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“With a twist.” I motion for Isabel to return to the table and switch on the current.
The lights flicker as a surge of electricity floods through the wires. Father’s body goes rigid, his eyes widen, he tightens his jaw.
“Do you think this will break me?” he asks.
“Isabel.”
She turns up the dial, making Father grunt. His breath quickens, and the veins on his temples bulge. His fingers claw at the armrests.
“Feel that pain?” I ask. “It’s directed at your nervous system. The low-level electric currents can keep you in agony while maintaining your sensitivity to pain.”
“To what end?” he snarls.
“So you can taste the suffering you inflicted on others,” I say.
Turning back to Isabel, I indicate for her to raise the current again. A low growl reverberates in Father’s chest as his muscles tighten.
“You were always too emotional, Xero,” he says through clenched gums. “That’s the difference between you and me. Focusing on forgotten bygones instead of gathering intel.”
“That’s why you turned your back on your family as I slaughtered them,” I reply. “Because there was no profit in saving their lives.”
“Putting sentimentality over the pursuit of power will be your downfall.”
“Yet you’re the one strapped to this chair about to lose everything.”
He sucks in a sharp breath and snarls as Isabel increases the current.
“What do you want?” Father says.
“What else were you running, apart from the snuff movie studio, Three Fates, and the organ trafficking ring?” I ask.
He answers with pained grunts, his body going taut. Agony flashes in those cold eyes, his defiance battling with fear.
Father’s silence is no surprise. I endured years of misery before I finally broke. However, we don’t have that kind of time.
I pick up a scalpel and crouch in front of him, my face close to his. “Days without food and water,” I murmur, tracing its bladealong the lines of his jaw. “Days of humiliation and pain. How long will you last?”
He doesn’t respond. I press the knife harder, making a shallow cut on his forearm. A thin line of blood appears, and he flinches, but barely perceptible. “By the time the other operatives finish, you’ll be nothing but a husk.”
Alarm flashes across his features. “I thought you’d keep it in the family.”
“Absolutely not. I have operatives, medics, cleaners, and maintenance staff waiting to extract their pound of flesh.”
“Call them off or I won’t share a shred of information.”
I draw back. “My people have captured at least twenty of your accomplices. We’re overwhelmed with data.”
A guttural noise escapes his lips, part laugh, part snarl. “You’re bluffing.”
“They have my permission to inflict any amount of degradation and pain, but to leave you intact. Amethyst is the only one who gets to cut off body parts.”
Father stiffens. It’s finally dawning on the old bastard that I’m here for revenge. “Then consider us even for killing my wife.”
Isabel turns up the electricity once more, infusing him with a surge of pain.
“She was a bitch,” she snaps.
Father hisses in, his breath coming in ragged gasps. “What’s wrong, boy? Can’t cope with a little competition?”
