Page 54 of The Silencer

He waggles his eyebrows at me as he turns right and unlocks a door with a key card. It beeps, and he pushes it open. “After you,” he says, and my nervous legs slip through.

Bane follows me and the door snicks closed behind us.

“So, what are these tunnels for?” I ask when we start moving again. Bane stops walking and gently grabs the back of my head, pulling me in for a rougher kiss. My lips sting slightly from it, but he doesn’t linger. No, he just turns and continues to move down the dimly lit hallways.

“It’s how we get information. It’s my specialty, really.”

He turns right and then I’m led into a large room. There are no windows, just roughly carved walls and flickering lights.

“It’s quiet in here today,” he says with a hum. “Usually it’s quite loud.”

My eyebrows rise as the smell of bleach hits my nostrils. This entire thing should make me more afraid than I am, and for a moment, I wonder what’s wrong with me.

Something is seriously wrong with me.

I am not entirely normal.

“Hey, you wanna see my office?” he asks, almost bouncing on his toes.

I nod wordlessly as he takes me past several open doors. I can’t help but look inside.

Good fuck, is that blood on the walls? Seems so.

And yet, I’m not surprised.

This is what Anthony’s been keeping a secret.

God, what else is hidden down here?

“Bodies,” Bane replies to my words spoken out loud as he pulls another door open. “Hundreds of them.”

I shiver as I follow him inside, my eyes taking in the brightly painted space, every wall a different color. On two walls are rows of shelves and on them are stacks of jars filled with things.

Fingers. Toes. More eyeballs.

“That’s, um, quite a collection,” I say, trying to find the words for what I’m experiencing. This doesn’t even seem real. And yet, here I am.

Bane saunters over to a shelf and taps a glass jar. “Yeah, it is. And look, knee caps.”

“Hm. Wow,” I say with a nod and then watch as he opens a long cupboard. Tools are hanging on hooks, and I can only imagine what they are for.

Oh god, what the hell am I doing here?

“Those are…nice.”

“They are. And very useful. I wish I could show you these in action.”

I’m not sure I’d want to see that. But then again, if Anthony asked me if I’d like to see him using one of those then maybe I’d say yes.

I don’t fucking know anymore.

I glance over at Bane, who is watching me intently.

“So, were the guys who hurt me down here?”

Bane giggles as he closes the cabinet door and nods. “Oh, they sure were.”

He moves toward me and presses a kiss to my cheek, licking his way to my ear. “They were so very loud. So very scared. I gave it to them good. You don’t need to worry. I took care of them for you.”

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