Page 136 of Breaker

“Fuck,” I murmur, setting my drink down on the coffee table. When I came back to the factory I knew sleep wasn’t coming anytime soon so I grabbed Viper’s vodka and poured a drink. Then another. I’m three in and my head feels a bit fuzzy. I don’t drink often but tonight I needed to shut down the images whirling in my mind.

The bay door rattles again. Only one asshole knows where this place is, and he always pounds on the bay door instead of walking around to the side entrance like a normal person.

I take my time walking to the far side of the room, then smack my palm on the button. The door rattles open. Before it’s even halfway up, Harlow ducks under the door and stalks toward me, fury twisting his features.

Guess Zane managed to get loose. I have to admit I’m impressed. I underestimated his determination and his tolerance for pain.

“What the fuck did you do?” Harlow yells, his deep voice echoing around the room.

Yeah. He’s loose.

“Wire?” Harlow stops maybe a foot away looking up at me with hands on hips, eyes wild and angry. Everything about him looks frayed. His suit which is usually impeccable, is creased and his blue tie is askew. Even his dark brown eyes look worn down, tattered at the edges. “You tied the asshole to the table with wire? Then broke all his fucking fingers?”

“Just on his left hand,” I say. “He’s right-handed so he can still jerk off.”

That tattered look in his eyes turns to steel and now he looks sewn back together with a mean glint hardening his features. “And as if that wasn’t bad enough, you fucking drove a knife through his hand into his kitchen table and left him there to figure out how to remove it himself?”

“I cut the wires, and I left him his phone,” I say. “And the mallet to loosen the knife. He just had to knock it a few times to—“

The sound from his throat is both disbelief and bewilderment. “Zane’s in surgery right now and Rune’s on a fucking warpath.”

I turn my back to him, walking back across the room to grab my drink. I down it in one gulp, letting the burn center me. I knew the ramifications were going to be bad, hence the drinking, but that’s what I do. I act. Ireact. I let that tangled up anger inside me take control. I let it command me instead of the other way around.

“He was insultingourgirl.“ I make sure to put emphasis on the word ours to remind Harlow that he’s been her safe place her entire life and he needs to remember that.

“Oh, well that explains it,” he says, voice dripping with sarcasm. “Because it’s perfectly rational to fucking torture someone for flinging insults.”

Carefully setting my glass down I turn to face him. He’s moved up behind me, still seething with rage but he’s a good two inches shorter so I look down my nose at him and he backs off. “Do you know Cora blackmailed him, so he’d go back on the marriage deal?”

Harlow reels back, brows knitted.

“Zane started singing sweetly. Told me about how he told Rune everything she asked him to. She’s blackmailing him.”

His features contort, moving from confusion to a realization then to fear. “She knows.”

Now it’s my turn to look confused, as I sort through everything I know in my head. “Cora knows Rune killed her mother, yes. She told Striker that Rune told her when he became her guardian.” I almost say that he used this fear tactic, emotional manipulation, and abuse to keep her in his control, but I don’t. That’s not for me to tell Harlow. If she wants him to know, she will tell him. “But I don’t believe she knowshowhe killed her,“ I add. “Or Zane’s involvement.”

Harlow scoots around me and sits on the sofa, heaving out a sigh. “She knows that Zane was involved with her mother. That’s why she met with him today. She just doesn’t realize that Rune already knows Zane was screwing his partner’s wife all those years ago.”

I sit down next to him, my head reeling. If Zane was fucking her mother fifteen years ago, that means…

That means he knowseverything.

“I’m assuming you were smart enough to make sure he couldn’t identify you,” Harlow says, picking up the bottle of vodka. When I scowl at him, he says, “Did you at least turn off the security cameras beforehand?”

“I disabled them after we got in the house.”

Harlow nods. “Good. At least we don’t have to worry about that. Does he know it was you?”

Me. As in Fallon’s soldier. His son. “He thinks Cora sent me to ensure he did as asked, but Rune will know it was one of us.”

Harlow gestures to the stairs. “Go get her, we need to sort out what we’re going to tell Rune.”

I glance up to the stairs, my head feeling a lot fuzzier than a minute ago. The adrenaline of the evening is wearing off and the revelation about Zane’s involvement with Cora’s mother, on top of the several drinks I’ve had, is making me feel off.

“Fine, I’ll go get her,” Harlow says, standing.

Panic slams into my chest. “Cora’s not here.”

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