55. CHAPTER 55
SEBASTIAN
I leaned against the house wall, sheltered from the rain, and pulled a cigarette packet and lighter out of my pocket. I didn’t smoke a lot anymore, but today, I needed to.
I took a drag and exhaled the smoke, watching it float away in the rain. I rubbed my face with my hand, running it through my hair.
Aria hadn’t slept much last night, which was to be expected after everything that had happened.
I didn’t sleep, either. I’d just held her, watching over her, trying to keep her safe from everything she was feeling. I felt useless, like I wasn’t doing enough for her. I didn’t know how to fix it.
All I knew was that she needed time to heal—and I’d be there through it all with her, every step of the way.
“Hey.”
I turned to face Aria, standing by the open patio door.
“Haven’t seen you smoke in a while,” she said.
“You caught me.” I smiled, looking up at her.
She pulled her hood up as she walked over to me, even though the rain couldn’t reach us here. Maybe she was just trying to hide the bruise on her cheek that I already knew was there. I stubbed the cigarette out in the ashtray on the table, then wrapped her up in my arms.
“How did you know where I was? Who were all those people with you?”
She looked like she had a hundred questions rolling around her mind.
“I’ll explain everything, I promise, but I just want you to heal first.”
She nodded, resting her head into my chest.
“I need to head out for a bit,” I finally said.
Her arms tightened around me. I knew I shouldn’t leave her, but I had to deal with Nicholas.
“How long will you be?” Her voice was barely a whisper against my shirt.
“Not long, I promise,” I replied. “Serfina is going to come and stay with you whilst I’m gone.”
Nicholas was going to pay for everything he had done. He’d be begging me to kill him by the end of it, but I wasn’t going to make it quick.
I’d been in this particular warehouse many times before, but this time was different, the air thick. I paused at the door the man who betrayed me was behind. I heard footsteps and turned to face Hayden.
“Everything’s ready for you,” Hayden said.
“And Soran?”
“He’s ready to send his men in when you’ve finished.”
I took a deep breath, opening the door and walking through into the dimly lit space. A small table was set at the side, a few instruments scattered on it, and some other items. The room wasn’t big; it didn’t need to be. You didn’t need much space to hurt a man.
To kill a man.
Nicholas was rigged up on a chain-through-hoop system. His wrists were bound high above his head, his feet inches from the floor. The chain was attached to a fixture on the wall to raise or lower him at any moment. His face was calm, as if he’d never seen me destroy a man before.
“Well, if it isn’t the great Sebastian Knight. Thought you didn’t get your hands dirty anymore?”
It had been a while since I’d tortured a man. I was sure it was just like riding a bike, something you never forgot. Either way, the end would be the same.
“How’s Aria? I heard she got into a bit of bother.” His laugh was laced with venom.
My fist was tightly clenched, my teeth digging into my bottom lip, as I tried to control that fire burning beneath my skin.
“Don’t fucking speak her name,” I hissed.
“Someone’s touchy today.”
I cracked my knuckles, preparing to fully unleash the man who had been clawing to get out. I lowered the chain, then dragged him by his tied wrists over to the water barrel.
“Oh, please, Sebastian, you think that’s going to bother me?”
I grabbed his collar and punched him in his lower abdomen. He let out a cough mixed with a laugh. No, it probably wasn’t going to bother him, but I’d enjoy watching him suffer.
I grabbed the back of his neck, shoving his face deep in the water, holding it tight. It didn’t take long before his hands were scrabbling at the rim of the barrel. Muffled sounds came from under the water, air bubbles coming fast from his mouth.
“Sorry, Nicholas. I can’t hear you.”
A few more muffled sounds came, almost a scream.
“What? Deeper?” I pushed his head in further.
His hands started banging the barrel, so I pulled him back up. He gasped, trying to take in as much oxygen as possible.
“You want to go again?”
I dunked him straight back in, applying more pressure to his neck this time.
“Fuck you, Sebastian,” he shouted, coughing up water after I pulled him back up again.
I chuckled.
“You know this is all your fault?”
I punched his nose, blood spilling, causing him to stumble back slightly.
He spat out blood. “If she weren’t with you that night at the business event, I wouldn’t have even known about her.” He laughed, poison running through every word. “It was the perfect opportunity to destroy you. Fucking stupid rich boy.”
He’d just lit the match and thrown it on petrol, engulfing everything within me.
I grabbed the chain, pulling him over to the chair and wrapping it around him, tightening it around his thighs to pin his hands against them, palms up.
Two scalpels in hand, I approached Nicholas again. Anger boiled beneath my skin as a smirk crawled across his face.
“I heard she begged him for it.”
I drove one straight into his left palm, pushing it deep and down into his thigh. He jumped, nostrils flaring as he tried to breathe through the pain.
He let out another small laugh between his breaths. “Even when you touch her, she’ll still feel him all over her.”
I pressed the second scalpel gently into his other palm.
He looked down at it and then back at me.
He was trying to hide it, but I could see in his eyes he was scared of what I was going to do.
I fixed my eyes on his and started to slowly push it through his palm.
He panted through the pain, trying not to cry out.
Sweat fell from his forehead, and his cheeks flushed with the struggle.
When I was done, I walked back over to the table, picked up a glass, and made my way back to him.
I placed it on the ground and stamped on it, glass crunching under my shoe.
I twisted my foot, grinding it into smaller pieces, before crouching and carefully picking up a small handful, watching it glisten in the palm of my hand like the sun hitting ice.
“Open your mouth.”
“Fuck you.”
I rammed my palm against his mouth, forcing the shards into it and holding my hands over his mouth and nose. “Swallow.”
His head jolted from side to side, trying to remove my hands, but it was no use. I felt him gulp as I released my hands.
He gasped, coughing up blood onto the floor. I grabbed some more shards, forcing them again to his mouth.
“It’s been a while since I’ve done this to a man, but I’m glad it’s you,” I hissed in his ear.
I made my way back to the table and poured myself a whisky before dragging the chair across the floor and sitting in front of him. I rested my ankle on my knee, my eyes fixed on his as I took a sip of that amber liquid.
Nicholas started to gag, sputtering blood out of his mouth, I watched it run down his chin and drip to the floor.
“That’s just the glass that’s sliced the insides of your mouth, cutting up your tonsils as you swallowed it down. There are probably some bits lodged in there, too.”
I watched his Adam’s apple move as his tried to swallow again.
I let out a silent laugh. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. It might make it worse.” I took another sip of my whisky.
More blood poured out of his mouth as his body started to tremble, gurgling wet sounds trying to escape his throat as he took in shallow, raspy breaths.
“This is for everything you did to Aria.”