Page 122 of Darling Wildfire
Vetticus looked at me, resting his chin on his palm.
I sat rigid in the chair, staring at him coldly like I always did. He threw back the rest of his whiskey and set the glass carefully on the table next to him.
“Do you think I’m stupid?” He asked.
When I didn’t answer, he reached into his pocket and pushed the button for my tracker. The shock tore through my body. It was quick but left me slumped in the chair. Breathing heavily, I sat up, my cold stare now deadly.
“That wasn’t rhetorical,” he said dryly.
“No,” I lied.
“Well, that’s good. The other night I could have sworn you were thinking it.”
He pulled the device from his pocket, twisting it around in his hand while he watched me.
“I know you’re planning to escape,” he said bluntly. He studied me for a reaction and when I didn’t give him one, he went on. “Don’t worry, I can’t hear what you’re saying when you have your little pow wows but you’re at full strength for a game for the first time and I don’t know why but I have this strange feeling you’re close to making a move.”
I wasn’t surprised he’d come to that conclusion. It’s not like it would be a surprise to have people held captive plan an escape. Now, we’d have to be even more careful. He stood up and walked over to the table, selecting a few pistachios and cracking them loudly.
“You can imagine how upset it makes me when I think about losing you.”
Vetticus tilted his head at me, looking annoyed.
“I’ve been giving you too much rope. Taking out my other top player was—foolish. I really can’t afford to lose you now.”
There was more silence as he stood watching me and eating the nuts slowly until they were gone. He dusted his hands on his pants.
“Do you even know where we are?” He asked. “Do you have any idea?”
I turned my head to look at him. “Does it matter?”
He chuckled. “No, I suppose it doesn’t. You’re going to try it regardless. Every time you take out a camera, I wonder to myself if this is it—if this is when I’m going to have to kill you.”
He walked over and ran his hand across my face. I leaned away from him in disgust, looking anywhere but up at him.
“I hope it doesn’t come to that. You know how to keep me on my toes and it surprisingly is something I love about you,” he murmured. “I’m actually looking forward to hunting you down though. Our reunion will be extra sweet.”
He leaned closer and his grip tightened on my jaw, turning my head towards him and forcing me to meet his eyes.
“And just so you know. When I catch you—and I will—I’m going to take great pleasure in torturing Phantom and Reaper in front of you and then killing them slowly.”
Vetticus moved away before I could do something reckless and he slouched down in his chair again.
“I’ll have fun making Preacher scream,” he went on as though casually discussing the weather. “I’ll have to build the team up again,” he shrugged. “But it’ll be worth it.”
Vetticus nodded to the men near the door and they came over and pulled me to my feet. Without a word, Vetticus left the room and the guards followed with me in tow. We walked through the house until we’d descended into the basement and I was shoved through a steel door. My entire team was kneeling in the center of the room with their hands cuffed behind their backs.
“I want to make things very clear to you, Kraven,” Vetticus said. “When you decide to act a fool…when you decide to pull at allll that rope—” He walked around behind my men, his hand running over Nyx’s hair. “It’s notyouwho I’m going to punish.”
Vetticus came back around in front and pulled his gun from his belt. “I thought I already made that very clear, but I guess you need a stronger reminder.”
He raised the gun and pulled the trigger.
Ridley fell backwards, a bullet straight through his eye.
Nyx cursed quietly under his breath while the others' breathing picked up. Vetticus jerked his head and his guards descended on Kane. Three of them beat him brutally for several long minutes until Vetticus held his hand up. Theyimmediately stopped and stepped away, leaving Kane a bleeding mess on the ground. He struggled to his knees, his chest heaving and his eyes blazing with hatred. He spit blood savagely onto the ground in front of him.
The guards moved to Atlas next. They yanked him to his feet and dragged him over to a barrel. At Vetticus’ signal, they pushed his head down under the surface. At first Atlas didn’t struggle but inevitably his oxygen ran out and he thrashed in the guards’ grip.
