Page 98 of Ripped Lace (Ripped Bratva)

“I… this is… too much…”

“This is the lead you gave me,” he points out. “The path you wanted me to take. We can’t waste time, which means we need to get information fast.”

“I know. I know that. I just…”

“How else do you propose we get information from him?” Phoenix presses.

“You torture a man enough and he’ll tell you what you want to hear.”

“Except this man has real information,” Phoenix points out. “I can see it in his eyes.”

I can, too. But I don’t say so.

“I just… I can’t watch it happen,” I tremble out at last.

Phoenix scoffs. “Just like Matvei,” he growls. “You criticize and command, but you don’t have the fucking stomach to do what needs to be done.”

Then he rips away from me and leaves me pressed against the wall. He disappears into Raj’s cell. The door clangs shut.

I sink to the floor and bury my face in my hands. While I’m there, I pray.

But I don’t know what for.

We’re all doomed to hell already.

23

Elyssa

“Elyssa?”

I look up to see Matvei standing over me. He looks pained. As though he’s losing control of his world and he doesn’t like the feeling.

I can relate.

“Come on,” he says, offering me his hand. “I’ll walk you back to your room.”

I take his hand and he helps me up to my feet. We’re halfway out of the bunker when I hear a bloodcurdling scream. It’s distorted by the layers of concrete, by steel bars, by the thudding of my pulse in my ears.

But I know it’s Raj who’s screaming.

And I know it’s Phoenix who’s causing the pain.

I cringe and start walking faster. When we get back upstairs to my room, I go straight to the bed and sit down before my legs can give way beneath me.

“Is it always like that?” I whisper.

Matvei pauses by the door, looking as though he wishes he had left before I spoke up. “Interrogations?” he asks. “Usually.”

“And how often do you get information from the men you torture?”

“Ninety percent of the time,” he says.

“And the information is good?”

“Ninety percent of the time.”

I sigh. “I know I asked for this…”

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