‘It has everything to do with them,’ Victor said. ‘They’re here because of you. Both of them actually, because we find out now that your friend Rushe isn’t a cop; you brought him in to save your woman. We brought his girl in here to keep him quiet, just like we did to you, Jansen. Your Serendipity did what she was told. Felicity on the other hand...’
As aggrieved as Victor sounded, Flick took the statement as a compliment, and rested her head on Rushe’s back, not in the slightest bit apologetic for her actions, or for mouthing off.
‘Are you regretting it now?’ Victor asked. ‘I offered you a deal, Felicity. If you’d agreed to my terms you’d be on this side of the standoff now. Instead you stand with the losers.’
On opening her mouth wide Flick took a breath, and was about to skirt Rushe when his arm came around and he enfolded her against his back, holding her in place. Presumably foreseeing her retort, Rushe apparently thought that she wouldn’t make things any better. She probably wouldn’t, but Victor was winning the war of words because no one else got a chance to play.
‘What are you gonna do?’ Jansen asked.
‘Maybe we sell your women,’ Victor said. ‘With both of you here there’s no one to stop the shipment from going out.’
‘This was your last deal, and you didn’t deliver,’ Jansen said. ‘Your benefactor is gonna be out looking for you now. They fronted you a lot of dough.’
‘Let me worry about that, you worry about your woman being tied to some bed in Asia, and raped by every business man with a credit card. You think she’d like that?’
‘You’re full of shit,’ Jansen said.
‘We might just let them have her for free.’
‘Why you fucking—’ Rushe grabbed the back of Jansen’s pack and prevented him from crossing to Victor.
‘Always cool, Rushe,’ Victor said. ‘I can understand now. I think we’d have to pay them to take Felicity off our hands. But she’s got a body, oh she has... maybe we just cut out her voice box, more room in there for the thousands of dicks she’ll have to swallow to pay her way in the whorehouse she’s shackled to.’
‘Yeah,’ Skeeve laughed. ‘Send her out to swallow for a living, see what shuts her up then.’
‘Why don’t you shut up,’ Victor snapped over his shoulder. ‘Snivelling piece of shit.’
‘That’s all you are,’ Rushe said to Victor. ‘You’re no better than Skeeve, scum who thinks he’s something, but you’ll never measure up. You’ll never be the best. You can’t even get being the worst right.’
‘What the fuck would you know?’ Victor barked.
‘I know a lot,’ Rushe said without intonation. ‘I know about the cash you got overseas. I know about the money that’s missing, the eighty grand... and I know about the two million fronted to you, money you promised you’d pay back.’
‘I did. I did pay it back,’ Victor said. ‘I sent you with the ransom and...’
‘That’s right,’ Rushe said. ‘You sent me.’
‘John,’ Victor said. ‘I sent John too, you both...’
‘He drove,’ Rushe said, pausing to let Victor comprehend the truth. ‘I know about your high school sweetheart who fucked you over for your best friend, they got six kids now, did you know that? All inferiority issues, it’s why you’re threatened by Skeeve.’
‘Threatened by shit like that?’
‘Skeeve, you ain’t never getting respect,’ Rushe said. ‘I don’t respect you, and Victor sure doesn’t, none of the men here do, and all of the women think you’re lower than shit. You want to know how to get a woman like Flick. How guys like us, bottom feeders with nothing to offer, get women like Felicity Hughes, who could have any man in the world she wants? When you’ve got respect like that you don’t need to rape women, Flick begs me to fuck her every minute of the goddamn day. Just now, downstairs, she’s gagging for it, I have to pry the bitch off my cock, and we could get shot in the head by any of you fuckers any second.’
‘Shut up!’ Victor said. ‘No more of this.’
‘You’ve got to take control,’ Rushe said, and Flick wondered why he was appealing to the weakest man in the room. ‘You follow around like a fucking sheep, and they’ll lead you to the slaughter.’
‘I’m sick of this shit,’ Shiv said, and started down the stairs, but Skeeve brought his gun up and Shiv stopped.
‘Don’t be a fucker,’ Victor grumbled. ‘He’s playing you. You want to shoot somebody, shoot Rushe.’
‘No man, no, I don’t need to work for you,’ Skeeve said, holding his gun in both hands, he began to back in the direction of the door, widening his target angle. ‘You’re no better, no better than me, this ain’t your house. I could get me one of these, bring in bitches, get my own crew.’
Flick wasn’t ready to move, but when Rushe started walking backward and guiding her to the room Serendipity was in, she didn’t hesitate. But if Rushe thought she was going in there without him, or leaving him behind, then Flick would have her own speech to give.
‘Yeah right, and where are you getting the money?’
‘Shiv’s been skimming off, where you think the eighty grand went?’ Skeeve cackled.
Victor spun in a rage to observe the wide-eyed Shiv, then he looked to Rushe who nodded once. When Victor raised his gun, Shiv began to babble. But with three decisive strides, Victor brought up the barrel of his gun.
Shiv fumbled his own weapon, and it fell from his fingers, but it wouldn’t have mattered. Victor pulled his trigger and the look of shock froze on Shiv’s face. The dark circle of blood on his head oozed, and Shiv’s body fell back onto the stairs, then clattered to the bottom landing with a thud.
‘Anyone else got authority problems?’ Victor asked, and Glen said nothing, while the Kid stood as still as a statue.
‘This is very tiresome,’ Simone said, examining her fingernails.
‘You know you’re the only guy in the building she hasn’t fucked,’ Rushe said to Skeeve.
‘You shut it,’ Victor said, aiming his gun at Rushe.
Flick saw the red in Victor’s focus, and though she tried to move, Rushe held her in place. ‘You kill me, and you’ll never know where the money is.’
‘Then I’ll shoot your puta. Felicity, come on round, don’t be shy.’
‘She’s not going anywhere,’ Rushe said, using his strength against her.
‘Why’s she special?’ Victor asked. ‘One bitch is as good as the next, what’s different about her?’
‘She can suck a golf ball through a garden hose.’
‘With a mouth like that I’ll bet she can,’ Victor said, with a flicker of a smile, like he knew better.
‘You won’t find out,’ Skeeve stuttered. ‘You won’t find out, she don’t want you, you’re no better than me.’
‘Be quiet!’ Victor called.
‘No,’ Skeeve said, taking his shaking gun closer to Victor. ‘No, you’re gonna give me respect. You respect that dumb bitch, and you don’t respect me!’
‘That dumb bitch stands up for herself,’ Victor said over his shoulder.
The bang almost burst her eardrums, and Glen jumped from his skin when the wall at his side exploded. Flick peeked around Rushe again to look for clues as to what had happened, and that’s when she saw Victor’s body on the floor, as motionless as Shiv.
‘You killed him!’ Glen exclaimed. ‘You killed our money!’
‘Rushe is money, he knows where the money is,’ Skeeve said, practically giddy, his gun fell from his hand to the floor. ‘Rushe, can tell us.’
‘He can, but he won’t,’ Glen said, because he’d seen what Skeeve hadn’t – Rushe with his gun aimed at the murderous weasel.
‘I told you no second chances,’ Rushe said.
Flick held her breath; every occupant of the room seemed to hold their breath, waiting for what he would do next.
‘Wait,’ Skeeve said.
‘Kick the gun away,’ Rushe said.
‘Boss, now—‘
‘Do it!’
Now he and Jansen were the only two armed people in the room. Flick stepped back from Rushe, but stayed behind him. Glen and the Kid were still on the stairs, Simone stood at the bottom, and Skeeve remained in place, only a couple of feet from Victor’s corpse. Skeeve did as he was told and the weapon skittered across the floor to Rushe’s feet.
‘What do you want to do with him?’ Simone asked. It seemed she was positively aroused by this turn of events.
‘We’re gonna have a little fun,’ Rushe said.
His focus remained on Skeeve throughout, whose pallor was now transparent. ‘But... bu—bu... you’re the boss.’
‘That’s right,’ Rushe said.
‘Are you going to shoot him?’ Simone gushed.
‘A gunshot’s the least of his worries now,’ Rushe said.
Still the room remained in suspended animation. Flick wasn’t entirely sure what to do. Rushe had all of the power here. Skeeve was terrified, and she couldn’t imagine that Glen or the Kid felt better. But he didn’t move; he stood, infinitely patient, as Jansen had said. Letting all of their imaginations make what they would of the situation, not giving a thing away.
Being in Rushe’s presence could be intimidating enough at the best of times. But here he stood letting everyone get used to the fact that there was a new sheriff in town.
Flick considered her future as a brawd in this intense environment. Skeeve didn’t blink, but a dark stain appeared on his jeans, and filtered down one leg, he’d wet himself.
Simone snorted in disgust, and Jansen laughed, but still Rushe didn’t move. Flick wondered at his facial expression, but she wouldn’t interrupt him at work.
‘Get the women out of here,’ Rushe said. That bassy tone came from his chest, from deep, low inside him, that cloudy place she’d witnessed herself.
Flick heard what he said, but only when Jansen stepped backward did she realise that Rushe meant her.
‘I’m not leaving,’ Flick declared, maybe the only entirely unintimidated party left in the building. Rushe might have remained static, but she heard the hiss of breath he drew through his teeth. ‘I’m not leaving without you.’
‘Isn’t she precious,’ Simone mocked, and tittered at Flick’s seeming naivety.
Flick knew exactly what could happen under this roof. But Rushe was in charge now, and with him at the helm Flick had nothing to fear.
‘I have work to do,’ Rushe growled.
‘I’m not leaving either.’
All except Rushe turned to the unexpected voice that came from the back. Serendipity was on her feet, she was in the lobby with them. When Flick had first seen the woman she’d looked frail in her catatonic state. Now she stood tall, though perhaps not vibrant, there was a determination in the set of her jaw, and the width of her shoulders that Flick respected, and could identify with.
‘Serendipity, baby,’ Jansen said, lowering his weapon to approach her.
‘No,’ Serendipity said. ‘They’ve been in control of me for months; let’s see how they like it.’
‘You heard the woman,’ Rushe said, and ticked the gun toward the stairs. ‘Everyone up.’
‘Up,’ Flick said.
Glen and the Kid complied, and with an eye roll Simone did too. Skeeve was visibly reluctant to turn his back on Rushe, which said a lot about the little weasel because Rushe wouldn’t shoot a man in the back.
Serendipity strode on, and Jansen stuck to her side. She hadn’t taken long to assess the situation, but now that she had the woman seemed to have ideas. Jansen kept his gun on those in front but whispered to Serendipity on the ascent.
‘What are you going to do with them?’ Flick asked.
‘You stay down here,’ Rushe said, watching the group on its journey, but remaining at her side. He didn’t even look at her when he stroked her hair. Then he went for the stairs with his gun trained ahead.
‘Like hell I will,’ Flick said, hurrying to join him.
Rushe stopped on the stairs, and the others went out of view, which clearly perturbed him. ‘You don’t want to see this.’
‘What are you going to do?’
‘No one touches you,’ he said, letting his gaze touch hers. ‘I love you, Kitten, god damn you woman, I love you.’
‘I know.’ Flick took his empty hand.
‘I’ll hurt anyone who hurts you,’ Rushe said. ‘There will be consequences for anyone who tries to wrong you.’
‘Rushe,’ Flick said, moving in closer to him. ‘You can’t ask me to walk away from you. I won’t do it.’
With another grumble, he bent his arm around her neck, over her shoulders, and kept her at his side when they started up the stairs. They followed the corridor, passing the room Flick had been kept captive in, and went straight through the double doors at the end, into Victor’s office.
Jansen was herding the four hostages into the side room that Flick had been introduced to by John. Serendipity sat on the couch staring into the fire that was dying out. Rushe made a move to follow Jansen when he disappeared through the black velvet curtain, but Flick caught Rushe’s arm.
‘Please don’t get hurt,’ Flick murmured, knowing that Rushe wouldn’t be happy at the implication that he might be fallible.
As she would’ve expected he muttered to himself. Though the strength of his angry brow remained in place, and the space behind his eyes appeared void, Rushe ducked to press his mouth onto hers. Briefly enough to reassure her, without taking him from the task at hand. Flick stayed rooted to the spot, and watched him vanish through the drape.
Realising that at this point there was nothing for Flick to do, she crossed to sit on the couch with Serendipity. The woman didn’t say anything, but Flick got a good look at her gaunt appearance. Colour smudged her dirty skin, bruises in various stages of their cycle: some new, some not. Closing herself in her own embrace Serendipity kept staring, but this wasn’t the vacant stare Flick had first seen in Serendipity’s eyes, this was a woman with vengeance in mind.
‘I know where there are clothes,’ Flick said, hoping that there would still be things in the drawers of her previous enclosure. ‘There’s a shower too if—‘
‘I want to make them pay.’
‘I know,’ Flick said. ‘I can understand it. You must have been through quite an ordeal.’
‘They had no right...’
Serendipity remained intent on the hearth. Flick touched her wrist, and let her hand slide into Serendipity’s. Very slowly the woman turned, and looked her in the eye. ‘Our men won’t let them go anywhere. Let’s get you cleaned up.’
Chapter Fourteen
Serendipity allowed Flick to take her from the study, down the corridor, and into the room Flick had been held captive in. Her own paranoia came into play here, and she left the door wide open.
Trying to find a subtle way to ask if Serendipity had been sexually violated was impossible, so Flick asked it out right. Washing away evidence of any such crime would hurt in the long run. But Serendipity told Flick that Victor hadn’t wanted her to be touched like that. Much in the same way Victor hadn’t wanted Flick touched either. But the arbitrary line only incensed Flick. Glad as she was that she and Serendipity had been spared that horrific ordeal, she wondered why Brianna, and at least one of the others, had to endure it.
They stood together beside the drawers looking through the clothes. These garments weren’t all the same ones that had been here when Flick was. That worked out for the best though, because Serendipity was much taller, at least five nine, so now their search had much more of a chance to turn up something suitable.
‘I don’t know how she does it,’ Serendipity said, seating herself on the bed and letting the clothes fall from her fingers.
‘Who?’ Flick asked, desisting in her own search.
‘Simone, she works for the guy bankrolling the trafficking. I think she’s biologically related somehow, I don’t know. But she was here to keep an eye on Victor, make sure that things went
smoothly.’
‘Things went anything but smoothly,’ Flick said taking a seat next to Serendipity.
‘It didn’t matter, she was drunk on the power. Victor said more than once that it was Simone’s job to look after the women, make sure they were suitable to be sold on. She starved us so we’d lose weight.’
‘So you’d be weaker? Or more marketable?’
Serendipity shrugged. ‘Initially, I was terrified, waking up in that cellar...’
‘I know,’ Flick said. ‘I was too.’
‘They kept me with the others until... they came and took them all away, treated them like cattle.’
‘But you were left behind?’
Serendipity nodded. ‘They separated me then. Took me into that room, chained me to the wall... at first Simone was the only one to visit. She taunted me with stories about what the men were up to, about what happened to the other women... about what they planned to do with me.’
‘You must have been very scared.’
‘By then... talking did nothing, I’d tried to escape, but... when I did, Simone was vicious, she enjoys watching others in pain.’
‘Like Victor, and Shiv, and the others.’
‘She was supposed to look after us. Keep us alive. Keep us in shape, healthy... her job was to tell the money what to expect, what they were getting, so that they could arrange buyers further down the line... It’s horrible, isn’t it? How could anyone sell a person? A human being?’
‘I struggled with that myself,’ Flick said. ‘But you’re free now, Rushe and Jansen made sure that none of those women got to where they were going. They’re all safe... Simone will have a lot of explaining to do. I don’t imagine her boss will be happy.’
‘No.’
Serendipity had withdrawn again, and stared blindly into the distance. Flick took the clothes from her lap, stuffed them into the still open drawer, and took Serendipity’s hands to pull her up from the bed.
‘Get in the shower, I’ll find clothes and put them in for you. Wash away the memories... it will get easier. But you’ve got to give it time.’
Serendipity went into the en-suite and got washed. Flick found clothes, and though they wouldn’t magically erase the horror Serendipity had been through, Flick hoped that getting out of the rag she’d been imprisoned in would be in some way freeing, symbolic of Serendipity’s own liberation.
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