Chapter 42
Rico
The bitter taste of copper floods my mouth and coats my chin.
Ever since I woke Seamus, Sebastian and Kirill have been inflicting their own personal brand upon me.
It’s been hours of receiving pain. Yet the greatest pain of all is the unknown of what is happening to my wife.
Another punishing blow to my ribs from Kirill causes me to wheeze. He’s heavy handed. Never holding back on the force of his impact. I know my ribs are broken. I only worry the next time he punches he doesn’t cause a rib to puncture my lung.
Sebastian cracks a cruel grin, satisfaction gleaming in his eyes. This is the man my wife was arranged to marry. Even if I die I’ll make sure he never has her.
“You’re strong,” Kirill comments, rather impressed. I stare at him blankly.
“He’ll break,” Seamus promises from beside him. “I want him to before we kill him. You took my daughter from me.”
I grimace, spitting blood to land at his feet. “A daughter you cared nothing for except to breed your next heir.”
Seamus’ lips curl. He then strikes his hand across my face. My brow is already split open. He’s only widening the wound. “Don’t speak on what you don’t know.”
I blink past the blood leaking from my eyebrow. Red taints my vision in more ways than one. “Then you shouldn’t be speaking at all. You don’t know your daughter.”
He huffs. “I most certainly do. You’ve only brainwashed her. Once you’re dead she’ll come to her senses.”
“Come to her senses about what exactly?” I question through gritted teeth. “How her pa didn’t give a damn about her? How you chose the family over her?” I become angry on her behalf. “She’s already come to her senses, Seamus. And the light cast upon you has shown your hideous face.”
He strikes me once more. This time I spit out a tooth. Fucking bastard. “You think you can talk to me like that? The fucking disrespect.”
“Si.”
His face becomes red. The vein in his forehead pulsates madly.
He furiously grabs the crowbar on the metal table with an array of weapons and bashes it on my kneecap.
I hear the sickening crunch. The pain reverberates up and down my leg.
Instead of a scream I release a primal roar.
One that echoes through the holding cell he has me bound to.
Over the hours I’ve come to know Seamus and Sebastian prefer their tools. Kirill prefers his fists.
“You had no right taking what didn’t belong to you.” Sebastian says tightly.
At that I can’t help but laugh. So uncharacteristic of me but it slips out. He narrows his eyes and his mouth sets in a grim line. “She ran away because she didn’t want to marry you.”
He scoffs. “Imogen would never run away. You took her!” He turns to Seamus. “Tell him how mad he is!”
“Imogen would never do such a thing,” he confirms stiffly.
“But she did. I just so happened to have it planned on the same night. I’ve never believed in fate but maybe it was fate who wanted us together all along.”
There’s no containing Sebastian nor Seamus’s anger then. They take it all out on me. Through my bleary and swollen eyes I see Kirill stand back with his arms folded just watching. And in the back of mind I wonder what he’s up to.
By the time they’re done their beatdown my head hangs heavy against my chest. My breaths come in labored. Each breath becomes harder than the last. Parts of my body feel numb from the pain. A blessing and a curse.
“My wife. . .” My voice is strained and filled with pain. It hardly comes out. But they hear me. “Where. Is. My. Wife.”
Kirill smirks sinisterly. The irony isn’t lost on me. He’s searching for his promised bride. I’m asking for mine. He’s relishing this.
“My daughter,” Seamus corrects harshly, “will never be around the likes of you again.”
“Death will not keep me from her.”
Seamus’s lips thin. “I’ll test that theory soon.” He nods his head at Sebastian. He follows behind him as he leaves this fucking cell. Kirill taunts me with the key as he locks me in.
He stays behind, watching me like a predator would their prey on the other side of the cell.
I crumple to the floor and spit up more blood. Then, I prop myself against the wall so I can breathe. Ribs are definitely broken.
“Have you become a guard dog?” I snicker at him.
“I stayed behind for a few questions of my own,” he says.
I blow out a shaky breath. “And you think I’ll answer?”
“If it involves me taking your pretty little wife.”
I snarl at him. “Don’t fucking touch her.”
Kirill smiles. “So much spirit for someone named the Grim Reaper.” He approaches the cell and dangles the key. “Maybe I can be your savior and set you free.”
“I don’t do foolish thinking.” While my mind races beyond comprehension I physically can’t get up and isolate myself. Maybe this is the true torture. To be stuck in a mental meltdown without being able to regulate myself in the healthy way I’ve learned how.
“Suit yourself.” He swings the keyhole ring around his finger. “But you will answer my questions.”
“Can’t promise an answer,” I bite.
“Zhen Huang," he says. “Her name ring a bell to you?”
I always hated that expression. No name rings a fucking bell. You either have knowledge of it or don’t. But I don’t argue against his figure of speech.
“The late sister of Tao. Si.”
“My promised bride,” he muses. “Was Tao’s father’s last order before he died.”
“And so did Zhen.”
He tsks. “Do not let my brawn fool you. I am of brains, too. Zhen didn’t die.”
And while I have the information on Zhen he so desperately seeks I’ve been sworn to keep it a secret. I bite down on my tongue.
“You know I was close to the truth. A soldier of mine many months ago had called me with information when he was in the states. Said a woman of Zhen’s description was last found in Maine.
Now imagine my surprise when I find my soldier dead in Hell’s Kitchen with Tao’s calling card all over it.
Doesn’t sound dead to me, does it Reaper? ”
Constantine had warned Tao killing the Russian soldier would only make him a target. But Tao is young. Still so much yet to learn.
And I can lie to Kirill all I want. He knows the truth. He just needs someone to confirm it before he begins his hunt.
“You’re silent,” he points out the obvious. “Ordered not to say anything?“
I remain silent.
The silence stretches between us.
“I respect you for your loyalty,” he compliments me. “But now is not the time to have it.”
My vision begins to blur as black dots appear. The struggle to breathe becomes imminent. Maybe they did puncture a wound. Fuck. What if this is it?
A lump lodges itself in my throat as my eyes burn.
To never see her face again. One of angelic beauty. To never feel her love again. How I felt it in every kiss and touch. How it brightened her eyes. To never be understood. She understood me completely. Never once made me feel less than.
I ache far worse with the knowledge I’ll never get to hold her one last time than all the beatings I have suffered.
“He may have sworn his silence but I didn’t.” I hear her melodic voice strong and steady encompass the basement in which this cell resides.
I’m hallucinating.
I really am near my end.
It’s cruel in a way. To make me believe she has found me. But I’ll take it. At least I’ll hear her voice before I go. Maybe I can find peace in that.
Fuck, I’ve lost my mind first haven’t I?
“Aren’t you supposed to be locked in your tower, princess?”
“I’m not a princess,” she snaps. “And someone not too long ago told me I would save myself. I’m saving him, too.”
“Okay,” Kirill says evenly. “You’ve piqued my interest. Let’s have a little chat.”