Page 97 of Bite the Bullet

25

JACK

The music stopped suddenlyand the lights dimmed. But the constant throbbing in my head was something that would never go away. I couldn’t think of anything other than wanting to slit my own throat to make it all stop. It didn’t make sense. There was no fucking way Baz could be this good at torture. He was just an arms dealer. This was military grade shit he was doing. When an arms dealer wanted information, he beat the shit out of people. He didn’t strap a person to a table and tape his eyes open.

The door swung open and the man of the hour walked in. Not that I could see much at this point. My eyes were dried out and the pounding in my head made it impossible to focus on anything. But I recognized his gait, the way his shoes clicked on the floor when everyone else shuffled along.

“B—back for more?” I croaked out, unable to speak clearly from lack of water. It could have been hours or days. I didn’t really know.

“Are you ready to tell me yet?”

“What…would you…like to know?”

“Who are you?”

I stayed silent.

“I thought you said this would work?”

He wasn’t talking to me. There was someone else in the room I hadn’t picked up on. My ears twitched as I tried to pick up any signs or sounds. Whoever he was, he remained silent. But there was something in the air…a scent I recognized.

Fuck, I knew who was here.

“Trust me,” Rafe grumbled. “This is the way to break him.”

“I could cut off his fingers and he’d speak.”

“Actually, if you cut off his fingers, you’d just have a man lying on the table with no fingers,” Rafe chuckled.

“You say you know how to break him,” Baz snapped. “Then you must have some idea of who he is.”

“Yes, but I need to be certain.”

I really fucking hoped Rafe was on my side. It was hard to say at this point. It didn’t exactly make me feel very confident that he was standing next to Baz, watching him—no, helping him torture me. But Rafe always was a little unconventional.

“Fuck your ways,” Baz snapped. I heard the slice of the blade against metal right before it was slammed down into the meat of my thigh.

I clenched my jaw, trying my best not to scream. Holding back the pain wasn’t something I was unaccustomed to, but being strapped to a table with bright lights and music blaring had already done a number on my psyche.

Baz moved into my line of sight, his beady eyes glaring down at me. “Tell me who you are!”

The currents ignited again at my wrists and a blinding shock of pain tore through my body. My already clenched teeth felt like they were about to rattle out of my head. I pressed my tongue to the roof of my mouth as best I could, praying I didn’t bite it off as the electricity wreaked havoc on my body.

“Enough!” Rafe shouted.

The current died and my body melted against the table. My breaths huffed out in heavy pants, but I knew it was far from over.

I heard a scuffle, and then a body thumped against the wall. “I fucking told you to let me handle this,” Rafe snapped.

“I would if you were doing your job. You assured me you could break him!”

I desperately wanted to close my eyes and drown out their voices. Every time they yelled, it felt like my brain was being scrambled again. I wouldn’t give up any information, but that didn’t mean this would end quickly. And Rafe was no guarantee that the pain wouldn’t continue. His agenda was much different than mine.

A tortured yell slipped from my lips as the electric current kicked on again, this time more powerful than anything I’d dealt with so far. My teeth rattled in my head and my whole body shook on the table. Little by little, I felt the room fading around until darkness finally covered my eyes. Death was close, and I welcomed it, praying for it to swallow me whole and end the pain.

“Don’t go yet,” Hannah whispered.

Her face appeared in front of me, her sad eyes begging me not to leave this earth. But I was tired of fighting other people’s battles. I was tired of always losing. The one person I vowed to protect was gone, and the woman and child I thought I could keep safe were out there all alone.

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