Page 97 of Wicked Deceit
I cock my head to the side, smirking the smuggest fucking smirk I can muster. I drop every ounce of emotion into a bottomless pit and fucking hide it there.
"Hello, Sweetheart. Did you miss me?" I purr, keeping the bubbling emotions from my voice. If I let them through, those assholes would hear the tremors taking over and would know I was still on her side.
“Let me introduce you to the fourth horseman you’ve been wondering about, meet Famine,” my father comments, meeting me in two short strides from across the room. He clasps my hands with such pride I want to fucking puke. He shakes my hands with a sick and twisted celebration of murmured words about how proud of me he is that I passed all his tests tonight with flying colors, and now I only have to accomplish one more for my rank to be the highest it can be. He fucking whoops, tossing his fist in the air, and then beams at me. My father has never fucking beamed at me a day in his life. But now? Now I’m like the prodigal son who came home for the first time in years. With one last tap on my back, he breaks away and marches toward Kaycee with determination in his steps.
“Fourth horseman?” She gasps out in horror. Her finger nails dig into the wood of the chair, and I falter when the fucking knife in his hand disappears slowly into her flesh. She fights with all her might, curling forward to move away from the fucking weapon puncturing her, and pulls against the restraints. But nothing she does makes them stop, and there’s nothing I can do either.
Pain erupts in my chest when I have to force myself not to react and push all those emotions back into the black hole they belong in. My feelings have no place here, not when our lives are on the line, and I’m waiting for the perfect moment to present itself. My stomach knots when I have to pretend to enjoy the pain pouring from her lips when her scream echoes through the room.
My father beckons me over with a discreet hand wave, forcing me to move closer to the destruction of my girl. Little by little, they push the knife into her. And little by little, I fucking die inside at the pain crossing her face. The scream erupting from her lips has my blood boiling over, but there’s not a damn thing I can do to save her right now. All I can do is fucking hope that they’ll leave before she bleeds out. And if they don’t, I’ll risk my fucking life to save her, no matter what. I’ll let them shoot me over and over if it helps her escape.
I swallow down all the negative shit in my brain and fucking cock my head to the side like this is the most interesting thing I’ve ever seen. With rapt attention, I watch every fucking drip of blood spill down her legs and catalogue it for later when I murder my father and his sicko fuckhead brothers. Even though my heart is fucking breaking in half, I hold that sick smirk on my lips, staring into her eyes, really selling this whole fucking thing. Not only to the psychos side-eyeing me and making sure I’m paying attention, but to her. I have to make her think I’ve betrayed everything we’ve built so I can get close to her. Her every reaction has to be real. So, I can’t fucking mess this up.
A pain pierces through me the moment I see the wheels turning in her head, and she begins to question our entire relationship from start to finish. It flashes across her face like a fucking movie for everyone to see, and I have to keep pretending I like this. So, when her eyes reconnect with mine I turn everything off again and go blank when I walk up to her. My trembling fingers caress her bloodied and swollen cheek. If I could wipe this away and take her pain away, I would. She sucks in a breath, trying to pull away from my fingers.
“It’s a thing of beauty isn’t it, boy?” My father asks, slapping me on the shoulder. “And to think, you got a front row seat to the whole event.” My stomach sinks when he smirks and cocks his head, staring at Kaycee like she’s his next juicy meal. “I told you, little rabbit,” he murmurs with fire in his eyes, squeezing my shoulder with a puffed out chest. Pride roars through him when he peeks at me, and for the first time in my life, I think he loves me. “He knew all along. Who do you think shoved you into the fish tank and watched from afar as you helplessly drowned?” I continue with my blank stare, nodding to confirm what he said, and the light in her eyes dims. I fucking hate myself for what she’s gone through and for my part in every single second of it. But I have to press on until I can get her alone, but it’s fucking killing me to watch her lose faith in me with every second that passes. All I’m proving by standing here is that I’m the asshole she thought I was when we first met.
“For your final test,” my father announces, shoving a pair of pliers into my hand. “You've passed everything with flying colors. Your deception. Your torture. Now, take from her what she owes us,” he says with a wicked glint.
Bile swims in the back of my throat when I stare down at the pliers resting so easily in my hand and raise a brow. “And what does she owe us?” I rumble through a thickening throat, forcing a grin to split my lips, and straighten my robes as I stand tall.
Crowe frowns, crossing his arms over his chest. “For everything she’s stuck her little rabbit nose in. For the hacking, and breaking into my fucking office, and for stealing my phone. Sticking her nose where it shouldn’t be,” Crowe grumbles, counting off her crimes one by one. “Pluck off the end of her nose,” he growls, stepping forward to loom over her once again, knocking me slightly back. He growls, gritting his teeth, and snarls at her with menace in his eyes. I’ll fucking pluck his nose off with my fist and shove the pliers down his throat before I let him touch her again.
“Maybe her eyeballs?” Shaw says flippantly, waving a hand. “She’s seen more than she needs to. How was my office? I should have known it was you and your merry gang of assholes who broke in there.” He raises a brow at her, expecting her to roll over and admit what she’d done so many months ago.
“Maybe her tongue?” My father says with a crooked as fuck grin, squeezing her aching jaw in his grip. He’s fucking lucky I don’t deck him right here and now and knock that fucking grin off his demented face. “Snip off the end and watch as she drowns in her own blood without being able to call for help. Not like any would come. Take a good look around, Sugar. This is your final resting place. If only you’d have stayed away,” he hums, tapping her injured cheek. My fingers curl into a fist.
“I couldn’t have stayed away,” she snarls in retribution, setting my heart on fire. She tries to shove his hand off her face with a snarl and a headbutt, but it doesn’t do anything to make him leave.
My stomach knots when more blood pours from her wound at a slow rate, dripping around her chair and bare feet. The more time these assholes take to laugh in her fucking face and brag about all the bullshit they’ve done, it’s more likely she’s going to die here. I need something fucking drastic to happen so they leave the room. Maybe I can have Zepp fucking send us into darkness right now, instead of later, and make them scatter. Fuck, I don’t know what to do.
“I knew some asshole stole my best friend’s life, and I was going to find out who did it,” she says in a quivering voice and closes her eyes to regain her breath. But her body slumps further, curling in on herself, and I know the thoughts swirling in her fucking brain.
“Yeah?” I ask with a patronizing smirk again, stoking the fire from deep inside of her. “How’d that work out for you, Sweetheart?” The fire reignites in her eyes when I open and close the pliers in my hand, hopefully sending more adrenaline through her veins. I need something to perk her the fuck up until I can get her out of here. I can’t have my Sweetheart fucking dying before my eyes. I’ll go on a rampage and kill every mother fucker in this house before I let that happen. They can have me—all of me—before they get their hands on her again.
Her breaths quicken, and she tries to curl her fingers against the wooden armrest of the chair, trying to get away from me. But there’s nowhere for her to go when I catch her. I take that opportunity to continue my torture, hoping to spark more strong words from her. I need to keep her talking and alive, and I need to stoke the fire extinguishing inside her. I turn the metal tip of the pliers, rubbing it against the flesh of her index finger, and continue to trace the outline of every finger.
“Don’t.” My heart fucking stops when she begs in a tiny whisper, chilling my fucking blood. Her plea rings in my head on repeat, and it’s something I’ll have to live with for the rest of my fucking life.
“Please, don’t do it.”
I want to fucking punch myself in the throat and throw myself into a pit of lava until I burn alive at the sound of her desperation leaking out in tiny whimpers. If there’s one thing I know about Kaycee Cole, she isn’t the type to beg. Even when she’s backed into a corner, Kaycee keeps her lips sealed until her life is on the line. I swallow the lump in my throat, trying to retain the stony exterior I’ve built to fool them all into believing I’m the devil standing before her. But plea by plea, she’s slowly chipping away at the character I’m playing. Her bloodshot eye searches mine, trying to find any hint of the man she fell in love with. She shudders when she digs deeper into my eyes, looking and looking. But Kaycee can’t find the man she loves because I’m not him right now. The face looking back at her is a façade for all to see and hear.
“Come back to me,” she croaks with tears spilling from her good eye, down her cheek and across her jaw.They fall to the floor, mingling with the blood dripping from her stab wound. And my fucking heart explodes in my chest when she utters her next words, pleading with me to give her any little sign that I’m still inside my fucking head and not some lunatic drawing patterns with the pliers.
“Please,” she begs a-fucking-gain, and I swear I’m shattering before her. I don’t know how much more I can force out of her without cracking completely. “This isn’t you.” Her voice breaks with conviction, and it’s the final chink in my fucking armor. My body shudders, and I swallow hard, stiffening my muscles so I don’t do anything fucking stupid.
Laughter sounds from behind me, and I grind my teeth at their mocking whispered words, but I laugh along, pretending this entire situation is something I’m involved with. Staring down at her, I see the glaze forming over her eye, and I know she’s spiraling down the rabbit hole in her head, and it’s threatening to pull her into the darkness if I don’t fucking act.
I snarl, twisting my head to glare at the three fuckheads behind me, and straighten my posture, projecting my fucking authority on the three assholes.
“Would you three mind backing the fuck up? I have something to do and fucking say to this bitch,” I hiss, twisting the pliers in the palm of my hand. “In fucking private.” A cruel grin twists my lips, and even Crowe instinctively backs up with fear in his eyes. That’s right, you dipshit, you will fucking fear me by the end of tonight when I slam your head so hard into the floor your brains splatter everywhere. Mark my words here and now, I will fucking end every single one of them. But first, my girl needs to be saved.
Shaw rolls his eyes like he can’t be bothered with my attitude and backs up into Crowe, who in turn pushes him back. How they managed to build this fucking empire of murdering dirtbags is beyond me. They must have fumbled their way through this and had friends in high places to succeed.
I crack my neck and work the tension from my muscles before I turn back to her. The wheels in her mind are working at warp speed, sending her through every awful fucking scenario. Without thinking about anything else, I grab her hand, shaking her out of the darkness that is closing in on her. I cock my head, grinning like the god damned devil resides inside of me. My thumb gently swishes across the top of her hand, trying to lend some reassurances, but she only shrinks in on herself.
“I think I’ll take a finger,” I muse, earning chuckles from the dickbags lounging against the opposite wall.
