Page 48 of Lock Up the Darkness

He took my hand, giving it a squeeze, the kind gesture taking me aback.

He didn’t speak to it, or even acknowledge it as he went on, “When he brought me in on it, he had me watch as he cut out your dad’s tattoo with a rusty blade and a peeler. Afterward, he headed back to the office and left me to further the torture. Lance was to be executed later that night.”

“And you did it? You tortured my dad?” I demanded, moving to jerk my hand free of his.

He held on firmly. “No.”

“What?”

He sighed and revealed, “I’m not innocent. I’m not a good man. But I have a rule. I only punish the guilty. Your dad was a hero, a noble military man.”

Relief sung through me.

“After my father left and I was alone with Lance, and I didn’t make a move to hurt him, he started talking to me, connecting with me, recognizing that I wasn’t my father’s son. And that was when he told me the whole deal, that he’d been infiltrating my father’s criminal network, that he had the means to dismantle it. Long story short, I took him up on the offer to work together, and I got him out.”

“How?”

He lifted up the right side of his dress shirt and gestured to a jagged scar by his ribs. I saw some black ink there, snake tattoos it looked like, but he pulled his shirt back down before I could take the artwork in fully. “I had him stab me with that same rusted blade to make it look like he’d overpowered me. Then I put a gun in his hand, and he did the rest. He’s one tough bastard without a doubt.”

“Yeah, yeah, he is.”

He took my hand that he’d taken to holding to comfort me through his brutal recollection of my dad’s suffering—and his—and held it between us, urging my attention to him.

“My father must’ve been looking for you all this time to use you as leverage to bring Lance in and finish the job. That chatter you heard a few months back out of the blue was likely Lance purposely putting himself back on the radar for a brief period to distract him from that goal of getting to you. He’d have his ear to the ground, he’d know if my father had gotten close to you. A distraction can only last so long, however.”

“You’re saying he knows who I am?”

“Yes. He has to. Taking such an interest in you as soon as you stepped into town, wanting me to play with you, basically make you my pet, draw you close and break you down… all of that is his style when punishing an enemy. He uses what they love. There’s no line for him, he’ll go for their family without a second thought.” He released my hand and reached out and fingered my hair. “Dyeing your hair and hiding your resemblance to your father wasn’t enough. He’d see right through that. You actually came here at the right time. Knowing this now, it’s clear he was so close that he would’ve been upon you anyway and he would’ve ripped apart anybody in your life. Now you’re here in Hexwood, that’s in a stalled state.”

“Because of you?”

“Because of me, yes. As long as he thinks me and my boys are using you like our whore and making your life hell, he’ll leave it be. He’ll be satisfied that his enemy’s daughter is suffering and in the meantime, he’ll step up his efforts to track your dad and nullify the threat he believes him to be. Of course, that has a time limit attached to it. The situation could change. This little loophole you’ve fortunately found yourself in won’t last forever.”

“Then we make sure it doesn’t come to that.”

He stepped up to me. “You think you can work with us?”

“Our goals align.”

“They do, but this would need to be on my terms, following my rules.”

“It can be a collaborative effort.”

“This isn’t a negotiation.”

“Everything is a negotiation, so long as you have the guts to push for it.”

A grin lifted his lips. “Well, you certainly have guts.”

“Abso-fucking-lutely.”

Our eyes locked.

Tension flamed.

He reached out, but then thought better of it and dropped his hand. “To negotiate, you require leverage, little lamb. Not just bravado.”

I leaned down and pulled my right knee-high boot off.

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