Chapter 40 The Higher You Rise
THE HIGHER YOU RISE
JACOB
“I have a wedding gift for you.” Declan grins when I walk back into Sigma House.
“Good news travels fast.” I shake my head, all but expecting this.
After Patience agreed to marry me while I was fucking her in the Sigma House dungeon, I wasn’t going to wait another second. Which is why I stopped by to see my friend the judge on the way back to her dorm room so we could finalize our decision.
I’ve never been a man of rash decisions, but my wife brings it out in me.
My wife.
The thought of that makes me fucking feral. If I didn’t have things to take care of at the House, and she didn’t need to pack so I can bring her back to our apartment later, I’d turn around and drive straight back to her.
“I guess you two worked things out.”
My glare cuts to him. “I’m not talking to you about my wife.”
“Fair enough.” Declan grins. “But I got you a gift either way.”
He continues walking, and I don’t miss that the House is on lockdown and that the only people here are members. When we finally reach one of the main living rooms at the end of the downstairs hall, Declan waves an arm out.
“Say hello to your new father-in-law.”
I freeze at the entryway, and Gideon Lancaster’s eyes widen at Declan’s words. But he can’t say anything with the gag in his mouth. At least Declan made cleanup easy. Gideon is tied to a metal chair with a clear tarp beneath him.
His bloody face twitches as he watches me, and when I glance at Alex cleaning a knife at the edge of the room, I see he’s already seized the opportunity to have some fun.
Around Alex are at least fifty other House members. Some initiates. Some legacies.
“Quite an audience,” I say, unsurprised, given what Gideon did.
Sigma Sin trials are one of our most respected traditions.
And even if they’re essentially torture, there are rules for how the trials are performed.
Gideon broke that trust when he used his influence to pull me from the room that day his son was strapped to an electric chair. He almost got Alex killed.
Alex tucks away his knife, nodding at me like he’s had his fun, and it’s my turn. I wish I had that kind of restraint right now. But as my attention returns to Gideon, and I roll up my sleeves, I’m flooded with rage. And surprisingly, it’s not because of what happened when I was in college.
I was holding on to my relationship with Molly because she was an idea I wanted to entertain. A girl I could have loved had I been born with a different name and grown up with different choices.
None of it was real, and it took meeting Patience for that to sink in.
Molly didn’t love me, just like I didn’t love her. We were young and looking for comfort. If she actually cared, she wouldn’t have cheated on me, and if I cared, I’d have done something about her concerns with Sigma House.
Neither of us was willing to bend, whereas I’d break for Patience if it came down to it. I’d do anything for her, including accepting the role as Sigma House President. If this is what it takes to keep her safe, so be it.
That thought fuels me as I stand in front of her father. This man made my wife’s life a living hell. He tortured her brother and made her fear stepping out of line. This man tried his best to snuff out her fire, and I look forward to doing the same to him.
“Remove the gag. My father-in-law and I need to have a discussion.” I smirk when Gideon’s eyes light with anger.
Maddox steps forward with a needle, injecting it into Gideon’s arm before removing the gag.
“I want him awake.”
“I know.” Maddox grins, holding up the syringe. “It’s a paralytic. He’ll be wide awake and unable to move.”
While I’ve earned my reputation as the Interrogator, Maddox is quickly making a name for himself as a chemist for the House. I wouldn’t be surprised if he surpasses me someday with the sick and twisted concoctions he creates.
Gideon flinches a few times as he processes what Maddox said, but he can’t move anything but his head.
“What did you do?” he grits out, snapping at my brother.
I step closer. “It doesn’t feel good having your power stripped away, does it?”
“You have no right to do this to me. I made you, Ezra.”
“You’re right. You did.” I step back, waving my arms out at my sides. “You created a monster you couldn’t control, and look where it got you.”
His teeth clench as he glares up at me. “Stay away from my daughter.”
“Don’t you mean my wife? Sorry you missed the ceremony this afternoon. But I can assure you it was lovely. You were right. Your daughter is a beautiful girl.”
“You sick fuck—”
I slam my fist into the side of his face, cutting him off as blood shoots across the floor. Grabbing his jaw, I force him to face me again.
“Does she know you don’t care about her? That you were only using her to lure me back out?” Gideon narrows his eyes. “Does she know who you are? What you’ve done?”
“She does. Not that it’s your concern anymore.”
“So that’s it then, you’re going to kill me to get back at me for your slut of a college girlfriend and then take Patience as some kind of trophy.”
I reach into my back pocket and pull out my knife, flipping it around and planting it in Gideon’s thigh. “Keep my wife’s name out of your mouth, or I’ll take twice as long with you.”
His jaw tightens, barely managing to hold in his scream.
Like me, Gideon Lancaster was born and raised to withstand torture. It will be difficult to make him break. But not impossible.
Everyone has a snapping point.
Who knew mine would be his daughter?
“You want to know the truth about Molly?” Gideon asks, spitting a wad of blood on the floor.
“I already know the truth.”
“Do you?” He grins. “Or are you still operating on bad information just like you did back then? You could have never been me, Ezra. You were always too gullible, believing anything you were told.”
“I’ve seen the records.”
“Like those can’t be tampered with.” His gaze cuts to Alex. “Unless you’ve seen something with your own eyes, can you really trust the information?”
“If you’re going to try to convince me you didn’t have Haven kill Molly, save it.”
“I’m not. I gave the order for the good of the House. Did you know she was digging into us, trying to expose what we were doing?”
No, I didn’t. But I don’t let my surprise show because I refuse to let Gideon think he has the upper hand for even a second.
“If you don’t believe me, have my son collect her journals from my house. Third bookcase from the left. Bottom shelf.” He smirks, so I lean over and pull the knife out, shoving it under a fingernail and ripping it off.
Maddox’s elixir works because Gideon doesn’t move, but his scream tears through the room.
“Fuck you.” He grits his teeth, breathing hard.
“Did you really think I’d just turn on you for no reason?
You were my protégé. I wanted you to succeed.
Why would I fuck that up by killing the girl you were seeing and pissing you off unless I had reason to?
I had it on good authority that Molly was trying to act against Sigma House, and I took action, as was my right as a council member. ”
“Good authority?” I glare. “A second ago, you had journals to prove your point. Now you’re saying someone passed you that information? Who told you about her?”
Gideon clamps his mouth shut, which gets my attention because he isn’t protective of anyone.
“Clamp.” I hold my hand out, and Declan grins, walking to the table at the side of the room.
He grabs the clamp and hands it over.
“I’m tired of your lies, Gideon. If you have nothing worth hearing, we’ll all just sit here and listen to you scream.” I tighten the clamp on one of Gideon’s fingers, and he starts to sweat.
“I’m telling the truth. Molly was a traitor, and I dealt with her. Why do you even care? You let another man knock her up.”
I twist the clamp, and Gideon screams as his finger rotates. I continue until the bone snaps, then shatters. Until his finger is facing the wrong direction.
He nearly passes out when Maddox steps forward and injects Gideon with something new.
“Wake up.” Maddox slaps his face, grinning, and Gideon immediately snaps too. “There you are.”
Gideon’s eyes are wide as he screams with pain. “I did it for the House. She was looking into us.”
“Says your unknown source?” I laugh. “You hear how it sounds, right?”
He doesn’t answer, but something flares in his eyes. Enough to spark a hint of doubt. Not that it will save him. But if he’s right, and he was fed that information, someone else was involved.
Someone else wanted her dead.
“Enough.” I undo the clamp and attach it to another finger. “I’m done discussing the past. That’s not what we’re here for.”
This time, Gideon stays wide awake while I twist and break his finger. The drugs Maddox shot into his arm have him present to feel every second of it.
Gideon breathes hard when I release the clamp. “Don’t tell me this is about Patience.”
I grab his jaw, forcing his mouth open to smash the butt of my knife against his front tooth, shattering it. “What did I say about my wife?”
Gideon spits out the shattered tooth, and when he speaks again, his words are slurred. “The great Interrogator finally has a weakness? They’ll use it against you.”
“They’ll try. And then they’ll end up like you.” I glance down at him, sitting in a mess of blood and piss.
Gideon smiles, his head waving side to side. “You think you can protect her, but you can’t. Trust me, I tried.”
“By controlling her? By abusing her?” I grab his hair and tip his head back. “I saw the scars. Was that you protecting her?”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
I release his hair and notice he looks over at Alex, who refuses to meet his gaze.
But I’m done talking. All I want now is for Gideon to feel pain.
For the next hour, I move from the clamp to the pliers. Trading off with Alex until Gideon is nothing but a drooling mess of broken bone and spirit. Only then do I stop and decide to finally end it.
“Any last words?” I stand in front of him.
“Fuck you.” It’s mumbled through his battered teeth.
I chuckle. “Take from the House, we take from you, Gideon.”
“Judgment day finds us all, Ezra.” His head lolls to the side. “Right when you think you’ve made the right call, it might be the one that sends you six feet under. You think you’re untouchable, but none of us are. Not really. The higher you rise, the farther the devil has to drag you back home.”
Smirking, I pull out my gun and hold it to his head. “Until then, I suppose I’ll just have to keep myself busy with your daughter.”
With a final wink, I pull the trigger.