“I’ll deal with her later,” Kade growls, squeezing me until my lungs ache.
Vince cocks his arm back, until his sweater tightens around his biceps, and then he lets his arm fly. The whip comes down hard and makes a loud ‘crack’ as it lashes her thighs.
I flinch as she screams out.
“Stop!” Bile rises in my throat and my entire body feels as if it’s floating away from me. This can’t be real… Vince whips her again and she screams. There are sobs sounding loudly in my ears and I glance around the room for a few long seconds before I realise it’s coming from me.
“We don’t do this in our house!” Kathryn protests, as mascara tears stain her cheeks.
“No, you have the moderators take care of it,” Rita announces over whips and sobs. “That’s why you have the highest Unfortunate misbehaviour rates out of any of us. They’re not scared of you. Your Unfortunates don’t respect you.”
Kathryn swipes at her face and pushes off of the couch. Her orange floral patterned dress swirls around her feet as she storms towards the door. She offers no farewells. She just leaves with her partner in tow, completely offended and emotional.
“Do you want to re-think your answers, Nine? You’ve never seen this map before?”
Whip. Scream. My bottom lip trembles and I bite it.
“You didn’t help this Unfortunate escape?”
Whip. Scream. I flinch. “I—”
“She didn’t!” Thirteen cries, pulling her knees to her chest. “She didn’t.”
“Stop it!” I yell at her. I’ve never felt so helpless than I do in this moment. If they want a confession, fine, I’ll give them one. I refuse to have Thirteen’s death on my conscience.
Kade hauls me up and I thrash against him, begging him to put me down. I don’t care how feral I look.
“Nine clearly knows nothing. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to take her back to my room and sort this out.” Kade wraps his arms around my face, stifling my confession with the fabric of his jacket. “You deal with Thirteen, and stop torturing the damn girl, will you?”
“No!” I scream, but it sounds more like a muffled sob than anything else.
I move my legs as Kade carries me from the room. My eyes are blurred and puffy. My face is soaked by tears and my chest hurts worse than anything I’ve ever felt. Then, BANG. A shot rings out and the manor falls quiet. My heart stills and Kade holds me tighter. That’s it. Thirteen is gone… put out of her misery with a bullet to the head. I stare off into the distance, numb and hurt. Everything we pass by is a blur and I can’t hear anything through the ring in my ears.
“Nine?” Kade whispers, wiping my face with a damp wash cloth.
I come to… I’m in his room, sitting on his bed. “It’s all my fault.”
He grips my face, letting his fingers dig into my undoubtedly gaunt features. “Hey, listen to me. It’s not your fault. She ran. She got caught.”
I sniffle. “But I told her to. I told her where the mine was and I told her to run.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
I close my eyes as he pulls my forehead to his. “What happened in that room was fucked up, but it wasn’t your fault. You gave that girl a way out and she took it. The look on her face… she was happy to go, Nine. She didn’t want to be stuck with Vince another minute.”
The mention of his name forces a deadly, black snake of hatred into my stomach. “I want him dead,” I state through gritted teeth. “I want to squeeze his throat in my bare hands until he stops breathing.”
Kade’s lips twitch. “You’ll have to get in line.” His slight curve falls, thinning out into an impassive line. “I have to do something about the mine… you know that, right?”
“But you won’t,” I tell him. “Because it’s not the right thing to do.”
“What do you think is the right thing to do?”
I swipe at my face. “Let them be. They got away, they’ve won.”
“No, they haven’t. The mine is Sario property. I’m going to be head of the house and everyone will be watching. I have to set an example.”
He doesn’t feel comfortable with hurting Unfortunates that he owns, but he’ll gladly blow a bunch up? How does that make any sense? I inch away from him. “Do it and you’re no better than your father—or your brother.”
He releases my face and stands up. I don’t look up at him as he towers above me, but I can feel his penetrative gaze piercing me. “I’ve never claimed to be better than them.”