Page 38 of Ravaged Soul
“Come to p-pop a shot?” Dominic coughs up blood.
“Something like that. How do you know my name?”
“Everyone knows y-you, 768.”
This time, I slam my fist into his jaw. “You heard him. Don’t call me that.”
Red spittle flies upwards from where his head is flung back, spraying all around in a crimson geyser. It doesn’t elicit a speck of sympathy inside me.
“Answer the question, or I’ll let my friend here continue toying with you. He has more patience for torture than I do.”
“Nolan… M-Madden!” he screams when I pull back my arm.
Blaine curses nearby. “Bingo.”
My fist lowers, fresh blood soaking into the scabs that have formed over my grazes. “Elaborate.”
“He h-had us making connections with anyone in the market to m-make a purchase. Gael. Sanchez. All their f-friends across the globe. We worked f-for anyone.”
Limbs filling with angry wasps, rage spreads like wildfire. “That’s how we met.”
“Barely.” Dominic sucks in through a coughing fit. “Though I w-watched Gael bend your s-sweet ass over and slice your back up real n-nice with a whip.”
Noxious sickness is roiling inside me when Axel shoves past me to launch a fresh attack. Any pleasure he was finding in playing with his prey evaporates as a bone-breaking beating takes centre stage.
The sound of Axel’s fists hitting his flesh adds to the pain splitting my skull, a flimsy barricade barely holding back memories of the past. Worse still, it’s impossible for me to say when or where I met this asshole. Gael beat me regularly enough for each occasion to blur in my memories.
Turning away from the violence, I breathe through the phantom pain of my skin being slashed all over again. I can’tbear to meet anyone’s gaze. Not when they’re imagining what it took to scar my back.
“Sick fuck.” Hyland doesn’t take his eyes off the beating. “Though I’d expect nothing else from someone working for the likes of Gael, Madden or Sanchez.”
“Who is this Sanchez?” I ask through gritted teeth.
Emotion contorts Warner’s face as he moves closer to me, stopping short of reaching out a hand.
“An old foe.”
“What happened?”
“Dimitri Sanchez was the prime target of a trafficking investigation our old team leader led years back. The victim fled to a small town called Briar Valley. She helped us bring his operation down.”
So if Dominic also worked for Sanchez and that piece of shit knew Gael… it’s very possible we’ve missed a crucial link. The messy, ever-changing spider’s web shifts again, pulling us deeper into a conspiracy that, frankly, feels unsolvable.
Too many dark thoughts to sort through compete for my attention. A hatred that burns so hot explodes inside me, leaving me wondering if it will erupt from my skin and scald us all in one vicious lava spill.
Behind it all… the previously unknown figure of evil. Blaine’s father. A man at the centre of a conspiracy that connects our lives. Each of us have a stake in this, from the Sanchez case to Blaine’s vendetta and my own thirst for justice.
“We need his intel.” I lower my hand from where I was rubbing my temples. “Dominic knows where Luis is.”
“Axel,” Hyland drones like it’s an effort.
Smack. Crunch. Crack.
“Ax! Don’t kill the bastard!”
“You heard what he said,” Axel puffs in exertion.
“I did.”
