Page 44 of Dead By Dusk

My knuckles wrapped around the bars whiten as static noise fills my ears. Restraint is becoming harder and harder, but I steel myself, taking deep breaths to try and balance outmy emotions. The attempt is futile, as my rage becomes a living, breathing thing. I know he can feel it because his spine stiffens, and he moves to stand in front of me once again.

“I guess money can’t buy everything. Certainly not loyalty. When they realized I knew something was off and I had my own methods to find out what, it became very easy to negotiate information for certain guarantees.”

“Why are you doing this? What danger has any of these people posed to you? What danger has yourdaughterposed to you?”

“You don’t understand the bigger picture, Callaghan. You never did. It made you a great soldier. You followed orders, you watched everyone and everything. You didn’t question me because you were getting paid enough not to.” I listen to him speak and feel a sense of guilt, because he’s right. I had never questioned a single thing he had asked of me. There was not a single kill, torture, or kidnapping I had not been willing to dole out for the right price.

Everyone who signs a contract understands it’s a “no questions asked” gig. Mr. Delgado did this so he wouldn’t have to waste his breath on someone who wouldn’t last or would just end up on the wrong side of the dirt anyway. I chose to never change those terms when I could have.

“Ms. Dimitriou though…she’s got a fire inside her. Maybe if I had done more digging, I would have understood it better. Initially, I had her pinned as some orphan who would do anything for a sense of purpose. But that wasn’t it at all.” A momentary scowl takes over his features as he turns his head to the side. It almost appears as if he’s trying to recall a memory the way his dark brown eyes drill holes into the ground.

“To do this job, you must have something to lose, and she had nothing. Shewasnothing before she came here. I played my cards and found there are many lines she’s willing to crossfor the right reason. I just bet my hand on the wrong one.” His brows furrow as a wicked grin reappears on his face. A chill skitters down my spine at the sight of it.

“There has to be some sort of poetic justice in order for her to believe what she’s doing isn’t wrong. How was I to know she would find something or someone worth fighting for? It’s pathetic, really.” His dark gaze bores into me, and I know he’s not referring to me. But the grin on his face tells me something else. Something hidden and sinister.

“As for my daughter, she never had a purpose here. She was meant to be silent, read her books, and eventually marry someone that would be advantageous for me. She went digging in matters that weren’t her own. Silene will never stop fighting as long as Carmen is alive, so now my daughter is nothing more than a necessary casualty.”

“Where are they?” I grit out, my voice sounding as rough and unrestrained as I currently feel. My eyes are squeezed shut, breath held in anticipation of his response. I fear what he may have already done and what it would inevitably do to Silene when she found out. I worry she may never recover if she knew she had failed the timid woman who showed her a truth worth dying for.

“Silene woke hours ago ready to kill you herself for the betrayal she believes you committed. She said you were second on her list after me. God, no one could hold her back in those initial seconds.” A dark, disingenuous laugh interrupts his statement before he continues. “She made it clear across the room kicking and screaming, demanding answers. It was an admirable attempt. We had to sedate the bitch just to get her to shut the fuck up.” No longer can I hold my tongue and listen, regardless of the answers I still need. She may laugh at such insults, but it’s my job to defend her when she’s not around.

Reaching through the iron bars, I grip the fabric of his suit jacket and yank him toward me. His body slams into the bars with a loud thud, but he only laughs. The sound is wild and maniacal as the other guards storm inside and rip him from my grip. I don’t stop pulling and pushing the bars caging me, though. Even when I feel the prick of the needle in my arm, grabbed and pulled taut for the cool liquid inside to flood my system, I still fight.

I fight as hard as I can for as long as I can before drowsiness wraps me in its warm, dreadful embrace, and pulls me back into the shadows.

Sweat coats my skin as I shoot up with a deep gasp. The only light in the room is the moonlight filtering in, casting a silver glow throughout the otherwise dark room. I’m in the downstairs living area accompanied by Silene who is tucked into the complete opposite side of the couch than I had been laying. Nate and Adonis are asleep in opposite corners, as far away from the blood stain, the only remnants of the man Adonis had killed. His body was moved to the bathroom I originally woke in.

They had both created makeshift beds from anything they could find, though it doesn’t escape my notice that Adonis’ head lays on one of the pillows from the upstairs bed. A development I assume happened before he woke Carmen to take over watch.

Fucking Princess.

I let my eyes roam back to Silene, curled in a ball with one of the black curtains wrapped tightly around the upper half of her body, fast asleep. Her curly hair is tossed in a messy bun using the makeshift hair tie I’d made her, and something deep swells in my chest. This profound feeling of hope that something greater lies waiting on the other side of all this. Then I remember the dream that had catapulted my body awake with fear that I was already too late, and I know that I can’t tell her what I remembered.

Not yet.

22

Heavy: Silene

Despite the fact that the sun is not visible through the window I’m facing, blinding light still bleeds into the room. Deep in the forest, it was easier to ignore with the trees surrounding us at every angle, keeping us shaded at almost every hour of the day before night drowned us in darkness. So, despite the harshness of the light, I find myself inching closer to the window, squinting as I let the light wash over my skin.

After Ronan and I discovered the hidden stairwell and the branching tunnels that pour out from it, we discussed the best way to tell the group of what he found while they slept completely unaware. We talked about what each symbol on the map meant and the possibilities that were born from it.

We formed a plan.

A loose plan, but a plan nonetheless.

There’s nothing concrete about what had been our tired ramblings, but it was more than we had twenty-four hours ago, and that’s something.

Tilting my head over my shoulder, I see Carmen approaching me. Her steps are quiet, and when I get a good look at her, I see the bone deep fatigue that clings to her every movement. Each step drags across the floor, her posture slightly hunched and her gold-flecked hazel eyes are so dull—so lifeless. I refuse to comment on these things, and instead turn my head back forward, letting the moment stretch for a while.

“You still don’t trust them.” Her statement is quiet, but it’s one that feels like a question as well as a fact. I can’t help but think about everything that I’ve noticed since we’ve been here. The warning I was given, my dreams, Adonis’ silent rage, Nate’s skepticism.

Ronan’s ability to be absolutely infuriating while he waits for me to figure something out for myself, while also caring for me in a way that feels too intimate in this setting. Every single person has something to lose, and whoever is lying is doing a damn good job at making sure it’s not their life that abruptly ends.

“I do not.” I turn back towards the window, letting myself adjust to the bright light, before searching for any sign of life. As far as I can see, there appears to be nothing but trees. It would be easy though, for anyone to become invisible at such a distance. I find myself grateful that no one is close enough to the house to be spotted.

“All of them?”

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