Page 28 of Brutal Crown
He whimpers when I crouch.
“You know what your biggest mistake was?” I ask, calm as still water. “It wasn’t the files. It wasn’t even breaking through our firewall.”
I reach for his jaw, grip it hard, force him to look at me. Blood trickles from the corner of his nose.
“You looked at my tattoo… and you knew what it meant.”
He flinches. His gaze flicks to the sliver of ink exposed just under the edge of my shirt. The black lion.
“See, a normal man would’ve asked who we were. Maybe tried to play dumb. But you?” I smile faintly. “You recognized us the second we stepped inside.”
I rise and Nico hands me a knife, but I shake my head. “I don’t need a knife for this. I want to remember what it feels like.”
I hit him once, so hard I hear my knuckles cracking bone. He jerks back in the chair.
Then again. And again. The sound of skin on skin. Of cartilage shifting as his blood hits the floor.
His breaths turn to gasps, then wheezes. He tries to cry through the tape. I see the panic bloom in his eyes. Then I grab his face, my fingers digging into soft cheekbones, and force him to meet my eyes.
“You thought maybe there’d be money. Fame. Some scandal you could sell for likes. A story to tell your nerd friends on some forum.”
I tilt my head.
“But let me tell you what you really opened.”
My voice drops. “You opened the cage.”
He tries to look away. I don’t let him.
“You opened the cage I’ve spentyearskeeping locked. The one where I put the part of me that likes this. Thatwantsto hurt you. Thatneedsto make someone else bleed just so I don’t feel like I’m coming apart.”
I stand, slowly, breathing deeper now.
“You know why I’m here tonight, doing this? Because I was stupid enough to think I could want something. Someone.”
My fists clench.
“I saw her. Ifeltsomething. And I started to believe I could be more than this.”
I kick the chair, hard. The boy yelps through the tape. It tilts, crashes onto its back. He’s crying now. His eyes are wide, and his chest heaves so fast it looks like his heart is beating too fast for his chest.
I step over him, crouch again, my face inches from his.
“You don’t know it, but you’re doing me a favor.”
He shakes his head. Snot and tears streak down his face.
“I can’t want her. I can’t let that part of me out. The one that dreams, hopes, craves.” I smile slowly and, crooked, the kind of smile that says I’ve done this before, and worse.
“So I’ll let outthisone instead.”
I pull him upright again roughly, jerking him by the cords. He moans and tries to squirm away. But it’s useless.
I whisper in his ear: “You are the switch. The sacrifice.”
I hit him again.
“You are the blood price for my control.”
