Dark Stars: A Space Fantasy, Alien MC Romance Novel (Stars Scourge MC Book 1) by Leigh Kelsey

Author:Leigh Kelsey [Kelsey, Leigh]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-11-16T00:00:00+00:00

9

Hangman

“Plea...se,” Ark croaked, trying to lift a hand to keep me away. As if he could, even at full strength.

I watched him squint at me through swollen eyes, his moon-white face contorted in pain and mottled black on one side where Prince had kicked him to knock him out. I suppose I should have felt bad for him; it must have been disorienting to wake up in this concrete basement beneath the compound, the walls insulated to keep all his screams inside and the tools of my trade lovingly arranged on the shelves around us.

“No,” I replied to his pleading. I’d been told I was terrifying when I tortured people—and I’d been told that by my own brothers in the Stars Scourge. No darkness entered my eyes, I didn’t get a thrill from causing pain, and no mania twisted my face into a rictus grin. Nothing about me changed at all; this was just my job.

“You really ought to tell me the truth, Ark,” I added, and sliced a scalpel through the white skin of his smooth forearm, peeling it back with the sharp tip and tilting my head as I considered my next move.

He screamed, bucking against the leather restraints, and I watched his reaction with mild interest, tapping the bloody scalpel on my bottom lip as I thought through my options.

“Alright!” he screamed finally. “No more … please. It was just … quick money.”

“You sold us out, Ark,” I replied, disapproving. With the tip of the scalpel, I tilted the man’s swollen face up until he met my gaze. “You told the KIC where to find Brand, and I have to say, he’s not too happy about it. Neither am I. You risked the life of my brother. I want to know exactly what you told them, Ark. Every single word.”

“And then … you’ll let me go?”

“And then I’ll let you go,” I agreed.

He should have specified in what state I got rid of him, but I wasn’t going to make him aware of that.

The moon-white man exhaled in relief, a pained sound escaping him as he jostled the places I’d already peeled his skin away from bone, exposing the muscle and gore beneath. It was fascinating, really, the way our insides connected, the nuance in every limb and ligament.

“My brother Kavill picked up the … reward poster on his tablet,” he panted through the pain, “and … showed it to me in the … Backwards Dragon.” A seedy pub on the other side of Port Voyale. Leviathan knew it well, and because I was the one who dragged him out of it at four in the morning, drunk and rambling about his past, I knew it, too. “He wouldn’t dare report Brand … but I needed … money. I owe Yanis…”

I sighed. Predictable, like most people when I pried apart their true motives. Money, fear, love, or greed. But at least this was a clean explanation; he’d picked up Brand’s wanted poster and sold him out for the money.

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