“That’s the best you can do, Matthews?” he grunted.
I yanked him off the bed. He fell onto the floor with a grunt. I pulled him toward the sink in the corner. I pushed the stopper into the drain and turned on the faucet.
Sweat beaded on his brow, and blood was still pouring out of his nose, but he still managed to smirk. The son of a bitch was a tough one.
“The clock’s ticking, Scott,” I said. “Are you ready to talk now?”
“Fuck you. I’ll take Javier’s secrets with me to my grave.”
I yanked him up by his shoulders, and he let out a cry as I shoved him up against the sink.
“Got to admire a man who’s loyal in the face of death. Shall we test what you’re willing to do for that lowlife?”
“You don’t find it ironic that you’re the pot calling the kettle black? Javier is twice the man you’ll ever be.”
I kicked him in the knee, and his leg buckled. Using the momentum of his fall, I clutched him by the hair and shoved his head under the water. As loyal as he was to Javier, as brave as he was at the thought of his death, he couldn’t deny his body’s instinct to fight. Being injured and tied up made him no match for me, though. I watched the bubbles float up to the top as he thrashed under the surface.
I yanked his head back up, and he gasped for air, coughing and spitting up water.
“How about now, Scott? Are you feeling chatty yet? Where is Grimaldo keeping him? At his residence?”
“I don’t know why you’re so keen on going after him anyway,” Scott gasped. “After all, Javier will send him back to you. Piece by piece.”
The last word was hardly out of his mouth when his head was back under the water. Blinded by rage at what he was suggesting—my beautiful, sweet, fun Kit being dismembered—I kept him pinned against the sink. His efforts to fight me off were getting weaker and weaker until he stilled.
“Sullivan! Sullivan!” A hand grasped my arm and pulled at me.
“Get off me, Liam!”
“Don’t! Don’t kill him. We can use him to negotiate Kit’s release. You hear me, Sullivan? We can use him to get Kit back. If you kill him, we have nothing.”
I pulled Scott up, and he sagged lifelessly against me.
“Shit. I’m too late.” Liam supported Scott’s other side. “Put him down, Sullivan.”
Why was I saving this man’s life after what he’d said? But Liam sounded so sure that he was the ticket to getting Kit back, so I did what he said and laid Scott’s lifeless body on the bed. Liam pressed his fingers against the vein in his neck, then bent over his mouth to check his breathing.
“We need to start CPR.” He placed his hands one on top of the other in the center of Scott’s chest and pressed down. His lips moved as he counted under his breath. Once again, he checked Scott’s breathing, then continued the rhythmic pressure.
Scott choked and spat water out, his chest rising and falling hard.
“Thank god.” Liam slumped back onto the floor.
“You better have a good explanation why we just saved this fucker,” I said in a clipped tone.
“Believe me, I do. I couldn’t get any information on where Grimaldo had taken Kit, but I mentioned Scott here, and one of our informants recognized him. Most people know him as Javier’s bodyguard and right-hand man. They’re close. Closer than most people know. He’s Javier’s lover, and if my source is to be believed, Javier will do anything for him.”
I glanced at the man on the floor, still trying to catch his breath. Now it all made sense why he was so fiercely loyal to Javier. It’d been right there in his words—the way he’d insisted that he would never betray Javier. It wasn’t just that he wouldn’t betray his boss. He wouldn’t betray the man he loved.
“My, my, what a fucking surprise. Javier’s got mine, and I’ve got his. Now this should be interesting.”