Page 43 of Burn It Down

“He’s brought it to this point. He won’t give us an in, then this will be the consequence.”

“I assume you don’t want to stick around for this then?”

“No. I need to check in with the buyers I lined up for our next venture anyway, and also find out what’s taking our teams so long to locate Reed, Jonah, and your little bitch of a son.”

I heard footsteps retreating down the corridor.

A curse sounded from Sam, before he left the area too.

I pushed up off the floor, struggling as I found my hands now cuffed in front of me to a long chain bolted into the corner of the room.

Once again, I did what I always did, and peered through the dark room, trying to locate anything, any of their torture implements that they may have accidentally left behind, anything I could use to unlock these fucking cuffs.

Dislocating my thumbs wasn’t an option, because they’d clearly already thought of me doing that and they’d kept me bound by a special brand that didn’t allow that.

The only other time they ever unbound me was sometimes right after a particularly brutal punishment session, but when I was in no physical state to do anything.

I’d even tried the element of surprise, locking my cuffed hands around my father’s throat when he’d walked into the cell once. Samuel had followed too close behind, though, and he’d shoved a shock baton into my gut. Over and over. When I’d still held fast, he’d stabbed it at my groin. I’d blacked out from that one, and when I’d come to I’d been bound to the wall by ankle and wrist cuffs, even one across my stomach and throat, my limbs stretched to their limit, and they’d left me suspended there for an entire night. I’d lost a whole day of trying to work an escape after that, in no state to move a muscle, and enduring their punishments had been particularly difficult, pushing me right to the edge.

I’d had to shore up my mental fortitude to the extreme that day, focusing on what I was fighting for—the mission to destroy those motherfuckers in the absolute, the need burning in my veins to get back to my brothers, especially Jonah.

“I’ve loved you for a very long time. I can’t even remember when it first started.”

Holding onto him was what had stopped me from slipping. I’d almost focused on my thoughts of Aurora, on the explosion, before I’d managed to check myself and shove it back down.

I couldn’t allow it.

It was a possible snapping point. That grief, if I allowed it register, could create a crack, the very thing they’d been wanting desperately from me.

The hatch in the door opened with a nasty scrape, making me swing my head over there.

A robe came into view as usual that I was able to see through the light of the corridor. And then, on cue, a small plate with my meds on it and a nicotine patch were passed through, followed by a bottle of water. This time, however, the bowl of slop—sometimes cold oatmeal, sometimes soggy rice, didn’t follow. As the guard sealed the door back up and I pulled myself across the rough floor toward it, the chains clanging against the floor as I went, I noticed the water bottle’s seal had been broken and it wasn’t transparent either.

Slumping against the wall beside the delivery and gritting my teeth as the rough stone abraded the still open wounds in my back, I reached out with shaking hands and grasped the bottle. I twisted off the lid and scented it, then jerked it away as I determined what it was.

Piss.

I screwed up my nose, sealed it, and set it down.

They were stepping things up, just like that overheard conversation had alluded to.

On the surface that didn’t bode well. Obviously.

But it could also provide an opportunity.

This wasn’t a planned change.

What I’d heard earlier had made that clear.

That meant lack of preparation. And that invited mistakes.

For me? Points of vulnerability to exploit.

I took the meds, swallowing them down dry.

Then I shakily applied the patch to my shoulder, an area that wasn’t red-raw or bloodied.

They hadn’t risked actually giving me a smoke again. The things I could do if I’d gotten my hands on a lighter had them too worried to chance it now I was cognizant.

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