Reign of Wrath (Dirty Broken Savages #3)(109)

Hearing that is like a punch to the gut. All this time, we thought Ivan’s body being dredged up and laid out on that art piece at the gala was about us. But it went deeper than that. Deeper than we ever could have imagined.

“I didn’t realize it was Carter until now,” Alec continues. He glances down at the man’s body again as he speaks and then sighs. “It’s a shame. He was useful.”

He looks up at me again, and there’s something gleaming in his dark gray eyes. A new kind of interest, directed at me.

“You could be useful too, I think. I kept tabs on everything you did to Julian Maduro. How thoroughly you dismantled his life. There were parts that were a little sloppy, of course, but your talent for playing these kinds of games is impressive.”

It doesn’t feel like praise, and I barely hold myself back from shuddering at the way he’s looking at me. Like I’m a toy he wants to play with or something. A toy he wants to break.

“What do you want?” I ask, my voice strained.

My mind is working overtime, trying to look for a way out of this. All I can think is that he’s going to kill me and the guys. I can’t understand what else he would be after. He doesn’t seem pissed about Julian’s death, so it’s not like he wants revenge, but he has to know that Carter already told us about the Kyrio Society.

We know too much now.

He can’t let us live.

“Julian wanted to join our society,” Alec tells me. “He found out about it, and he knew we had an empty seat to fill. He wanted in. But he didn’t have the qualities we were looking for. He was too eager, too full of himself with nothing to back it up, and he wouldn’t have added anything to our ranks. But he knew too much to be allowed to live, so he needed to die.” He smiles again, and it makes my skin crawl. “And you took care of that for me so beautifully.”

Something shifts in his expression, and he leans in closer to me, cocking his head a little as he examines me.

The feeling of his eyes raking over my face makes me want to take a giant step back from him, but I stay put, afraid to do anything else.

One wrong move, and he might have us all killed on the spot.

“I didn’t realize who you were at first,” Alec says casually. His voice is eerily calm and detached, like he’s talking about the weather or his stock growth or some shit. “Even after I realized you’d killed Ivan on your own, not on orders from anyone else, I didn’t put it together right away. It didn’t occur to me that a poor little abused lamb would grow teeth and claws and come back to rip the throats out of her onetime captors.”

My stomach clenches into a hard knot as Alec speaks, my breath catching as my throat goes tight.

He’s talking about the time Hannah and I were held captive.

Talking about it like he was a part of it somehow, or at least knows all about it.

Behind me, I hear a low growl from one of the guys. Knox.

“How do you…” My mouth is dry, and I have to force the words out. “How do you know about that?”

My heart is racing, thrumming so fast that I can feel the flutter of my pulse in my throat. Gray spots tinge the edges of my vision, but I shove back the memories that try to resurface at the reminder of my time held captive with Hannah. I can’t afford to get lost in that darkness right now.

I need to keep my wits about me, to stay sharp and calm.

Alec waves a hand, shrugging smoothly. “Over the years, I’ve orchestrated hundreds of deals like that. Little sheep, innocent girls, taken as debts owed or transgressions that need to be atoned for. It’s one of the ways the Kyrio society helps maintain order in Detroit. A very effective tactic, I’ve found.”

He narrows his eyes, squinting at me as he talks, like he’s still trying to figure me out. It’s the only emotion he’s showing in all of this—his sick fascination with me.

“In all that time,” he continues. “I’ve never seen any of them do what you did. Rise above it all and become something sharper, stronger. Most of them simply... crack under the pressure of it all.”

My heart almost stops as I process his words.

Orchestrated hundreds of deals…

Oh. Fuck.

He was the one who’s responsible for me being taken as punishment for my dad’s sins. He’s the reason Hannah and I were snatched up and used and abused by six violent, cruel men. He might not have been there, torturing and hurting us, but he’s as complicit as Ivan, Lorenzo, and the rest were. And what’s worse is that he clearly doesn’t give a shit about anything he’s done, talking about setting young girls up to be held captive without a care in the world for how it affects them.

He ripped my life away from me.

He ripped Hannah away from me.

For a split second, all I can feel is rage. Just pure, all-consuming anger. It’s like the grudge I held against those six men and Julian combined, flaring up in me and making me want to claw this fucker’s heart out with my bare hands.

I can hear my own breathing, harsh in my ears, and my heart races with the adrenaline that’s surging through my veins.

But as if he can see that I’m about to throw myself in the path of a dozen bullets just to get my hands around his throat, Alec smiles again, holding up a hand.

“Relax. I have a deal for you,” he says, his voice as cool and even as ever—as if he hasn’t just turned my world upside down with one confession. “Everything in the past can be water under the bridge between us. You’ll forgive and let go of the part where I orchestrated your captivity, and I’ll give you a chance to join the most influential organization in Detroit. Or, I can kill you. All of you.”