Page 83 of Red Rabbit
A chill raced down my spine at that voice.
Cooper was sitting in my living room in my armchair, leg crossed over knee, drinking a glass of whiskey. There were two other men with assault rifles flanking him and another I could see standing against my kitchen counter. I struggled viciously but the man pressed the knife harder against my neck and I immediately stilled.
“I thought a knife might calm you down,” Cooper said conversationally. “Remind you of old times.”
“What do you want?” I gasped out, struggling to breathe through my rising panic. I was not going back to the Warren. I would die. I would literally slide this knife across my throat before I let him take me.
“I want you back, Kaelin,” he said.
“Find someone else,” I ground out. Cooper just chuckled.
“I’ve tried,” he said. “Trust me. You’re a lot of work and a pain in my ass—but you apparently are the best. No one quite has your perfect culmination of skills. You’re a rare rabbit.”
“I’m not good enough to do what you’re asking,” I said, grasping for any sort of excuse. I hid my shaking hands in my dress.
Cooper threw back his glass of whiskey and for a moment I saw a glimpse of the rage burning deep and hot inside him andas he stood up he violently threw the glass against my wall where it shattered. I jumped and let out a whimper as the knife cut into my skin. Anxiety shot through me.
Don’t break down. Don’t break down.
Don’t. Break. Down.
Cooper ran a hand over his mouth and walked over to me, pulling out his phone. He tapped a button and as he came to a stop in front of me, I heard Graham’s voice from the phone.
“Could you really do it?”
“It is highly unethical—”
“But could you do it? Create a chip or some sort of tech that would keep someone from breaking under duress?”
“Graham—”
“Answer me.”
“Technically, yes—”
Cooper hit stop and put his phone away, looking at me with a shrug.
“So you can see how I don’t believe you.” He reached out a hand and ran a finger along my jaw. “It wouldn’t be like before. I wouldn’t put you in the auction—although you and I would still have our fun of course. And I will punish you for breaking into my syst—” I jerked forward and bit his finger, hard enough to draw blood.
His face darkened and he growled as he backhanded me across the face so hard the man holding me let go and I dropped to the floor. I scrambled back and the edge of the coffee table bit into my back, halting my progress.
Cooper knelt down in front of me, his eyes flashing dangerously and I could see he was barely containing his anger. He looked more unhinged than the last time I’d seen him and again I felt the cold hand of terror grip me. He grabbed me by the neck and hauled me forward so his face was inches from me.
“Do you know what it’s like to be meticulously tortured? To have someone bit by bit turn your body against your mind?” He smirked. “Well, maybe you’ve had a taste but nothing like what Graham and I endured—they made me watch when they weren’t working on me.” His eyes flickered like he was back in that place and after a moment he sighed. “Even through my pain I grew an appreciation for the art form. Because there is an art to bringing someone to the edge of insanity.”
His fingers tightened until I could barely breathe.
“The mind tries to protect the body but everyone has a breaking point, even if that breaking point is death. It is one of the biggest flaws in the human construct and I am finding a way around it so what happened to me and Graham and Trav and countless others doesn’t have to happen.”
“By putting others through torture,” I gasped out, glaring at him.
“The end justifies the means. Their sacrifices are not in vain.”
Of course he would think that. He thought his test subjects were martyrs for the cause. He released me and I sagged back against the coffee table, my hand going to my neck. He looked down at me and his gaze swept over my body and the red dress I was wearing then up to my face. His hand went up and dragged through the cut on my cheek, his fingers came away bloody.
“Red really is the perfect color on you,” he said darkly.
“Sir—” A man came up to him from the hallway. “Someone is here.”
