Page 177 of Under Your Scars

I move to the window, sighing in content at my work. In the distance, I can see black smoke rising from the bridges leading off the island. All but one. Forcing anyone wanting to leave through a single choke point that the FBI is closely monitoring. They’re handling it as a terrorist attack.

They’ve got bigger problems than bombs I’ve planted under bridges if there’s so much as a scratch on Elena.

I turn back to the lying whore, and Kate is hyperventilating. I pull off the tape and stand directly in front of her, arms crossed, and I wait.

After a long bout of silence, I remove my mask and let it fall to the floor. “Well? Do you have anything to say?”

“Please, I haven’t done anything!”

I chuckle, and without any shred of remorse, I punch her in the face. She should consider herself lucky that I pulled that punch. If I had let her taste the full brunt of my fist, I probably would have broken her jaw.

“Where is she?” I growl. When she says nothing, I get a little excited. It’s been too long since I’ve had a good torture session. “Come on, Katherine. For every second of my time you waste, I’m going to spend a minute fucking up your sister. I hope she likes the taste of her own teeth.”

Kate whimpers. “I don’t know where he took her. Please, I swear on my life that I don’t know anything.”

I kneel next to her and pull out a serrated knife, tracing it down her leg, slicing open her thigh and watching the blood seep out of the deep wound. Kate starts crying. From pain or from fear, it doesn’t matter. All that matters is that she’s going to sit here and suffer until she tells me what I want.

Then, and only then, I willconsiderputting her out of her misery.

Who am I kidding? She’s going to die the second she gives me any useful information.

I’m not torturing her because I want to. I’m doing this for Elena, because this lying bitch betrayed her by allying herself with the wrong man.

“Do you remember what I did to Neil Hayden?” I ask, the fury in my voice sharp as razors. “Do you remember his body hanging upside down outside of the Hellfire Lounge? Exsanguinated. Mutilated.” I take her forearm and easily snap the fragile bone and sigh in satisfaction when she screams. “Broken.” I stand up and punch her again. “Beaten. Bloody.” I chuckle to myself. “Tell me what you know, and I’ll spare you at leastoneof those things.”

Yeah,she’s fucking lucky.

I’m being really fucking patient right now. I need information, and it’s the only reason this bitch is still breathing. I’m going to hunt down her sister and take it out on her, too, because I’m that fucking enraged.

I don’t know who I should be more pissed off at.

Kate?

The fucker that broke into my house and kidnapped my wife?

Or maybe I’m just mad at my own stubborn ass for being on the other side of the fucking city chasing a fake lead when Elena hit her panic alarm, because I was stupid enough to let rage towards Valenti overtake my reason.

“Frank is paranoid about being found,” Kate admits, slurring her words as her hazy mind tries to form coherent thoughts through the pain. “He doesn’t have any electronics in his safehouse because he’s afraid of getting hacked. Just a few dozen guards on rotation. One of his men brings him the newspaper every morning, so he can keep up with what’s happening in the city while he’s in hiding. The morning after you got married, he put the pieces together that the Silencer and Christian Reeves were the same man. After the ruthlessness you showed Neil Hayden for touching Elena, you wouldn’t have let any other man have her. You made it easy to figure out.I didn’t tell him.”

“I don’t believe you. But continue.”

“He wants her. Not…not like you think. Not to rape, but to control you. He knows you’d do anything to get her back, even work for him.”

“You’re more delusional that I am if you think I’devermake a deal with Frank fucking Valenti after what he did to Elena.” I grab her by her jaw, the flesh there already starting to swell. She winces at the contact.

“Pipsqueak has a way of attracting psychopaths.”

“Ah, so you do know about my twin.” I muse, moving her neck from side to side, contemplating if I want to break it when I’m done here.

Kate nods frantically. “He was dressed as the Silencer when he met with Valenti. He loved it. Poetic justice or some shit. Valenti wanted you, your twin wanted Elena. I think he stole your act to cover his tracks when he tried to kill you.”

I cock one of my guns and shove it under her jaw. “Your story isn’t making sense. If Valenti wants me, but Junior wants me dead, how would they ever make a deal?”

“I don’t know, but I do know that your shadow isobsessedwith Elena. All he talks about is saving her from you. If you ever meet, it will be a bloodbath.”

I crack my neck. “Good. Been too long since I had one of those. This man dressed like me, what does he look like?”

Kate lets out a sickly cough. “Older—he had grey hair. Lean. Just about as tall as me. I only saw him once as he walked past me. I didn’t get a good look.”