Page 85 of Black Heart
I can barely breathe, my lungs constricting as if Morelli’s man is squeezing my very organs. But I can’t look away from Kaden. If I do, I’ll shatter.
Kaden’s lashes flicker even as a vein pulses from his forehead as he struggles. A silent communication passes between us in that split second. Apology and a promise. A reminder from him to remember his vow to me. His oath that he will get me out of this, no matter the cost.
But how?
He’s outnumbered, outgunned. Trapped.
Just like his daughter was. Buried by Morelli’s own hands. My stomach clenches, a violent upheaval threatening to erupt.
Morelli’s expensive shoes splash through the carnage as he inches closer behind me. He reaches out a hand, trailing a finger down my cheek, his touch like ice against my flushed skin.
I jerk my head away, but the arm around my neck holds firm.
“Spirited. I can see why you like her, Kaden.”
I feel more than see Morelli giving me the once-over, lingering on my private areas.
“Though her current state leaves something to be desired.”
Despite the paralyzing fear, I hiss through gritted teeth, “Go to hell.”
“Oh, my dear. We’re already there.” His chuckle cascades across my shoulders like hundreds of spiderlings exploding out of their nest. “And I’m the devil himself.”
I swallow against the pressure around my throat and pour every ounce of contempt into my voice when I respond, “Then Kaden promised me your horns as my trophy.”
A sickening sound draws my attention in time to watch Kaden wrench free of the men holding him, moving faster than I thought humanly possible. The guns at his head go off but somehow miss, bullets sparking off the server towers in a shower of metal and plastic.
Kaden’s twin blades flash as he slices through the first man’s neck, a crimson arc spraying the wall. He pivots, burying his other knife to the hilt in the second man’s eye socket with a precise squelch.
The arm around my neck turns into a vise, cutting off my air and jerking me back. Spots dance in my vision.
Morelli barks an order, and suddenly, more of his men flood in, piling onto Kaden.
But Kaden is an unleashed beast whose family is threatened, slashing and tearing with savage ferocity, his face a rictus of primal rage. Men fall in pieces, their screams cut short as Kaden slings their blood around, and I fully accept that I’m in shock when I compare the scene to an assassin breaking into an art room and getting into the paint.
I’m seeing so much violence. It’s not stopping. It keeps coming, relentless and determined to break me until there’s nothing left but a hollow shell for Kaden to weep over.
“Enough!” Morelli bellows.
Cold steel presses against my temple and I still, whimpering.
Kaden freezes. His blades drip gore as he catches his breath, his gaze locking onto the gun barrel digging into my temple, Morelli’s fingers clenched white around the grip.
“Drop the weapons, Mr. Black,” Morelli commands, his voice oil-slick with triumph. “Or I’ll add her brains into your corpse soup.”
A muscle in Kaden’s jaw ticks, a war raging behind his visceral stare. The urge to rip Morelli to pieces versus hisdesperate need to protect me. To not lose another loved one to this monster.
“Kaden,” I rasp, his name barely squeezing out. I can’t breathe. I’m trembling so violently my teeth chatter. “Don’t...”
But Kaden’s already loosening his grip, letting the knives clatter to the blood-slicked floor. He raises his hands in surrender, his shoulders slumping in defeat.
Morelli’s lips curl in a vicious smile. “Good dog.”
Yet there is no submission in Kaden’s stare as he regards Morelli. “Where is she? Where did you bury my daughter?”
Morelli’s triumphant laugh grates against my eardrums, each guffaw laced with sadistic glee. “Where, you ask? Why, in the very place you least expect. The one location you’d never think to look because it’s too close to home. Though I did enjoy all those baubles you left on the bodies you collected over the years. And the creativity in your kills. Death by licorice. That was a good one. And I can’t disregard those cheap, cutesy timepieces you’d leave behind, similar to the ones Cassandra loved to wear, am I right? That alone is my final gift to you, Mr. Black. I noticed your vengeful clues, I realized who the Scythe truly was, and I relished the day I could confront and then end you myself. Your obsession with me was truly flattering.”
Kaden’s lips twist into a humorless smile. “Enjoy it while you can, Morelli. We both know you’re a dead man walking. The cancer eating away at your insides, turning you into a shriveled husk. I can smell it on you, the stench of decay. You reek of desperation, clinging to your last shreds of power. But in the end, you’re nothing more than a rotting shell, a tragic parody of the man you once were.”