Page 57 of Silk and Sirens

“Don’t make me repeat myself.”

Kane wheezed and gasped, struggling for air.

For fuck’s sake.

A low whistle cut through the room, and I turned to see Langdon leaning against the doorway, watching the bloodied detective like it was prime entertainment. I hadn’t even heard the door open, so caught up in the violence.

“You’re throwing a party and didn’t invite me?” he signed, a wicked smirk twisting his mouth. “Who’s this sorry fuck?”

“The detective who arrested Dad.”

Langdon’s eyebrows shot up as he let out another whistle, sharper this time, the sound laced with genuine surprise. “Not your usual style, antagonising the cops. That’s normally my territory.”

The detective started wheezing harder, struggling as Langdon stepped forward and casually drove his foot into the front of the chair. It toppled backward with a violent crash, Kane’s skull cracking against the floor.

“I’ll tell you! I’ll tell you everything!” the detective screamed, just as the sharp, acrid stench of piss permeated the air around him.

With a shrug, Lang reached down and hauled the chair back onto all four legs, brushing the concrete dust from the detective’s shoulders before giving the universal ‘A-OK’ sign right in front of his terrified, blood-smeared face.

“Look, I fucked a couple whores, alright?” Kane rasped, words tumbling out in a broken rush. “Aeris found out I was supposed to be investigating them for solicitation and drugs. Instead of arresting them … I fucked them. If it ever came out, I’d lose my job and get done for bribery and misconduct.”

A laugh caught in my chest, but I didn’t release it as I slowly walked to the side where my sledgehammer rested. I dragged it behind me, the sound of metal against the concrete echoing around us until I stood in front of the detective.

“Please,” Kane begged, snot and blood dripping from his ruined nose. “Let me go. She’s the one who fucked with the Beast, not me. I’m just a pawn. She played me.”

Lifting the hammer, I used the head to tilt up Kane’s chin. “Keep going.”

“She … she used it against me. Blackmailing me with getting her information on certain cases. She sent me a recording of a conversation between herself and your father, then told me to arrest him or else she’d ruin me. So I did, but I didn’t realise he was associated with you or the Beast!”

My voice dropped into a low, lethal growl. “Is that why you hit her?”

Langdon’s head snapped towards me while Kane’s swollen eyes widened.

“She’s just some whore⁠—”

I hit the hammer against his left kneecap.

He screamed, and I was thankful I decided to bring him to Thorns rather than do this in his tiny flat. Without hesitation, I swung again, crushing his right kneecap. The satisfaction that rolled through me was dark and vicious.

“You really shouldn’t have touched her,” I said, stepping to the side just as Kane vomited all over himself.

“I didn’t … I didn’t know she was yours,” he barely managed to get out.

This time I laughed. A low, cold sound that had nothing to do with humour.

I swung the hammer once more, this time straight into his face. Bone gave way with a sickening crunch, blood and teeth spraying across the concrete as I kept swinging until the man who’d dared lay hands on Aeris was nothing but a ruined, unrecognisable mess.

My chest heaved, lungs burning as the adrenaline slowly ebbed. The only sounds left in the concrete room were the steady dripping of Kane’s blood pooling beneath his body and the calm, relentless ticking of my watch in the corner.

Loosening my grip, the sledgehammer slipped from my fingers and clattered heavily to the floor, splattering fresh crimson across the concrete.

Only then did I turn, finding Langdon standing there wearing a wide, feral grin of pure, unhinged delight.

“This was never about Alexander at all. You’re here because of Aeris.” His eyes gleamed. “You’ve fucked her, haven’t you?”

“Of course not.” I crossed the room, snatching my watch from the table and snapping it back onto my wrist with more force than necessary. “She’s blackmailing us.”

“Hot, right?” Lang signed, waggling his eyebrows.