Chapter 108 - 110
Botan POV
"You like that?" I ask, pushing it in deeper. "Be a good boy, and open wider."
He bellows his protest, but the barrel of my gun muffles his swallowed scream.
"Enough of this, Botan," says the leader of Yad Zmei, a harsh hiss, his voice propelled by the plea that underlines his tone like a riptide, pulling him under the weight of his desperation. "I will tell you what you wish to know."
"I knew you would."
I pull the trigger and blood bursts from his skull as brain matter splatter on the earthen wall behind him. He drops like a stone, slumping against the surface with a gaping hole that ripped open his mouth. I straighten away from him—he whose corpse joins the carnage of a dozen men strewn at my feet, littered around the chamber liked a bed of bodies. Their leader dangles in his own torture chamber with his arms splayed like Christ on the cross.
"Gianni," he confesses.
An interval of silence. A long strain of silence that sends a twitch of tension in his elongated limbs, bracing for a lash of outrage, as if anticipating my anger.
"He came to me first," he prompts. "I tell you this not out of fear, but pity. All these lengths for an enemy hidden behind another. Gianni gave me a dossier with intimate intelligence about her—pictures of you and Avara Du Pont. My favourite was your stroll through the French market. I saw what Gianni saw. The wolf’s weakness."
His outline hardens with readiness, almost welcoming something fatal, something final.
Laughter splits the air, loud and unhinged as I throw my head back, receding as I walk away, stepping on and over the remnants of his security team. I exit the chamber and Akio finds his place at my side.
"I didn’t know the fucker had it in him," I say as my laugh fades.