AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Her head violently shakes back and forth, tears streaming down her red cheeks. “No,” she mumbles through the gag. “I didn’t know. I…” Gabriel grunts, slapping her across the face with his gloved hand as she cries out from the stinging pain.
“Tell the truth!”
“Please! I didn’t know,” she sobs, sucking in several snot-filled breaths.
“Did she?” Gabriel asks, turning to Thomas, who rests stoically on his knees.
His thin lips don’t move an inch as he watches his wife’s life hang in the balance. Poor Veronica. Her eyes plead with her husband to stick up for her. To say anything that might hint at her innocence. But he does none of that. Like the coward he is, he watches with a stone-cold expression as Gabriel shrugs, driving the sword directly through her heart. She doesn’t scream or cry any longer as she stares wide-eyed at her husband with hurt etched into her face for eternity. Then, just like that, she ceases to exist and falls to the ground with a heavy thud echoing through the room.
One down. One to go.
“That was for me,” Gabriel grunts, dislodging the sword from her body and turning to us. “Subdue him,” he says with a flick of his wrist, gesturing to the three men still keeping Thomas at bay.
My eyes flash to him and his unmoved facial features. He didn’t flinch when his own wife met her demise. He didn’t cry out or call out for her. She died with the disappointment of her husband, the man who vowed to love her unconditionally through sickness and in health, not protecting her from the enemy disguised as his friend.
Never show your enemy your emotions. Never let them see how you feel or who is important to you.
Another lesson of our training from the very men before us. They raise us in emotionless camps, training to take lives without a second glance. It’s something Gabriel insists upon every child when they turn thirteen. And now I see why. If he had cried out, they would have seen how important she was to him. Maybe they would have tortured her a little to gain information about his dealings. Maybe they would have strapped her down and dragged it out more. Instead, they chose to end her life to get to his.
Thomas doesn’t fight the onslaught of fists and kicks raining down on his body as he crumples to the floor. Wheezes echo through the room until he lies unconscious on the cold stone ground with four grown men standing about him.
Stepping back, Gabriel dusts off his suit with a huff, spitting at the ground. “This is what happens when you turn your back on the family and extend your hand to some other scum.” He shakes his head and turns toward us with a sharp eye, taking us in our kneeling position. “This,” he says, pointing to the man lying on the ground. “This is your final task to prove your worth within the family. I want every fucking answer from his lips by any means possible.”
Arrow grins, puffing out his still-bleeding chest. “Even Max and Nova?” His grin widens when Gabriel smirks and nods his approval.
“I encourage their assistance. They always seem to get the answers that we need,” Gabriel says, rubbing his hands together and smearing the blood still resting on his flesh. “Well, that’s it, men. You may rise from your position on the ground and get this asshole to wherever you’re going. But keep me updated.”
“Thank you, Sir,” I answer first, gently getting off my knees without a flinch. No matter how much pain shoots through my stiff limbs, I don’t dare make a sound. “We’ll get the information you requested and get it back to you promptly.”
“After we have some fun,” Arrow grins, jumping to his feet with a whoop.
Shepp is the last to get off his knees without flinching. Just like our training taught us to do. ‘Understood,’ he signs, eyeing me for interpretation.
“He understands,” I say.
Gabriel frowns, scoffing in Shepp’s direction. “One day, Boy, you’ll learn to use that voice again,” he says like so many times before, looking down on Shepp for refusing to speak when he knows he can.
And with that, he waves the others out of the room, most likely heading to their special bar down the way to drink away their celebrations.
‘Wow,’ Shepp signs, reaching down to grab one of the photos. ‘You think he’s the cause of all the bad drugs?’
“It would make sense,” I say, shrugging as I inspect one of the pictures with a close eye.
It’s taken directly from his house. I remember the layout like the back of my hand. I remember that office from my meeting with Elias. Seems he likes to hold meetings in Kent Thomas’s office. Like someone crawled through his window and captured everything with their camera. And he had no clue.
‘Where did he get these?’ Shepp signs, turning to look behind him. ‘Looks like someone was following him around?’ Shepp questions with furrowed brows. ‘You think your father has a spy?’
Hmmm. Could it be?
“Yeah,” I surmise, rubbing my chin.
Oh, yes. It definitely could be.
“As paranoid as he is, he probably has a bunch planted across the city. It could be anyone,” I say, earning a nod in agreement. “Even someone we know.”
Shepp blinks rapidly, staring at me with a cocked head. ‘You don’t think…’ he signs, trailing off and leaving his fingers hanging in mid-air.
“I do,” I say with a false calmness.
