Page 112 of A Breath of Life
Counting didn’t work. My blood boiled with venom.
I closed my eyes and thought of quiet nights with Tallus when he would drag his fingertips over my scalp and share about his day at the office, when he would rest his head on my chest and listen to my heart.
I tumbled further back in time. Baking cookies with Nana. Visiting the craft store and helping her pick yarn for a new project.
The Bishop’s voice drew me back to reality. “That’s a mighty nasty scar you’ve got on your cheek. I should give you a matching one over here.” He dragged the dagger’s edge over my skin. A faint sting erupted in its wake, and I grappled desperately for control, willing my body and tongue to remain still.
I was ten years old again.Don’t talk. Don’t fight. Submit. Submit. Submit.A bike chain. Broken skin.
“Oops. My bad. I seem to have made you bleed.”
It was merely a scratch. A warning. It was nothing.
You’re nothing.
Heart thundering in my ears, my brain a cacophony of noisy memories from my past, I didn’t hear the Consigliere’s first demand that I look at him. It took the Bishop repeating it for me to comply.
The Consigliere stood close enough that he hovered over me. I wanted to launch at his face and sink my teeth into him, but with my neck forcibly craned and the knife’s point back under my eye, I remained still. The feral beast inside me wouldn’t calm, but it knew enough to wait for the right moment.
Every exhale came out on a growl. The bear, Tallus called it. He was rabid and itching for a kill.
The Consigliere spoke again. It took everything in me to focus on his words. “Control yourself, Mr. Krause. All it would take is oneword from me, and my friend at the home would end your sweet grandmother’s life. She’s elderly. A simple injection of succinylcholine would be effective in stopping her heart and wouldn’t show up in an autopsy. Her death would easily be attributed to old age. Hernursehappens to be carrying a syringeful in his pocket. Would you like me to make that phone call?”
“No,” I rasped. “Please… Leave her alone.”
“Bring your temper down. You don’t get a second warning.”
The Bishop released me at a nod from the Consigliere. My entire body was an earthquake, a tsunami, but I didn’t lash out and test my bindings.
“Where has your friend gone?” the Consigliere asked.
“I don’t know. I figured you’d caught him.”
“What does he know of our situation?”
I hesitated, but the Consigliere added, “Don’t lie to me.”
“Everything.”
He nodded as though he assumed. “That’s a problem.” He paced. “How smart is your young lover?”
“Why?”
“Did you train him in investigative work yourself? Has he any skill?”
I frowned, not comprehending.
With a smirk, the Consigliere withdrew my phone from the same interior pocket as he’d stored the card. “Passcode, Mr. Krause.”
I rhymed it off, knowing better than to refuse. A niggling worry in my gut made me tense.
The man tapped at the screen and put the device to his ear. To me, he said, “I hope he’s brilliant because you’ve just put your grandmother’s life in his hands.”
29
Tallus
Diem’s name flashed across the screen as the phone buzzed a second time, vibrating on the hard surface of the table.
