Page 147 of Hard Rain

“You won’t bullshit me.” Cutter looked up.

Whip held his gaze.

“You never did.”

The words reminded Whip of high school, when Cutter had spent half his life testing people, looking for the ones he could manipulate and the few he couldn’t.

The guy was smart, really smart. For the first time since this whole thing had started, Cutter looked less like a hunter and more like someone else’s quarry.

“If they can’t protect me…” Cutter swallowed once, “you’ll tell me.”

Whip leaned back slightly. “If I thought they couldn’t protect you, I’d tell you.”

For the first time since he’d entered the room, the man’s shoulders eased a fraction.

Cutter gave the smallest nod, not because the answer offered him much comfort, but because he believed it. Whip studied him for another moment, trying to reconcile the man sitting across from him with the one he’d grown up with.

“Why are you so afraid?”

Cutter let out a humorless laugh.

“You think yesterday was bad?”

Whip waited.

“Charleston only keeps people as long as they’re useful. He would have killed you.”

“Not a chance,” Whip said.

“I believe that.” Cutter’s eyes drifted to the tabletop then back up.

“But me? I just became bait.” He shook his head once. “He’ll make me disappear.”

Outside the glass, nobody in the observation room spoke.

The interrogation had finally begun.

“I’m going to be straight with you, Cutter. What you did to those girls will get you life in prison. If you cooperate with us, you might just stay breathing.”

Whip waited. When Cutter stayed quiet, he leaned forward.

“Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

“Then tell me what you know.”

Five minutes later, Axel walked in exactly as promised.

He folded his arms against the wall.

Whip never took his eyes off Cutter.

“He stays.”

Cutter drew a slow breath.

“Okay.”