Gray gave him a tense nod.
All breath left my chest as Valdez pulled a large knife from inside his robes. “Lewis, undo Yolanda’s chains, move her, and chain up this guy here next to his wife. After that, go hang the Greek guy up in the other room while I play with this one. Evie can hold him while he suffers.”
Gray’s eyes switched back to me. I saw a goodbye in his expression. I saw regret and love and Willow and Lilly’s features.
“No . . .” The word tore from deep within me.
“You bastards will burn in hell,” came Cormack’s voice.
“I don’t believe in hell,” said Richard, staring at Valdez with glazed, savage eyes, “but may a thousand hells find you in this life.”
“That sounds very Scottish,” called Cormack.
“Told you I’d turn Scottish before this night was out,” Richard quipped, a tight rasp in his voice.
Valdez’s face warped into a grisly, dismissive grin as Lewis carried out his requests.
The handcuffed man was taken into the room where the Saviours kept their victims hung on rope hoists. I heard the man cry out something in Greek. I turned my face, not wanting to see Duncan’s body still hanging there limp and dead on the hoist.
Valdez stepped in front of us then crouched to the ground and drew the point of the knife along the stone floor, making a chilling sound. “Who goes first? Maybe her? Yes, I think so. Something to break the ice. You’re both so . . . tense.”
Instinctively, I put my arms up to protect myself.
I felt quick, sharp cuts to my flesh.
Beside me, Gray yelled and tried to grab at Valdez. But the chains held him back.
Between my arms, I watched a figure move from the dark recesses of the cavern. A figure dressed in black pants and a long-sleeved black top. A hood low over their face. Their body slightly built. Slowly, silently stealing forward. How long had they been there in the shadows? Were they stealing out now to watch Valdez hurt us? Or join in?
Valdez didn’t have time to completely turn around before the other Saviour plunged a knife into Valdez’s back.
Valdez jack-knifed up, letting out a pained roar. The other Saviour backed away, but Valdez was quicker and gave them a violent shove.
I saw Kara’s face as she crashed against a wall and her hood slipped back.
Valdez staggered forward to hit Kara again. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” He looked back towards the torture room. “Lewis! Get this knife out of me and get this crazy little bitch sorted.”
But the man who emerged from the other room wasn’t Lewis.
75. Gray
“SETHI!” I BOOMED, YANKING AGAINST MY chains. “He’s going for his gun.”
Sethi ran hard at Valdez, knocking him flat to the ground before he’d had a chance to retrieve the gun from his pocket. The knife, still in Valdez’s back, penetrated deep from the force of his landing. Valdez’s head lolled to one side, his eyes deadened. Bright blood seeped out on the floor.
Without missing a beat, the girl crouched beside Valdez’s body and whipped out the gun from his pocket. She pointed it at Sethi. “Who are you?”
Sethi frowned for a moment, then recognition seemed to enter his eyes. “A friend of your mother’s.”
“Kara,” Evie breathed beside me.
Every prisoner—every conscious one—began yelling and pleading for their chains to be unlocked.
“Quiet!” I called. “You’ll have every Saviour running in here.”
Kara stared at Sethi with anger on her face. “My mother shouldn’t be here. I don’t want her here. She shouldn’t know any of this.”
“I didn’t say she was here,” said Sethi, his voice pulled taut.
“You don’t need to lie to me,” Kara told him flatly. “I’ve followed the four of you since you arrived on the island.”
“Do you know where they are now?” Sethi questioned.
“My mother and another woman were captured by the Saviours. They’re in the remembrance hall right now,” Kara answered.
Sethi’s chest sank inward like he’d been punched.
“She’s one of them. A Saviour,” cried the girl named Yolanda. “You can’t trust her.”
Sethi’s expression changed to stunned disbelief as he stared at Kara. “You’re a Saviour? Tell me that’s not true.”
Kara’s expression turned stony. “Yes, it’s true. I’m a part of the monastery.”
Sethi put the palms of his hands up. “Would you agree to put the gun away and let me get the chains off these people?”