brutal

Chapter 42

KAI

Reid: Sab checked on her last night and her wounds are almost fully healed. She's taking her medicine and recuperating well.

Three dots jumped up and down on my phone screen as I waited for his succeeding text, one which came quicker than I expected.

Reid: There. Your update of the day, your majesty. You're more psychopathic than I am.

Kai: Debatable.

"Asking about her again?" Seth asked from the couch without looking up from his laptop.

I rolled my eyes and shut my phone to stare at him. He barged into my office earlier demanding he had better WiFi here compared to the one in the library reserved for agents. I didn't put up much of a fight, especially when the reason he's hyperfocused in the first place is because of me.

Ever since Verena was released from the hospital and her brother took her, we've been working nonstop trying to find the people that hurt her. While Seth worked behind a screen, I liked being out on the field with Roman and occasionally Yuna, too.

We've reviewed over hundreds of footage from the club we went to, up until poring over every inch of the warehouse where she was taken to. So far, I've found nothing but dead ends. Seth had to beat that acceptance into me in one of our spars to make me see reason.

Now, he returned to the beginning. The emails he received about Verena's past, as well as the messages I received. He even managed to retrieve the one I deleted on the plane when we were en route to Vermont, but I was firm on my decision not to watch whatever was in the video.

I shared his sentiments in believing that whoever was sending such videos was directly linked to the people that took her. There was too much reason to not chalk it up to coincidence, especially when Verena was not much of a public figure yet.

She was a Siege agent, yes, but that meant the opposite of being famous. Other than my case and other well-known agents, anonymity was a priority. She was a rookie— her identity was still well-protected at this point of her career. No other rookie in Siege history got this much activity in their first year, let alone their entire lives.

Even her father kept her hidden her entire life. I highly doubt he wouldn't have stepped in already if he was in any way involved with the threats against his daughter.

"You know that watching me won't speed things up, right?"

I rested my head against my chair behind the desk. "Shame. I was thinking otherwise this entire time."

Seth looked up just to scoff at me. "Save the sarcasm for the Dagons." He picked up his vibrating phone from his pocket and typed something on the screen. "And I don't really understand why you need to ask about her when you're sneaking into her bedroom every night like some psycho."

"Everyone's just throwing that word around like nothing nowadays," I muttered. "It's also not really your business why I do what I do. I have my reasons."

Right before Reid took Verena away from me in the hospital, he rallied enough patience to have a civil conversation with me and discuss the unavoidable. I immediately caught on that his wife was to blame for his change of character not too long after he pummeled his fist into my face.