Free Legacy (Alliance Book 3) by Inna Hardison

you to leave, if you couldn’t take it. You need to leave, Riley. This is between me and this kid.” Brody was digging into his neck with his arm, choking him, but he knew he couldn’t let go now, knew that he’d kill the kid, so he held on with everything he had, staring his best friend in the eyes, and Brody finally let go of him and took a step back.
    “Take a walk. He isn’t going anywhere, and by the looks of it, he can’t tell you what you want to know now,” he croaked at him, rubbing his neck, and walked him to the door, not handing him the knife back. Brody’s hands were in fists, and he looked furious, but he nodded to him and walked out, slamming the door behind him. Still smart enough to know that he lost control then. He’d have to deal with his anger at him later.
    He peeled the tape from the kid’s face, and a pair of steely gray eyes stared at him, something familiar in that look, too, only he couldn’t quite place it. He had six wounds in him, two that looked deep enough to need stitching, and he noticed for the first time that his chest was covered in scars, the same kind he carried on his back, thin white lines, and some round ones too, the kind he never saw on anyone before.
    He moved him away from Maxton a bit and crouched in front of him with the med kit, not saying anything. The kid flinched when he cleaned the wounds, and he hoped he wouldn’t scream.
    “Brandon, I don’t want to put that tape back on your face, but I’ll have to if you scream, okay?”
    A small nod. The kid gasped and shut his eyes tightly when he did the first wound, but he didn’t scream, and the other one wasn’t as bad. He cleaned up all the blood and bandaged him up as best he could. He wished Ella could do this part, but he didn’t want her to know what Brody did to this kid, couldn’t bring himself to tell her, or anybody.
    “Thank you for this, Riley. For not letting Ellis kill him,” Maxton’s voice, strained, quiet. And then he was talking to Brandon, softly, “Son, unless you’re protecting someone you love, tell him what he wants to know. I don’t know what it is you did that he was talking about, but whatever it was, I think it’s personal for him, and that means he won’t stop. Just tell him.”
    The kid shook his head, “I can’t, Maxton. I am sorry, but I can’t,” and he was looking at him again, not Maxton, eyes still familiar, and between what Maxton just said about protecting someone and these steely eyes watching him with half curiosity, half hatred, he saw Hassinger in him, saw her eyes staring at him at the compound, before she swung the whip at his back. And he knew who the kid was, only he didn’t know what to do with the knowing.
    Maxton must have seen it in his face, that he figured it out. “We already know I am not leaving here, Riley. Tell me what you know, and maybe I can help you keep this kid alive. Something tells me you disapprove of your friend’s methods.”
    The kid wasn’t going anywhere, and he looked like he could use a break anyway. He pulled the jacket back on him and buttoned it up, wanting to cover up the damage Brody did to him, and then helped Maxton from the chair. He untied his feet, and walked him at gunpoint down the hall, to the closet room Laurel hid in that one time.
    “Are your men scanning this place?” Maxton shook his head. He flicked the lights on. There were no windows in this room, and unless they were running scans, it should be safe. He had Maxton sit on one of the small chairs by the wall, and paced, trying to think of the fastest way to do this.
    “Hassinger, the woman in those texts, I think Brandon is her son. The two replenisher girls in the other room ran away with me and the other Zoriner guy from the compound she was in charge of, along with the Zoriner girl, who happens to be my sister your people took from us when I was six. That would be Ella, the giant guy is Drake. They were both slaves at Hassinger’s compound. The one