Page 3 of Bloom: Part 2

“What is he doing here?”

“The Galkins have been experimenting with doing business on our turf, not respecting our boundaries. We’re going to send them a message.”

“By doing what?” My voice wavered, breaking the illusion of confidence I had managed to maintain until then. Although I still had no idea why Pop wanted me here, a terrible feeling in my gut left me queasy.

“We need some answers out of him, and you’re going to get them.”

“Excuse me?”

“Look around.” He spread his arms toward the shelves. “We got everything we could think of, but if there’s anything missing, let me know.”

Baffled, I stared at him, struggling to put words together. “You want me to…torture him?”

Pop smiled, the smile of the damned. “Finally you get it. With all that knowledge you gained about the human body and all that science stuff, who better to break him for us?”

I took a step back and another. “Are you joking? That’s Cillian’s job.”

“Your brother’s too rough with them. They usually end up dead before they can give us anything useful.”

My stomach churned, the acidic taste of bile rising to threaten the back of my throat. I looked at Boris, unconscious and vulnerable on the table, then back at my father.

“You’re serious,” I said, my voice a whisper.

“As a heart attack.” Dad burst out into a laugh. “Of course you’ll have to prevent him from having one while you perform the torture.”

“I can’t torture someone! I’m a doctor. My job is to do the opposite of that.”

“Maybe your job in the hospital, but for me, you’ll torture anyone I bring to you for information. Do you understand?”

“I can’t.” I curled my hands into fists. Just a couple of hours earlier, I’d had my hands in the chest cavity of a man, saving his life. “It goes against everything I stand for. I took an oath—”

“I paid for you to take that oath. I paid for everything, son. Your tuition, your books, your apartment. Your entire goddamn life! And if I need you to torture information out of someone, by god you will do it.”

Rooted to the spot, I looked at Boris. His face was battered and washed out. The sight turned my stomach; it wasn’t supposed to be this way. I’d walked out. I’d escaped this. Why was this happening?

“You promised me—”

“Only a fool takes comfort in promises, Keegan. Did you really think you could escape this? Thereisno walking away. You’re an Agosti. This is your legacy. We dominate and eliminate those who are weaker, forging wealth for our family and those to come after us.”

“But—”

“Keegan, get to it!” Cillian snapped, his eyes flashing with warning. I couldn’t get out of this. He’d been right all along. Pop had set me up.

All this time he hadn’t wanted a doctor. He wanted a torturer, and apparently the qualifications for both were the same.

“Just this once,” I whispered with my eyes closed. I pushed the words past my constricted throat. “After this, you leave me alone.”

“Of course, son.”

Only a fool takes comfort in promises.

1

BLOOM

Why is nothing good on cable TV when there are so many channels?

Heaving a sigh, I dropped the remote onto my stomach and linked my fingers. The hospital staff had been so grateful for me saving their lives—no matter how often I told them that hadn’t been my intention—that they upgraded me to a private room with a flat-screen TV and an absurd number of channels.

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