Then another.

And then when Kayla didn’t tell him what he wanted to hear, that open hand would close. And when he tired of using his fist, he’d turn to tools.

My heart was racing, but I didn’t otherwise allow myself to react to that thought, nor to the tools I knew he had selected for this job.

I just kept moving ahead, ignoring the fact that this disgusting building was the kind of place Kayla had no business being within a hundred miles of, especially without me.

You’ve sent her to worse.

I couldn’t deny the truth of that thought, nor the promise that she’d never be in a place like this again after today.

If I got her out of here.

Because I could already be too late.

No.

I pushed that thought out of my head.

She’s fine.

She’s fine.

I kept telling myself that, again and again, but the next guard I met bore the brunt of my frustration, an outlet for the worry I refused to let myself acknowledge.

I could have kept punching him until that frustration was completely gone, but I’d broken every bone in his face and didn’t have more time to waste.

So I left him there, gurgling his last breaths, and walked to the door at the end of the hall.

I knew that was where my father had taken her.

Her and others like her.

No, that wasn’t right.

There were no others like her.

I knew that, but my father didn’t.

For my entire life, he had instilled brutality in me, and I had taken his lessons well.

If anything happened to Kayla, my father would learn how good a teacher he had been.

Two

TWO

Kayla

“I told you, Mr. Petrosyan, I don’t know anything,” I said.

After I finished, I took in a deep breath.

The stench of the mold had faded some, but the acrid smell of decay was as strong as ever. At first glance, I’d known this was a place a death, some kind of meat processing plant. I could imagine it had once been clean, brightly lit.

No more, though.

Now it was dark, filthy, the ceramic tiles that had undoubtedly been white before now a brownish-black that covered the floor, the walls, and I was sure the ceiling, though I hadn’t been brave enough to check.

There were leaks, or at least there had been, and I’d decided that worrying about the roof collapsing was something I didn’t want to add to my rapidly expanding list of concerns.

Armen Petrosyan being number one.

He loomed in front of me, and it took all my power to look at him.