Page 55 of Savage Knight
He grabbed her hair and yanked her head back, overextending her neck.“Better get used to it.”Then he licked her cheek, his saliva burning her skin like acid.
Grabbing her arm, he pulled her toward his car.In her previous life, she didn’t want to die, and this time was no different.However, this time she refused to cave to the inevitable.Her time with Evren had showed her just how much she wanted to live, so she was going to do everything she could to survive.To rid the world of this man’s evil.If that meant killing Scias, then that’s what she was going to do.
With his soldiers around she had to choose the right moment.She wasn’t the same Lowen and this wasn’t the same timeline where all she ever did was cower.Evren had showed her that power came from within, not through fear.He taught her that self-defense was stronger when you believed in oneself.Scias could do his worst, and she had no doubt he probably would assert his dominance, but her mind was no longer trapped in dread and terror.He might beat her.Kick her.Slice her skin to the bone.But he wouldneverbreak her spirit again.
****
Evren’s eyes flutteredas he struggled to open them.Hazy images lingered around the peripheral of his mind, and a voice in his head told him to wake the fuck up.
“Ev?”
Jeremiah’s deep baritone penetrated the mist clouding his thoughts and his eyes popped open.His brother leaned over him, eyes narrowed, with an intensity that would’ve slain anyone else.Gone was the ruthlessly controlled businessman, and in his place was the Jeremiah of their youth.This was a boy who felt too much.Cared too much.Would do anything for his family.
“Water,” Evren croaked.
Jeremiah reached for a cup with a straw on the C-arm table at the foot of the hospital bed, and then helped him take a few cool sips to soothe his dry mouth.
“Where is she?”he immediately asked.
“Taken,” Jeremiah replied, setting the cut back down.“I have men tracking the footage of the crash through CCTV, but it’s a slow progress to hack into their systems.”
“Tucker is the mole.”
Jeremiah nodded.“I have him detained in Sax’s playroom.”
Ice hardened Evren’s heart.He would make Scias and his minions pay with their lives.“Get me out of this hospital bed.I need to interview him.”
Just then a nurse and doctor came into the room.
“Already in the works,” his brother stated.
The doctor tested his vitals, checked his eyes.Recommended he stay, but Evren refused.Against the doctor’s medical judgement, he got the hell out of there.He had some minor cuts and abrasions but nothing serious.Rest wasn’t going to help him recover because he had a monster to slay.
“Let’s go,” he said to Jeremiah after he dressed in his crash-worn suit.
He led them out of the hospital, with guards following in their wake.A convoy of black Cadillac SUVs waited for them.He and Jeremiah got into the first one and they were whisked away from the building.
For the entire trip to the Monarque, all he thought about was Lowen at the mercy of a sadistic demon.The man who had murdered her in another life.No longer did he waver on whether she told the truth or not.He was firmly in her corner, and when he got his hands on Scias Mailliard he was going to rip the son of a bitch in half.
When they parked, he was the first one out, and made a beeline to the personal elevator that led him down to the basement.He punched the code into the door which gave him access to the bright room.Jeremiah’s assistant, a very naked Tucker, was trussed up like a piñata hanging from his arms, which were pulled tight over his head and left him barely able to balance upon tiptoes.It was a posture designed to inflict slow torture, until gravity eventually won and dislocated the ball and socket joints.
“Welcome back, brother,” Saxon greeted.He flicked the half-unconscious man’s forehead in order to wake him up.“Hey, buddy, the Inquisitor is here.”
Tucker had always been one of those quiet types, the kind you didn’t know was there until he moved or made a sound.The perfect, fucking rat.
“If you can’t get the information from him, then I’ll step in,” Saxon said.
“I’ll get the info.”Lowen’s life depended on his actions.The good and sanctimonious Evren was gone.No more knight in shining armor.“I’ll remove every piece of him slowly until he cracks.”
Saxon pretended to wipe a tear from his eye.“My little man has grown up.It’s a beautiful thing.”
“Fuck off.”
He chuckled.“I like playing music while I work.You can stream my playlist in the music app.It’s called ‘torture them all playlist.’”
Tucker lifted his head, strain around his eyes.“What the hell, Evren?What’s the meaning of this?”
“If I was a traitorous scum, I’d think twice about the attitude.”
