I’m okay now. We’re all okay. We dealt with them all without needing any extra brutality… didn’t we?
No other voices or footfalls carry from outside. I sprint up the steps to peek out into the cooling air of what’s now evening.
Nothing stirs around the van or the car that’ve parked a short distance from our vehicle.
I race back down to the hall. “That’s all of them!”
But we don’t know how many reinforcements could be on the way. Will the last of this bunch have called for backup before they descended?
They might not have been able to saywhothey were fighting, but they’d have realized the situation was bad.
When I reach the room where Jacob and Andreas were working on the one man, I find Zian has dragged his captive over there too, restraining him in the corner several feet from the first.
Andreas is frowning, sweat beading on his forehead as his eyes flare and dim.
“Fucking hell,” he snaps, and glares at the man pinned to the wall. “If you don’t let me in, we’ll just have to kill you.”
He glances at the other guy too, who I guess he also tried. “That goes for both of you.”
The man Zian is holding sputters a little bloody spittle over his lips. “You’re going to do that anyway. I’m not giving you a thing.”
Dominic has come in beside me. We exchange a glance, neither of us knowing how to help.
“I can make the killing a whole lot more painful,” Jacob warns, and twists his hand to the side. The man he’s pressed against the wall lets out a grunt of agony, his features spasming.
Andreas elbows Jake. “That doesn’t help,” he says under his breath. “If their brain is fried with pain, I can’t get much out of it then either.”
Jacob scowls but eases up on the pressure.
I hug myself, uneasiness wobbling through my chest. If we can’t get any answers from them, then where do we go from here?
Jacob was right that there are millions of places Engel could have set up her cabin, if she even did that.
The hovering man’s gaze catches on me for a moment, and I catch the slightest softening in his defiant expression. It’s there and then gone, but for a second I thought I saw a hint of… concern?
My first response is a jolt of anger. Who the hell is he to feel sorry for me?
Then understanding clicks in my head.
The hostile words Zian threw at me less than an hour ago. All Jacob’s sneering comments about my “sob story.” The reason I was so popular in the arena for all those years.
I don’t look like a threat. I’m a short, skinny girl you’d think you could snap in two. My only outwardly unnerving feature is my claws, and I’ve retracted those back into my fingertips.
I hate it when people see me as someone weak and fragile… but maybe that’s what we need right now. Maybe I can use the illusion of vulnerability to distract this guy from whatever technique he’s using to close off his mind.
Stir up sympathy to rattle his emotions and his concentration in a totally different way from pain.
Even though it’s my idea, my body balks for a few seconds before I can propel it forward. My skin prickles with discomfort as I place myself within clear view of both of our captives. Might as well see if the gambit will work on both of them.
“What the hell are you doing?” Jacob snaps at me, giving me the perfect opening.
I hunch my shoulders and let my voice come out quavering. “I’m just trying to help. Please don’t yell at me.”
Jacob’s expression contorts with so much surprise I’d laugh if I wasn’t aiming to give off the complete opposite impression. I turn back toward the captives, brushing my hands past my eyes as if swiping away tears.
I’ve got tears in me somewhere, the burn of grief and frustration I’ve felt more times than I can count since I reunited with my guys. Since all the way back to watching Griffin collapse in front of me and knowing I’d failed us all.
Blinking hard, I open up a channel inside me to bring those feelings to the surface rather than stuffing them as far down as they’ll go like usual. Heat builds behind my eyes.