Page 84 of All Your Pain
“Yes,” he says hesitantly.
“I have some news about your daughter. Can we come in?” My fingers twitch at my side eager to wrap around my blade and start carving it into him.Not yet.
“What? My–Willow, you know where she is? Who are you? You don’t look like cops.”
“Maybe you should sit down before we talk,” Bones adds, his charming mask fixed back into place as he smiles at Henry.
He looks between us again before finally opening the door and letting us in.
The house is dim inside, lit by only a few table lamps this late at night. As Henry leads us through the house, I spot his keys on a side table and quietly grab them to pass back to Bones.
We should just knock the guy out and stuff him in the trunk so we can get back on the road as quickly as possible. But I need to see how Willow lived, what her old room looks like and if it’s been left untouched since she left. I know she disappeared on him with only a vague note left for him to find.
“Where’s my daughter? Is she…is she safe?” There’s something in the way Henry says the wordsafethat makes even Bones look my way. If this guy really is how Willow described then I’m sure the only thing he’s worried about being safe is her virtue. Which, thanks to me, is long gone.
“Oh she’s very safe,” I smirk.
Henry blinks as he looks up at me from where he’s leaning his arms against the back of a chair. In the light of the dining room I can see how tense he looks. He doesn’t look like a father that’s lost his only daughter, there’s no signs he’s been kept awake at night worried about her wellbeing.
“You didn’t look for her,” I say coldly as I glance around the room. It’s a nice place he’s got here. A perfect showroom for someone trying to portray the idyllic happy family life. I’m sure there’s plenty to steal if we wanted to kill him right here and make it look like a break in but I’ve got bigger plans for him. Ones that involve his daughter and lots of blood.
“Of course, I looked for her. She’s my daughter. I thought something terrible had happened to her!” He snaps as he stiffens and straightens his back. I’ve got quite a few inches on him and he’s so scrawny that I’m sure his bones would snap easily enough.
“Is that why you didn’t go to the police and report her missing? Because you’ve just been so worried about her wellbeing.”
“I—I did. What are you talking about? I’ve been nonstop looking for her.”
Bones leans against the doorway and sighs loudly. “Don’t bullshit us” I’d already told him everything I found on Henry, including how he never went to the cops and even posted on his social media that Willow was away on a gap year, finding herself before she started college.
“I’m not—what are you—,” he cuts off when I pull my knife out and press my fingertip to the end, twisting it until a single drop of blood bubbles up.
“I’d like this part of the night to have as little bloodshed as possible so it can all be saved for the big event, but if you lie to me then I’m not responsible for my actions.”
“What do you want with me?”
“With you?Shouldn’t you be asking how we know about your daughter? Or do you really not care about her?”
“I care! Of course I do but she’s the one that ran away, the little bitch. Whatever she's done, I don’t want to hear it. She’s already dead to me.”
My eyebrows raise slowly at his change of tune. “Bones, get the car ready,” I say, my voice low and seething with promises of all the hate I'm going to bestow onto this man.
I hear Bones chuckle to himself before his footsteps recede to go and open up the garage so we have some privacy when we get Henry into the car. It’s a quaint little neighborhood and there were already curtains twitching when we were waiting on the doorstep. It was dark enough to conceal our features and I switched out my car's plates to a new set of fake ones beforehand so there shouldn’t be any repercussions for us later.
“What’ll it be, Henry? The clean way or the bloody way? Either way you’re coming with us tonight.” I step around the table towards Henry and he bolts for the door.
Before he can make it through the hallway I’m on him, punching him on the side of the head so his face slams into the wall. He groans and tries to turn so he can fight against me but I grab his hair and slam his face into the wall again.
“If you do anything stupid I’ll cut your balls off right here,” I warn him and he freezes.
Grabbing a zip tie from my pocket, I yank his arms behind his back, securing them together tight enough that the ties cut into his skin.
“Where are your manners, Henry? You’ve not given your new son in-law a tour of the house!”
“What the hell are you talking about?” he blathers as I push him towards the stairs.
“Up!” I snap and he looks at me over his shoulder like I’m crazy, like everyone does. When he doesn’t move I kick himin the back of the knee and he falls forward, his chin bashing against a step. He cries out as blood flies from his mouth where he’s bitten into his own tongue.
“Don’t keep me waiting,Dad.Hm, should I call you Dad? Doesn’t sound right. How about scum? Or piece of shit? That sounds more fitting for someone who'd treat their only daughter like crap for their entire life.” I pull him to his feet before pushing him forward again, he finds his footing this time and propels himself upstairs.