My eyes moved from the slowest opening gate in the history of the world to Winter as she exited the front door of the garage.
Although it was a little past eleven at night, I knew she’d be there working on the information we’d sent her. I hoped that that smile on her face meant she had something.
Just as the gate finally swung open fully, a deafening bang and an extremely bright light over took my senses.
I was disoriented, and it took me a few moments to remember the training I’d had on concussion grenades.
However, those fifteen seconds were enough, and I came to just in time to see a meaty fist headed straight for my face.
Lights out for me.
Chapter 20
She’s crazy. And just when you think you’ve reached the bottom of her craziness, there’s a damn underground garage.
-Life Lesson
Winter
“If one of you bastards doesn’t bring him to me, so help me God, I will cut every one of your balls off and make the person next to you eat them!” I bellowed as I yanked the chain that I was attached to.
My bonds held me tight against the wall. I was shackled to a fucking chain like a dog.
I’d just woken up a few minutes ago, and it wasn’t under the best of circumstances.
Mr. Touchy Feely was running his rough dirty palm over my stomach and down my left thigh. I’d known as soon as I’d awakened that it wasn’t Jack’s hand. Whomever the man was, was rough and jerky, whereas Jack’s touch is smooth and silky.
Turns out Mr. Touchy was only searching me for weapons and strapping my wrists into metal cuffs. Then he left me in this white creepy room with the fluorescent lights and no windows. Oh, and did I mention there was no working heater?
There I sat in the corner of the room, as far away from the door as I could get, thinking about ways to escape. Only, I didn’t see anything. Not a nail on the floor, or a loose brick in the wall, nor a goddamn lock pick when you needed it.
Laying my head down, I tried to calm my nerves as a wave of nausea nearly sent me to my knees, but the sound of the door slamming open and bouncing hard against the wall brought my head up so fast that my head spun even more.
“Oh, Winter. How I’ve missed that lovely mouth of yours.” Peter, the slime ball, said as he came into the room with a confident swagger.
I wanted to vomit even more, but managed to hold it in.
Thinking silence was my best friend right now, I stayed quiet as he continued speaking. “So, I see that you found the love of your life again. How sweet. Except you’ll be a widow in a few short hours. Just as soon as we learn what he knows, that is. Let’s watch, shall we?”
With that cryptic statement, he pulled out a remote from his pocket pressed a button. A flat screen TV slid silently into view. It remained black for a few seconds, then flickered to life and projected my worst nightmare onto the screen.
Jack was sitting in a metal chair with his feet and hands attached to the legs and arm rests of the chair. A giant of a man with fists the size of a sledge hammer was beating Jack. Not every once in a while, but a continuous steady flow of blows; one right after the other.
It wasn’t until he pulled his hand back that I saw he also had on a pair of brass knuckles to facilitate the beating he was giving.
Jack’s face was a bloody mess, but each blow of the giant’s fist didn’t illicit one iota of sound out of him. His pain was immediately obvious to me, and with each sound of a fist hitting flesh I died a little inside.
“Please stop.” I whispered. “I’ll do whatever you want me to.”
Peter’s laugh was diabolical. “Oh, you would have done that anyway. This is purely for my viewing pleasure. You see, it makes me hard. I like a little violence with my sex. We’re going to finish what we started all that time ago. No mommy to interrupt us this time.”
I was completely confused as to what he was talking about, but I didn’t want to question him and make this worse than it already was. Maybe, if I could just withhold my attitude, I could hold him off long enough for help to arrive.
My eyes stayed glued to the screen, and I watched as Jack was hit in the face, the ribs, the stomach, the groin, and the arms repeatedly. Bile was yet again rising in my throat, and I knew that if the beating continued much longer, I wouldn’t be able to cover my reaction anymore.
The love of my life was being beaten, all because of me. I was the reason he was here in the first place, and I felt like the lowest scum of the earth. I’d take his place gladly if I could.
“Please. Please.” I chanted repeatedly.
I hadn’t realized that I was doing so until Peter’s hand made contact with my cheek. Pain blasted through the nerve endings of my face, but it wasn’t enough to stop me from chanting.
“Enough!” Peter said harshly.
“Please. Please. Please.” I kept saying.
It was that point that I realized that I was praying.
“Fine, if you don’t shut up, I’ll shut you up.” He said as he plunged something into the meat of my thigh. Straight through my pants and all.
“What did you do?” I asked in horror.
His smile didn’t detract from the evil gleam in his eyes. “You’ll love it. I hear it makes you feel wonderful. Stormy seemed to think so a few years ago.”
The door opened behind him and an older man with bright red hair entered, along with the man who was beating Jack. The man was also dragging an unconscious Jack behind him by the arms.
“Jack!” I gasped and started forward, only to be reminded that I was connected to the wall by a chain.
The man dragging Jack dropped him once he was in a good position near the wall, and I watched, helplessly, as his head hit the floor with a sickening thud.
“Wake him up.” The old man snapped.
“Yes, sir.” The flunky said enthusiastically, then waved a tube of what I assumed was ammonium carbonate underneath his nose.
He woke with a start and exploded. One second he was on his back, and the next he had the man in his grip and was twisting his neck. Snapping it within a few seconds.
“Stop.” Peter said with a deadly calm.
Tearing my eyes away from the dead man, I turned to find the barrel of a .357 pointed straight at my face from less than two feet away.
Jack froze, utter horror filling his face when he saw who had us, and what was pointed at me.
His arms slowly came up from his side and raised until the palms of his hands were flat against the back of his head. “What do you want me to do?”
“Attach yourself to those chains there. No sudden moves.” Peter cracked.
Doing as he was told, Jack had his arms shackled to the wall in much the same way I was in a matter of seconds.
“Call someone to dispose of the trash.” The older man said.
It was more than obvious that he was used to being obeyed; it wasn’t until a few moments had passed that he looked over to Peter and noticed he wasn’t moving. “Do you need me to explain, or can you handle the directive without supervision?”
Peter flushed at the reprimand, but followed directions nonetheless. “Good boy.” I said sweetly as he walked toward the dead body.
He froze and looked at me with crazy in his eyes, smiled, and then pulled the body out by the legs.
“Now, now, daughter. Watch what you say to your brother. We both know how unusually cruel he can be.”
My head felt like it was full of cotton as I processed what he’d just said. “You’re a fucking liar!”
Shock and denial filled me.
“Oh, no. Your husband has my papers, so I’m sure you already saw the paternity test in there. Clever of me to plant the evidence. Too bad about that young firefighter. Don’t you wonder why I wouldn’t let Peter kill you? Couldn’t have him killing his own sister, could I?” He asked wistfully. “Although, it got a little dicey there when that firefighter stuck his nose into my business. Called the cops and got them all involved. They even
filed a missing person report about my son! The nerve!”
“You-you can’t be. My mother said you died.” I rasped.
“Of course she did. The stupid whore was a junkie when she got pregnant with you, and I wasn’t sure you were mine. But when you were born with my bright, red hair, I knew you were mine down to the very marrow.”
“So you let us live in poverty, even though you knew I was yours?” I asked in surprise.
My face turned from my supposed father to Jack, and I saw that his face was blank. Well, as blank as it could be due to the multiple bruises and lacerations covering his face.
It was almost as if he didn’t want to admit what he was hearing was true. Because if it was, it meant I was a total piece of trash. I came from a drugged drunk of a mother and a flesh peddling drug lord of a father. If that was true, then that meant I was no good either. How could I be? The blood that ran in my veins was tainted with the filth that was my parents.
I was a no good piece of trash and didn’t deserve Jack. I didn’t deserve to live. I should find a hole in the cold ground and slit my wrists again. I didn’t deserve to lick the shiny black shoes my father wore.
That line of thinking came to a screeching halt when I thought that. “What did you give me?” I slurred, turning an accusing glare towards Edward.
“Oh, just a little something that will take you to your happy place. Your mother swears it’s the best,” He smiled. “I want you to watch as I get to know my son in law.”
***
Jack
“If you even think about hurting her, I will give you the slowest possible death you can think of. I will make sure you watch as I torture that son of yours, but I’ll keep him alive enough that he gets the same services I give you.” I gritted out through clenched teeth.
Edward guffawed and pressed a button to the right of the door and the flat screen slid into view. “Oh, my dear boy. Keep dreaming. Do you want to know how I found out where Winter was?”
I locked my jaw and stayed silent. I was wondering that. I’d purposefully backtracked over twenty miles out of the way just so I would know that I wasn’t bringing anything nasty home to me. And they’d found us anyway.
“No? Well, I’ll tell you anyway. Your lovely wife there decided to send for her things, and, voila! I had her. Oh, you gave me the slip at the bank, and my men couldn’t find you after you left, but that didn’t matter. I’d already had men dispatched, just waiting for you, or Winter, to show up!” He laughed.
Goddammit. I’d told her to wait, but that was going to have to be an argument for another time. “Fuck off.”
Then I remembered the day Winter was shot at, and the night that she killed Ben, Edward’s other son. “If you just found out where we were, why did Winter kill your other son a few months ago when he broke into our house?”
Peter’s sharp inhalation brought his father’s stunned expression to him. “What did you do?”
Peter fought for words. His face showed apprehension at being caught. “I didn’t do anything, father.”
“Then what is he talking about? You told me you didn’t know where she was! I had a buyer for that stupid bitch! He’s been hounding me for nearly seven fucking years! I’ve had every available resource looking for her! Do you know the kind of heat this man is giving me?” He fumed, and then his expression turned murderous. “You’ve known where she was for a while now, haven’t you? You were in charge of finding her, and of directing my men in finding her.”
Peter sneered at his father. “You only told me to find her, not to bring her, or the information, to you. I did, though. The day you were arrested for that bogus speeding ticket. That was the day I gave you that information on her whereabouts. Did you even bother to look at it?”
“Of course not. You told me it was...” Then he stopped and turned to me. “Let’s discuss this elsewhere. Not that it would matter since you’ll be dead soon. Do you want me to give you some time to say goodbye before I kill you?”
“Fuck you.” I growled.
“Oh, I’m not into that kind of thing. However, I’ve got some video for your viewing pleasure that might just do it for you. I have a few things to take care of, and then I’ll be back to take care of you. Enjoy.”
The next hour of my life was spent in pure, atrocious hell.
The first video was of Winter when she was taken by Peter. She was bound for a day and a half by the time the video started. She was combative (naturally) and that set Peter off. The only thing that kept her from getting raped was the fact that he wasn’t into incest.
“Oh, fight me. You know I like it rough.”
“Get off me pig!” Winter panted, as she strained at the bonds holding her down.
“Your sister wasn’t even this wild in bed! Holy shit, but you’re hot.” He said, grinding against her.
Tears slipped out of Winter’s eyes and she turned her head away as she stopped her struggling. Her face was turned right at the camera, and I could see every emotion cross her face. Her lips formed the words ‘I love you, Jack’ over and over again. Her fists were balled into tiny fists at her side, and she strained to keep herself immobile.
It was blatantly obvious that she wanted to move, but she made herself into a stone statue and refused to respond to his goads.
“Oh, come on, Winter. You know you want me. I saw all those sly looks you thought you were slipping me. Fight me. What’s holding you back?”
He gave Winter’s hair a vicious yank, but even then he didn’t illicit a response from her. His hands moved down to the white t-shirt I’d given her and started rubbing the outsides of her breasts roughly.
“No hard nipples for me? What, do I have to go by Jack before you give me anything?”
“Jack’s my husband. He’s the one and only person that will ever get the response you’re looking for.”
“Want to bet?”
“God, no,” I moaned. She’d practically thrown down a challenge, and his ego just wouldn’t let that challenge go without a fight.
My eyes stayed practically glued to the screen. My stomach roiled as I witnessed the naivety in my young wife’s eyes die with each stroke of his hands against her.
Just as he was reaching down between her legs, the door slammed open and Winter’s mom came in with a twisted look of disgust on her face.
“Get off my baby, you fucking sick fuck. That’s your sister!”
“What?”
“You heard me. Sister. Now, where’re the drugs you promised me.”
“Go find my father. I’m busy.”
“No you’re not. That’s just gross. Get ‘er the fuck out of here.”
Winter’s mom, who was obviously pregnant, left as soon as Peter leveraged himself from between her chained thighs, slamming the door behind her as she went. Not once did she show concern that her daughter was chained up and being tortured. No, she only gave a shit about how disgusting it was that a man wanted to fuck his own sister, but not that her own daughter was being tortured to death.
Winter only tugged harder on her bonds after seeing her mother there, and hearing the bomb she’d just dropped. Her wrists were bleeding now, even though the bonds holding her were made of leather, unlike the metal cuffs that were holding us now.
“I told you to stop. You’re going to be fucking damaged and then I won’t get anything for you.”
“Oh, bitch. You’re gonna pay. We’ll find another bitch to replace you. I’ve wanted to do this for a long time.”
The video stopped after over thirty minutes of punches, kicks, stabs, burns and derogatory language was dispensed on Winter. I refused to shut my eyes, making myself watch every single detail that Winter had endured.
Burning it into my memory, so that when I finally got the chance to see Peter and felt his vulnerable flesh beneath my hands, I would make him pay for every single thing that he did to Winter. I would copy every single cut, burn, pinch, poke, kick, punch and insult he gave her.
Then I’d repeat
it. Over and over until he died, and I would enjoy every single fucking second of it.
The black screen finally signaled the end of the video, and I looked over to Winter. She was asleep, curled into a fetal ball, shielding herself away from the hideousness of the world.
I didn’t know if she was awake to understand any of the video I’d just watched, but I prayed that she wasn’t. Whatever memory she had yet to recover, I prayed stayed buried forever. I didn’t want her to experience any of that ever again.
“Did you enjoy our afternoon matinee?” Edward asked as he pushed into the room, followed shortly by his son.
The dead man.
“Get him out of here.” I hissed through gritted teeth.
Peter’s eyes widened at the gruff timber of my voice, and something must’ve shown on my face, because he didn’t even wait for daddy’s order. He left without another word or glance into my direction.
A flash of nervousness washed over Edward’s features, but was quickly extinguished as fast as it came.
“I’ll enjoy killing you.” I said with a deadly calm.
He smiled mockingly. “One more video for you, then we’ll talk.”
My eyes screamed for me to look away as I saw video surveillance of the explosion and subsequent fire that took Adam’s life. I don’t know if it was luck, or precision on the bomber’s part, but it was blatantly apparent to me that Adam was to be the only one hurt. My brother had been an accident. He was lucky he was so far way when the blast went off or he’d have been dead, too.
The video started out with the fire trucks arriving near the front entrance. The video flashed to when movement was caught by something on the deserted floors. Each firefighter took a floor and looked for the child. Adam’s showed in the basement, and had just stepped past a concrete barrier calling the child’s name when the bomb exploded. The screen went black, but it was on long enough for me to see the fire, as well as Adam’s body being blown to pieces.
I desperately wanted to scream, to rage and cry, but I wasn’t giving that asshole the privilege of seeing me break. Instead, I took my rage out on the chain I was attached to, pouring every single bit of my strength into ripping the fucker from the wall.
Last Day of My Life Page 22
