Chapter 10 · The Hunter's Deal

"One more word and I’ll paint this wall with your brains," Vala hissed. The muzzle of the pulse-pistol didn't just touch my forehead; it was digging in, cold and unforgiving.

I could feel her hand shaking. Just a little. Not from fear—Vala didn't do fear—but from a kind of desperate, vibrating tension. She was starving for the answer I was dangling over her like a piece of raw meat.

"You're shaking, Vala," I whispered. I leaned forward, pushing my skull harder against the steel of the barrel. "Is it because you're scared of me, or because you're terrified I'm actually telling the truth about your boss?"

"Shut up. Just shut the hell up and give me the decryption key," she snapped. Her voice was a jagged edge. She stepped closer, her boots crunching on the shattered glass of the server room floor. The smell of ozone and burnt silicone hung heavy between us, mixing with the sharp, metallic scent of her perfume—something expensive, something that didn't belong in this gutter.

I smirked, though it probably looked more like a grimace given the gun to my head. "The key isn't a string of numbers, sweetheart. It's in here.