Page 137 of Ballrooms & Blackmail

But since she’s still talking, I push that down, focus on what she’s saying.

And then I grin.

Because Angela Rosseau née Dubois may be brash and bitchy and all kinds of stubborn, she may adhere to her own moral code that’s far from black and white…

But no one can say she isn’t a brilliant strategist.

Or that she won’t go to the ends of the Earth to get what she wants.

Forty-One

Thorn

Consciousness returns in blips and spurts of sensation.

The cold concrete beneath my hip.

The tang of iron in my mouth.

The hard metal of the cuffs that are clamped so tightly my fingers have gone numb.

The unforgiving steel of the chair I’m tied to.

And Sergio’s voice sliding through the dark like oil drifting toward the sea. “Do you remember this room, brother?”

Yes.

Unfortunately.

Because it means I’m no longer in California, no longer close to River. Because it means I’m too fucking close to the past.

The cold-storage facility beneath the old funeral home looks worse than it did when I was sixteen.

Rust clings to the ceiling beams.

Broken tiles mar the floor.

Brown water stains crawl down old stone walls.

But it’s more than just what I’m seeing—it’s what I’m feeling, hearing, remembering.

Men begging for their lives. The crunch of bones breaking. The thunk of fists connecting with prone bodies. The clinks of metal tools. The soft clicks of guns being loaded.

And the booms of gunshots ringing out.

I swallow blood and lift my head to smile at Sergio. “I remember.”

He stands several feet away, his suit jacket gone, the sleeves of his button down rolled up to his elbows like this is a fucking business meeting instead of a kidnapping.

I flex my hands, trying to get some sensation back. “Do you remember?”

For a moment, his eyes flicker.

And I know he does.

The first time we were in this room, what we did here, how he reacted when we were done.

And how I washed away the evidence of his vomit on the floor, wiped the tears from his cheeks, held him up until the monster inside him took over.