Page 157 of I Will Break You

He pulls back his fist and punches Dale in the eye. Dale’s anguished howl echoes through the small chamber, making my ears ring. I press my back into the wall, wondering why Dale’s reacting so severely until blood spurts from his closed eyelid.

I glance down at Xero’s fist, finding a blade sticking out between his fingers.

“Did you just stab him in the eye?” I yell over Dale’s screeching.

Xero turns to me with his teeth bared. “Torture isn’t a civil conversation, nor is it an argument. You need to show the target that you’re serious about causing him harm or death.”

My heart pounds as realization settles into my skull. “You’re sick.”

He cocks his head to the side and stares at me through icy blue eyes I once thought were beautiful. If eyes are the window to the soul, then I’m looking into the coldest corner of hell.

“Amethyst, did you forget that the police caught me holding my stepmother’s still-beating heart?”

My mouth opens and closes, and my mind scrambles for an answer. Dale’s screams continue to ring through my ears, unsettling my thoughts. Yes, I knew Xero was a murderer. No, I didn’t forget the part about the heart. Maybe at the time, I thought it was just theoretical. Almost poetic.

So, why am I so surprised? Did I really delude myself into thinking I’d tamed the monster?

“Dale won’t tell you anything now that he’s in pain,” I say to deflect.

Xero’s smirk makes me bristle. How can he smile when he’s just stabbed another man in the eye? How can he be so fucking relaxed?

He turns to where Dale is hunched over and grabs a handful of his hair. “Are you still with me, Daley-boy?”

“Get off me,” Dale roars, his body thrashing within the tight restraints. Blood pours freely down his cheek, sending splatters across the room.

Clutching the knife, I press my back into the corner, each breath rasping and desperate, as if the air itself flees my lungs. This interrogation wasn’t going too badly until Xero took over. I can’t believe I set up an entire fan club around this creature.

He’s completely unhinged.

“Amethyst has a nice ass, doesn’t she?” Xero growls.

Dale is too busy screaming to answer the question. The man attached to his ass tries to shrink away, as do the other men in this grotesque arrangement. My mind tries to make sense of what the fuck is happening.

I thought Xero wanted answers. Why the hell is he bringing the interrogation back to my body?

“Answer my fucking question,” he snarls. “Did you like looking at her ass?”

“Yes,” Dale screams.

“Bet you got nice and hard at the thought of sticking your cock into her sweet pussy.”

My hand flies to my chest, and my cheeks burn. Why the hell is he talking shit about me in a room full of thugs? I thought he would be a gentleman… At least out in public.

“Xero!”

“Stay back, little ghost,” he snarls.

He doesn’t need to ask me twice. I fumble around the wall, looking for the secret lever to open the door and let me out. I don’t want to stick around to be the subject of this kind of locker room talk.

“Answer me,” he growls, giving Dale’s head a shake. “Did you get an erection?”

“Yes,” Dale sobs.

Xero plunges his knife into Dale’s remaining eye, making all four of the men scream.

My stomach lurches. Whirling around, I clap a hand over my mouth to muffle my own scream. This is too much. I didn’t even agree to this interrogation, let alone becoming an accessory to a brutal torture. Now I’m trapped in a confined space with a murderer going psycho on a bunch of rapists.

The thud of several bodies hitting the concrete floor has me glancing over my shoulder. Xero’s broad back is turned to me, but his arm makes the kind of sawing motion I only ever see when men are carving a roast.

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