Page 54 of Midnight Salvation

“Hey, Josh,” I said as I moved across the room. His terrified eyes watched me. “I need to ask you a few questions.”

“Why are you doing this?” he stuttered, snot running down his face since he’d been crying. “We’re family.”

I almost rolled my eyes, but caught myself. “We carry the same name,” I corrected. “These men are my family.”

“Uncle Matteus will kill you for this.”

“I highly doubt it,” I replied. “Now be a good boy and answer Jay’s questions.”

I wandered around the room, my stomach churning at what he had down here. There was a fucking gynaecological table with stirrups at the end. What the fuck did he need that for? Folders sat along a shelf under a boarded-up window. I lifted the first one down and leafed through it, illuminating the writing with the lights at the sides of my glasses. We were still in darkness, and the only one not able to see was Josh.

Josh seemed to be embracing a new role in life as a trainee doctor who was studying the effects of pain on the human body. The souls he kept down here were his test subjects. I wandered over to Jordan and showed him what was on the pages.

“Fucking great,” Jordan muttered. “Since you seem to be interested in the effects of certain types of pain, maybe I should help you understand the theory behind it?”

I returned to my reading, blocking out the background noise. The guys knew what we needed answered. We’d swabbed the other rounds in the gun that Scott had used to shoot Lucrezia. They were currently being tested against all known toxins and poisons to discover what she’d been infected with.

My cousin had been a busy man, detailing in gruesome accounts what he had done to those he had bought. Behind closed doors, he’d bought the men he wanted to date in real life, hurting them to alleviate his frustration and hatred toward himself.

At the end of the shelf, I found a small book with drawings and scribbles in it. Some of it was familiar, so I pocketed it to read properly in proper light instead of the red light I was using in the darkness.

“Look, I don’t know, please! I only do what Dad tells me.” Josh sniffed again. “Ash knows more about the family business than I do.”

Jordan stood towering over him like an avenging angel straight from the depths of Hell. “I need the locations of all your nasty little hidey holes. I doubt this is the only one you possess.”

We only found this one because I had translated Dad’s journals and had access to everyone’s trackers.

Josh pursed his lips together as another wave of pain from the electrodes attached to his outstretched limbs coursed through him. I wasn’t sure why he didn’t seem to be enjoying it, considering that it was one of his favourite tools from his memoires.

“Why Nicole?” I asked in a quiet, deadly voice. “Why was Dad so insistent that I marry Nicole?”

Josh’s body shook as he tried to free himself from the pain, violently tearing at his restraints that refused to move. “Let me fucking go!”

“Answer the question.” I took Jordan’s place and stood in front of him.

“Uncle Matteus is her father. He’s been highly amused that his goody-goody son would be married to his sister. It was something he would be able to hold over you to make you bend to his will.”

That certainly explained why she was terrified of Dylan. The guy probably despised her because of who her father was but was terrified of Dad.

“What does Dylan get out of this?” I asked.

“Shareholder in a company and a higher seat on the Council.” Josh’s teeth chattered.

“How many more children has Dad sired outside his marriage?” I asked myself out loud.

Josh’s laugh was hysterical. “That’s the killer in this situation.” He coughed blood onto the floor, and Jordan took a discreet step back to save his beloved boots. “Nicole was the fifth child Aunt Marigold had. She was taken away just after she was born and Uncle Matteus never told her where their daughter was located. Nicole was an insurance policy to make that bitch behave since she threatened to take you all away.”

My blood turned to ice in my veins as I slowly turned to face my cousin. “What the fuck did you just say?”

He laughed again and that demon inside me broke loose from the chains I generally kept him in. “I hope you didn’t already fuck her, because that’s your full-blood sister.”

My dad had committed many heinous acts in his life, but this was the worst. I flicked his device on and turned it to maximum before I turned on my heel and walked up the stairs to find some fresh air.

I had a sister, and my mum had her only daughter dragged from her just after she was born. My life was descending into the ninth level of Hell and I was drowning in rivers of lava. How the fuck was I supposed to fix this mess?

***

Chapter Seventeen

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