really be an issue for you. Are you missing it?” I ask. It’s a rhetorical question, and thankfully they seem to understand that. “You must be really regretting going up against us now, huh?”

They’re all mute as I pace in front of them, passing the pair of pliers back and forth between my hands.

“So, which one of you is it going to be? Or did you want me to choose?”

Again, no one says anything… until I come to stop in front of the wrecked-looking one again and a whimper spills from his lips.

“Aw, look at that. Your boy is trying to protect you from my wrath by putting himself forward.”

As quick as a whip, I pull my arm back and swing the heavy instrument in my hand toward his head. It collides with a sickening crunch before blood sprays everywhere, covering both of us.

Wiping my hand down my face, I clear the warm liquid away.

“Dirty motherfucker,” I spit while he sits limply in his chair.

“Right, gentlemen. We’ve got a fun-filled night ahead of us. I hope you slept well.”

* * *

Exactly as I promised, when I finally walk out of that room, I only leave two men breathing behind me.

They might have finally given us some fresh information, but it was still nowhere near as much as we knew they were hiding.

Only Dad stayed behind to watch all of my show, and he looks up from his laptop screen with tired eyes.

“You done, boy?”

He doesn’t so much as blanch at the amount of blood covering me. But then, why should he? This has been his life longer than it has been mine. And he’s stood by me, watching me work my magic more times than I can count since he first put me in front of one of our enemies when I was… eleven, maybe, and told me to do whatever it took to make him talk.

I did.

It was the first time in my life that Dad looked at me with anything but contempt and disappointment.