By then his brain was a fog of aches and pains. Blood ran down his chin. Both shoulders screamed from the repeated pounding and from his inability to shift position.At times Landry’s voice bit into Rob’s consciousness as if he were shouting through a bullhorn, demanding information over and over again. There were also long periods when Rob’s body was so consumed with the agony that his overworked senses threatened to shut down and Landry faded into a distant drone. Rob might have passed out a time or two, he wasn’t sure.At one point his thoughts cleared long enough for Rob to recognize the truth; he was going to die in that chair. Strangely enough, the thought gave him an edge, a growing resolve. If he only had a short time left, then he was going to wake up and pay attention. Even an existence filled with pain and misery can be precious when it’s all that’s left.Landry sat in front of Rob, tapping the silenced pistol contemplatively in the palm of one hand. He seemed to be regarding Rob with all the sympathy of a boy in middle school dissecting a frog in biology class.“We can stop any time you want,”
