His face turned red, and he started to gasp. The metal of the handcuffs clanked against the bed as he tried to grab my hand and stop me from killing him. I brought my lips to his ear and sneered a whisper, “You hear that, Brian? You hear your heart beating rapidly as is struggles to keep you alive with the air you have left in your lungs?” The heart rate monitor was beeping viciously, and his pulse kept climbing the redder his face got. “Just a little bit longer and I never have to deal with you again, but you have something I need, and you need to be alive for that.” His eyes started to hood, and his mouth was open, gasping for air like a fish out of water.
I let go.
Damn it.
And he breathed so hard and inhaled so much air, he coughed, sending spit flying everywhere. “You’re crazy if you think I’ll give you a damn thing.”
“Hmm,” I hummed thoughtfully, straightening from my bent position. I took out my phone and opened the gallery, selecting the first photo. “Look at her, isn’t she adorable.” It was a picture of Brian’s three-year-old niece. She had curly blonde hair and big blue eyes. “She is going to be a heartbreaker when she is older.”
“You wouldn’t dare kill a child,” he said, the dip in his voice let me know that he was uncertain. He should be.
I would never kill a child, but he didn’t need to know that. “Maybe,” I said and flipped to the next picture to his sister. She had blonde hair too, like mother like daughter. “Stephanie looks so happy here, Brian. Look at that smile.”
“You are fucking asshole. You better not touch her.” He tried to get free of the cuffs again but it was useless. He had a mad gleam in his eyes and sweat dripping from his nose to his lips from the fever.
My hand flew up and grabbed a fistful of his hair and yanked it back until he cried out. “Why not? You took mine. Sister for a sister, that’s fair, isn’t it?”
“You’d never find her,” he challenged. “I made sure—”
“She lives off the coast of Australia. In a cute cottage, working at a surf shop, happy as a little bee flying from flower to flower.” I drifted my hands through the air to mimic a bumblebee flying through the air. “You were never really that great at covering your tracks.”
“I’ll kill you—”
“If I kill her? Keep that in mind.” I gripped his chin as hard as I could, my fingers digging into his skin to the point I could feel the sharp peaks of his teeth. “I will kill anyone you care about until you confess the truth.” I darted my eyes between his, searching for him to back down, but he gave nothing away. How sad was it that the man had to think about saving his family over his own freedom? “You don’t have long to decide.”
“Where does Quinn fit in all this?” he asked.
This time, I lifted my fist in the air and let it fly against his cheek. Something cracked, and a second later, blood sprayed, and a tooth bounced on the floor until it hit the wall.
“You made me lose a tooth!” he screamed, blood dripping from his mouth and staining his hospital gown.
I held onto his throat again and picked him up off the bed as high as I could until we were face to face. “You don’t get to talk about her. She is not your business anymore.”
“She hates you, you know. There will be no reversing that.”
“There will be if you care about your family at all. Don’t forget about your younger brother, John, and his fiancé Meredith. What about your parents?” I slammed him back against the bed and stared down at him. “Make no mistake, Brian. I am not the same man you used to know. Prison does that to a guy. I’ll kill them right in front of you and not blink twice.” I turned away and ignored the itch I had to kill him and finish it off. It really didn’t matter if I got his confession, but it was something I needed.
I had to hear him say it.
I opened the door and closed it softly, but I was seething with rage on the inside. I was ready to kill. I needed a job to do. There had to be something lined up for us to take off this edge. I was in the mood to go to Africa and steal some weapons from the soldiers there that liked to hurt their women. It wasn’t a job that would make a lot of money, but it would be satisfying.
Something to get me out of here.
But I couldn’t leave Quinn. I trusted only a few men, and they went where I went. They would have to go without me on heists, as much as I hated it, Quinn was already on the edge, and I didn’t feel right leaving her in this place alone. It was a maze, and she could get lost.
Or escape.
“Feel better?” Owen asked as he rummaged through the medical cabinet. He was the only one here that knew about medicine. He wasn’t a doctor, but he had read hundreds of books on medicine, if he could, I knew he’d be a great doctor, but that just wasn’t an option for men like us.
“Not really,” I said, tugging on my suit sleeves.
“It won’t get better, you know,” he said absentmindedly as he pulled a large syringe out of the medical cart. “Either buck up or kill. You need to figure out what you want. It can’t go on forever.”
“You don’t think I know that?”
He turned his cold eyes onto me and shook his head, no expression on his face. “No, I don’t think you do. I think your mind is clouded with emotions. Hate for him and love for her.”
“Her,” I spat. “I don’t love her.”