Dark Need (House of Sin 3)

I steel myself. “Eli gave the order to bring me back. Soren defied it. That does not make me a sinner. I did nothing wrong.” I swallow back the nerves. “I just want to talk to Soren. After all the things you people did to me, you owe me that.”

He sucks in a breath and says, “All right. Say I agree. What then? What do you hope to achieve by talking to him?”

“I just need to see … see if …” I fight off the blush on my cheeks. “If he’s okay.”

“You care about him?” He scoffs and then chuckles. “The iron beast made someone care?” The laugh turns more ominous. “I can’t believe it.”

“Look, I know he didn’t commit to his job, but please don’t punish him.” I clench the bars of the fence. “It was my fault. I put him up to it.”

He frowns and steps closer to the gate, so close that it strikes fear in my heart. “And you dare to come here anyway?” He’s so close now he could almost grab me straight through the fence and pin me right where he wants me. He could drag me straight back into the house if he wanted to. The thought alone makes me shiver, but I can’t let it sway me.

“I could put you back in that room right where you belong,” he hisses. “After what you did to Soren, it’s what you deserve.”

My eyes widen. Soren must’ve told him. “So he’s here?”

Tobias’s eyes flicker with rage. “That’s all you care about?”

“No, I care about the other women who were kept here too, the women you discarded,” I reply.

“That was not my choice,” he says, slamming his fist against the fence.

Seems I’ve hit a nerve. “Where were they taken?”

“If I know Eli, back to where they came from,” he retorts.

I frown. “Where?”

“Home,” he spits. “To the people who sent them to us.”

I narrow my eyes. “So I was the only one who wasn’t allowed to go back home.”

He makes a face. “Seems that way …”

It sounds like they’re having a struggle between them, and I don’t want to get involved. Even though I care about what happened to the women, I have to remember why I came here. And if they got home, maybe they’re okay.

“I need to know where Soren is.”

Tobias stares at me, chewing on the inside of his cheeks, nostrils flaring. “Give me one good reason I should tell you any of this.”

I look Tobias right in the eyes. “If you don’t let me go and tell me where he is, Soren will never forgive you. And I think you know exactly what he’s capable of.”

A moment of silence follows, which feels like it lasts an eternity.

Then he sucks in a breath. “He’s not here.”

My lungs suck in a breath, but the oxygen is stuck in my throat as it clamps up.

He’s not … at the House?

“What? Why not?” I mutter.

“I dismissed him after his betrayal. He will have to face his own people now.”

Tobias turns around and walks off.

“Wait!” I yell, jerking the fence. “Tell me where he is! If I don’t, I won’t be able to tell him what I feel.”

He doesn’t stop walking even though I start slamming my hands against the bars. I won’t let him get away like that. I have to find Soren. I have to … find my way back to him.

“Fine.” Suddenly, Tobias spins on his heels and chucks a piece of crumbled-up paper in my direction. “Have at it. If you care at all, you will stay away.”

It lands near the fence, out of reach, but I shove myself up close and pry with one hand between the bars, desperate to reach the paper on the ground like a beggar looking for scraps. But I don’t care how pathetic it makes me look.

When I finally manage to grab the paper, I whisk it away before Tobias can come back and snatch it away from me. He’s still there, waiting, and he glares at me with a mischievous look in his eyes. A small smirk forms on his lips as he watches me unravel the paper in front of him. I only briefly look away to find an address scribbled on the paper.

He throws me one final glance. “Don’t get yourself killed.”

I pause at that ominous warning as well as the dangerous look on his face. Only when he finally turns and walks back to the House can I breathe again.

I don’t hesitate one second before I get up and run.

Away from the House, away from Tobias.

Even though what awaits me out there will probably be way, way worse than anything he could ever have in store for me.

Because after what we did, he may have discarded Soren, but I will never, ever turn my back on someone I care about.