Page 116 of Corrupted Deception

Val looked at Aiden, then shrugged. “I think perhaps you might tell me. I wonder what I’ll need to cut off ofhimto persuadeyou.”

I forced out a laugh. Not surprisingly, it came out sultry, like warm velvet. “I’m afraid I’ve been there, done that, Val. I don’t have much use for any of his parts now.”

She eyed me for a moment, eyes contemplative, sizing me up.

“Hm, maybe.” She shook her head slowly. “You always were rather odd, weren’t you?”

Thanks. Love you too, you bitch.

“Well, let’s find out,” she said, nodding to the tank.

Shit.

But instead of firing his gun, he removed a knife from the sheath at his waist.

“Don’t say a word, Char,” Aiden said, his voice far too calm for a guy on the verge of losing an extremity. “You know better.”

Just breathe. Don’t react. It’ll only be worse if you react.

I crossed my arms over my chest—which had the added benefit of hiding my heart since I was pretty sure it was beating right through my ribs—and leaned my shoulder against the wall, my gaze never leaving Val’s. It was a fine line I was walking, not quite bored, not quite smug.

Val stared right back at me. I could see out the corner of my eye as the tank grabbed hold of Aiden’s hand and held it down against the table.

Fuck.

He touched the blade to Aiden’s flesh, right between the knuckles of his baby finger. And then he started to saw.

Aiden roared through clenched teeth, his face turning beat red.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

Don’t show it. Don’t let her see it.

I kept my features unruffled, my muscles loose. How many times had I practiced this?

“Lock it down, Char,”my father had said more times than I could count, sometimes on the sparring mats, other times, in the middle of one of my meltdowns.“Hide it.” “Bury it.” “Don’t give them anything they could use.”

Val scoffed and held up her hand, stopping the tank for the time being. “You really are your father’s daughter, aren’t you?”

“So I’ve heard,” I replied.

“Then, I suppose we’ll have to try something else. Perhaps someone whose parts you haven’t finished with.”

She nodded to the tank, who sheathed his knife, kept his gun on Aiden, and pulled out a phone from his jacket pocket. He swiped the screen, then turned it to face me.

It was a runway. The outside of a plane and a short stretch of tarmac beyond it. The Lucianos plane, if I had to guess.

My heart pounded impossibly harder. My stomach turned and sent bile rising in the back of my throat.

“The plane will be ready when we get there,” Deo had said.

She had a shooter in place, ready to take out Cielo the moment he stepped onto the tarmac. But where was he? The plane looked empty. No pilot, no staff on the runway.

Fortunately, I had the sense—or the training—to keep an eye on Val. Her brow was furrowed. Something wasn’t right.

All right, run with that.

“Problem, Val?” I asked, pushing off the wall and acting like everything I had expected to happen had taken place.