Total pages in book: 164
Estimated words: 157003 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 785(@200wpm)___ 628(@250wpm)___ 523(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 157003 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 785(@200wpm)___ 628(@250wpm)___ 523(@300wpm)
“Cy,” I greet. “Did you miss me?”
His brown eyes are wild and he whimpers from behind the red scarf that’s stuffed inside his mouth. Sweat pours down his forehead and his T-shirt is soaked through. His feet are a mess, just like I left him.
When Adrian sees Talia, he sits upright and pats the sofa, understanding washing over him. She is to watch. She needs to see. “Come sit, miss,” he urges.
As though he is the villain in this dank cellar, she takes a step nearer to me. Rather than allowing her any comfort, I release her arm and swat her ass. “Go, Talia.”
She shoots me a venomous look over her shoulder. I bite back a chuckle. Fiery, even when fearful. Impressive. Once she sits as far away from Adrian as she can get, I remove my jacket and drape it over a chair.
“Talia, moró mou,” I rumble. “Meet Cy. Cy, meet my fiancée.”
Cy cries, but no one cares.
“Cy is a bad man,” I tell her. “A bad man who must be punished. Do you want to know what he did that was so heinous to be tied to that chair?”
She shakes her head furiously, tears welling in her blue eyes. “No.”
So brave this woman. Challenges me continuously.
“Allow me to regale you anyway,” I say with a smile. “Cy here was asked where his brother Bakken was. Bakken is a thief and a killer. A pirate of sorts. An Aegean Sea asshole who boards ships that do not belong to him and cuts throats of innocent people. Bakken thinks if he kills people in my territory, that the Hellenic police will come after me and my family.”
Her brows furrow as she waits for me to continue, her eyes glued to Cy’s bloody feet.
I roll my sleeves up before whistling at Adrian. “Give me your sock.”
He groans but kicks off his shoe. The big brute pulls off his black sock and tosses it to me. I set the sock down on the table and place my hands on my hips.
“Talia, Cy was wrong. The Hellenic police are my father’s friends. They’ll be at our wedding. There’s a blurred line between good and bad. You’ll soon learn to straddle it with me.” I turn my head to regard Cy. “We burned your brother alive on his own ship. We found him no thanks to you.”
Cy whimpers and shakes his head. He isn’t allowed to speak anymore. There was a time when I allowed him to, and he lied. Told me his brother had fled to Istanbul. In reality, his brother was floating around in my territory, fucking with what’s mine.
“Know what happens to liars, Talia?” I demand, my attention once again on her.
She flinches and shakes her head.
“Use that pretty head of yours,” I growl. “Amuse me and guess.”
“T-They lose their tongue?” she asks, her bottom lip trembling.
Adrian snorts out a laugh.
“I suppose that’d make sense,” I say as I squat in front of Cy. “But a madman doesn’t make sense. Therefore, liars get a different treatment around here.”
I pick up the knife from the floor. Earlier, when my father left my office, I came straight down to the cellar to work on Cy. I’d barely started when Basil told me that my fiancée had fled. Cy’s been waiting all this time.
The stench of piss permeates the air, but it’s to be expected. I inspect my blood-crusted blade and flash Talia a wide smile. When I continue my sawing through his leg, just above his ankle, he screams through his scarf. I can hear Talia gagging from nearby. The knife is sharp, but it still takes me a good half hour to saw through the bone. Blood gushes everywhere, and I’ll have to throw out these shoes, unfortunately. Eventually, I break through the bone and finish sawing through the muscle until I’ve completely removed his foot. Cy’s head lolls to the side, but he’s still awake. Good.
Adrian leans forward and picks up the sock from the table before tossing it to me. I stuff the hacked off foot into the sock. As I stand, I seek out Talia’s face. She’s buried her face in her hands as she sobs.
“Make her watch,” I command in a cold tone. “Make her see.”
She cries out when Adrian grips her wrists and pulls them away.
I tie a knot in the sock close to the severed foot and then hold the tube end in my grip. With a hard pop, I whack Cy in the head.
“You’re s-sick,” she croaks out. “A fucking sick monster!”
Whack! Whack! Whack!
I ignore her as I beat the shit out of Cy with his own goddamn foot. He groans and gurgles.
Whack! Whack! Whack!
When I hit him just right across his nose, it pops as it breaks. Blood gushes down his front like a river of crimson. I whack him in the face again, his blood splattering everywhere.