Page 124 of Reaper Flame

I met his searching gaze and hoped he could read what I was thinking.

“Yes,” I whispered.

Zander turned back to Hiram. “What’s the deal?”

“I knew you’d come around,” Hiram said, tucking the envelope safely away. “Give me the Kitten forever, and you can walk away with Mieko and the answers you have been searching for.”

“How do I know Mieko is still alive?” Zander asked.

“We need proof!” Vixen demanded.

Hiram pressed a button on his watch, which doubled as a radio. “Bring her out.”

Moments later, two beefy men dragged out a small figure by the shoulders. Her clothes were filthy, and crudely cut ropes trailed behind her ankles like undone shoelaces. They dropped her at Hiram’s feet. Mieko looked around wildly. The gag over her mouth stopped her from speaking, and her hands were still bound like in the photograph. As soon as she saw us, her eyes widened like saucers and filled with tears.

She was alive. There was still hope.

“Mieko!” Vixen started to run, but West caught her. She wrestled to get out of his grip, but he held onto her thrashing body like a boa clasping its next meal. “Let me go!”

“We don’t need him taking two prisoners,” West murmured.

Hiram grabbed Mieko’s chin and jerked it roughly to face him, then dropped her again.

“Don’t fucking touch her!” Vixen screamed.

“You have your proof, Briarly,” Hiram said, gesturing at Mieko. “Do we have a deal?”

“Take the deal, Zander,” I said. I locked eyes with my terrified friend caught in Hiram’s clutches. “It’s the only way.”

“Listen to her, Briarly,” Hiram encouraged. “She knows the power I have.”

Mieko’s eyebrows shot up. Despite being bound, she shook her head. Hiram caught sight of her out of the corner of his eye. He scowled and delivered a sharp blow across her cheek, sending Mieko crashing to the floor with a muffled yelp.

“No!” Vixen yelled. Tears of desperation ran down her cheeks. “Don’t hurt her!”

“Untie her,” Zander ordered.

“As you wish,” Hiram said, nudging his head for his goons to do the deed. They yanked the gag from Mieko’s mouth and cut through the rope. Her skin was so pale from the blood loss she probably couldn’t feel her fingers. “What’s your decision, Briarly? This is my final offer.”

An eerie silence stretched ahead until Zander spoke.

“I will never make a deal with you, Hiram,” Zander said. “Candy is ours. I’m not leaving here without her, dead or alive. My decision is final.”

“You were right.” Hiram sighed in disappointment and pulled out the envelope again. He lit its edges. The paper curled and contorted; the smoke carried away Bryce’s secrets. “You are nothing like your father. He wasn’t so stupid.”

An inferno burned behind Hiram’s eyes as they met mine.

“Remember this moment, Kitten,” Hiram snarled. “I’m going to kill the Sevens one by one while you watch and then bring you home, anyway. All their deaths will be for nothing.”

“No!” I screamed as Hiram’s men flooded into the room from every door.

“Take them prisoner, but don’t kill them,” Hiram instructed. “I want to do that myself.”

He turned and retreated into the back room. The battlefield lay ahead. We had no choice. We had to fight for our lives.

* * *

Hiram’s men divided into two groups. Unlike earlier, they were not holding back. We didn’t have long to act. We stood at the edge of the pool and had to pick a direction.

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