Page 185 of Heartless Sinner

He zipped up the briefcase and stared at me, his cocoa-brown eyes hard with distrust.

The guy who’d been joking about the female G-spot minutes ago was gone. It was like I’d suddenly become the Sons’ enemy.

“Don’t leave campus, or you’ll regret it, Daphne,” he said before leaving me alone in the lecture hall.

Forty-Four

Brooks

“Tell me your source!” I punched the man tied to a chair in the face, hearing bones crack as pain tore through my knuckles.

I hadn’t even punched Cory that damn hard during his Initiation.

I dropped to one knee in front of Ajax.

He was the journalist who’d published both stories about me. His right eye was busted, thanks to a prior punch from me. His knockoff designer sweater was stained with blood.

Enzo stepped beside me, pulling on black leather gloves while murderously staring Ajax down. “Tell us, and your source will die.” He flexed both hands before circling Ajax, grabbing a fistful of his blond hair, and dragging his head back. “Don’t tell us? You will die. Your family will die. Then we’ll still find the source, and they’ll die. Have fewer people die by giving us a simple name. That’s it.”

Finding Ajax had been easy. He’d bylined both articles but insisted someone else fed him the information. I believed him. He was a nobody journalist who didn’t know stories about the Sons came with a death sentence.

We grabbed him outside his office in New York City after he finished bragging about his breaking story on some podcast. Legitimate news outlets knew better than to touch it.

We stuffed him into the trunk of a stolen sedan and brought him to one of the Marchetti warehouses. Emeri, Cassian, and my father stood behind us, watching the show.

I was surprised he’d risk coming, but he’d insisted the Elders wanted him present when Ajax gave us a name. That didn’t mean he’d get his hands dirty.

“Spit it out!” I screamed.

Enzo slapped Ajax on the cheek before moving away from him.

The second Enzo stepped aside, I drove my boot into Ajax’s face. The chair tipped backward.

Ajax yelped when the chair crashed onto the concrete. His head slammed against the floor with a crack. Before he could recover, I stomped my foot into his face again.

My life depended on me getting a name.

I needed one to declare my innocence. I knew the Elders were doubting my loyalty now. Most were older men who hadn’t worked alongside me as a Son. They only went by what they’d heard.

I grabbed the back of the chair and hauled it upright before fishing the brass knuckles from my pocket. I slid them on and raised my fist inches from his face.

“All right! All right!” Ajax screamed as fat tears fell down his cheeks. “I’ll tell you!”

I drew my arm back, just a few inches, but still close to his face in case he tried to play games with me. “Who?”

“First, you have to promise not to hurt my family,” he stammered, sounding weak and pathetic.

That earned him a satisfied smile from me. “Of course I won’t. I told you if you talked, then I’d only hurt whoever your source was.”

He blew out a nervous breath. “Fine, it was Sterling Beckett!” He squirmed in the chair. “Now, let me go!”

“You’ve got to be shitting me,” my father commented.

Ajax’s jaw loosened when I removed my brass knuckles and shoved them into my pocket.

I reached into my other pocket. Ajax’s face creased with panic when he noticed my Glock.

He whipped his head to each side and tried to raise his arms as I drew the Glock.