Page 207 of Darling Wildfire
Emersyn.
I hadn’t seen her in so long. In my mind she’d stayed a child, frozen in time. Always my little girl.
But a father knows his daughter and there weren’t any doubts this was her. When I learned she was alive, West and Rune had tried everything to find an image of her but they weren’t successful. Now, here she was, staring at me with eyes as hard as steel and so haunted it made me sick.
I ripped it from the wall to get a closer look. My thumb traced over her face and the scar. Pain seared through me at the sight and the guilt threatened to drown me. It had faded over the years and did nothing to take away from her beauty, but just the thought of how she’d gotten it by my hand was enough to make me hate myself.
“North.” Nyx and Atlas were at the door. “She’s not here.”
I barely heard them. I stormed out of the room, shoving past them and heading towards where I knew two of these scum of the earth were being held. Someone called my name, but I was beyond stopping now.
I’d been so close.
I rounded the corner and saw the two men tied in chairs in the center of a large open area of the warehouse. I had eyes only for them as I stalked over. I grabbed the first man’s shirt and shoved him backwards so hard thefront legs of the chair tipped up. I put the photo in his face.
“Tell me where she is!”
“I don’t know.” I could see the fear in his eyes as his pupils expanded. I pulled out my .45 and shot him in the knee. The man howled in pain.
“Wrong answer,” I snapped. “Again—where is this girl?”
“I-I don’t-know,” the man whined. “She—we distribute to-to several—”
I shot him in the other knee.
“Where the fuck is she?” I yelled.
The man was outright sobbing now.
“Where is she?” I struck my gun across his face. “Useless piece of shit,” I growled.
I pressed the gun against his groin.
“Wait-wait, she’s either—”
“Shut up,” the other guy hissed.
My eyes immediately jumped to him. He tried to look tough but I must have looked unhinged, I certainly felt it, because he tried to lean away from me as I stepped over to him.
“Oh no,” I purred. “If you’re not going to let him answer me, then you’re going to.”
I shoved the photo in his face. “Where is she?”
“I don’t know,” he snapped.
I shot him in the thigh. I shoved the gun between his legs as he groaned in pain. The threat was clear.
“Yes, you do. You know,” I rasped.
He opened his mouth, and I shook my head. “You better think carefully about your answer. My trigger finger is real itchy today.”
“We sent t-two shipments yesterday,” the man gritted out. “One to Palmero—the-the ot-other to Quarry.”
I straightened and took the gun away, only to backhand him across the face with it just because I felt like it. I turned to see I had an audience. Nyx and Atlas stood near Deathwing’s two men, looking like they’d stopped them from intervening.
Deathwing was casually smoking a cigarette out of the way, not looking the least bit concerned.
“You finished?” He dropped his cigarette and stomped it out.
