“You have to promise me you won’t hurt Alex, either,” I said, raising my head.
“I don’t have to promise you anything of the sort, you stupid little whore. Fucking answer me. Where would he go to hide?”
I faked a fresh set of tears, and then I slumped back in mock defeat. “One time he was asking me where I thought we could go to hide if anyone ever caught up with us. I suggested… I….” I let myself trail off, as if I couldn’t believe I was actually giving Alex up to the Circle.
“Come on. You suggested what?”
I shook my head. “I can’t tell you,” I said in a ragged voice.
“Oh, yes you can.” Dwyer held up another cup of water. “Or do you want more of this?”
“Okay, okay!” I shrieked. “He probably didn’t even go there, but I told him we could hide at a hunting cabin up north if we needed to. The place has been in my family for years.”
His eyes narrowed again. “John never told us anything about a hunting cabin.”
“My mom bought it after he died. She was drunk. We never use it. No one does.”
“If you’re lying, you’re in a lot of trouble. You know I can check land and property records, right?”
I shook my head weakly. “Not lying. You can check; it’s under her name. It’s just near State Game Lands 54. Forest Road. It’s a few left turns off Game School Road. There’s no house number, but it’s the one-story brown cabin at the very end of the road on the right.”
It was the very same tactic I once regrettably used with Alex. A lie coated with the truth. Because the cabin was real, and it honestly did belong to my family, it looked convincing when I brought it up.
Dwyer stared at me for a long time, and then he straightened up. “That wasn’t so hard now, was it?” he said, pulling out a cell phone from his pants pocket. He tapped on the screen, presumably noting down the cabin address or sending it to someone else.
“I’ll be sure to mention to Magnusson how you gave him up,” he said, smiling down at me a moment later. “He’ll be so happy to hear how easily we broke his little toy, I’m sure.” He tilted his head to the side. “Although, you don’t look that broken. Yet. Why don’t I fix that?”
With that, he unbuckled his belt and began to unzip his pants.
Then he stepped closer to me.