28. Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Reaper
Matthew’s breathing is ragged beneath Wrenley as she kneels on his chest, her dagger a glinting warning against the dim light. She’s already left a shallow cut across his cheek. Nothing serious. Just enough to sting. Just enough to make him sweat.
“I’m telling you,” he stammers, “I don’t know anything! I didn’t even know Sebastian was stateside—he was supposed to be in Lisbon, I was meeting him there!”
Wrenley tilts her head, and it’s the scariest fucking thing I’ve ever seen. Calm, pure ice. “You really expect me to believe that? He showed up at the exact same moment we were rescuing those girls, and you didn’t know about it? Try again.”
Matthew squirms beneath her, eyes flicking around the room, to me, Max, then to Torque. He won’t find mercy here.
I lean against the wall with my arms crossed. “You’ve been playing both sides since the beginning, haven’t you? So, unless you want to find out how many layers she can peel off your face before you pass out, I suggest you start talking.”
“I haven’t left the house!” he yells. “I haven’t contacted him—I swear!”
Wrenley flips the dagger in her palm, deciding where to aim next. “Torque,” she says evenly. “Tear apart the room he was sleeping in.”
Torque nods and disappears down the hall without a word.
Wrenley steps off Matthew, “Sit him up, Wreck.” She says circling behind the chair. “You’re not walking out of this room until I know everything. So now is the time to reconsider your lies.”
Matthew pants, clutching the arms of the chair. “Please. You have to believe me—I’m not part of this!”
“You’ve been a part of it the second you kept quiet,” I snap. “The second, you forged documents. The second, you helped him move money and people. You don’t get to be clean after that.”
That’s when he slips.
“No wonder he’s so enamored with you,” he spits at Wrenley. “You’re just as fucking insane as he is!”
The whole room goes still. Wrenley freezes mid-step. I move, but I don’t get there first. Max is already across the room. He backhands Matthew across the face, sharp and fast. The sound cracks through the room like a whip.
Blood splatters to the floor. Matthew groans, dazed, slumping deeper into the chair.
Max’s voice is a low growl. “Watch your fucking mouth. Our wife is worth more than your entire bloodline.”
Matthew wheezes, blinking up at him, stunned.
Wrenley lifts a brow, dagger still spinning idly in her hand. “Should we pull his teeth, one by one? That could be fun.”
Before anyone can answer, the door opens. Torque walks back in, holding up a black burner phone like it’s some cursed artifact. “Found this shoved into the mattress springs. Typical.”
Matthew’s face goes ghost-white. Wrenley just smiles, slow and satisfied. “Well, well that’s interesting. Now we’re getting somewhere.”
I take it from him and thumb the screen to life. No lock. Rookie move. “Well, Matthew,” I mutter, scrolling through the contents, “You’ve been a busy little traitor. Location data, internal shifts, camera blind spots… Christ, you even logged our raid plans.”
Wrenley clicks her tongue. “My loves,” she says sweetly, “Do we still keep a toolbox in the SUV?”
I can’t help the low laugh that escapes. “Of course we do, baby.”
Max is already on the move. “I’ll grab it, Sparrow.”
Wrecker lets out a low whistle. “Damn. This is gonna get spicy.”
Matthew tries to wriggle in the chair, but a Serpent tied those knots. He’s not going anywhere.
Max returns with the metal case and sets it down in front of Wrenley like it’s a gift-wrapped present. He runs a hand up her leg. “This takes me back.”
“Only this time, I’m not afraid.” She says, cupping his jaw.
Matthew scoffs. “You’re all fucking deranged.”
She crouches down in front of him, lifting the lid of the box, selecting a pair of pliers. “Oh, buddy,” she murmurs, “I haven’t even started.”
I’m still swiping through the phone, absorbing every filthy breadcrumb he’s collected. I glance up. “There are three numbers in here, I assume one of them is Sebastian. Who do the other two belong to?”
Matthew closes his mouth and looks away from me.
Wrenley taps the pliers against her palm. “Are you going to make this easy, or do I get have fun?”
Matthew sneers. “Maybe if you spent more time paying attention to your enemies instead of fucking any man who gives you attention—”
That’s it. I lunge and drive my fist into his gut, folding him. Then an uppercut catches his jaw with a sickening crack. He slumps, coughing, but I’m already reaching again when Max steps in and slaps him hard across the face.
“That’s our wife,” Max says, voice cold and even.
Matthew coughs again, blood dribbling down his chin. “You’re all fucking insane!”
Wrenley’s smile could strip paint. “We’re not denying that.”
She grabs his hand and flattens it on the armrest. With a slow, surgical precision, she wedges the pliers between his fingers and starts to pry.
He screams. “Start talking.” She says softly.
“I—I don’t know anything!”
She twists. His scream turns raw. Wrenley drops the pliers. Blood runs in fine rivulets down Matthew’s hand. She picks up her dagger, the flat of it brushing his cheek. “When did he come back stateside?”
“I don’t know!” he sobs. “Maybe one… two weeks. I never saw him.”
Max crouches beside him. “You knew he was back and you didn’t say a word?”
Matthew shakes, soaked in sweat. “He comes and goes whenever and wherever he wants. He said if I didn’t help him, he’d do to me what he did to that driver!”
Wrenley drags the flat of the blade across his throat, not breaking skin. “Yet here you are. Still breathing. I wonder if that is a mistake.”
I step forward, voice low. “You’ve got one shot, Mattie. Cooperate… or scream yourself hoarse. Makes no difference to us.”
Matthew’s head snaps sideways under Torque’s backhand, teeth clacking loud enough I can hear it over his wheezing.
“You hit like a bitch,” Matthew spits, blood flecking his lips.
Torque cracks his knuckles. “Want to test that theory again?”
Max doesn’t wait; he drives a fist into Matthew’s ribs, just under where my last hit landed.
He jerks in the chair, gasping like a fish out of water.
Wrecker follows with an elbow across his jaw, snapping his head in the opposite direction.
He’s rocking in the chair now, bleeding from the mouth, one eye puffing shut.
“Fine, you want the truth,” he rasps. “I don’t know where he is. I do know that I am on his side, he said that all of you were crazy. You stole what was rightfully his. He wants it back. That’s all I know.”
“You know more than you’re letting on,” I growl, stepping in to plant a boot against his shin. “So talk.”
He continues rambling, it sounds like half-truths, half-bullshit, Sebastian in Lisbon, Sebastian in Chicago, he’s throwing names and random information like confetti, hoping that something sticks.
Wrenley tips her head, eyes cold. “Enough of this. I’m getting bored.”
That gets everyone’s attention, because a bored Wrenley is dangerous.
She glances at the four of us. “So… who wants to tell him?”
I grin. “Oh, baby… please let me.”
Her mouth curves slowly and dangerously. She nods.
I crouch in front of Matthew, close enough he can smell the gun oil on my jacket. “Did you really think playing both sides would keep you safe, that us or Sebastian would actually believe anything you say?”
His good eye blinks. “Wh-what do you mean?”
Max leans against the wall, arms crossed, voice mocking. “Come on, Matthew. Sebastian isn’t going to let you live after being here all this time. He convinced you to join him, it obviously didn’t take much. So what would make him think you couldn’t be persuaded to our side?”
Wrecker pushes off the wall, grinning like a madman. “I vote we start removing pieces and sending them to his loved ones, before he disappears all together.”
I let that sink in, watching the confusion twist into dawning horror.
“You’ve been an errand boy,” I tell him, voice low. “Doing whatever Sebastian wanted. It was his idea for you to come here, wasn’t it?”
Matthew’s breathing picks up, chest rising and falling fast. I know he’s wondering how deep the rabbit hole goes, and how much of his usefulness just evaporated.
Matthew’s head droops forward, blood dripping from the cut above his eyebrow, breathing unevenly. Wrenley’s in front of him, that still, lethal calm that means she’s about to ruin someone.
“You think you’re in control here? He rasps, blood staining his lips. “You don’t understand. Sebastian—he’s not just coming for you. He’s building something. Something you can’t stop.”
Her head tilts. “Building what?”
He hesitates. Big mistake. The tip of her smaller dagger traces lazily under his jaw, just barely nicking. “Don’t make me ask twice.”
“He said…” Matthew’s voice cracks. “It’s not enough to take you now. Not anymore. He’s building you a stage—a perfect stage. Says it’ll be just like home.”
Wrenley’s eyes narrow.
“Not the one you live in now. The old one. The house you grew up in,” he continues, eyes darting between us.
“He’s getting the exact wallpaper, the same curtains.
Even had someone track down and recreate the furniture from your parents' house. Says the floor will creak in the same spots. He wants you to see you like you’re a kid again. ”
She doesn’t react, which is somehow worse than if she did.
Matthew swallows hard and keeps talking. “He’s bringing the ones you love. Not to kill them—at least not right away. He wants them in the front row. Close enough to touch you but unable to move. Wants them to watch while—”
She presses the blade back to his cheek just enough to draw blood. “Careful.”
He smirks through the pain, voice almost mocking. “God, you two really are related.”
Her eyes spark. “Are you comparing me to Sebastian?”
“I’m saying you’re as fucked in the head as he is. Maybe that’s why he’s so obsessed, two broken pieces from the same set.”
I step forward, but Wrenley plunges the dagger into his thigh before I reach him. It's deep. His scream rips through the safehouse.
“Tell us everything.” she says softly, twisting the blade.
He’s panting now, trying to talk. “He’s calling it The Stage. Says it’ll be streamed to buyers, people with deep pockets, for a front-row seat to the last Hayes-Blackwood performance. After he’s done, he’ll auction off what’s left.”
The words hang heavy, but the danger in her smile is heavier.
“He wants you alive for days,” Matthew adds quickly, a maniacal smile spreading across his face. “Says the fear will taste sweeter if it lasts. He’s making a list, every person who’s ever touched you, helped you, even looked at you. He says by the end, you’ll be begging him to finish it.”
Wrenley steps back just enough to look at him like he’s already dead. “I’ll show you—and Sebastian—how fucking crazy I am when you threaten the people I love.”
Her arm hooks under his chin, jerks his head back, the dagger kisses across his throat.
Blood sprays hot across the floor and my boots.
She wipes her blade on Matthew’s shirt, slides it back into the sheath, and turns to the four of us with that glint that could cut steel.
“Clean this up,” she says. “We’ve got work to do. ”
She doesn’t blink. Doesn’t flinch. This isn’t the shock of her first kills; this is purpose. Precision. Control disguised as chaos. And fuck if it doesn’t light something in me I shouldn’t admit out loud. Max’s eyes meet mine. Yeah we both feel it.