Page 10 of Destroyer

I can't move. I can't breathe. I'm trapped.

Slowly, my breathless wriggling stalls. I don't have the strength to fight anymore. I'm just a pathetic, gasping mess on the floor.

This isn’t the three men taking me from this house. This isn’t the time when Gavriil died, and I was tied up for three days. This is Caeo and Gregory. Fighting them isn't right. None of this is right.

The sound of my heart whooshing through my head is joined by the propane canister running out. It starts spurting, the blue flame bursts higher with each dying gasp from the canister.

"Ah, shit. Please get me down." Paul screams out, straining his whole body to keep his legs clear of the heat. "It's true. All of it. Everything is true."

Of course it's true. I told Paul what was going on. Everything I suspect to be at play. I just needed someone to confirm it for me. I picked Paul because he has cats.

He had cats.

But he told me what I wanted, and now he can have his reward. I lie perfectly still, permitting Gregory to leave me. He does, moving the propane and cutting Paul down. He tends to Paul, placing wet towels over his burnt legs.

That's wrong. Paul's reward was death, not wet blankets. Paul's words earnt my mercy and the end of his suffering.

This is all wrong.

Caeo is holding me too tight. His grip in my face isn't to keep me quiet, it's to stop my air. My head is feeling light. I'm trapped and floaty.

Chapter seven

Caeo

Ikeepmytightgrip on Nico's mouth, and the arm around his chest until he falls limp in my embrace. Unlocking my legs from around him reminds me how old and inflexible I am nowadays.

"What do we do?" Gregory looks at me in a panic. I don't see the strong assistant that Knox needs, I just see the youngest son of a lazy boss. I can see why a man like him would be cast aside.

"I guess we call the doctor." We can patch Paul up enough to keep him alive, giving us more time to work this mess out. "Stay with him."

Paul isn't crying out so much anymore, in my experience, that isn't always a good thing. But before I can help him, I need to secure Nico. He won't be this floppy teen in my arms for long. Soon he will be back to the feral beast I chased across the room.

The rest of the rope he brought to bind Paul lies on the corner and it's just within my reach. As I tie his hands behind his back, Gregory begs Paul to stay with us. By the time I have Nico's ankles tied, Paul is silent, motionless and barely alive.

"He isn't going to make it. What are we going to do?" Gregory frowns at me.

His position in the family means this is his problem, but the way he's looking at me means this is my problem too.

"We wrap him in the plastic and get him in the boot of your car. You drive him up to your dad and say he was asking about Porter's dad. You killed him to protect everyone."

"Do you think he'll believe that I did this?" Gregory lifts the towel over Paul's legs and turns a little green.

"I think he'll be very proud of your little brother if you can't take the credit for this." I agree with him that the smell of burning skin is not for the faint hearted; but nothing about this job is.

Nico has a nice big sheet of clear plastic over the new carpet covering the floor. I have to believe that was Nico's plan; that he never planned for Paul to leave here alive. However, I can't believe Nico had a burial site planned out for this. Not that I can believe this was premeditated in any way. Being handed someone to torture for information is all part of the game when your part of a family like this. Going out and picking someone off the street to kill is quite a different matter. I need to find out what Nico was doing, and who asked him. I completely believe Knox still agrees with letting the kid retire from the cruel job he's been doing. With him now in charge of everything that happens in the Thayer name, anyone who gave Nico orders is working against us.

"Do you think we can cover this up and keep it between the three of us?" Gregory mutters, his eyes turning to Nico.

The boy hasn't moved from where I left him hogtied in the corner, but his eyes are open now. He's watching, listening, scheming. Just like the brat he is.

"Let's get him in the boot." I am used to making the tough decisions; using my knowledge of Knox to predict what he would do and acting accordingly. He'd agree with me that we need to save Nico from himself. Paul isn't even dead yet, but we wrap him in the plastic anyway. As we cover his face, I pull the material tight, choking him out, just like I did with Nico, only this time I'm not going to stop until all traces of life have left his body.

Gregory helps me carry the wrapped-up body out to my car and close it in the boot before we head back up for Nico. We just drag him downstairs and leave him in the house while we pack up everything and clean away every trace that we were there. Nico prepared everything; his organisation is impressive. I'm totally knackered and ready for my bed by the time we are done here, and we still have a body and a brat to deal with. The brat gets to lie silently on the back seats of the car until we're on my drive.

After moving the body from my boot into Gregory's, I wave the man off, and move to the back seat. Nico lies on the floor, not struggling or complaining. He's being good and that has me suspicious.

"I'm going to bed. We can deal with this in the morning." I tell the boy my plans while plucking him from the car to carry inside. "You are going to lie on my bed and not move until morning."

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