Page 91 of Dreadful

“Found this in your purse. You were ready to use it on Claudio. Weren’t you?”

He spins the handle on his finger and catches it in the same hand before it falls. “I’m quite skilled with blades. It’s my thing. Is that why you killed the driver and the priest with a blade? Were you trying to frame me?”

I’m suspended parallel to the ground and high enough so that I’m level with his chest. The chains pull at every part of me equally while bending my legs back and spreading them wide. I’m not uncomfortable, and the lifting motion was slow enough that my body had time to adjust. But terror is still a tangible knot in my throat, and I have to tell myself to calm down and answer him.

“Frame you? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Sure, you do. You’ve been studying me for weeks, haven’t you?”

“Months actually.” I chuckle.

He sits back down, making him level with my line of sight. His jaw tics underneath his short beard, but some deep part of me is pleased at the surprise in his raised brow.

“Why have you been studying me?”

“If you don’t know already, you don’t deserve to know.”

I’ve been so damaged and hurt by the wrongs he and his family have committed against me. And yet, he’s been so blissfully unaware of the pain he’s caused that he can’t remember me on his own? If that’s the case, I have no duty to explain how he hurt me.

And what if he doesn’t care?

A pang twinges in my chest. That’s the crux of it, isn’t it? If I confess how his family destroyed me, and he doesn’t care? That will break me far worse than anything else so far. I could handle being broken by the men I’ve sworn to kill. With Sever? I’ll shatter and I won’t be able to come back from it.

His smile lifts his lips, making me shiver. “Fine, then. We’ll do it my way.”

“And what way is that?” I leak venom into my voice so he can’t hear the undercurrent of unease there.

“I’m going to fuck the truth out of your mouth. Nice. Slow. Painfully. And you’ll love it.”

Desire tenses my inner muscles. I should be horrified by his threat, but my body remembers what it felt like to come in his arms, and something about his demeanor is starting to settle me. This position makes me feel like I’m flying, and Sev is here to catch me if I fall. Maybe I’m an idiot, but I can’t help wondering what it would feel like to make him come this time. Plus, if he fucks me to death, what a way to go.

Traitor.

He traces my cheek. A look of awe softens his face as he purrs, “I can’t tell if you like the sound of that or if the suspension is getting to you. Your cheeks are turning the most gorgeous shade of red.”

“Neither,” I snap back. “I can hang up here all day, but I’ll never tell you what you want to hear.”

“But that’s exactly what I want to hear,vipera.” His finger drops, and he smirks. “Considering the men you’ve gone after so far, I had a feeling once you saw Claudio last night, you’d be eager to take him out. That’s why I parked the car so close to the dumpster. It seemed like a great hiding spot for you to try to take him out.”

“And yet you protected him,” I sneer.

“I protected him because I want information from you. Like why you used me to get to him. It seems like you’ve done your homework, so why try to frame me? Why bring me into the mix at all?”

I shake my head, but he cups my neck, taking some of the pressure off my chest as he lifts my torso himself and meets my gaze.

“You really are determined to make this fun for me, aren’t you?”

I glare at him. “Anyone who protects Claudio is my enemy.”

“And why is that? He’s screwed a lot of people over, so you’ll have to be more specific when you explain why you hate him.”

I slam my mouth shut. At this point, telling him will only get me killed. Once Severino finds out he’s on my list, too, he’ll take me out before I can get them both.

“Hmm.” He narrows his eyes at my paper-thin lips and tsks. “Well, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

He lets me go much more gently than I would’ve expected for someone who is supposed to torture me, and he steps around me and out of my range of sight. All I have to look at is his chair and the butcher instruments in front of me.

Suddenly, the blunt edge of my cool blade runs down my inner thigh. My knees try to clamp shut, but it’s no use.