The door to the small, concrete tomb I had woken in hours ago opened and a huge guy stepped inside. He was so tall that he had to duck to fit through, and the colossal size of him saw him angling sideways to fit through.
My stomach sank when I knew what was coming but I swallowed back the fear and forced my brain to start working.
“You’re quite cute.” He grinned at me and I cringed when he ran the tip of his yellow stained finger over my cheekbone. “I’ve never been given a pretty one before, they’ve all been ugly. And you have your own teeth.”
I clamped my ‘own teeth’ around his finger when he shoved it between my compressed lips. However, he laughed, the glisten of manic glee in his eyes quickening the beat of my already rapid heartbeat.
“Feisty too. I’m going to enjoy breaking you, pretty girl.”
Christy patted him on the shoulder and winked at him. “Go to town, Nigel. Just remember that William wants her alive.”
I had to think, and quickly, if I was going to survive whatever this fucker had in store for me.
I grunted and Christy laughed when Nigel shoved his hand between my legs and forced one of his fat fingers inside me. I was already sore, ripped apart by the savage bastard who Christy had sent in for over three hours of repeated rape and beatings.
Christy left, closing the door behind her when Nigel forced open my legs. The chain rattled above me when he wrapped one of his huge arms around my waist and lifted me slightly to give his hand better access.
“Stupid move, you fat cunt!”
He gawped at me in confusion. However, by the time he understood, I’d used his large body and the slack on the chain to hoist myself up and clamp my legs around his neck. Spinning around, I simultaneously bound the chain around his throat and snapped it tight. The crack of his neck breaking was satisfying, and the sheer weight of both his dead body and myself yanked the chain from the hook on the ceiling, dropping us both to the floor with a heavy thud.
Tapping Nigel’s dead face, I smiled. “Shoddy workmanship. Next time, invest in a better handyman.”
The corridor was empty but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t run into trouble. I was aware of my nakedness, however, I had to put aside any shame I felt if I was to get out of there. The chain, still attached to my wrists, rattled and I hastily wrapped it around my middle to stop the links from making too much noise.
Every part of my body hurt but, gritting my teeth, I cautiously made my way through the strangely quiet building. It was quite eerie, the silence and absence of anyone making the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. I needed to find Christy, except I had a feeling she was long gone.
The corridor bent left and right many times, various doorways appearing frequently, but every single room was empty. Placing my hand on the cold wall, I felt for a draught and tried to distinguish which way the exit, or a window, was but the still air just magnified my frustration.
“Fuck!”
My heart raced. There was only one reason why the place was empty, and that scared the fuck out of me. As if to confirm my suspicions, I rounded a corner and the small square of putty laden with explosives and a tiny detonator that was adhered to the corner of the ceiling out of reach gave my heart a kick of adrenaline.
My feet sped up and I pushed every muscle in my legs to drive me harder and faster. More randomly place explosives guided me, the connected wires to each one hopefully leading to a way out. “Faster Esther, come on.”
It was a maze, an endless mine of concrete walls and doors, but not one led me outside.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!”
Turning around one corner some steps appeared in front of me, rickety wooden slats that led up to a large metal door.
The ninth step gave way when I careered up them too heavily and my leg fell through, the sharp jagged edge ripping into my skin and causing me to cry out. But I couldn’t waste time thinking about the pain, and clambering up the remaining stairs every part of me sagged in defeat when the door refused to open.
“No. God. Fuck.”
Hunting with my eyes for another way out, I ran my hand through my hair in despair, the restriction of the chain pulling at my wrists.
I couldn’t do anything other than wait for each explosive device to detonate and take me down with the building. Or, I could take the shard of wood that had broken off the step and slit my own throat. Either way, I was going to die.
The sound of bolts moving from the door behind me made me spin around and take a length of chain in my hands ready to use as a weapon. Whoever was on their way in needed to hurry the fuck up and open the steel slab that was obstructing my way out, before this hellhole blew us both to smithereens.
I was ready, my feet slightly apart both to steady myself and in preparation to launch for whoever wanted to come in. Yet when it finally swung open, the sight of Knox, pale and anxious, stood in the now open space, made my knees buckle with relief.
“Jesus!” he rasped, his eyes scanning my broken body. He shot forward to scoop me up but I shook my head and pushed him back.
“We need to get out here. Now!”
Catching the urgency in my voice, he still reached for me, lifting my whole body easily into his strong one before he turned and ran.
We made it halfway across the dark field before the air erupted and fire licked at both me and Knox, the sheer heat of the blast sizzling every single hair on my body. Knox took us both to ground, shielding me instinctively with his own body, just as the darkness sank into my mind and I gave into it.
Twenty-seven
Bane
I couldn’t take my eyes off her, even though my eyelids had been drooping with fatigue for the last thirty-eight hours. Every breath I took froze my lungs, each thump of my heart pierced my mind with visions of what Esther had been through, and the ache in my bones seemed to crush my already shattered soul.
She refused to open her eyes. With every second that passed I willed her more and more to just look at me, to tell me that she was okay, that her spirit wasn’t bruised and her body hadn’t been violated, that the doctors were wrong.
Even as children Esther had, in a way, been the strongest of both of us, and as selfish as I was now, I prayed that she would still be the strong one. I wasn’t strong. Far from it. I was weak and cowardly, because as much as I wanted her to wake up, another part of me wanted to keep her suspended in the peace of her sleep so she couldn’t tell me the extent of the horrors she had suffered.
The bubble of revenge that had sparked in my gut when Knox had called me to say he’d found her was now a blistering inferno of malevolence and immorality. The need to shed blood from every fucker that had touched her was becoming an itch that wouldn’t be quelled. My fingers formed fists instinctively and my mouth watered with a craving that refused to bate. The river of violence that swelled within my veins threatened to tear open and spill hatred to everything that surrounded me.
I’d always had control of everything, even myself. But now I was lost, unsure how to deal with the multitude of emotions that were crippling my mind.
My ears started to hum when the burning inside me started to blaze at a rate I couldn’t supress, and, finally, I leapt out of the chair.
“Whoa!” Knox placed his hand on my chest when I yanked open the door to Esther’s hospital room and stepped out.
Knox knew me better than anyone. He could see the struggle in the depths of my eyes, the fight that I was having within myself to either cause carnage or to stay by Esther’s side. Yet, I couldn’t mollify the aggression that was dominating every thought anymore. I needed to set it free before it tore me open and took me down under its intensity.
“Get out of my way, Knox.”
“Nope.”
I glared at him and pushed, but the fucker had an advantage over me. I was exhausted, and he was refreshed and strong after a few hours’ sleep.
“Get – out – of – my – way!”
He shook his head slowly, steadfast in front of
me as he continued to block my way. “Esther needs you.”
I knocked him back when the anger inside me started to leak out. “She’s sleeping.”
Again, he pushed me back. “So, you’re gonna just get on your fucking horse and go riding in there, huh? Like a knight in shining armour? Always need to be the bloody hero!”
“Don’t fuck me off, Knox. Not now!” My teeth started to vibrate with the level of rage inside my chest, every bone in my body trembling with need.
“I’m not doing it to fuck you off,” he spat. “I’m doing it to keep you alive. Think, Bane! This is exactly what they’re waiting for.”
“They think she’s dead, you idiot!”
“Oh yeah,” he nodded quickly, once again trying to push me back into the room. “And they’ll be expecting you seeking your revenge. It’s exactly what they planned on. And trust me, they’ll be more fucking ready for you than you are them. They’ve wanted you for years, and this is how they’ll finally fucking get you!”
He was right, I knew he was, but it didn’t calm the storm swirling inside me.
“Plan, Bane. Play them at their own game. You’ll confuse them if you don’t go rushing in there, and they are relying on it to bring you down.”
I stood firm, staring at him, battling with what was right and what was right for me. Since Esther had disappeared when we were kids I had never had to be concerned about anyone else but myself, making sure I only had my own needs to consider. I’d always done what I wanted and taken care of only me. But now I had Esther, and the need to avenge her justly was more powerful than the need to rid the hunger inside me.
“He’s right, Bane,” Will spoke up as he stepped forward and held out a steaming polystyrene cup to me. I hadn’t noticed him stood watching, and that shocked some sense into me. I wasn’t physically, or mentally, stable enough to take on the Dean family if I hadn’t even noticed one of my own men stood just meters away from me.
Sighing, I nodded. “Yeah.”
Knox gave me a rare smile and nodded back. “I’ll talk to the team, see what we can come up with.”
Me and Will watched him walk away before we both stepped into Esther’s room. It was quiet. The sound of Esther’s rhythmic breathing was unsettling to my soul, and the subdued light casting shadows across the bare cream walls was rather smothering despite its softness.
“You’re good for her, you know.” Will’s low voice made me jump and I turned to him, surprised by his declaration.
“I know that’s not true.”
He shrugged and sipped a mouthful of hot coffee. “She went to pieces after she left you. She always told me you were the putty that held her strong walls together, that when you’d gone all that was left was weightless dust, and she just crumbled. And I saw that.”
I nodded, sadness starting to overwhelm the hatred inside me. “I get that. She was the light in my darkness, and I swear I never saw another bright day until I walked into Sparrow and she looked up at me with those huge, amazing eyes. The shock to my system was immense, like a jolt to my heart. I couldn’t function.” A forbidden laugh broke from me with the memory. “I didn’t know what the fuck to do. So, I bit into her. I was so damn fucking cruel to her that day. Yet one sight of her and everything I had built up in the last fourteen years just fell away. Every defence mechanism I’d put in place to protect myself ground to a halt. My mind went numb and my veins struggled to cope with the sudden rush of hot blood. And I was angry at her for that.”
Will nodded, a tilted smile on his face. “I know the feeling.”
Nodding, I swallowed the heavy lump that had developed in my throat and looked at him. “You think she’ll get over this?”
He sniffed up and held my gaze, both of us in that moment connecting over a woman we both loved. “She won’t have a choice. We’ll get her over this.”
“She can be a stubborn mare, you know.”
He scoffed. “Fuck, yeah. But so can I. And I know you won’t pussyfoot around her. She’s strong, she’s had to be, and she will be.”
A comfortable silence broke between the two of us as we both focussed on Esther, and our own guilt. If I hadn’t burst back into her life then I knew that she wouldn’t be laid where she was, her body shattered and her mind fractured. If I had refused to take the Sparrow job then Esther would be perfectly happy, her life running as smoothly as she had fought to make it. I brought her turmoil, chaos. But there wasn’t one hope in hell of me walking away. I couldn’t. Not now she had surrounded my heart with her amazing strength and beauty, and the way she soothed my turbulent soul by just being near me was too addictive to withdraw from. I was selfish. But at least I was honest.
Another few hours passed and eventually Will left, leaving me once again to the deafening quiet and the haunting shadows of the room and my mind.
I had once craved silence and respite from life, but now I never wanted to suffer the harrowing void ever again.
However, the agitating calm inside me soon turned to a white-hot fury when William Dean walked through the door.
Twenty-eight
Esther
I heard the commotion in my ears before the pain in my body registered. However, it wasn’t either of those that woke me, it was the suffocating atmosphere that seared the air around me. My body was warm, and strangely, even though every part of me hurt, I was comfortable, the soft mattress beneath me soothing to each injury I had sustained.
But the raging spark of violence that lit the oxygen in the air around me scorched every pore and poisoned every breath I took.
Opening my eyes, my heart froze as I took in the sight of Rik and my father facing off. I couldn’t talk, the fear gripping me immobilising every part of me that needed to move.
This wouldn’t end well, there was no doubt about it.
Yet, surprise shook me when my father simply said, “I had no idea what Christy had done. This was not on me.” His eyes swept to me and a sadness I’d never seen in them before pleaded with me. “You have to believe me, Esther. I’m a bastard, but shit, you’re my little girl!”
Rik, obviously shocked that I was awake, spun around and inhaled sharply. “Esther.”
My father forgotten, Rik strode across the room quickly and took my hand. “How are you feeling?”
I nodded, unwilling to open my mouth in case the devastation came pouring out in a torrent of misery. Memories flooded my mind and a choked sob crushed my resolve. Rik’s arms were around me in an instant, his hold tight and secure as he took my grief and cries.
“Shush. I know. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
I wasn’t sure if I was crying because I was hurt, had been violated, or because I couldn’t cope with the surge of rage flooding me. I wanted to hack off every finger of the guy who had done this to me. I wanted to gouge at him, rip open his balls, and feed him his own cock. Except, a part of me knew that it had to be Rik who did those things. It had to be him to seek revenge for what had happened to me. It was the only thing that would give his soul any sort of peace.
Me, well Christy was mine, and she would be sufficient. She would have to be.
My father stepped forwards and every inch of Rik’s body stiffened. “That’s far enough, William.”
I wasn’t sure if I could look at my dad, knowing what he had done. Yet, in a way, all I felt was bitterness and sorrow.
Rik moved back and I straightened myself to look at Daddy properly. My eyes roved over him, and for the first time I saw the ravage of age, the lines of what life had handed him, and the misery of every single death he was responsible for, including Geoffrey’s.
“I will never forgive you.” I was amazed at how level my voice was, even if it was quiet. “I was very much your daughter. Not in blood, no, but we both took what life gave us and we used it to connect with each other in ways no one could ever understand but us. I hated you, but I respected you, looked up to you even. You loved me. Yes, we were blind to the truth, but you still loved me as your own. Yet you set o
ut to ruin and murder the only man that gave me everything. Loyalty, love, compassion and unconditional devotion. You took away your daughter’s protector. No father with any decency would do that.”
His eyes dropped and he nodded. He was silent for a moment before he lifted his face and I had to swallow the gasp at the tears that ran down his face. “Yes, I used you, Esther. I used you so many times. I disfigured your gentle soul, and I selfishly massacred your love.” Closing his eyes, he inhaled deeply. “But I was jealous. Hurt.”
Shaking his head and sighing, he looked straight at me. “You were mine. You loved everyone, but never me…”
I held up a hand to stop him but he shook his head, refusing my words. “I tried so hard to… to nurture you, in a way. I made you strong, dependable, and yes, I made you cruel. But you had to be. You were William Dean’s daughter.” He squeezed his eyes closed, pushing back the well of tears that were trying so hard to flow faster. “But then… then I found out that you weren’t even mine. A piece of me died, Esther. You were all I ever had, you and your mother…”
“You had everything, Dad.”
He laughed with bitterness. “Did I? Did I really, Esther? I had men that would fight because I paid them to. I had servants who fetched and carried because I paid them to. I had respect, yes, but only because people feared me.” Placing his hand on his heart, he gazed at me with so much misery that I winced at the tightness in my chest. “I’m not a good man, I’ve never lied about that fact. But you were always good. Even when you were killing, for me, your heart and soul were still so pure. You, my little girl, was the only moral and decent thing I had ever created. And suddenly, even that was taken away from me.”
“Life’s cruel, Dad. You taught me that. But you also taught me that nothing is handed to us on a plate. You want something then you fight for it.”
He nodded, remembering the words he had spoken so many times. “Yes.”
Bane (Memphis #1) Page 16
