“Yes, sir.”
The guard hustled away to do Smith’s bidding. Smith took the short corridor on the right and then an immediate left where six interview rooms waited. Each room was equipped with very specific instruments for persuading answers from those who had the misfortune of ending up in one of the spaces. Before going to interview room two, he stepped into the observation room and checked the monitoring system.
Two minutes elapsed before the guard entered interview room two. He settled the prisoner Levi Winters into the chair on the side of the metal table facing the hidden camera. Once Winters was secured to the bolt in the concrete floor, the guard exited. Smith considered Winters for a longer moment. He was younger than this woman who’d gotten herself invited to this ultrasecure place.
More important than any other aspect of this prisoner, he was scared. Scared to death.
* * *
THEY WERE PROBABLY going to kill him now.
Levi’s whole body felt as cold as ice. There was no telling what they had planned for him this time. That bastard Flynn had done things to him, made him talk when he didn’t want to talk.
Levi closed his eyes and lowered his head. He was doomed. All he’d wanted was to find the truth. To prove to his sister that he wasn’t a bad guy like their brother, Marcus. He’d let her down so badly already it hurt to think about it. Even under the circumstances. He hadn’t helped Cece the way he should have so he’d decided to prove the whole truth about their daddy and all that he and Marcus had done, like ordering the death of the FBI guy, Jack Kemp.
Jack had been good to Levi. He’d made him feel like his life mattered—like he mattered. Levi had wanted to be like him. And then the guy had disappeared.
What nobody knew was that Levi remembered the night their mother had died, no matter that he’d been nothing but a little kid. She and that bastard who was their father had been arguing so loudly and so desperately—arguing, screaming and crying. Then suddenly the arguing had stopped. Levi had crept out of his bedroom and to the top of the stairs. Their momma had lain at the bottom of the stairs. The crying had started again, only that time it was Levi. The only thing he remembered after that was Cece holding him and their grandmother screaming. Eventually she had calmed down and taken them home with her.
The certainty and hatred that had sprouted that night had grown and grown but before Levi could work up the courage to do what needed to be done, their younger sister, Sierra, had killed the old bastard. It should have been Levi. He should have killed that devil and taken care of the family when their older brother, Marcus, had not. But Levi had been weak. He’d been weak and afraid. He’d let Cece down and now he was going to die without having made up for the past.
He wished he could see Cece one more time and tell her how sorry he was. She had paid the price for all of them.
The door opened and Levi froze. It would be him—the one the other prisoners called the Interrogator. Levi’s body shuddered at the idea of what he might have planned for him this time. Why had he screwed up so badly yet again? All he wanted at this point was to go home. To show his sister how much he loved her and to start doing the right thing with his life.
He wasn’t like his father or his older brother. Evil didn’t swim in his blood.
He just wanted to go home.
Smith Flynn walked into the room. He had the lightest gray eyes, almost transparent. That and his blond hair almost made him look like some guy from Norway or Sweden or something. He didn’t look like anyone from around here. He was tall, six-four at least. And strong. You could tell he pumped iron. But he hadn’t laid a hand on Levi. He had other ways to induce pain. He used equipment and his words. He knew the things to say to strike terror in a man.
Before Levi could stop himself, his gaze flitted to the far end of the room where the metal cabinets stood. Inside those locked doors were instruments he hoped to never see again. Evidently he wasn’t going to be so lucky. Flynn wouldn’t be here otherwise.
The worst part about the whole damned mess was that this guy wanted some truth from Levi, but he didn’t have anything to trade for his life or even for a little more time free of torture. Levi had nothing. He had come to this place to prove something. All those years ago when he’d first joined the Resurrection so Jack Kemp would see how smart he was, he’d made a mistake. Truth was he’d let Jack use him. He’d needed that father figure Jack represented so badly. Levi would have done anything to impress him. But he’d gone too far.
All he’d done was gotten into trouble. Now he was likely going to get dead the same way Jack had.
Levi would end up in hell with his damned daddy.
“We have a new problem, Levi.”
Fear tightened around his neck. Even the man’s voice had a way of terrifying anyone who happened to be stuck in the room with him. Deep, dark, dangerous. Fear twisted inside Levi. Why didn’t this Interrogator just kill him and get it over with? He didn’t want to die but he couldn’t take this much longer.
“I already told you I don’t know anything. I only came here to find the truth about an old friend. I swear that’s it. The whole story. The truth. There’s nothing else.”
“Jack Kemp,” Flynn said. “You told me that before. Tell me again why you think Kemp came here?”
“He was from the FBI,” Levi said. No point pretending he could hide anything from this bastard. The Interrogator had ways of digging stuff out of him. “He asked me to help him get information about the group called the Resurrection, but I went too far.”
“Meaning you joined the calling all those years ago? Nine or so years ago, am I right? You did this to help your friend.”
Levi nodded. “But Jack disappeared before I could tell him anything. I figured y’all found out what he was up to and got rid of him.”
“Your brother, Marcus, was responsible for what happened to him, Levi. If you had seen the news recently, you would know this. He confessed.”
Levi was surprised that Marcus confessed to giving Jack to those crazy people. The only way he would have admitted to anything was to save his sorry ass. Hurt twisted in Levi’s chest. “What about my sisters? Did you see anything about my sisters?”
Flynn directed that icy glare at him. “Do I look like I would waste my time keeping up with your sisters?”
Levi blinked, bit his tongue so hard he tasted blood. He wanted to hurt this guy. But he’d heard all about him—the Interrogator. The one who got the answers for the Council. The one who knew how to cause pain. Fear snaked through Levi. He shouldn’t have come back here. He’d wanted to help...but he’d just made another mistake. Jack was dead by now, no question. Marcus was in jail. God only knew about Sierra. Hopefully Cece was okay.
Flynn placed a photo of a woman on the table. “Do you know her?”
The woman had black hair and eyes nearly as dark, like a raven. Her skin was dark, like she’d lain on a beach all summer. She was pretty but he hadn’t seen her before. He shook his head. Prayed that was the right answer because it was the only one he had. “No. She doesn’t look familiar.”
“Are you certain? Think carefully, Levi. If you lie to me, it will be much worse for you.”
“I swear to God I don’t know the woman. I have never seen her before.”
Flynn said nothing for a long moment. Levi’s chest felt ready to explode with tension. Why the hell didn’t the bastard just go ahead and tell him he was a dead man? If death was coming, he’d rather know now and brace for it. He was sick of these games. He did not know this woman. He did not know any other information