“I didn’t see anything,” I murmur although I wish it was louder, “I swear if anyone asks—” I’m trying. I’m trying to be heard, but there’s a ringing in my ears and I don’t know if they can hear me.
It’s silent as I’m lowered farther and I scream until the mechanism stops abruptly. Tears stream freely. I’m fucking terrified.
“You need to tell me who you ratted to and what information you gave them,” he says, cutting me off as the cage is lowered deeper into the water. Only a few inches, but still I scream from the spikes of pain that shoot through my chilled body. My toes are already numb.
“Please stop! Declan!” I can’t help but cry out for him. He has to know I would never tell. I wouldn’t ever rat.
“It will all stop when you give us a name.”
A name? What name? I wish I had a name to give. One that would stop this.
“Whatever you think I did, I swear I didn’t do it.” I can barely get the words out. My body struggles against the bindings, ripping at my skin that’s already numb with a tingling pain.
“Help me!” I cry out again as tears stream down my face. With the scream leaving me, I can barely breathe in.
“Just one name, Braelynn, and I’ll stop all of this.” I don’t know the man behind me. I don’t recognize his voice, but I swear I hear someone else. Or maybe something else; I’m light-headed from both the fear and the cold. The tears haven’t stopped either, nor the trembling of my entire body.
“I sw-swear,” I say and swallow thickly, “I didn’t tell anyone anything.”
With that the grinding behind me begins again as I’m lowered quickly down, and I scream.
DECLAN
The chill of dread overwhelms me with each hard step of my oxfords slapping against the floor carrying a sense of finality as I make my way down the corridor to where they’re keeping her. It’s as if I’m suffocating even though my lungs are filled with oxygen.
Swallowing thickly, I read the text again. She hasn’t admitted a thing and he’s unsure of how much more they should push her. He requested they go easy but according to him, it’s proving more difficult to retrieve information without pressure. There’s a dull thud in my chest at the thought and a sickening churn in my gut.
I won’t fucking allow it.
My pace quickens and my numb body moves of its own accord. There isn’t a possibility that the information came from anyone else. I created the false figures in the dummy file myself and my family knows it. It was a test I didn’t think was needed, but Carter insisted, and she failed.
She played me for a fool.
As I look around, I hate every inch of this fucking place.
Over the last year, I’ve spent more time in this wing of our home than my own. Each of us has our own part of the estate,designed for comfort and with anything our hearts desire … and then we have this hall. I spend my time at The Club or here … rarely ever in my own corridor anymore.
With my blunt nails digging into my palm, I resist the disappointment that comes over me. I couldn’t last five minutes alone in that office, not knowing what Braelynn was saying and how she was reacting.
Carter said I shouldn’t watch. He said to stay away until it’s done. In this life, you don’t disobey. I can’t fucking stand it, though. She’smine, even if she was only using me.
My throat goes dry and my stomach twists into an iron knot. I can’t not watch. I can’t stay away. Even if she did betray me, I’m the one who let her in.
My little pet, and her sins, are my responsibility.
Just outside the soundproofed room, I pause, unsure of myself and unsure of everything. Gripping the handle, a single thought pushes me forward: I don’t want this dragged out. It needs to be over with. One way or the other.
The dark enclosed space is ten by twelve by twelve feet. It’s large enough to house the machinery and equipment necessary for interrogations. The vision of her, behind this door, sickens me. My wish was that she would own up to her deceit, they would leave her for me and then I would see to her end. As much as I loathe it, we cannot have rats among us. And a rat can’t leave after witnessing what happened with Scarlet.
But almost two hours in, she hasn’t admitted anything. She hasn’t said a word and Nate attributes it to going easy on her. All I want is for this to be handled and done. I can’t fucking breathe waiting for the end.
Agony seeps into my veins as I open the door and I’m greeted with her screams. Their backs are to me to my left where they watch Ronnie raise the machine. I can’t see her from behind itall, but her frantic screams paralyze me with a terror I’ve never known.
“Just one name and you can come out,” Ronnie says calmly with authority, and the anger that rings through me is unnatural and uncontrollable.
“Declan,” she whimpers.
“Declan’s not coming. Now give us the name of the person who came to you for information.”