“I know,” Wolf replied sincerely. “Now brace yourself.”
Dex nodded. He clenched his jaw and inhaled deeply through his nose, his fists balled so tight his knuckles were white. Think of home.
The first blow had him seeing stars. For all of Mr. Wolf’s sophisticated charms, he was a Therian, and one skilled in the art of causing pain. That much was evident right away. Wolf also managed to inflict damage without incapacitating. After all, if he wanted information out of his prisoner, a method of communication was key. The most intriguing part was how Wolf managed to beat the shit out of Dex while keeping himself looking impeccable. Even with Dex’s blood splattered over his white shirt, he looked elegant. Dex would have commended him if he could talk.
The worst of it wasn’t the blows to the face, the split lip and brow, the throbbing, or even the taste of his own blood inside his mouth as well as the blood trickling down from his nose. It was the fiery concoction that must have been brewed with the Devil’s piss because it burned like a son of a bitch when Wolf applied it to one of Dex’s open wounds. It scorched his flesh, and when Wolf applied it to Dex’s brow, he cried out. Tears pooled in his eyes from the sting, but he quickly blinked them away and gritted his teeth, pushing through the pain. His heart was pounding, and he jerked in his seat, sucking in gulps of air. Jesus, it burned.
“I know,” Wolf cooed. “I’m so sorry.”
He pressed his lips to Dex’s. It was brief but gentle, startling Dex. He tugged at his arm, instinct propelling him to punch Wolf in the face, but all that did was send more pain up his arm.
“Shhh, it’s okay.” Wolf wiped Dex’s blood from his lips with his thumb before he ran a hand over Dex’s head, soothing him. “Please. You can make this stop. Just tell me what I want to know.” He crouched down between Dex’s knees and slid his hands to Dex’s thighs, then to his hips. Wolf’s dark brows were drawn together, his lips pulled down in a frown. “I’m really not enjoying this. You’re a good man, Dex. I don’t like hurting good men.”
“You could stop,” Dex said with a shaky laugh that verged on a sob, but he pushed past it. His vision was growing blurry again, and he shut his eyes tight. For weeks his eyes had been bugging him, itching, blurring, and until recently it had been a minor inconvenience. He’d put it down to fatigue, but Sloane had been worried, so Dex promised he’d make an appointment with the eye doctor. He wished he’d done it sooner. Now was not the time for his vision to be giving him problems.
“I wish I could, but I have a job to do, and once I give my word, I follow through. Dex, please. Help me help you.”
Dex gazed down at Wolf, his voice a low growl. “You know what? Fuck you. At this point, even if I had the goddamn thing, I wouldn’t give it to you.”
“Such language.” Wolf tsked.
Dex let out a laugh. “Well, get used to it, Buttercup, because it just gets prettier from here on out.”
“I was afraid it would come to this.” Wolf stood and leaned in, pressing his cheek to Dex’s as he slipped one hand around the back of his head. He murmured softly as he stroked Dex’s hair. “I’m going to ask you one more time. Where is the file Gina Daley had in her possession the day she died?”
When Dex didn’t reply, he received a punch to the kidney. Fuck. At this rate he’d be pissing blood for a week. If he survived.
“All right.” Wolf straightened and released a sigh. “Just remember, you brought this on yourself.” He slipped into the shadows and returned with a long, narrow wrap of dark leather. After moving his chair closer to Dex, he pulled the ties loose and unrolled the leather on the chair’s seat. Dex’s jaw muscles tightened at the neat row of long, fine needles. They looked like the kind acupuncturists used. Dex twisted his wrists, the sweat on his skin only allowing for minimal movement, not enough for him to free himself.
Gently, Wolf took hold of Dex’s left hand and bent to give his fingers a kiss before taking hold of his middle finger. Dex’s body betrayed him, trembling under Wolf’s touch in anticipation of the pain. Nothing he’d experienced before could prepare him. All he could do was endure. Pray he could somehow find a way to get out of this. To survive. Wolf slipped one of the needles out, crouched down in front of Dex, and placed the tip under Dex’s fingernail. Wolf’s steel-gray eyes met Dex’s. “This is going to hurt a great deal. It’s all right to scream. Again, you’ve left me no choice.”
Dex’s eyes watered as Wolf began to push the needle in. His heartbeat skyrocketed, and he jerked against the restraints. Oh God…. He’d endured a hell of a lot in his life, in his career at the HPF and then the THIRDS, but never anything like this. He focused on his breathing, on finding a safe place inside his head. Sloane….
The needle plunged deeper, and Dex jolted, a strangled cry torn from his lips. He pushed against the floor with his feet, jerked his arms, and twisted his body in an attempt to get away from the agonizing pain, but nothing he did would ease his suffering.
“This is just the beginning, Dex,” Wolf assured him softly. “I will break you.”
“Fuck you,” Dex spat. Sweat beaded his brow, and his fingers shook. It was only going to get worse. With a sigh, Wolf moved on to the next finger, and Dex closed his eyes, his muscles straining and sweat dripping down the side of his face as the second needle was pushed in under his fingernail. Sometime between the third and fourth needle, everything went black.
“Stop! Stop, I can’t take anymore!”
Tears ran down Dex’s cheeks. His face hurt from laughing so hard.
“You give up?”
Sloane’s smile brought little creases to the corners of his amber eyes, making Dex’s heart skip a beat. He was so damned beautiful. New silver strands had appeared in his beard and at his temples, adding to his sex appeal. Sloane was one of those guys who grew even more gorgeous with age, and Dex’s heart swelled at the thought of growing old with the man he loved.
Those amber eyes had been filled with so much pain not long ago, and now they lit up with affection and laughter. With every passing day, despite the darkness they sometimes encountered on the job, Dex witnessed Sloane embrace the growing lightheartedness within him. It was their day off, and they’d been too tired to go out, so they decided to lounge around the house reading, watching TV, eating, and cuddling. In the afternoon they’d made love, then took a nap. Dex had never been happier.
“I give up,” Dex said with a husky laugh, drawing his knees up and pressing them to Sloane’s hips. “I’m tickled out. I’ll eat the rabbit food.”
Sloane planted his elbows on either side of Dex’s head, his eyes bright with laughter. “Am I going to have to tackle you every time I ask you to try a new vegetable dish?”
“If I’m going to start gnawing on bark, I should get something out of it.”
Sloane laughed. “You are getting something out of it. Good health.”
“But why does healthy food have to taste like boiled grass?”