Page 31

At first, I’d assumed we’d walked into a sewage tunnel. The methane is pungent enough to make me think we’d ended up in a waste sector, but the soil is damp and frigid. In any other circumstance, I’d be grateful to be sharing something this small with the other two, but this space is somehow more suffocating than the distribution center.

The longer I spend in this tunnel, the more I feel it shrinking. I’d tell myself that it’s in my head, but caves are unpredictable and the exact reason why I don’t like them.

My hands curl into fists when I feel Baron brush up against me.

“Next time, I’m choosing the location,” I mutter under my breath. “Maybe, I’ll put us on the water, so Fury can squirm a little.”

Baron elbows me and I have to shove my hands in my pockets to keep myself from hitting him.

Don’t tell me to be quiet, Arik. Don’t tell me to take a walk. Just get me the fuck out of here.

“At least we found a way out,” Baron says. “Helena finally made herself useful.”

She twitches, a subtle tilt of her chin at her name while she walks ahead.

“I didn’t think you were capable of giving compliments,” she taunts.

“Shut it,” Baron barks.

Helena chuckles, shaking her head.

“That’s it? No ‘I’ll cut out your tongue for talking’? Just some snark and a knife trick?”

Baron flips the knife, twirling in the air before he catches it by the blade.

“Believe me, doll, I don’t need the knife to keep you silent.”

She huffs but turns back to the way ahead. She’s restless. I can tell by the way she paces when she walks. She wants to run ahead, to get out of here and away from us, but thanks to her, there’s only one light and I’ll sooner break her wrist then let her try to take it.

She paces around us, her hands finding the edge of the dark tunnel and tracing along the dewy edges before moving to the other side.

It’s nauseating, seeing her move back and forth like that. I’d rather not be reminded of the predicament she put us in but even without saying a word, she crawls under my skin, eating at my control like a parasite.

Her eyes catch mine when I smack the flashlight to stop the flicker.

“You’re pretty quiet,” she smirks. “Don’t like the dark?”

“Might like you with a gag in your mouth,” I say through clenched teeth.

Her retort falters and her mouth falls shut. Baron gives me a sideways glance but I don’t return it. He’d ask me if I’m okay, that I’m one snide comment away from breaking her neck, or that I’d tear down the mine to find a way out. I can’t say I wouldn’t, but not because of the dark.

I’m not good at talking. It’s easy to wear a mask when someone tells me what to say. It’s easy to pretend to love someone when I’ve never felt it at all.

The flashlight flickers again, casting eerie shadows on the walls. They’re slowly widening into a cavern and I can finally stretch my neck out without having to hunch. Even so, our shadows dance together like demons tangling on the walls. It’s suffocating, even as the stench of the methane is thinning.

Helena huffs when she moves forward again. Her hand twitches, her fingers moving repetitively in that same way that she does when she’s thinking. When she wants to talk, about us, about her dad.

About Acacia.

She takes another breath.

“No.”

“I didn’t say anything,” Helena scoffs.

“You’re going to ask about Acacia,” I deadpan.

Baron’s gaze snaps to mine, but I ignore him.

“Alright, maybe I was.” Helena shrugs. “You mentioned them before the mine blew. The security company, right?”

She asks it like it’s a question, like she doesn’t already know who Acacia Security is.

I roll my eyes.

Security. That’s grossly laughable.

Helena pulls me from my thoughts, her voice grated. “What connection do they have with you?”

“Don’t ask questions you don’t want the answers to,” I say.

“And what if I do want answers?”

“You don’t.”

Helena stops and I have to dig my heel in to keep myself from running into her. She takes a step back, eyeing Baron and I with a cautious glance that makes me bite down a smile.

Get scared, doll. Run. Give me a reason to snap this time.

“Anderson mentioned Acacia too,” she says quietly. “My dad worked for that company right before he enlisted.”

“How convenient,” Baron muses. He takes a step forward, Helena making an equal step back. “The more you talk, the more I’m starting to think you’d like speaking without a tongue. Don’t ask questions, doll.”

“But Alastor owns Acacia Security!” She steps back again, but in her eyes is anger—-that fire I saw in her after the raid. “That’s a huge fucking detail to just ignore. Alastor is the one who did this!”

I match Baron’s pace, stalking towards her.

“You…” I look her up and down. “...are entering very dangerous territory.”

I stop myself as I’m inches from her. Her breaths are shallow but even under the flickering flashlight, her pale skin is flushed just behind her ears and stretching over the scar on her chest, creating a canvas of pink and white. Her eyes are wide and afraid, but she’s stubborn. Curious. She wants more.

So do I.

“I won’t tell you again,” I whisper.

“I can handle it,” she stutters.

Baron steps closer, his hand clenched in a warning as he growls her name but she doesn’t give him a chance to speak.

“Just tell me!”

My hand snaps around her neck, gripping it tightly before the last syllable even leaves her mouth. In an instant, her curiosity is gone, replaced by terror. She claws at my hands, her lips parted in a plea that’s never spoken.

You want answers, doll? I’ll make you suffer for them.

“Do you know what Acacia does?” I ask her.

She digs her nails deeper into my hands and I just give her one look. One look is all she needs. I’m not hurting her, although I want to, not like this. I’m not Baron. The pain I’ll give her is much better.

“Acacia is a lie. Everything you knew was smokes and mirrors, Helena. They aren’t protectors, they’re predators.” I release her suddenly and she falls forward gasping.

“Do you honestly believe that your dad happened to work for the same security company owned by the man trying to kill us?”

Her eyes meet mine, her hand loosely clutching her throat as she labors herself.

“Acacia isn’t security,” I tell her. “They’re mercenaries.”

Her eyes widen in shock, and a crude silence fills the void.

“What?” She says barely in a whisper.

Baron laughs.

“Does that really shock you, doll? I thought you were supposed to be smart.”

“Acacia has made their power off of blackmail and murder,” I say. “They’re poison beneath the surface. Stop listening to the charm. Watch…” I click off the flashlight. “Listen.”

Helena sucks in a breath before growing still.

“I fucking love that sound,” Baron laughs. “It looks like our little doll has finally realized how fucked she really is. It’s not just us now, is it, Helena?”

I can feel Baron pass behind me and we both creep closer, circling her in the dark. She flinches when I get too close and I chuckle.

“You’ve lived in denial your entire life,” I taunt, my hand sweeping over her hair. “They were right at your front door and you ignored it because you couldn’t handle it. You couldn’t accept it. You didn’t follow us here to avenge your unit or make your commander proud. You came here because you wanted answers.”

I wrap my hand around the nape of her neck and yank her towards me. I can feel those pretty eyes staring up at me, trying to find my face through the darkness, but she won’t. She’s looked at me for so long wanting to find something in me that she can cling to but she can’t, and now she’ll know why.

She whimpers when I pull her too close and I can feel her soft panicked breaths on my skin. “Castor…”

Oh, Helena. You have no idea, do you? All this war and pain and you’re still so innocent and naive.

I warned her I would break her. She thought we meant through torture. That’s nothing compared to what we’re about to give her.

“You want answers, doll?”

“Yes,” she whispers.

“Run.”

Her footsteps skid across the dirt and she retreats rapidly into the darkness. The poor girl has no idea just how fucked she really is. Forget us, Helena is a lamb that walked into a slaughterhouse, thinking it was her sanctuary. She’s running through these tunnels, thinking it’ll give her closure, that it’ll give her answers.

It won’t.

Helena walked in here, wanting to kill us. She’s a wire wrapped around my throat, bleeding out my control. She’s made me desperate and I’ve broken a lot of rules because of her intoxicating personality.

Run. Run like your life depends on it, doll. Because when I catch you, you’ll see exactly what a desperate man does.