Page 112 of Pretty When She Breaks

If we were right about my father selling Jule, there was a chance he’d locked him in the pens before he left. It would be right around the time Jule had supposedly committed suicide—a week before his nineteenth birthday.

I held my breath as he brought up the folder. I couldn’t look at it yet, just in case the records weren’t there. Instead, I looked at Kaos’s pale face illuminated by the computer light. He had beautiful eyes, with long lashes, darting about the screen as he searched the records.

“Yeah, here you go,” he said, turning the laptop to me.

“You know this is just the stuff underground, right?” he asked.

I nodded.

I skipped ahead as guards moved around the securement wing like ants, fetching the alphas for their fights, then paused it when the guards marched in with someone new.

There was no mistaking that head of blond hair.

Jule.

He was thrown into an empty cell, the door locked behind him. I double-checked the date—days before his apparent death. I let out a sigh of relief. There was no way he’d committed suicide, then, right? But it still didn’t mean he was alive…

I skipped ahead as we watched Jule fall asleep, then wakeup and wait. It was the next morning when my father walked in to see him. I watched as my father folded his arms, staring at Jule. He stood up, pressing himself to the edge of the cage, and I could make out a smile on his bruised face. Jule eventually stepped away, his body shaking with laughter. Father jerked his head at the cage door, and two guards went to unlock it.

I watched as they put a muzzle on Jule and cuffed his hands behind his back. There was no sound, but I could tell my father was shouting at Jule, then kicked him in the ribs repeatedly. The interaction ended with my father spitting on the floor and leaving Jule in the cell again.

He didn’t move.

I could scarcely breathe as I skipped ahead, praying for him to move. “Come on,” I whispered to the screen as I kept clicking. “Get up.”

I almost cried with relief when Julius stirred almost four hours after, shuffling over so he was lying on the pallet.

Nothing much happened as I kept skipping forward, so I increased the time intervals. Three days later, Jule’s cage was empty. I skipped back, hour by hour until I reached footage where Jule’s cage was being opened again.

Kaos finished his pasta and scooted closer, resting his chin on my shoulder as I watched.

They’d brought five people this time, and four of them went into the cage. He must have had a strong aura for them to bring five alphas, but I’d always known how deadly Jule was. They held him down while they double checked that muzzle was secure and tied his arms.

The fifth leaned against the wall and pulled out a cigarette as the others tied Jule up. He was wearing a hat that blocked his face, so at first, I wasn't sure who it was. Whenthey were walking out, though, I saw that he was wearing jeans and riding boots.

That was Ashton Vass.

I took some breaths, trying to calm myself.

Jule left those cages alive.

Alive.

Jade’s contact better have something.

KAOS

“Are these really necessary?” Laurel huffed, tugging on the handcuffs again.

I squinted at her, wondering if she was joking. We’d settled on the couches after dinner, and I’d almost fallen asleep when she asked her question.

“Duh,” I said. “I might forget about you, otherwise.”

Every time I felt the fog creeping toward me, the tug of the handcuffs kept me grounded.

To her scent.

To her.