Kes charged ahead, hurtling down the cellar steps and disappearing into the dark underground pathways beneath the house. These tunnels went to all areas of the estate—to the stables, Black Diamond garage, even the old silos where grain was stored back in the day.
It was also dark, damp, and rat infested.
We had no torches, no jumpers. Being a hot summer’s day, we’d been searching for spots of shades, only to end up getting bored and playing tag.
“Come on, scaredy cat,” Kes taunted.
I couldn’t see him in the inky blackness, but I kept running with my hands outstretched just in case I ran into something.
I came to an intersection and narrowly missed ploughing headfirst into dirt. Fumbling along the wall, my heart flew into my mouth. The wall surrounded me…three sides, soaring higher and tighter as claustrophobia kicked in.
The clank of heavy metal suddenly rang deep and piercing behind me.
“Kes?”
“We’ll play dungeons and guards. You’re the prisoner.” Kes laughed as he rattled the bars he’d just slammed over the entranceway I’d stupidly entered.
It was so black.
I couldn’t see a thing. But I could hear everything. My breathing. My heartbeat. My terror. So, so loud.
“What do you have to say for yourself, prisoner? Do you plead guilty?” Kes asked, his eight-year-old voice deepening with fake authority.
I moved toward his location, arms outstretched until I found the cold iron bars. “Let me out, Angus.”
“Don’t use that name.”
“I’ll use whatever name I want unless you get me out of here.” My body itched for fresh air, light, freedom. It felt as if the walls were crumbling, folding in, and burying me alive. “Not funny. Let me out.”
“Okay, okay. Jeez.” He yanked on the bars. The awful clanging noise jangled around us.
I pressed from my side of the cell.
Nothing happened.
“Err, it’s locked.”
“What do you mean it’s locked?” My soul scratched at my bones needing freedom. “Find a key—get me out!”
“Stay here. I’ll go get help.”
Kes’s body heat and the sound of his breathing suddenly disappeared, leaving me all alone in the pitch black, locked in a prison cell where men had been tortured and died.
I shuddered, breaking the memory’s hold.
Since that day, I’d never returned. Kes had dragged our grandfather to free me, and after he’d unlocked the cell, he’d forbidden us from returning to the dungeons past the crypts.
I’d readily obeyed. Never again did I want to step foot in a place still reeking with ancient pain and suffering.
But now my father carted me to the same fucking place, only this time there was light illuminating the deep scratches on the walls from people burrowing for freedom and messages to loved ones who’d never see them.
It took all my strength to follow him around bends and duck where the ceiling hung too low. Scurries of vermin echoed up ahead, and it took everything I had not to break my father’s neck and run.
Was I weak not wanting to kill my father? Was I a fucking pussy or justified for being a loyal son? He’d given me life…wasn’t it fair he could take it away?
My rationality couldn’t temper my panic. My nostrils flared, inhaling damp air.
“Get in, Jethro.” Cut came to a stop, waving at the same cell where Kes had accidently imprisoned me for two hours while our grandfather located the key.
The electric sconces glinted off new bars—not the thick, rusty ones of my childhood. My eyes fell to the lock—that was also modern with a number pad rather than an old-fashioned key.
I stepped backward. “You want me to go in there?”
Cut nodded, waving the gun threateningly. “In.”
“Why?”
“No questions.” He cocked the weapon, sliding a bullet into place.
Swallowing hard, I brushed past him and entered the cell. There was no bed, no facilities, no comfort of any kind. Just earth and mould and puddles.
I turned to face him. Why the hell had he brought me down here? To feed my deceased body to the rats? Or perhaps he meant to starve me to death and not waste a bullet?
Cut stood in the doorway, pointing the gun at my chest.
I sucked in a breath, fisting my hands. “Why bother bringing me here? No one would’ve heard the shot upstairs—not with so many rooms—and even if they did, no one would interfere.” We all knew our place—Hawks and servants included. “I would’ve appreciated my last view to be of something enjoyable rather than this godforsaken place.”
Cut narrowed his eyes. “What makes you think I want this over so quickly?”
I froze.
Footsteps echoed like doomsday percussion off the tunnel walls.
My heart beat faster. “Who else will witness this?” It wasn’t Jasmine, that I could be sure—unless someone carried her.
Fuck, would he be that cruel? To make her watch me die after everything we’d done to her?
My mind ran wild with questions and regrets. There was so much I never did, so much I wanted to do.
Now, it was all over.
“What makes you think they’re a witness?” Cut’s cold voice sent shackles of numbness around my limbs.
Staring into the shadows, out of range of the light, we both waited for the mystery guest to arrive.
The moment a figure materialized from the gloom and golden eyes met mine, I bared my teeth. “What the fuck are you doing here?”