Page 117 of All Your Hate

“May I?” I ask Luka.

“Be my guest.”

In three long strides, I have Edward by the throat and in another two he’s pinned to the table in the middle of the room. He claws at my hand as he gasps for air. “If it were just the two of us I don’t think I’d be able to stop myself from breaking your neck like this. But Luka has done a lot for me and who am I to deny him his prey?”

Right on cue, Luka injects something into Edward’s arm and it only takes a few seconds for him to go limp.

“We need him talking,” I say.

“He will be. It’s a muscle relaxant. His speech may be a bit slow and slurred, but not enough to prevent him from telling us what we need.”

I remove my hand from Edward’s throat as Luka grabs a large pair of scissors and meticulously cuts the man’s clothes off him.

His eyes are huge saucers in his head as he tries to see what’s happening without being able to move his neck.

Once he’s bare, Luka switches his scissors to a small scalpel and makes an incision on Edward’s chest. “Please, stop,” Edward slurs out, clearly in pain.

“See, he can still feel everything. He just can’t fight back.”

Wynter hops off the table to come for a closer look. I watch approvingly as she doesn’t recoil at the sight.

“I never took you for the torturing type, what with saving lives and all that,” I say to Luka as Wynter grabs a scalpel and drags it down Edward’s chest. He screams out, tears leaking from the corners of his eyes.

“I’m sure you know as well as any that it doesn’t come overnight.”

As much as I’d love to spend the night squeezing every secret out of Luka, we’re not here for that.

“Can we get started?” Wynter beams up at me and her smile makes my heart soar.

“Go for it, my love.” Taking a step back I watch her as she comes into her own.

“I supposewhyis as good a starting point as any.” She holds the scalpel close to Edward’s eye. “Why did you do that for Tommaso? You treated me like I was an animal.”

“Mmmm—money,” Edward slurs out.

The creep knew who she was all night. Bet he was desperate to get his fill of her. I keep my anger in check for now. This is Wynter's time not mine.

“Did you touch me?”

“No.”

“Liar.” I snatch up another of Luka’s scalpels and drag a long line down Edward’s side. Blood pours out onto the metal table and travels down into a drainage hole at the foot of it.

“Did you touch her?”

“I had to touch her to examine her. Tommaso didn’t let me do anything else. He was eager to f-fuck her.”

“How many other girls did you examine for him?” Wynter asks and I cut him again for her. I get him too deep this time and blood pours out at a heavier rate.

“Careful,” Luka says calmly. I expect him to scold me, but he seems to understand my anger.

Luka pinches the cut and staples it shut. More tears leak out of Edward as he sobs uncontrollably.

“I don’t know. I wasn’t counting.”

“Did you have to examine someone called Evie? She was short and blonde,” Wynter asks. This time she holds the scalpel to one of Edward’s fingers.

“I don’t know! I swear I’m not lying.”

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