Page 21 of Black Hearts

“What?”

“I knew you wouldn’t be able to do it, you little bitch,” Dwyer piped up with a mocking sneer. Celeste stepped over to him and kicked him in the face, right in the nose. He groaned, and blood sprayed from one nostril, collecting in crimson droplets on his pale blue shirt.

“Shut the fuck up,” Celeste said. She stepped back over to me. “Alex,” she went on, noticing my expression. “I didn’t change my mind. I want to do it. But….” Her gaze drifted to the floor. There was something she didn’t want to say out loud.

“What?” I asked. “Tell me. We promised, remember? No holding back.”

“I know, I just don’t want to hurt you any more than you’ve already been hurt,” she murmured. “But I remembered something. When Dwyer came to the house, pretending to rescue me, he made up this whole story about what allegedly happened to your sister when he saw me holding a photo of her. I know he did it to make me hate you and not trust you, but it just occurred to me—he knew her name before I said anything at all. He recognized her immediately.”

I looked at Dwyer, then back at her. “So you think….”

She nodded. “I think he was the one who went and hurt her every single week with a smile, like you said earlier. It makes sense; he was around in the Circle that long ago, and he really seemed amused by what he did to me earlier. He loves torturing girls, and I think he loves it even more when they try to fight back. I also think he’s one of the guys who tried to kill her that day. So I just thought, as much as I want to kill him….” She handed the gun back to me. “This one should be yours. He was probably the worst one to Lina. It’s okay; there’ll be others for me to get later.”

I looked at Dwyer. “Is that true?” I asked, eyes narrowed with rage. “Evangeline Gibson was your favorite girl at the mansion, and you saw her every week? You were there when they tried to murder her?”

He stared back at me with a faux-innocent expression on his smarmy face. “Yeah. You got me. What’s it to you?” He paused, then chuckled. “Oh wait, that’s right. West found an old newspaper article about her vanishing act and the little story they said she made up when she was found again. You were mentioned in the photo caption with the rest of the family. You’re her half-brother.”

I shook my head at his sheer wickedness, feeling the oily, creeping need to kill slithering through my guts. I glanced at Celeste again. She was looking at Dwyer, her jaw set in a determined manner. I thought of the bastard hurting her. I thought of how he hurtmy sister all those years ago. All that pain and suffering.

I needed this fucker to feel that pain himself.

I crouched down to his level. “She was only thirteen when you took her.”

Dwyer sneered. “If she hadn’t wandered around at night looking like a little whore, maybe we wouldn’t have taken her. Besides, you’ve got it all wrong. She loved it. All that fighting back… it was just an act. She wanted it all.”

He looked at me expectantly, a faint smile curling up his thin lips. I knew exactly what he was doing. He expected me to lash out, and that was the exact reaction he wanted. He thought if he riled me up enough, I’d get so angry that I’d kill him quickly in my fit of rage; shoot him right in the head or heart.

He wouldn’t get that satisfaction from me. His death would be screaming, burning agony.

“I know what you’re up to, and it won’t work,” I said softly, putting the gun down and pushing it away, sending it skidding across the concrete to the other side of the room. “Celeste is right. This kill should be mine, and it won’t be fast. It won’t be with a bullet. I only wish I could make it take as long as what you did to my sister. Two fucking years.”

For the first time, Dwyer looked frightened. He already knew we were going to kill him, but now he finally knew how much it would hurt, because I wasn’t falling for his games.

I unbuttoned his shirt, and he struggled against me, trying to break free of his bonds. It was useless. He was stuck fast.

I pulled out my knife again, holding it right to his face, then lowering it to his hairy gut. “See how you like it,” I said softly, sinking the blade into his flesh. I dragged it around in a slow circle, carving the pattern deeply into his skin.

He screamed until Celeste stepped over, grabbed a small towel from the cart and shoved it in his mouth. “Didn’t I tell you to shut up?”

“Thanks, angel,” I said, looking up at her with a smile. She smiled back.

Dwyer whimpered and looked down at his stomach, his face turning pale as he saw the circular gash and all the blood leaking from it. I ripped the towel out of his mouth.

“That’s just the beginning,” I said, standing up and glaring down at him. “Is there anything you want to tell us? I’ll make it go a teensy bit faster if you give us any information we can use. It’ll still hurt, but not for as long.”

He gulped down a deep breath, then spat at my feet. “Fuck off.”

“Hm. Just like I thought.” I took Celeste aside. “I need you to play along with what I say next,” I murmured softly. “Your therapist had a number in her phone under the name William. Probably not a real name, but still—it was there for a reason. I’m gonna use it to see how he reacts.”

She nodded, then sat back and watched as I sliced off part of Dwyer’s left ear with a razor from the metal tray. He screamed again, his plaintive cries echoing around the room.

“You sure there isn’t anything you want to tell us?” I asked, tilting my head to the side.

Dwyer tried his best to compose himself, then spat at me again. “I said, fuck off.”

“I heard you. But see, the thing is, we already know a lot more than you think. We know where your mansion headquarters are; we just need to get everyone there at the same time,” I said, beginning my bluff. “That’s why we need you.”

“Bullshit,” he snarled. “You don’t know shit. There’s no way you know where it is.”

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