16. Layla
16
LAYLA
I’ve seen Kaden as the Scythe before. I’ve even desired the cold-hearted killer when he was covered in the viscera of his victims, his slash of white teeth when he callously smiled the only clean thing about him.
But it suddenly dawns on me that I’ve never seen the Scythe without his mask.
Until today.
His gunmetal veneer was unsettling in itself, a cold, expressionless thing that made it easy for the Scythe to intimidate and brutalize with consistent apathy. It never occurred to me that the Scythe’s real face— Kaden’s face—could mirror the mask so effortlessly.
His eyes seem to glow just like the mask’s narrow slits but infinitely shrewder. There’s no flicker of humanity in their depths as he stands behind Ethan’s drooping, seated form and rests his hands on Ethan’s shoulders. Cassie bounces eagerly on her heels, a rabid hunger in her gaze that makes my stomach turn.
“The key is precision,” Kaden says to Cassie, his voice a low, instructive murmur. “You want to cause maximum pain with minimal damage.”
Kaden refuses to look my way despite my obvious efforts to glare, curse, and sob at him to stop. To reach the man behind these lethal eyes that no longer need a mask to kill. I'd even take his horrible, blank expression, just to understand when exactly I stopped being the woman he'd kill for and became the one he'd kill. With each crack of Ethan's bones, I hear it—the sound of Kaden choosing violence over love.
Kaden curls his fingers into Ethan’s shoulders, digging into the pressure points there. Ethan’s eyes widen, and a muffled groan escapes. He’s about to pass out, and I honestly wish he would so he could be spared this torture.
While Ethan groans, Kaden explains to Cassie, “Here, you can immobilize the arms temporarily. Useful for subduing without leaving marks. You try.”
Cassie slinks around the table until she’s beside Kaden, then mimics his grip on Ethan. Ethan shouts in a nonexistent language as she applies pressure, droplets of sweat mixing with the blood on his face.
“Good,” Kaden praises at the same time he swipes my hands away when I try to pry Cassie’s off Ethan.
I’m still kneeling in front of Ethan and refusing to go anywhere—a mantra I keep reminding him whenever his one good eye manages to focus on me.
“Now, the neck. Carotid artery.” Kaden brushes Ethan's throat with his knuckles, where Ethan's pulse jumps erratically. “Steady pressure here will cause loss of consciousness in seconds. A little longer, and they'll never wake up.”
Cassie leans in to get an up-close look. “I like the sound of that.”
“The goal isn't to kill,” Kaden chides. “Not yet. Move lower.”
His fingertips skim over Ethan's sweat-soaked chest, his T-shirt no longer resembling any shade of white. Kaden again bats my hands away when I try to rest them on Ethan’s chest and stop Kaden’s descent.
“Move,” Kaden commands, his attention finally, finally settling on me.
I immediately wished it hadn’t. I don’t recognize the man staring down at me. The one who looks like he’d rather decapitate me than deal with my sad attempts to protect my friend.
“I’m not going anywhere,” I say through the terror strangling my voice. “And I didn’t think you were, either.”
Kaden slides his gaze back to Cassie like I mean nothing to him.
“Intercostal nerves,” he says, pointing between Ethan’s ribs on one side. “Extremely sensitive. You can elicit all kinds of interesting reactions. Not only that, but precise strikes here can fracture the ribs, driving splinters into the lungs.”
His voice is almost dreamy, like he's describing a particularly beautiful sunset rather than a brutal technique.
Kaden presses down, and Ethan convulses, a choked scream tearing from his throat.
I surge to my feet, slamming my palms against Kaden’s shoulders again and again. “You fucking bastard , get off him! He’s done nothing to you. Nothing!”
Kaden continues relentlessly, treating me like an annoying but harmless fly.
“Solar plexus. Celiac plexus. Lumbar plexus. So many vulnerable points,” he says while Ethan makes strangled noises of pure agony.
Until I slap Kaden across the face.
The crack of my palm against Kaden's cheek shocks everyone into stillness. Even Cassie’s eyes widen, her hand frozen mid-reach toward Ethan’s solar plexus.
And Kaden ... Kaden slowly turns to face me, a red handprint blooming on his skin.
“Layla,” he says, his voice deceptively soft. “That wasn't very smart.”
I lift my chin, meeting his gaze head-on even as my hand throbs and my heart races. “I don't care.”
Kaden studies me for a long moment. Then, without warning, he grabs my wrist and yanks me toward him, spinning me around so my back is pressed against his chest. His other hand comes up to grip my throat, applying just enough pressure to make breathing difficult.
“You still haven't learned, have you?” he murmurs. “Kaden’s gone.”
I claw at his hand, struggling to draw air into my lungs. “Please,” I rasp out. “This isn't you?—”
Kaden only secures his hold on me.
Tears sting my eyes, blurring my vision. I blink them away, refusing to let him see how much his words hurt. “No. I don't believe that. I can't.”
His chest moves with an unhurried chuckle. “Believe what you want. It doesn’t change the truth.”
Kaden releases me abruptly, shoving me away from him. I stumble, barely catching myself on the edge of the table.
Cassie steps forward eagerly, her eyes darting between Kaden and me. “Can I try now? On her?”
Kaden looks at me, and for a split second, I think I see a glimmer of hesitation. But then it's gone, and he nods curtly. “Go ahead. Show me what you've learned.”
Cassie grins, feral and vicious, and stalks toward me. I back away instinctively even though there’s nowhere to run.
I stare at Kaden, my face bloodless. Every ounce of life I have left has pooled into my heart and is about to burst.
He wouldn’t do this to me .
This has to be a tactic, a Hail Mary of manipulation so he can distract Cassie and find an opening where Ethan and I can escape. Right?
Kaden wouldn’t do this.
But he does.
He idly stands by while Cassie latches onto my upper arms, finding the same pressure points Kaden demonstrated on Ethan. I cry out as pain lances through my arms, my muscles seizing and refusing to obey. She laughs, high and manic, reveling in my suffering.
Kaden comes closer, giving me the once-over while I stare at him through my watery vision.
“Very good,” he says to Cassie without redirecting his gaze. “Now, watch how she responds to more subtle approaches.”
He trails a single finger down the side of my neck, barely grazing my skin. Against my will, I shudder, goose bumps erupting in the wake of his touch. Kaden's eyes remain cold and assessing.
“The carotid bodies are highly sensitive,” he explains to Cassie. “Even light stimulation elicits an increased heart rate, flushing, and tremors. All automatic reactions she can't control.”
“Stop,” I whisper.
As if to prove his point, he repeats the motion on the other side of my neck. I try to hold myself rigid but fail to suppress another full-body shiver. Humiliated tears prick at my eyes.
“Please, stop,” I ask again, hating how weak I sound.
Kaden ignores my plea. His hands skim down to my collarbones, thumbs resting in the hollows of my throat.
“The suprasternal notch is another key point. Firm pressure here constricts the trachea and stimulates the vagus nerve. You can modulate her breathing, induce coughing or gagging. Take away her air.”
He demonstrates, pressing down until I'm gasping desperately for breath, black spots swarming my vision. Cassie watches with rapt attention, memorizing every cruel detail.
“Now the torso.” Kaden's palms slide over my ribs. He maps the sensitive spaces between them, and my skin crawls with revulsion even as unwanted heat blooms in his wake.
“The external obliques are also remarkably responsive,” he continues, hands drifting lower. “Stimulating the cutaneous branches of the nerves here provokes uncontrollable muscle tension.”
He strokes along my sides, and my abdominal muscles clench painfully. I try to twist away, but his grip is iron, his hands digging into the hollows of my hips.
“Stop, I can't...” A broken sob escapes me.
“You can,” Kaden counters, staring hard into my eyes. “And you will.”
Kaden relents after a few agonizing seconds that feel like an eternity. I sag forward while backing away. Cassie looks on, delighted at her new arsenal of ways to torture while Kaden steps back, appraising me like a prized possession he’s about to bequeath to her.
“The most potent weapon, Cassie, isn’t pain. It's love. Wield it like a blade. Find the soft spots, the vulnerabilities, and press until they bleed.”
He circles behind me, fingers skimming across my shoulders and raising goose bumps in their wake. I shudder, not in revulsion but in treacherous longing, wishing it were like before.
Until Kaden whispers near my ear, “Layla's deepest fear is abandonment.”
I go rigid.
Abruptly, he wrenches me around to face him, gripping my chin. I stare into his eyes, searching desperately for a hint of the man I fell for, the man who held me tenderly and promised I'd never be alone again.
But there's only the Scythe staring back—detached, ruthless, empty.
“Where are you?” I ask, searching his emotionless face.
He talks over my crestfallen plea.
“Your mother was never there for you, choosing random men over taking care of her child. Your father, while he was on this earth, never thought to have you in his life. Only when he was dead did he give you a run-down cottage with an abandoned lighthouse, like that would somehow make up for over two decades of his absence. Yet you live there. You moved into the very spot where he made his home without you. Is it so you could bond with him somehow? Find meaning to the reason you were even conceived?”
Agony lances through me, sharper than any physical blow. The words I've never spoken aloud, never shared with anyone, spill from Kaden's lips like a toxin.
I crumple, knees giving out, but Kaden catches me. Not to comfort but to force me upright.
“Which parent gave you the mutated gene for those eyes of yours?” he relentlessly continues. “Do you even know?”
I squeeze my eyes shut, hot tears leaking from the corners. He's exposing me, flaying me open for Cassie's voyeuristic delight.
“Because her father left when she was young and her mother never paid attention to her, Layla's always felt ... unworthy of love.” Kaden's voice is soft, almost tender, a jarring contrast to the brutality of his words. “It's why she clings so desperately to anyone who shows her affection. Like me.”
A harsh sob wrenches from my throat. I want to deny it, to scream that he's wrong, but the denial sticks in my throat. Because it's true, isn't it? I latched onto Kaden, let myself trust him and love him because I was starved for it. So desperate to feel wanted.
“Poor little kitten,” Cassie says. “So pathetic and needy.”
Finally, Kaden releases his hold.
“Do you see what I did here, Cass? I tore her down, turned her into a sobbing mess, and I didn’t have to lay a hand on her to do it.”
“Kaden…” I say, hugging my arms around myself.
He raises his eyes to mine again. “I told you, Layla. Kaden is gone.”
Cassie grins. “She still doesn't get it, does she? She actually thought you loved her. Then again, so did I. You can be very convincing.”
Kaden moves to Cassie’s side. “I found your weaknesses, Layla. Your soft spots. And I used them against you.”
“No.” I shake my head in refusal. “What we had, it was real. I know it was.”
He scoffs. “You only saw what I wanted you to see.”
Cassie clucks her tongue at me in disappointment. “Come on, Daddy. I have some other guests for you to work your magic on.” She loops her arm through Kaden’s. “We can come back to these two wet blankets later.”
They both turn to the door, Ethan watching them with a hooded, hateful stare and me barely able to remain standing.
But.
“You want to talk about weaknesses, Scythe?” I spit out when his back is turned. “Let's talk about how you couldn't protect your own daughter. How you let her get taken right from under your nose while you were out for a morning run.”
That gets both Kaden’s and Cassie's attention.
“You weren't some green recruit then. You were special forces trained. Yet—” I laugh, a harsh, unfamiliar sound. “You couldn't even secure your own home properly. What kind of father does that make you?”
Kaden's face remains impassive, but I catch it—that microscopic twitch. Cassie goes very still.
“You want to break me by exposing my abandonment issues?” I continue, straightening my spine with pretend bravado. “Fine. But at least my father never promised to protect me. You did. You promised Cassie everything and then failed.”
Cassie's eyes dart between us, that crazed gleam of hers sparking with something else. Something younger.
“Want to know what I think?” I press on, even as warning bells ring in my head to stop. “I think you trained yourself to become the Scythe because you couldn't face being Kaden Black anymore. The man who failed his daughter so completely that he became exactly the kind of man who took her— another Morelli.”
Kaden angles his head like a gun being cocked to fire. My heart is a battering ram, begging me to backtrack before I get myself killed.
“He's doing it again right now,” I say to Cassie while forcing myself to hold Kaden’s murderous stare. “Becoming the very monster who broke you. Because that's what he does, isn't it? When he can't protect someone, he becomes what hurts them instead.”
Kaden moves so fast I barely register it. His hand locks around my throat, but I don't stop. I can't.
“Go ahead,” I rasp out. “Prove me right. Show your daughter exactly who you really are.”
His fingers dig in just enough to make breathing difficult. “You think you know me so well?”
“I know enough.” My voice scrapes past his iron hand. “I know you gave up everything to find her. Your home. Your life. Your humanity.”
Something flashes in Kaden's eyes. Not the cold calculation from before, but something raw. Wounded.
“ Shut up! ”
Cassie slams her hand on the table beside Ethan, making him flinch. Her composure cracks, that perfect Morelli programming starting to splinter.
“Want to know what's really pathetic?” I say in a strangled voice to Kaden. “Not your torture techniques—those are exactly what I'd expect from the Scythe. It's watching you pretend they mean nothing to you.”
His fingers flex around my neck in silent warning, but I hold on to consciousness. “You're teaching your daughter how to destroy people like it's some kind of sick bonding exercise. But every time she hurts Ethan, every time you make me beg, I see it in your eyes. You're dying inside watching Cassie become everything you spent ten years fighting against.”
Cassie's manic energy falters, just for a moment.
“Go ahead,” I challenge Kaden, who hasn’t broken our stare off. “Show her more pressure points. Teach her every way to make someone suffer. You're trying to prove you can be just as repulsive, just as influential. But you can't, can you? Because unlike Morelli, you actually love her.”
Kaden’s hand loosens on my throat, but I almost wish he'd keep choking me. It would be easier than the way his thumb strokes over my pulse, knowing exactly what that touch does to me.
And reminding me exactly who I’m playing with.
“Tell them,” he murmurs, his eyes holding mine. “Tell Cassie and Ethan how your heart's racing not because you're afraid but because you want me. Even now. Even after watching Cassie disfigure your best friend.”
I press my lips shut, but my body betrays me, leaning into his touch.
“You understand my daughter now, don't you?” Kaden’s other hand slides into my hair, and I hate how my eyes flutter closed. “Why she'd do anything for the monster who shaped her. Because you would too, wouldn't you, Wraithling? You'd burn everything down for me, just like she would for Morelli.”
“I'm nothing like her,” I say, but the words sound hollow, even to me.
“No?” He pulls until I feel a sting in my scalp. “Then why aren't you running? Why aren't you trying to save Ethan? Because deep down, you know exactly how Cassie feels. To be remade by someone's darkness until you crave it more than air.”
Kaden’s deadly hold on me doesn’t waver, not once, but Cassie remains incredibly still behind him. Her eyes narrow as she studies the way his thumb strokes my neck.
“You can't even hurt her properly, can you?”
Cassie’s question comes out soft, dangerous, and her focus on my throat never strays. “Look at how you're holding her.”
From his chair, Ethan makes a miserable sound. Blood drips steadily from his split lip onto his ruined shirt, his mangled fingers curled protectively against his chest.
Kaden squeezes tighter, but there's something else in his pressure against my neck. Something that makes Cassie's expression twist with a new kind of fury.
She paces like a caged animal, that unpredictable energy of hers building. “No, no, this isn't right. You're still holding back, Daddy. I can see it.”
Cassie stalks toward us, her movements jerky and agitated. She points an accusing finger at Kaden. “You're not doing it right. This is supposed to be a lesson, not erotic asphyxiation.”
Kaden's jaw ticks, but he doesn't release his hold on me. “This is what I’m trying to teach you. Having someone submit to you, even when facing death, is the ultimate form of power over a person.”
But through a blazing stare, Cassie sees everything—the history between Kaden and me, the depraved tenderness, and the desire Kaden’s fought hard to resist, even when he’s at his worst.
Cassie circles us like a shark scenting blood in the water. Her gaze rakes over me, dissecting every point of contact between Kaden's body and mine.
“Look at you,” she sneers. “The great and terrible Scythe, undone by a pair of pretty eyes and a tight cunt. It's disgusting.”
“You’re seeing things that aren’t there,” Kaden says to her through tight lips.
But she's just getting started. Cassie leans in close as I struggle to breathe, as my neck burns. “He'll never truly be yours, you know. No matter how much you spread your legs, no matter how sweetly you beg. Because at the end of the day, blood is thicker than water. And I'm his blood.”
Tears sting my eyes, blurring my vision. I blink them away furiously, refusing to let her see how deep she can cut.
Cassie straightens, the corners of her mouth twitching.
“But I'm a generous daughter. I'm willing to give Daddy a chance to prove his loyalty. To show me once and for all where his true allegiance lies. Let go of the kitten’s collar, Dad.”
She turns her attention to Ethan, who watches the exchange with mounting dread. His face is a mask of blood and bruises, his one open eye wide with fear.
“Kill him,” Cassie says simply.