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He didn’t answer, just kept nursing the ar her jaw, Scarlet storabbed his wrist He yelped and tried to pull away, but she held firasped and let go, but the arotten to retract it

The skin was covered in burn marks Each one a perfect circle and placed in a neat, perfect ro upon row upon row, circling his forear rinkled scar tissue, others blackened and blistering And on his wrist, a scab where his ID chip had once been implanted

Her stoainst the wall, her father buried his face in the mattress, away from Scarlet, away from the burns

"Who did this to you?"

His ar

Scarlet pushed herself off the wall and ran to the bathroom in the hallway She returned a es Her father hadn’t moved

"They

Scarlet eased his aran to dress the wound, as tenderly as she could despite her shaking hands "Who et away," he continued as if he hadn’t heard her "They asked so many questions and I didn’t know I didn’t knohat they wanted I tried to answer thelanced up from her work as her father tilted his head toward her and stared blankly across the tousled blankets Tears had pooled in his eyes Her father--crying It was al than the burns Her chest clae wrapped halfway up his forearm She realized that she did not know this sad, broken man This was only a shell of her father, her chariser and hatred had flared before, there was now an aching sense of pity

What possibly could have caused this?

"They gave me the poker," he continued, his eyes wide and distant

"They gave you--? Why--?"

"And they brought me to her And I realized, she was the one with the answers She was the one with the infor from her But she just watched … she just watched me do it, and she cried … but they asked her the same questions, and she still wouldn’t answer them She wouldn’t answer theer "She let theulp, Scarlet finished off the wrapping and leaned against the rave;re? You saw her?"

His attention flashed back to her, crazed again "They had o They could tell she didn’t care about , he pushed forward and cla her arernails digging into her skin "What is it, Scar? What’s so important? More important than her own son?"

"Dad, you have to calhts stammered "Where is she? Who has her? Why?"

Her father’s eyes searched her, panicked and shi Slowly, he shook his head and dropped his attention to the floor "She’s hiding so," he , Scar? Where is it?"

He turned to rustle through a drawer of old cotton shirts that had clearly already been riffled through He eating now, his hair damp around his ears

Scarlet used the bed frame to hoist herself onto the h her heart was thu so hard it hurt "Where is she?"

"Don’t know" He dug his fingernails into the space between theand the wall "I was at a bar in Paris They ed my drink, because next I woke up in a dark rooed o too One minute I was in that dark room, then I was here I woke up in the cornfield"

With a shudder, Scarlet pulled her hands through her hair until the curls knotted up around theht hirandmother Why? Did these people know that Scarlet was his only family--did they think she would be the best person to take care of him?

That didn’t make any sense Clearly they weren’t worried about her dad’s well-being So what else? Was leaving hie to her? A threat?

"You e of desperation "Soet a good look at the?"

"Was drugged," he said, quickly, but then his bro together as he struggled to think He made to touch his burn marks, but then let his hand fall into his lap "Wouldn’t let e to shake him and scream that he had to think harder "Did they blindfold you?"

"No" He squinted "I was afraid to look"

Frustrated tears were beginning to sting her eyes and Scarlet tilted her head back, gulping down patient breaths Her worst fears, those sneaking, horrible suspicions, were true

Her grandmother had been kidnapped Not just kidnapped, but kidnapped by cruel, brutal people Were they har her as they’d harmed her son? What would they do to her? What did they want?

Ranso yet? And why had they taken her father too, but then let hio? It didn’t hts as all the possible horrors strea and dark rooms …

"What did you mean, when you said they made you? What did they make you do?"

"Burn myself," he whispered "Handed me the poker"

"But how--"