I ran from the room, leaving Carter talking quietly to Ben, and hurriedly dug out my stash. After slamming the bathroom door behind me and making sure to lock it, I scrambled to form four lines, my mouth watering at the sight of such simplistic perfection. My mind wanted out. My heart wanted to stop hurting. And my soul danced with an eagerness when I inserted the straw up my left nostril and inhaled sharply and deeply.
Moving down, I snorted the next line, hungry for a quick hit.
My mind buzzed, my heartrate slowed and the burning scorch of the blood in my veins cooled after line number three. Sliding down, I hastily sucked up the last line and closed my eyes when oblivion caressed the suffering inside me, the high forcing me to ride on a wave of tranquillity.
It wasn’t until the sound of splintering wood, and Carter’s animalistic growl filled my ears, that my eyes slowly slid back open.
His words were slurred as fingers tightened around my arms and my body was hauled through the upper floor of my home. “You’re a fucking junkie!” he seethed to himself, mumbling words I couldn’t distinguish through the high as he flung me on the bed. “You stupid, stupid fucking girl.”
I laughed, his voice travelling into my brain alongside the hum of ecstasy. “Yeah, Carter,” I slurred, forcing my eyes open to watch the fury on his face. “Yeah, I’m a filthy druggie. I’m a whore. Did you not know? Michael made sure anyone after him knew that. What the fuck, Carter. It’s displayed on my chest in plain fucking English.”
His hand tightened around my throat but the haze ruling me vetoed any fear I should have felt. “How long?”
I laughed again, my head falling to the side.
Carter fisted my hair, pulling my face back to his. “How fucking long, Harley?”
“I thought you knew all about me, Carter? I thought you knew every aspect of my sad fucking life when you got your friend to fuck me.”
Shock covered his face and he even had the gall to look guilty.
“Oh.” I laughed. “Did you think I didn’t know? You think I’m such a whore that I wouldn’t even realise that it was two different men fucking me? Especially after having three men fuck every single fucking hole on my body. You think I wouldn’t know?” I screamed the last bit, tears of horror and self-hatred tearing at my chest and forcing the confined sob in my heart free.
“Shit!” He fisted his hair and spun around, refusing me to see when realisation exploded across his face.
“What the fuck?”
Ben’s voice had me reaching out blindly. Immediately his hand found mine and he pulled me into his chest. “I’m here, Harl. I’m here!”
“Benny!” I cried, clinging to him as devastation crippled me. “Evan, Ben. Evan!”
“I know, sweetheart,” he choked out, the grief in his voice attaching itself to mine and making it impossible to breathe.
“I want it to go away, Ben.”
He nodded, his chin rubbing across the top of my head. “How much have you had?”
“Just four,” I pleaded with my eyes as I looked up at him in expectation.
He shook his head and sighed, “No more, not yet.”
“You fucking condone this… this shit?” Carter barked.
I’d forgotten about him as my friend’s arms encompassed my pain. Ben tensed, his hold on me tightening when he looked up at Carter. “Not now, mate.”
“Not now?” Carter scoffed, shaking his head roughly. “Then fucking when? She’s your friend, and you allowed her to get in this mess!”
Ben was up so fast my body fell back onto the bed. Carter’s back slammed against the wall with Ben’s fury. “You think I did this to her? You think I can take her fucking pain away? I didn’t do this! Michael did!”
Carter’s eyes snapped my way, and I closed my own so I wouldn’t have to see the shock looking back at me.
“Michael used her. And he made damn sure that Harley would use him. He supplied her, he used her, and he fucked her up in a way none of us could ever comprehend. You have no idea what goes inside her head, and if fucking coke takes away her nightmares, then I’ll sell my soul to supply her myself.”
Carter mumbled another ‘fuck’ before he stormed from the room, the loud bang of the door making me wince. Every part of me ached with self-hatred, my tears punishing me as they burnt my eyes and scorched my skin.
“It’s okay, sweetheart,” Ben soothed, sliding me into his arms again. “I’ll sort it. I promise, Harl. I promise.”
I nodded, allowing his words to ease the agony inside. Ben would sort it. My friend would make it all okay again.
Yet, when my eyes shifted to the door Carter had just left through, I had a feeling there would be nothing left for Ben to fix.
Twenty-two
Gareth looked confused when he finally walked into the visiting area and his eyes settled on mine. I could see the hint of fear nestled in those pretty blues and I couldn’t hide the slow grin that crept across my face. The cunt had been kept waiting, held back until visiting time was nearly over. It was easier to hide the pause on the surveillance camera that way, only ten minutes to cover up instead of thirty.
Gareth and I had always had an okay relationship, so the unease etched on his pretty-boy face told me there was already a whisper on the block. But I had sat back, crossed my arms over my chest and used the low murmur of other conversation to keep me entertained until he arrived. Whispers become ears-splitting when they’re the truth and I’d needed to keep a low profile.
“Gareth.” I looked at him when he slid his long, thin body into the hard, plastic chair opposite me.
“Well, well, well.” He narrowed his eyes on me. “When Charlotte said you wanted to visit, I thought she’d finally lost it.”
“Your sister lost it a long time ago.”
He blinked in shock, but then shrugged and nodded in agreement. “Yeah. Well, our Lottie was always a bit of a slapper when it came to men.” His words were meant to offend me. He didn’t know me very well. It told me more about him, that speaking of his sister so derogatorily just proved he was no longer an asset to this planet. Blood was blood at the end of the day, and if you didn’t stick up for your kin, then what the fuck was left in life?
“Men with money,” I corrected, my anger already on edge. I wanted to yank the motherfucker across the table by his face and rip his throat out in front of all the pricks daring to look our way.
A buzzer sounded and Gareth’s face lit up. “Shit, so soon? Well thanks for the quick visit.”
I chuckled as various chairs scraped across the floor, the noise almost deafening as the other inmates piled out and Gareth stood up.
Tutting at him, and shaking my head, I grinned and stood up. Before his feet even moved, my hand captured the back of his head and I slammed his face into the table. “Not so fast, Gareth. I haven’t finished.”
I glanced up at Bob, the ‘very friendly after a couple of ton hit his palm’ PO, when he gave me a sharp nod and turned to leave, pulling the door closed behind him.
“What the fuck?” Gareth spat, squirming beneath my hold but getting nowhere.
“It appears I have more friends than you, Gareth. There’s a surprise.”
His eyes glared up at me, his cheek spread out over the table with the force of my grasp. “What do you want?”
I laughed, excitement bubbling through me. “Now, let’s see. Firstly, take a deep breath, you fucking prick, because there won’t be many more.”
He looked confused for a moment. “You’re doing this because of what Charlotte did to you and Jobe?”
“I’m doing this for Harley Davids!” I roared, sheer revulsion trickling inside me with the images in my head. I had to grit my teeth for strength when Harley’s blood and tear-streaked face found the front of my mind; three men using her, abusing her, and marking her for life. “I am doing this because I can. Because you crossed a line when you touched my girl.”
“Your girl?” Fear clouded his eyes and seeped from his filthy body, marbl
ing the air around me as my own rage ignited every molecule of oxygen. “But she was Mikey’s girl.”
“She was never Mikey’s girl,” I spat, crushing his windpipe beneath the heel of my hand. His eyes bulged and I relished in the sound of bone splintering with the power of my wrath.
Forcing myself to ease back when he screamed and Bob appeared at the door in a warning, I bent down and spat in his ear. “Take a breath, Gareth. Take a long, long breath.”
He spluttered when I let him go and turned to walk away. “And enjoy it,” I told him quietly when Bob came to escort him out of the room. I watched as he guided him around the corner into the small cell with three men waiting to earn their pay.
Forty minutes later an unused email I had created specifically for the occasion pinged with the arrival of a video.
And I smiled.
Two down, two to go.
Twenty-three
It had been over ten days since Carter had left, and Evan had died. My soul was void of anything. I didn’t feel, I didn’t eat, I didn’t live. I just existed on coffee and Cloud. And I only existed to find Number Three.
The house had been overhauled by Evan’s friend, his expertise at surveillance uncovering four microscopic recording devices. I felt safe, strangely. It was like Evan lived in the basement with me, his encouragement, his love and his need for revenge spurring me on. I was alone now, apart from Ben. But Carter, or Caesar, was gone, and Evan’s death had given me back the fight to find Michael and end this once and for all.
Never-ending files, mind-numbing codes, unbreakable hash-codes, torturous proto-sweeps, and endless amounts of coffee finally paid off when on the following Sunday afternoon, a quiet alarm woke me from my dozing.
My heart physically gasped when a name blinked on my monitor. Sucking in a fortifying breath, I plugged into the national security database and input the name. A face instantly shook my core.
“BEN!” I shouted as a chill raced up my spine and exploded into my brain. “BEN!”
He came scrambling down the stairs, a fresh cup of coffee he had made spilling across the floor as he scurried up beside me.
“Well, fuck me.” He looked at me, a huge fucking grin on his face as tears prickled his eyes. “You did it, Harl. You found Number Three.”
I nodded, my body shaking with sheer adrenaline. No longer was I scared and tortured by the face staring at me from the screen. Now all that filled me was determination, hatred and a pure, undiluted need for carnage and destruction.
Number Three had proven to be the hardest. Only because we already knew who Number Four was. Closing my eyes, I sent a silent prayer of thanks to my friend. “Thank you, Ev,” I whispered.
Turning to Ben, I chewed on my lip. “You should know,” I said quietly. “Michael is mine.”
His eyes widened on me. “What?”
“For Evan. Not for me.” I shook my head. “My scars show I’m alive, Ben. Evan doesn’t have any scars. They didn’t leave him with any. Only another one in my soul. That’s the last one Michael will ever put upon me.”
“And Caesar?”
“Caesar is no more.”
Ben narrowed his eyes on me but said no more when I stood and stretched my back.
Snatching a piece of paper from the pad, I scribbled down the details I needed.
Number Three would prove to be difficult, but only because he was out of reach to me. But not to Caesar.
Michael knew I was working my way through the other three before I got to him. Yet, I had to wonder if he knew about Caesar. For some reason I thought not. He hadn’t expected Carter’s expertise in shifting dead bodies. Michael had thought I’d immediately call the police, then my work den would be uncovered. But after Carter had stormed from my house, Evan had also disappeared. It hurt me that I hadn’t a clue what he had done with my best friend. I wanted to mourn him, to go and say goodbye, yet it was still too raw and agonising. So I would question Carter when I knew I was more capable of coping with Evan’s death.
“Where are you going?” Ben asked, watching me warily when he picked up a sulking Plum from Evan’s chair where she refused to leave.
“I need Carter to take care of Number Three.”
Ben stalled, his eyes probing. “What? I thought…”
“I need time.” I couldn’t tell Benny why, he wouldn’t understand. But if Carter went after Number Three, Michael would still think he was safe. He wouldn’t expect me to go after him until Number Three was dead. So what better opportunity than to take down the last two at the same time. Carter wouldn’t allow me to deal with Michael myself – although maybe now he knew what I was he no longer cared. Whether he cared or not, he’d promised me he’d help me finish this…if he thought we were still on Number Three he wouldn’t suspect what I was going to do.
“Harley? Time for what?”
“Number Three is Michael’s right hand man. Number Three is Mole.” My eyes moved to the screen. Jamie Forester’s alias name, Mole, had shocked me more than anything. Mole was notorious in the underground cyber world. He was named Mole because he lived underground. He never came out, and he would prove to be impossible to get to. However, I prayed Carter had his contacts and could ferret him out.
“That’s impossible.” Ben shook his head, fixing his stare on the screen. “He’s never been seen in public.”
I laughed, a shiver racing around me when I remembered the feel of Jamie Forester’s fingers in my throat and his dirty cock inside me. “We both know that’s not true. I should feel honoured that I was worth a day trip out.”
Ben scowled at me, grumbling under his breath at my sarcasm. “I don’t like this, Harl. Something seems off.”
I rolled my eyes at his worry but didn’t answer him.
Shoving the paper into my back pocket, I reached up and kissed his cheek, cherishing the feel of my best friend for the last time. Slipping my arms around him, I hugged him tight. “Get the beers in. Tonight we need to get drunk.”
He smiled, relief that I was finally escaping the confines of the basement making his shoulders relax. “Good girl.”
I turned, quickly hiding the anxiety at what was to come, and blew out a breath.
It was time. And God help me, I would end it one way or another.
The doorman to Carter’s apartment recognised me immediately. He gave me a wide smile. “Good evening, Miss.”
“Hello again,” I returned his smile with a tense one, my nerves on edge at seeing Carter again after what happened. “Can I go up?”
His whole body clenched and his smile dropped. He appeared to be thinking about it and I frowned. He knew who I was now, so surely he didn’t need to verify my visit.
“Is there a problem?”
He glanced at the door to the elevator and clicked his tongue. “He has company at the moment.” The way he said ‘company’ had my chest squeezing tight, the crushing feeling one I was not used to.
“Oh.”
He grimaced, giving me a sympathetic look. “You can wait if you’d…”
“No.” I shook my head, trying to make my legs work and carry me out of there. Heat blushed my cheeks with embarrassment and I moved my eyes anywhere but at the doorman who was kind enough to show me pity. I didn’t want his pity. I had stupidly thought that Carter and myself had formed some sort of relationship. How could I be so stupid? I was just sex to him. Why on earth would he not take on other lovers?
I spun around, scrambling to make my brain work and figure out what to do next. My body ached with hurt and I sank my teeth into my bottom lip, the bite of pain finally slicing through my wounded pride and giving me the ability to move.
“Can I call you a cab?” the doorman offered, his voice low behind me and making me jump.
“Uhh, no, that’s okay.”
“Are you sure? I’m not sure I like you being out alone at this time of night.”
Well at least someone cared. “I’m fine.” I nodded, more to tell myself that than him.
The piece of paper in my back pocket was burning a hole through me and I turned back around. I had burned the online connection Caesar and I had previously had, so there was no way of sending him the information anymore. Only in physical form. “Actually, do you have an envelope?”
He looked surprised but then shrugged and nodded. “Sure. Hang on.”
I stood, tapping my foot and examining every inch of the foyer as partygoers came and disappeared into the club, some making me jump when the doors flew open and laughter or drunken shouts spilled out, the beat of the music furthering the headache I had coming on.
The doorman reappeared and handed me an envelope. Praying I could trust him, but somehow knowing Carter wouldn’t just employ anyone he hadn’t already vetted, I slipped the paper in and sealed it.
“It’s important that he gets this.”
He smiled and nodded. “Confidentially, of course.”
I liked this guy already. “Yes. Thank you so much.”
“No problem, Miss. Go steady.”
Fresh air hit me as soon as I stepped back into the street. It was a busy night, many revellers strolling the streets and the smell of fried food made my stomach rumble. Although I wasn’t sure my nervous stomach could withstand anything other than manmade stimulation.
Taking out my phone, I opened the connection I had established after Michael had hacked into my private IM. He had obviously forgotten he’d taught me well. But then again, he had probably known I would track him. It could all be a trap. Except, I didn’t care anymore.
He wanted me. And that’s exactly what he would get. Me.
Twenty-four
Charlotte stood in my doorway, her red-rimmed eyes delighting me more than they should have. Revenge was so fucking sweet. Her devastation thrilled every part of me, from the memories to the present, from the past to the sight of redemption so easily obtained.
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