Page 80 of Depraved

“You have no idea what I would do for you, Alyx.”

“Then save her. Please, Granite. Save her.” Desperate and desolate, I moved closer, ready to go on my knees if I needed to. “Please, just save Neon. Please, Granite. I beg you.”

He rubbed the back of his neck before sitting down on the chair. “It’s not that simple.”

“It is that simple. God, Granite. We’re talking about Neon, here. She’s not just some random person, she’s a part of your family. Tell me you’re not that cruel.”

He pulled his palm down his face, and I was sure I heard him curse under his breath.

In a last attempt to force him to flip his humanity switch back on, I fell on my knees in front of him, wiping tears from my eyes before placing my hands on his legs. “I beg you, Granite. I beg you with everything I have in me. Please help her. Please. Help. Neon.” The words could hardly make their way through my sobs as I choked on my own voice. “I’ll do anything. I’ll do anything you ask, just don’t let them hurt Neon any more than they already have. Please.”

He took my hand in his, his palm hard and rough against my skin, yet warm. Eyes which had lost their radiance, their color fading to nothing but black stared at me, and I knew no matter how much I pleaded, how hard I begged, it wouldn’t change a thing.

“It’s too late, Alyx. It’s done.”

I jerked my hand from his, tears slipping down my cheeks as I stood back up. “You son of a bitch.”

He brushed his palm down his beard, his gaze leaving mine for a second. “There are things you don’t understand, Alyx.”

“Oh, I understand.” My stomach clenched. “I understand that a life holds no value to you.”

“It’s not that simple.”

“You keep on fucking saying that! But from where I’m standing, it couldn’t be simpler.” The heartache was starting to claw at my spine, pulling my soul apart, and I wanted to scream so I could get rid of the agony.

He snorted. “You know nothing, Alyx. You might think you do, but you don’t. You’re no longer in the perfect little world you grew up in.”

I scowled at him, my glare as deadly as my heart was cold. “You’ve made it pretty fucking clear that I’m in your world now, where you rule. A world where you make and break, kill and destroy as you see fit. A world where you take what you want, even if it means ruining others.”

Granite stood, not saying a word. Like a giant brick wall, he was cold, hard, and not even the life of others could make him tear down the confines of the ruthless leader he was. I couldn’t decide whether the expression on his face was wistful or indifferent. I prayed to God it wasn’t the latter. A man with indifference in his heart was more dangerous than a man consumed with hate.

I turned and walked to the other side of the room, needing more distance from him. Even though deep down I already knew the answer to the question which had been burning on my tongue ever since he walked in, I had to hear him say it.

Rubbing my hands up and down my arms, I took a deep breath. “She’s already dead, isn’t she?”

Silence. Cold, hard, deafening silence that carved a hole in my chest with unspoken truth.

Tears rolled freely down my face, the stillness between us tearing my soul apart slowly…little by little. “Is she dead, Granite?” I wanted him to say it.

“Yes,” he answered softly.

“How do you know?”

I heard him inhale. “We found her body.”

An agonizing sob ripped from my body, cracking my chest wide open. I cried. I cried for her. I cried for me. I cried for every innocent life these monsters had ruined. It was a kind of pain I had never felt before, like every bone in my body had been fractured, and it cost me tear after tear after tear. I couldn’t even fucking breathe right. It hurt too much, knowing another human being had been tortured to death because of me—because of a man’s sick obsession with a ballerina girl.

Shudders wracked through me with ripples of sorrow, and I struggled to get enough air so I could speak. “She was the only one who has been kind to me ever since this nightmare started.”

“There’s nothing we could do.”

“Liar!”

“You’re hurt. I understand that.”

“Do you?” I spun around to face him. “Do you really? Because when I look at you now, all I see is a man without a fucking heart. A man driven by his own selfish needs who doesn’t give a fuck who he hurts in order to get what he wants.” I spat out the words like they were coals burning the inside of my mouth.

He roughed a hand through his hair, his face nothing but stone. “Like I said, I won’t say I’m sorry.”