Legacy (Sociopath Series Book 2)(67)

“People keep killing my staff,” I say flatly.

“How annoying.”

“Tell me about it.”

“Aeron. Don’t try to buy time. It’s not going to help you.” He says this with real sympathy now, a small smile playing at his lips. You can see him walking up to a woman with this face, offering to help her with grocery bags or eliciting a blush as he holds open a door. “Nobody’s coming. Haven’t you worked that out yet? It’s just you, me and Chuckles here.” He pauses. “He never chuckles. But it would suit him. Lighten up, Harvey, may as well.” He swirls a gloved finger around the dish, sending razors clinking, and selects a sliver of metal. “Mmm. This one, I think.” Then he gets to his feet.

“I’m not swallowing that thing,” Harvey insists.

“Aeron, is he going to swallow it?”

A beat. The ocean below us waits with baited breath for my answer. When I exhale, it rushes in bubbling static, waves rising up to nudge at the floorboards before plummeting down into themselves for inevitable implosion.

I cough.

Blood Honey gazes back at me as he stands over Harvey, gloved hands held up. “Well?”

The words come too easily, slipping from my mouth as if greased. “Swallow it.”

Harvey crows, a low sound that reminds me of the black birds on the island. Leo had a funny term for them. I can’t remember what it was.

“I was looking forward to this. It’s probably obvious, but I like the way it feels to say it out loud.” Bloody Honey positions himself over Harvey’s bulky, restrained frame, and makes a fist with one hand. “Open up.”

Harvey clamps his jaw and squeezes his eyes shut. Wrong move. Oh, boy.

In one sharp move, Blood Honey throws the toe of his boot into Harvey’s shin. The crack splits the air, swiftly followed by Harvey’s groan of shock and pain, and Blood Honey takes the opportunity to wedge his fist between Harvey’s teeth. He’s smooth. Co-ordinated. Reminds me of…me.

“You can chomp down all you want, son, but it’s not going to help you. The gloves, see. I always come prepared.” He holds the blade up on his finger, appraising it. “I’m going to push this straight in, and you’re going to get it down before it does too much damage. It’s easier, I promise you. Don’t struggle—you fall backward and we’ll just do this all over again. Do you understand me?”

Harvey remains silent, spewing breath around Blood Honey’s fist like a rabid dog. There’s a part of me that’s glad we can’t see each other, what with the psychotic sadist in the way. Maybe he deserves this. Maybe he doesn’t. It’s not what matters here, and yet I can’t deny how my stomach twists every time he retches.

None of this is f*cking necessary. It’s not logical. But it has to happen because the puppet master here is calling the crackpot shots. Next thing I know, Gwen will probably pop through the door dressed in bacon and singing show tunes. She was background checked to hell, but hey, so was Harvey. Looks like all my usual horses jumped the gate. This * knows I usually have all the answers, and he’s relishing his upper hand; I can work with that. He’ll give me the truth because the kick he longs for is my response…right?

Then again, maybe he’ll lie through his teeth. Life’s like a box of chocolates, isn’t it, sports fans? Full of shit you don’t want and didn’t ask for.

Harvey, who now has a mouth full of Blood Honey’s gloved fingers, begins to tremble and choke. At first he seems to gargle, but then the sound goes up an octave, an unnatural rasp that sounds like an old woman trying to sing around a sponge. The higher it goes, the fiercer adrenaline sings in my veins, rubbing pulse points sore until I have to grit my own teeth.

With a final, desperate gag, Harvey swallows the blade, and then Blood Honey steps back with a satisfied roll of his shoulders. Harvey coughs and moans repeatedly. I make myself look him in the eye, but he’s not in a fit state to focus on anything.

“One down.” Blood Honey turns to me, his expression mild and curious. “You can ask me a question now.”

I need to ask something useful—I might not get a lot of these, and yet the wrong thing bubbles up before I can contain it. “Where is everyone?”

“Oh. You want to know about your little family.”

I want to know if any of those f*ckers stitched me up.

He seems surprised. “No need to worry. They’re absolutely fine.”

“Are…are they alive?”

“That’s another question.” He keeps my gaze for just a second longer than is comfortable.

A half-truth.

Shit.

Harvey squalls like a child, hunching to pull his abdomen straight. I guess the razor just hit his stomach. Jesus.

“Shall we shove another one in, Aeron, and I’ll tell you if your Leo is alive?”

“Yes please.” I want to swallow, but the mere thought makes me…ugh.

“Maybe I’ll do two this time. Save kicking poor Harvey. Two truths with one blade, eh?”

The f*cking irony.

“Go ahead.”

He scrapes another couple razors from his dish, and sails through the candlelight to deliver another hard blow to Harvey’s other shin. Shriek. Fist in mouth. Old-lady waffle wail. First blade down, second to go. “I told you to hold still,” Blood Honey scolds, as if Harvey’s some kind of misbehaving child. “Stop it. Stop it. Swallow the f*cking things. Seriously, Aeron, the gag reflex on this guy…what were you doing with him?”