Page 77 of Back In the Shadows

“Tell me.” Ella approached him and then crouched down. She reached up to his cheek and dragged her knuckles down his face. “Please. We had some good times together, didn’t we?”

I watched in awe as she played him. It appeared my little lamb had learned a few things while in captivity. Her manipulation skills had certainly grown. Pride burst in my chest.

He nodded, excited. “My first kiss.” Xavier sighed like a lovesick puppy, and I forced myself to stand back and not fucking rip out his heart then and there. I hadn’t had time to interrogate Ella over what that son of a bitch had done to her. But I bet that sniveling coward Sebastian knew everything. Even that this sick fuck had kissed her against her will. Thatwas another point in favor of getting rid of both Xavier and Sebastian.

“And we had a date night planned. Remember the movie?”

“Yes!” His features grew grim. “I was really looking forward to that, Ella, but you left me.”

“I did, but I’m here now. Talk to me. Tell me what you said right after you fell and hurt your knees.”

His body trembled with fear as he slumped against the wall, struggling to catch his breath. “I didn’t mean to let it slip, but you drugged me,” he gasped, his voice hoarse and desperate.

She took his hand in hers, and I wondered how she didn’t vomit with his proximity after what he’d done to her. But she was resilient, my little lamb, and she would see this through to the end.

“You’re not supposed to know,” he whispered, darting a fearful glance in my direction. “If my boss finds out …” His sentence trailed off as if his boss had magical ability and could reach through the wall and kill him right there.

“I’ll make a deal with you. If you tell me what you said and how you know, then I promise Death won’t kill you.”

His face lit up like a fucking Christmas tree, but I hadn’t missed what she said. I guessed he had, though.

A heavy silence hung in the air around us. Finally, keeping his attention on Ella, he said …

38

DEATH

“The darkness didn't hunt the lamb—it hummed a lullaby until wandering felt like coming home.” ~ Anonymous

“Are you sure?” Ella’s gentle voice broke me out of my fog from Xavier’s confession. “How do you know?”

“My boss doesn’t lie. He’s brutally honest.” Xavier’s head bobbed for emphasis and then he turned his attention to me. “You’re my brother. Boss found a bit of your DNA left at the warehouse when you strung up Dahmer junior by a meat hook. Once he got what he needed, he had the rest of the evidence scrubbed before the police showed up. He’s on your side.”

Ella straightened, her expression calm. She walked over to me. “Death, do you believe him? Is it possible that he really is your brother?”

My jaw clenched as a storm brewed to life and fury took front and center stage. If this piece of shit was my brother, I wanted no part of him. There was no love here. No familiarity or any kind of attachment. He was still scum to be interrogated, tortured, and disposed of. He was a means to an end, nothing more.

“I don’t know. Tell me more,” I demanded and kicked his foot.

He screamed in pain, and I held up the medication to remind him he could have relief if he wanted to. His eyes rolled in the back of his head, and for a minute I thought he might pass out, but then he seemed okay again.

“The family that raised me, they locked me in the basement for weeks at a time. I was a dirty secret, a shameful sin that needed to be hidden away. And then they tried to kill me too.” His features glazed over as he recalled the horrors of his past. “He broke my mind, and my mother did nothing to help me. It’s why they had to go.” He seethed, his voice trembling with a mixture of rage and pain. “They’re nothing but lifeless bodies stuffed and sitting at my dinner table.” A menacing grin spread across his face as he stared at me from cold, dead eyes.

“I don’t really give a fuck about your family or what you lived through. All I want to know is how are we brothers?”

“Not my story to tell. Not my story,” he sang.

“Whose story is it then?” I growled. The little shit was stomping on my last fucking nerve.

“You’ll understand soon enough.” His cackle split my eardrums. The fucker needed to shut up so I could think.

“And did it occur to you that your boss was playing you and that we’re not brothers at all?”

Xavier nodded. “I’m not stupid. Of course I did,” he spat, his entire demeanor changing on a dime.

“Where do I find him? Your boss?”

Xavier pursed his lips together. “When the time comes, he’ll find you. He wants to meet his prodigy face-to-face. But he’s interested in something else too. The boss wants …” He slammed his mouth closed and hesitated before he said, “I can’t tell you what he wants. The boss tells me everything, though, and I can’tbreak his trust, you know. But you should ask him when you see him.” He licked his dry lips.

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