Page 125 of Bad Seed
Aubry. Please!
I plead with my eyes for him to do something, but all I can see is a boiling ocean of rage. He’d tear everyone to pieces with his teeth, but he wouldn’t make it a step before they killed him.
Mr. Ato gives a little laugh like we’re all having a jolly good time. “You always were a tits man, weren’t you, Talong? And she’s got quite the set on her. Well…had.”
The blade rises.
I dig my toes in and slam my eyes shut. “You’ll never find them!”
The blade stops.
“Never find what?” Ato twists the knife through the air like he’s already sawing off one of my breasts.
I look over to Aubry and mouth, “Sorry.” Taking a deep breath, I try to steady my voice. “The pictures. You’ll never find them if I’m dead.”
“The pictures are in a watery grave,” Mr. Ato declares, but the younger guys have all caught on. They’re on edge, terrified of the truth, but no one willing to explain it.
“Are you sure?” I ask, swiveling my head around to him.
It took me almost no time to find the right documents thanks to Aubry’s instructions. It was waiting for them to upload that got me caught. But I know they went through.
“Yes. They’re destroyed, as soon you will be.”
“Uh, boss…” Goji says, the one willing to fall on his sword. “She may have, um, backed them up.”
“Where?”
“In the cloud.”
Mr. Ato cranes his head up, then glares at the man. “Find this cloud and destroy it!”
I almost feel sorry for the man with clumps of my bloody hair in his rings. Nervously rubbing the back of his neck, he spits out blood, then mumbles. “I can’t. Not without the phone.”
Every man but Aubry stares at the pieces of his cell scattered across the floor. In the car, Aubry had told me to fork over the phone as soon as someone asked. He knew his boss was insane about them and would shatter it, wiping away the proof with his own hands.
It was a good plan.
Except for one small problem.
Roaring, Ato shoves the tip of the knife under my jaw. I strain my head up to escape it, but he keeps pushing, winnowing into my skin. “Where are they?”
“I can’t…” A yelp falls out and blood trickles down the silver blade.
“Oh, you’re right. I need you alive to tell me. But there is a vast gulf of pain between alive and healthy. You’re about to experience every possible permutation. First, I’ll take out your eye.”
“No!”
He grabs the back of my head. A thumb comes racing for my eye. I slam them both shut and wrench my head away, but the knife cuts across my throat.
“Sadie!” Aubry shouts.
“I won’t tell you!” I cry out so terrified I can’t feel my body. “Ah!” He digs his thumb into my eye, squeezing so hard I can feel it pressing into my brain.
“Where. Are. The pictures,” Ato fumes. His thumb digs under my eyeball. I can feel it, roaming around, trying to hook under it. He’s going to pop it out. He’s going to blind me.
I can’t tell him. I can’t!
“Sadvhi. Tell him. Tell him everything!”
