Page 112 of Dark Romeo

Eddie’s eyes became saucers and his lip trembled. My stomach turned to see a grown man reduced to such raw terror.

Roman nodded as if to confirm, yes, he knew all this. Yes, Eddie, you should be very scared. “I know all this and more. But what I really want to know is who sent you to kidnap her?”

“I–I don’t know.”

Roman’s chin dropped an inch. He let out a heavy sigh. “I had hoped, Eddie, you would not disappoint me so soon.” Roman pulled a knife from a strap on his side. He held it up between himself and Eddie. Holy shit. It was a thick, glittering, double-edged blade, one side serrated, the other smooth. The kind of blade that hunters used to gut animals.

Roman placed it to Eddie’s neck and pressed, a small line of blood appearing. Eddie let out a whimper. I bit down on my lip. This isn’t the real Roman.

“Let’s try again,” Roman said, his voice growing hard, “who sent you to kidnap Julianna?”

“I don’t know.”

The blade pressed a little deeper, and the line became a trickle. “One more time, who hired you?”

“I swear, I?—”

“Open up.” Roman pinched Eddie’s broken nose, making him yell, and shoved the end of the blade in his open mouth. Eddie choked on the flat of the blade pressing down against his tongue, blood trickling from the corners of his mouth where the blade cut him, tears shining in the corner of his eyes.

“Roman,” I cried, my hands flying to my chest. Dear God. Was he going to kill this man in front of me? I’d seen the coldness of death dozens of times but I’d never been present for a live execution. My stomach curdled as the air suddenly filled sharply of urine. Eddie must have pissed himself.

This isn’t Roman. He’s playing a role.

He’s playing it too well.

“See this lovely lady?” Roman growled. “Thank her. Even though you tried to rape her, she wants to spare you. She is an angel. I…” he leaned in close, barely inches from Eddie’s face. “I’m no angel. I am the devil made flesh. And I would kill for her.”

I would kill for her. My body broke out in shivers at his admission.

I stared at Roman, but his focus was on Eddie. The only hint that he realized what he had just admitted was a slight pause before he continued. “You will tell me what I need to know or I will cut you into pieces starting with your useless tongue.” Roman grabbed Eddie’s wallet with his bladeless hand. He flipped it open and shoved the picture of Eddie’s family in his face. I remembered seeing that picture when we had gone through his wallet earlier. It must have been a Christmas photo, the five of them gathered at the foot of a sparsely decorated tree. “After I’m done with you, I will feed you to my dogs. Then I will find your wife and I will fuck every single one of her holes until she’s cursing your name. And your beautiful daughters, they will watch. They will watch and they will know that it was your fault. That you could’ve saved them but didn’t.”

My blood curdled. Eduardo made a sobbing noise around the blade and it cut into the corners of his mouth even further.

Roman snatched the knife out of his mouth. “What was that?”

“Okay, okay.” Eduardo’s eyes glistened with wetness. “I’ll tell you. Please, leave my family out of it.”

Roman didn’t relent. He jammed the tip of the blade under his chin. “Then. Start. Talking.”

“I don’t know who hired us…” he coughed and spat out blood. “We went through a handler.”

“Who is your handler?”

“Please,” he mumbled. “He’ll kill me.”

Roman paused, a heavy silence where the only sound I could hear was Eddie’s wheezing and my own blood pumping in my ears. “Tell me who your handler is and I’ll give you and your family safe passage out of Verona. You’ll have a chance to live. Refuse to tell me and your chance dies here.”

“You’re lying.”

Roman leaned in. “I swear on my mother’s memory. If you know anything about me, you’ll know how much my mother meant to me.”

“S-Safe passage?”

Roman nodded. “Safe passage. And cash to get you started wherever you end up.”

Eddie swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing across the thin wound on his neck. His left eye was now almost swollen shut so it was only his heavily lidded right eye that skittered over Roman, not daring to look at him directly, as he calculated the odds of his choices.

Finally, he nodded. Smart man. I wouldn’t take my chances against Roman Tyrell either.

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