Page 18 of Ugly Truths
I swallow hard, the words sticking to the back of my throat. I want to explain—to give him something, anything—but I can’t. Not when Luis’s life hangs in the balance.
I force myself to meet his stare. “I had a contract I needed to fulfill.”
He closes the remaining distance between us with predatory precision. “And what did this contract entail?” he presses, towering over me. “Who do you work for?”
Typical Silas—bulldozing his way through a negotiation. Why wouldn’t he? He holds almost all the cards, but not the few I have left. If he’s asking, that means there are still missing pieces. Whether he likes it or not, he needs me to fill in those gaps.
The only questions are how much they know and what I can do to leverage it to get Luis out of here.
“Why am I still alive?” I ask. “Why not just kill me when you found me?”
His jaw tightens, the muscle twitching as if he's holding back the full brunt of his rage. Then, his hand shoots out, gripping my chin with bruising force. His face is so close that I can feel the heat of his breath and smell the faint scent of his aftershave beneath the bitterness clinging to him.
“I don’t think you’re exactly in the position to be asking questions,” he growls.
He wants to hurt me. I can see it in his eyes, feel it in the way his fingers dig into my jaw like he’s trying to keep himself from doing something worse. The fear is instant, but there’s something else clawing its way to the surface. Maybe it’s stupidity or survival. Or it’s just the last shred of my dignity refusing to let him see me cower.
Whatever it is, it wins.
“When has that ever stopped me before?” I whisper.
My answer catches him off guard, forcefully reminding that I never backed down from his challenges before. Then, he leans back, running his tongue across his teeth.
“I wouldn’t have gone through the trouble of keeping you alive if I didn’t have a use for you,” he replies finally, shrugging. “Now quit wasting my time.”
“I don’t work for anyone anymore.”
His grip tightens. “Who gave you the fucking contract?” he demands through gritted teeth.
Silas will never relent on this; I know that much. His determination for and loyalty to his family—two things I once loved most about him—won’t allow him to let this go.
“I have people to protect.” My answer is quiet. “The same way you do.”
For a split second, frustration gives way to confusion, but it’s quickly lost under another wave of violence. “So, you’re protecting the person who gave you the job?”
“That’s not what I said.”
“Then what are you saying?” he snaps.
“I won’t tell you anything unless we make a deal," I say, my heart threatening to explode out of my chest.
Silas’s hand drops. For a long moment, he watches me. Searching for an answer or a weakness, but he won’t find one. It doesn’t take long for his expression to shift, a bitter smile creeping onto his lips.
“I think you will.”
Finality laces every syllable. I don’t have to guess what he’s thinking. I can practically see the twisted, methodical ways he’s already planning to break me. He’ll drag it out for as long as he can, savoring every second, inflicting as much pain as it takes until something gives—my body or my mind, whichever goes first.
It’s the pleasure he takes in the thought, barely masked beneath the fury, that undoes me.
I don’t know this man.
The quiet, careful one I watched movies with in his attic. The one I challenged without fear. The one I chipped away at, piece by piece. He’s buried alive beneath whateverthisis. The force of all of it is a bullet that ricochets through me.
The tears I’ve been holding back spill over, quick but silent, streaking down my face as I meet his gaze head-on. “Then I guess we’re done here.”
His eyes blaze with something I can’t quite place, but I know he understands me. If he doesn’t want to meet me halfway, we won’t be meeting anywhere at all. I’ll take it to the grave, or the bottom of LakeMichigan, or on the floor of this room. It doesn't matter where it happens. I'll leave this earth with every secret he wants to pry out of me.
Whatever emotion flickered in his expression vanishes as quickly as it came before his mouth curls into something cruel. “I’ll decide when we’re done. And when I do, I'll make sure it’s finished properly this time.”
