Page 74 of Forbidden Deception

She lifts her black skirt, pulls a knife from the strap on her thigh, hands it to me, then nods at me to follow her. I hold the handle tightly and follow.

Through the dark hallway.

To the right.

The static in my ear crackles.

The smell of blood and petrol clouds around me.

We pause in front of a door that is slightly ajar, a soft light filtering out from the crack.

“In here.” She walks in and moves aside for me to see a man tied to a chair in the middle of the room.

It’s dark except the yellow light swinging every so often above him. The room is made of broken wooden panels, and beneath him is a pool of dark, viscous liquid.

My stomach turns, but I tighten my hand around the knife.

“Guard 23, rotation around the back quarter of the school, also the spiller of secrets, in our case, a loose end,” I recite what I know and catch Medora raising a bat on her shoulder and smiling.

Her teeth show, and she blows a pink bubble. The pop awakens the man.

He blinks, then his slightly glazed eyes fall on us. The bruises on his face are purple and yellow streaks, and the sight of it andthe blood dripping from his cracked lips force me to turn away for a moment.

“Let me go, you bitch!” He struggles, thrashing in his seat, but the chair is bolted to the floor.

Medora turns to me and grins, pitch black eyes and a dark smile. She is not going to let him go, and she knows I won’t ask her to.

“You will pay for this once the headmaster finds out her security intel is missing,” he spits, his head hanging low. Did Medora really hit him that hard?

“And why do you assume that? What if she thinks you didn’t make it your shift for personal reasons?” I step forward, crouching so he can look me in the eye.

Clearly Medora has done some serious damage for him to not be able to raise his head.

He narrows his crazed eyes.

“Who would believe you bitches?” He thrashes once more. He’s breathless and can barely do anything but throw a tantrum in place.

Medora steps forward. She grabs his jaw, nails digging into his cheek. His eyes instantly squeeze shut, and his harsh breathing fills the silence between us.

“Tell me the name of your headmaster, your employer,” I ask calmly, a faint smell of gasoline passing me.

He tries to jostle, but she back-hands him. Her ring catches his cheek, slicing open his skin. Blood drips from the cut, and he screams.

“She said, tell us the name of your fucking headmaster.”

He takes deep breaths and spits blood out onto the dirty floor.

“Mrs Anderson Gravy.”

I nod. “And who hired the company you work for?”

“Remember, correct answers only,” Medora says from behind him, lifting his jaw and shaking his face.

“An anonymous entity.”

So basically, Helia, so Remo could get me out of there.

“Right. Do you happen to know this entity?”

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