Page 238 of The Carnage We Keep

He sighs. “But once they’re here, well…” He chuckles to himself. “They break. Permanently.”

Bella's lip curls.

“You know,” she rasps, “that’s a long way of saying I can only get it up when women are scared of me.”

Sorel smiles slowly.

”Oh, I imagine you’d get me plenty up, my dear,” he purrs, ignoring me when I fight to break free of the two men restraining me and roar at him to get the fuck away from her. “But you’re a bit past your prime for my tastes.”

Sorel reaches into his jacket pocket and pulls out two silver injector pens.

“An associate of mine was kind enough to procure this for me from his father…” He lifts his eyes to Bella, then looks at me. “Ahh, yes, you were very briefly acquainted with this gentleman when he was reduced to jelly at your feet after you torched my club.”

My blood runs cold.

He means Gaz Kodra.

Sorel smiles when he sees my expression. “Is that the sound of a puzzle piece falling into place?” He shakes the pens gently in his long, bony fingers. “VX-9. Lovely little invention. It’s a paralytic that freezes you bit by bit, starting with your legs, your arms, the rest of your body, before finally putting your lungs to sleep.” His expression turns to one of sick glee. “However, the one thing it doesn’t paralyze is your ticker,” he continues, smiling as his sharp gaze darts between Bella and me. “The heart keeps beating. So you are very much awake when your lungs stop breathing and you asphyxiate. Isn't that clever?”

He nods to his men.

Instantly, the two guys holding me wrench me forward and Sorel slams the pen against the side of my neck. An icy burn spreads like frost under my skin as I grit my teeth, my eyes locked on Bella’s terrified face.

He turns to her next, once again ignoring me as I fight to break free of the men holding me. But I’m still weakened by whatever they knocked me out with at the airfield.

Bella screams and tries to jerk away. But the men holding her up just grab her tighter, forcing her head to the side as Sorel sticks her with the other pen.

"There we go," he murmurs. "Same dose. I do like to be fair.”

He steps back, capping the pens and tucking them back into his jacket pocket.

“That said…” He turns to smile coldly at me. “You’re, what, twice her weight? A foot and a half taller?” He clucks his teeth. “That same dose will work much slower on you.” His teeth flash. “I suppose that means you’ll get to watch her drown.”

I lunge at him but barely make it half a foot before his men yank the chain. Pain explodes through my shoulder, choking me and bringing me to my knees again as Bella screams my name.

“Well, gentlemen,” Sorel purrs, eying his men. “I believe our little social event here has reached its conclusion. Shall we?”

He and his men suddenly turn and just walk the fuck away. When they get to the end of the catwalk, Sorel opens a big metal panel on the wall, like a circuit breaker. He wraps his hand around a toggle switch inside and glances back at us.

“I assume neither of you is bothered by blood. You might have different opinions after this, though.” His brow furrows, and he chuckles to himself. “At least you might, if you weren’t going to die here this evening.”

He flips the heavy switch on the wall, and a mechanical whine begins to chug high above us. I rip my gaze back to Bella as I try to stagger to my feet on suddenly very unsteady legs.

The metallic rattle of chains clanks through the room. Bella’s face goes pale.

“Dame—!”

The hook in my shoulder suddenly yanks tight, and all I know is blinding, white-hot pain.

It’s a pain that erases almost every other feeling in the world except the sensation of it searing its way through my flesh. The hook jerks again, and I roar bloody fucking murder as I’m dragged backward, then up.

Then up again.

“DAME!!!” Bella is screaming and trying to stagger toward me when my feet suddenly lift off the catwalk.

The second they do, my entire body swings out over the vat of blood. Pure, unadulterated, nerve-jangling, soul-shattering pain zaps through my shoulder and whips down the rest of my body.

I don’t have time to care about that. I don’t have the bandwidth to give a shit about myself.