Page 110 of Crimson Tears

When Havoc steps back, Alexi douses Gray in cold water and Nessa nods to me.

I actually feel giddy as I step up for my turn. I want him to hurt, to pay. But his head is slouched down, and that will not do.

I look up at Nessa, ready to ask her to come hold the man’s head up while I carve one of these swords into his skin, but she is leaning almost all of her body weight on Boris.

Glancing at Damien, I nod. “Get them a chair, she deserves to see all of this while comfortable.”

He immediately gets one. Nessa attempts to protest, but Boris rolls his eyes and pulls her into his lap, gently of course. In an instant, that pinched expression on her face relaxes. When her eyes meet mine, I can see the silent thanks, and I smile at my girl.

“Damien, help me hold his head up, will you?”

He flexes his hands, practically running towards me. I think he and I might love this part the most, breaking that final bit of someone’s spirit until all that’s left is a blubbering mess.

I feel a sort of kindred spirit in Damien, and I half wonder if he loves this part so much because it solidifies our control over others. At least, that’s what a shrink told me when I tried to get help after Nessa allegedly died. I saw her twice before deciding violence was the answer to my pain. She wasn’t all that helpful, not like Dr. K seemed to be for so many here.

Pushing all of those thoughts aside, I focus on the task at hand.

“Okay there, Finn.” I thought a bit about Damien’s idea with the names. I love it, but coming up with last second names is a lot of pressure, so I figure I’ll just go with one name. And Finn sounds like a weak ass dude’s name who is just begging to get punched in the face.

“Does he really look like a Finn to you?” Damien questions me. I glare at him.

“Every asshole looks like a Finn to me. That was the name of the kid who thought he could kick sand in my face as a kid. This guy totally looks like he kicked sand in other kids’ faces.” I gesture to him as Finn’s face lolls to the side. He’s awake but barely.

“Good point. Alright, Finny boy.”

“No,” I hold a hand up sternly, “just Finn.”

Damien rolls his eyes. “Alright,Finn. Are you ready to have some fun?”

“Two peas in a pod right there,” Nessa says, and I can’t help but laugh. It might come out more menacingly than intended. Or not. Either way, we are about to have some fun.

It takes a little bit of time, but eventually we get what we need. The new leader of the Shades has a child trafficking organization, and Havoc thinks he may know who she is.

“They move them about every thirty days to set up a new training camp. If there is a breach in the perimeter, they have resources to get them moved in twelve hours or less.” The man is a little worse for wear. He can hardly open his eyes due to how swollen they are, and one is bleeding quite badly. “They have kids as young as six and as old as sixteen.”

“How many?” Nessa asks.

He tries to swallow, but it looks like it hurts.Good. “Last I heard, she said fifty were still alive.”

He at least looks upset about that. To know kids are dying and he just went along with it solidifies that we’re on the right side here, and he chose wrong. So feckin’ wrong.

Yeah, okay I know torture is wrong too, but you at least have to agree he deserves it, right? If not, you should probably just stop reading now because I have a feeling things are only about to get worse.

“I don’t understand,” Evie says. “I killed him. The Shades are loyal to me, or what’s left of them at least.”

“Well,” Finn rasps, “you didn't killher. When she came to my boss asking if he wanted to sponsor the whole thing, he agreed all too quickly.”

“Why did you take Nessa?” I demand. It’s great we put together what’s happening with the kids, and we already have an idea where they might be, but this is the part that is still bugging me. “Who knows she’s alive?”

“He knows she’s alive, and that’s enough.” His head falls forward, but he continues talking as his eyes shut. “H-He won’t stop until he has her. I’ve seen him, and he’s caught up on revenge like no man I have ever met.”

Torture really wasn’t necessary to get him to talk, it was just to requite everything that Nessa went through. He’s been giving us everything from the beginning and apparently tried to get Alexi to listen to everything he knew before we arrived.

“For what it’s worth,” he lifts his head as blood runs freely from his nose all the way down his chest, “I tried to get him to let you go. I warned him Green would take it too far, that hewastaking it too far with the whole eating your skin thing. He was on his way when they rescued you.”

My hands shake, knowing Nessa was so close to being taken, maybe even permanently. I look up at her, tucked into Boris on his lap. Her face is pale, her eyes watery.

She’s just a girl who wanted her father to love her. It was why she did everything she did. Why she fought so hard for a future she didn’t believe in but wanted to make come true for him. But he went down a path none of us could ever justify, and I’m sure that hurts her even more.

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