Page 59 of The Gilded Cuff
“Okay. I’ll talk. You’ll listen. My name is Antonio. I know a lot about you, Cody. You are quite the hacker. My bug showed me just how skillful you are. Does Emery know you regularly hack into government databases when you’re bored?”
Cody blinked. The bug had been impossibly small, yet Antonio implied that he was getting video feed. It was the only way he would know how Cody spent his off-hours.
“So you got into my office after you left that sick little calling card in the kitchen.” Maybe if he could keep Antonio talking, he’d learn more about the man’s end game.
Antonio shrugged. “A little theatrical, I admit. But it was well worth it. I only wish it had been covered with Fenn’s blood. Pity it wasn’t.” He stood and walked over to his desk, where a huge metal mallet sat. He picked it up, tapped it into his other palm thoughtfully and turned back to Cody with an evil grin. With slow, measured steps he moved back into the sickly yellow circle of light from the single overhead lamp.
“Now, I have a few questions I need answered. Cooperate and we’ll be great friends. Keep quiet and I’m afraid your typing career will be short-lived.” Antonio’s black gaze dropped to Cody’s hands.
Oh, hell no!Cody jumped in the chair, only to feel the ropes around his wrists cut deeper. This creep was going to pulverize him with the mallet!
“Who is the girl sharing Emery’s bed?”
Cody hesitated only a second, weighing the odds of whether the information would hurt Sophie. Her job was public knowledge.
“She’s an investigative journalist.”
Antonio digested this with apparent interest as he scrutinized Cody’s face. “And Emery knows what she is?”
Cody nodded. Who the hell was this guy? Antonio was tall, built like a linebacker, and he looked dangerous enough to give Hans a run for his money. But while Hans carried himself with a quiet sense of power, this man seemed to glory in it. With each twist Cody made in the ropes, Antonio’s lips twitched, as though he enjoyed watching Cody struggle.
He had to think of something fast. “Can I ask you a question?”
His captor stroked the head of the mallet thoughtfully. “Go ahead.”
“What happened to Fenn the night Emery escaped?” There was a high likelihood this question would get him killed sooner rather than later, but he wanted to confirm his suspicion that it was Antonio who had kidnapped Emery and Fenn.
“That is actually a question I would like answered as well. I cannot finish the job I was hired to do until I find both of the twins. I have put off killing Emery for years, hoping Fenn would contact him, reveal his whereabouts. But now I don’t have to worry. I’ve finally found him.”
Cody’s ears filled with a sharp ringing and the words tumbled out. “Fenn’s alive?”
Antonio’s face darkened, his eyes narrowing. “Enough questions. Why did Emery bring home a journalist? He never takes women home. What game is he playing?”
Cody calculated the risk of telling more than he should. There was a chance he could get more questions answered. Like the fact that Fenn Lockwood might still be alive…
“Emery’s going to tell her about the kidnapping. In return he’s getting lucky.”
Antonio laughed. “Such a poetic answer, Cody. Are you hoping the lovebirds will stay together? Like a fairytale?” His laughter turned harsh. “Don’t you know that fairytales are gruesome things? Violent, bloody? The charming prince always loses his companions in the last battle. He goes on alone. And you are not the prince of this tale.”
Those words were the only warning he got before the mallet swung down on his right hand.
A primal scream tore from his lips and his bones seemed to explode out of his hand and shatter. Adrenaline spiked, flooding him with more panic, and he fought for breath. He flung his head back, sucking in air as pain radiated from his hand. Blood crashed against his eardrums, dulling his awareness to any sound beyond the steady roar in his head. It was only when the other man’s hand dug into his hair, wrenching his head back, that he realized Antonio was talking to him. The man’s lips moved and Cody stared hard at them, trying to understand what he was saying.
“We have a long night ahead of us, Cody. I suggest you stop screaming or you’ll go hoarse long before midnight.”
His scream, which had apparently kept going, cut off abruptly at Antonio’s words.
“What happens at midnight?” he asked with a gasping breath as the pain in his hand continued to scream silently all on its own. He wanted to throw up…no, hewasgoing to throw up…The pain worked its way upward, spreading through his body. His hand was a bloody mess and he couldn’t stop staring at the odd way white shards of broken bones poked out at odd angles from his skin.
“Carriages turn back to pumpkins, horses to mice, and I slit your throat and leave you somewhere for Emery to find.”
Shit. What the hell do I say to that?
Cody’s churning insides went still as a single-minded focus he’d never experienced before took over him.Separate pain from thought,Hans’s voice echoed in his head.
“What time is it?” he asked, amazed at the steel in his own voice, even if the words did come out between panting breaths. Hans would be proud.
Antonio checked his watch. “Eleven o’clock.”
