Page 24 of Violence and Vice

Her struggling weakens.

Six.

Her limbs twitch like dying wires.

Seven.

Her body goes limp.

I hold for one more beat to be sure.

Then I ease her down into her seat, guiding her head gently against the rest.

“Dammit,” I breathe harshly, brushing hair from her clammy face. She’s breathing, just unconscious.

I slide back into my seat and breathe deep, adrenaline fading, my hands buzzing. I can still feel the shape of her neck against my arm, the tremble of her fear, her desperation to get the words out.

I warned her.

I can’t let her hurt anyone else. Not ever again.

The silence after is deafening.

“Seems a lot has happened in a very short span of time,” Billings says from the front seat. My eyes rise to meet his in the rear-view mirror.

“The whole of reality has shifted,” I reply simply.

Chapter 6

We cross the Brooklynn Bridge, and the GPS hooks us around toward the water. We pass shipping yards, a pier, and warehouses. And finally, Billings pulls up to the curb in front of a brick building that is about as nondescript as I could imagine.

Just as Billings holds the door open for me, a sleek black car parks right behind us. There is a terrifying looking woman with dyed purple hair at the wheel. But Harry immediately exits the back seat and walks to my side as I open Ophelia’s door, catching her before she can slump to the concrete and get a concussion.

“This is the one who did this to Ares?” Harry asks, observing as I scoop Ophelia into my arms. It’s insane how easy it is now to carry someone who weighs more than me and is taller than me.

“Unfortunately,” I admit as I follow him to a steel door. I expect him to dig in his pocket for keys. Instead, he presses his palm to a black square to the side of the door. A moment later, there’s a beep, and I hear the lock unlatch.

Harry is definitely the most high-tech of the Barons.

He pulls the door open for me, and I step inside.

It’s dark, but my eyes adjust rapidly. There are stacks and stacks of boxes, the space feeling very much like a warehouse orstorage facility. But Harry walks past all of it, pushing back into the maze of cardboard. We walk past a set of stairs that rise up into the three-story building.

I know it when I see it.

There, in the middle of the building, is a steel box.

It’s so plain yet intimidating all at the same time. There are shiny steel walls all around, and facing us are two heavy duty doors. Once more, Harry presses his palm to a scanner, and a moment later, the door clicks as it unlocks.

Harry pulls the door open, and my heart drops when I take in the prison cell.

There’s no other way to describe it. The walls inside look exactly like the outside. Shiny steel. There is a twin-sized bed against one wall. There is a small bathroom in one corner. There’s a shelf against another wall that has some non-perishable goods, and a microwave on a tiny countertop.

Ihaveto contain Ophelia. I don’t trust her with a single bone in my body that she won’t run now that the truth has come out.

But I feel fucking awful locking her up. She spent two months locked beneath a mausoleum. This prison is certainly a million times better than that one. But still.

I’m locking her up again.