Lincoln suddenly made a break and ran towards the sedan. It caught Matt slightly off guard, but he quickly realized that the other man was going after the knife. He caught up as his adversary was rounding the rear of the vehicle and lashed out with his foot.
The kick caught Lincoln’s ankles to make them tangle and he collapsed to the ground. He managed to roll onto his back as Matt dropped on him and he was able to defend himself against the flurry of punches aimed at his face. One finally got through though and he was dazed by the blow. His hands dropped and suddenly he was being pummeled. The blackness started to close over him and his arms fell to the ground.
Matt was gasping for breath when he stopped punching and he stared down at the half-unconscious man he’d almost beaten to a pulp. He was suddenly gripped by the pain of his slashed arm and pressed his hand over the wound. His palm came away soaked in blood to make him grimace and he heard the laugh.
“How’s the arm?” Lincoln managed to get out in a weak voice.
Matt said nothing as he reached down to grab his hair. It enabled him to lift Lincoln’s head and he smashed it against the bumper of the sedan to bring the fight to an end. The pain in his arm struck him again, but he needed to ignore it. There was still more to do and no time to lose.
“You might want this.”
Matt spun around at the sound of the voice to see Delores holding out her hand.
“Get the hell out of here,” he told her.
“How?” she said. “There’s only one car now and it’s got a driver cuffed to the steering wheel and a dead body in the boot.”
“Where did you get that?” he asked when he reached out for the length of rope she was carrying.
“I noticed it when I got out of the car,” she replied.
Matt flipped Lincoln onto his belly then dragged his arms behind his back. He used the rope to secure his wrists tightly together then sat him up against the sedan to tie him to the bumper. When he was finished, he got to his feet.
“Can you complete the miracle?” Delores said.
“What?” Matt replied and looked at her.
“Brigitte asked me if I thought you could do something to help us,” she went on. “I said you were good but not a miracle worker. Looks like I was wrong.”
“Three down…, one to go,” Matt said determinedly.
“The one left has a loaded firearm,” Delores warned him. “He threatened us with it in the car.”
The thought of Lincoln’s gun came in Matt’s mind, but he suspected the chances of finding it were slim to none. He wasn’t even sure where it fell and decided not to waste any time looking for it. The best he could do for a weapon was a knife and he walked around the car to retrieve it. His blood was still on the blade, but he ignored it and grasped Delores’s arm when she followed him.
“You need to get out of here and find somewhere to hide,” he told her. “There’s no guarantee that it will be me that comes out of that building. If Eddie survives what’s about to take place, he’ll kill you without a second thought. Start running and save your life while you can.”
“Be careful,” she said and threw her arms around him.
The pain in his upper arm made Matt wince and he eased Delores away from him.
“Get going,” he said in a loud voice and turned away from her.
He wasn’t sure if he’d ever see her again, but put the thought out of his mind immediately. There were more important things to worry about and he made his way across to where the car crashed into the derelict processing building. He halted at the entrance to survey the interior, but it looked clear and he stepped forward.
It felt like the gloomy darkness was swallowing him as he moved inside the building to start the search.
Chapter 24
The silence of the building unnerved Matt slightly when he stopped by the side of the crashed sedan. He strained his ears to try and catch any noise, but there was nothing that gave a clue to the whereabouts of the two people who entered the building before him. That was disappointing, but not entirely unexpected. His eyes slowly adjusted to the half-light he was standing in and he was surprised by just how large the place was. Holes in the high ceiling let shafts of sunlight shine through in places to provide some brightness, but there were no windows in the walls to really illuminate the surroundings. He could see that dark shadows provided numerous places to hide and it was a bad sign.
He turned his attention to the vehicle and saw the damage to the front bumper and paintwork. It appeared superficial and the car would probably be drivable when the ruined tire was changed. The doors were open and he leaned inside to unlatch the glove box. His hope that there might be a gun inside was dashed when he did a quick search and he knew he would be moving forward with only a knife for protection. It didn’t bode well and he could only hope that he got the jump on Eddie and managed to disarm him before a shot was fired.
He quickly searched the rest of the vehicle, but found nothing of any use and got out. Getting the knife from his pocket, he quietly flicked out the blade then started walking. The center of the long building was dominated by a conveyor belt, which had obviously been used to transport the excavated rock through the process of turning it from raw material to finished product.
Matt remained close to this as he slowly moved forward step by step and surveyed the scene in front of him. He kept as quiet as he could and occasionally looked down to make sure there were no obstacles in his way. The rundown condition of the machinery he passed meant that bits had fallen off and the last thing he wanted was to trip over something in a way that revealed his presence.
His pulse raced as the adrenaline flooded his veins and he peered ahead into the gloom. He knew the fight with Lincoln took too long to end and that gave Eddie the chance to move deep into the building and find a hiding place. Flushing the gang boss out now wasn’t going to be an easy task and Matt suspected that he would be spotted first. The ever present danger of a shot ringing out to take him down stayed at the forefront of his mind, but he knew that he was Brigitte’s only hope and kept moving.
A sound caught his attention and brought him to a stop. He narrowed his eyes as he gazed to the side and tried to work out what it was. The noise appeared to be coming from a large storage hopper near the wall of the building and Matt crouched down as he stalked forward silently. When he got to it, he pressed his back to the large piece of badly-corroded equipment and held his breath as he listened. The rustling grew louder and his nerves were on edge as he prepared himself.
He raised his hand as he threw himself around the hopper and the sound became a wild fluttering of wings as the alarmed pigeons took to flight. It was enough to startle Matt and he covered his face as the birds flew past him. His breath rushed out as the spike of adrenaline caught hold and he needed a few seconds to compose himself.
“Shit,” he blurted out in a hiss as he tried to get control of his rapid breathing.
It was a fuck up on his part, but all he could do was keep moving forward. He knew Eddie would be listening for any sounds that signaled the approach of someone and he just caused one. He silently cursed himself for the error as he continued on, but tried to put it out of his mind and his footsteps were quicker now. The desperation to get to Brigitte welled up and he knew he couldn’t afford another mistake. The next sound he heard might not be pigeons.
He got to the end of the long conveyor belt and squinted into the semi-darkness to see that the equipment further on was more rusting storage hoppers. Eddie and Brigitte could be hidden from view behind any one of them and the building also seemed to carry on further beyond the storage area.
“Where are you?” he muttered quietly then held his breath to listen.
There were no sounds to give him a clue and the only thing he could do was move between the pieces of large equipment and make sure they were clear. It was a daunting task that could easily end with a gunshot and he was on edge as he searched. Things became more frustrating when there was no si
gn of the two people he was trying to find and he started to wonder if they’d managed to exit the building. He hadn’t noticed any obvious ways out, but that didn’t mean there weren’t any.
A glance upwards revealed an overhead walkway, but no one was on it and there seemed to be no way up to it. He brought his gaze down and looked ahead. The building was darker still in the zone past the storage bay, but he needed to forge ahead and make sure it was clear. His footsteps were soft to keep down the noise of his approach and it came as a surprise when he saw desks appearing out of the murky, dust-filled atmosphere. Some sat alone, while others were heaped up in stacks and he guessed they were simply stored there rather than the area having been an office space.
The creak alerted him to the sudden danger as he approached one of largest piles and it was only when the desks toppled towards him that he heard the laughing shout of timber. He hurled himself to the side to avoid being crushed under the deluge of falling equipment, but falling to the floor put him at a disadvantage that he couldn’t recover from.
“You fucking asshole,” Eddie cursed as he came in sight, with his arm held straight out in front of him.
Matt scrambled to his feet, but found himself facing a loaded weapon armed only with a knife. Trying to attack would only get him shot, so he tucked his hand behind his thigh in an attempt to hide the blade. Eddie wasn’t fooled though.
“Show me,” the gang boss barked when he stepped forward. “And do it slowly.”
It took away the chance to throw the knife and Matt was left with no option other than to reveal what he was holding.
“Toss it aside,” Eddie ordered. “Make sure it goes far.”
Matt did as he was commanded and heard the sound of the knife landing on the ground amongst the stacked piles of desks.
“Where is she?” he said.
“Concerned about your little girlfriend are you,” Eddie mocked in a harsh voice. “If I were you, I’d be more worried about myself.”
“Where is she?” Matt repeated.
“First things first,” Eddie went on. He reached in his pocket to bring out handcuffs and tossed them across. “Put them on.”
Matt looked down and saw the cuffs were already opened. He snapped one end around his left wrist and the other around his right. He then raised his arms and moved his hands to show they were properly secured.
“Happy,” he spat out.
“I’ll be happy when you’re lying at the bottom of the lake out there,” Eddie replied in an angry voice. “Get down on your knees.”
The situation was rapidly moving out of Matt’s control and he wasn’t sure he’d survive it. He asked where Brigitte was for a third time as he got down to his knees, but didn’t get an answer. The silence of the watching man was scarier than his fury but for a few seconds, all Eddie did was stare.
“The trouble you’ve caused me,” the gang boss finally let out. “I wish I’d never fucking seen your face again.”
“That makes two of us,” Matt replied.
He waited for the gangster to move closer, but Eddie backed away towards another pile of desks. Matt saw Brigitte being brought out from behind it and the fear on her tear-streaked face was obvious.
“Are you OK?” he asked.
“She’s fine…, for the moment,” Eddie said. “How are my men?”
“They’ll come around with headaches,” Matt replied. “But they’re alive. We could all walk away from this, with the only casualty being Brett Collins and he deserved what he got.”
Eddie’s head rocked back as the guffaw of laughter came out.
“That’s some offer,” he said. “But on your knees and in handcuffs is no position to be making it.”
“Delores is gone,” Matt said then as he tried a lie. “I told her to get to the police and report what happened. If you kill us, they’ll be swarming all over you before the day is out. On the other hand, you let us go and I’ll make the call to stop her. She’s on foot, so it will take her a while to get to the authorities. You don’t have a lot of time though.”
“Bullshit,” Eddie snapped. “This isn’t the only dumping ground we use. She can report what she wants to the police. Your bodies will never be found and Delores won’t survive long enough to tell her story more than once.”
Brigitte let out a frightened whimper and Eddie’s arm came around her neck.
“Shut the fuck up, bitch,” he hissed.
She closed her eyes as the gun pressed on her temple. Matt couldn’t do anything to help her, but his anger came on strongly.
“This is between you and me, Millar,” he yelled. “Leave her out of it.”
“Oh, I think she’s right in the middle of it,” Eddie replied as he squeezed the grip of his arm to choke her.
Matt started to get to his feet, but the brief torture of Brigitte ended and the gun was removed from her temple.
“Stay down,” Eddie roared.
Matt saw the gun aimed at him and froze in place before dropping back to his knees. There was a contorted expression of rage on Eddie’s face now and he shoved Brigitte aggressively to the floor. She let out a pained squeal as her knees cracked on the hard surface and kept her head bowed in a show of submission to avoid the wrath of the man standing over her. He reached down to grab her chin and his fingers dug into her cheeks painfully to make her look up at him.
“I will blow your head off if you move as much as one muscle,” he hissed. “Do you understand me?”
“Yes,” Brigitte answered immediately.
“You sit there like a good girl and enjoy the show.”
He decided to play it safe and looked around the dirty floor for something to tie her up with. When he saw the short lengths of twine, he went to retrieve them. Two minutes later, Brigitte’s hands were secured behind her back and her ankles were bound. Eddie then turned his attention to Matt.
“So many problems, Harris,” he said and his face twisted into an ugly grimace. “I gave you one job to do and look where it got us.”
He held out his hands and looked around their desolate surroundings. It made him shake his head as he stepped closer to his captive. His body was trembling as his anger mounted and he stared for a few seconds before going on.
“You should have rotted in jail.”
“This is your doing,” Matt said. “You came looking for me.”
“Yes, I did, “Eddie replied. “And more foolish of me for not realizing you’d become a useless waste of space that I shouldn’t have bothered with.”
The last few words were spat out with real venom and the veins on his neck throbbed as they stood out from the skin. It was a bad sign for Matt and he knew the anger would turn to violence that would be directed at him. He suspected that the gang boss wanted to string things out into torture and that might give him a chance, but it was a slim one.
“I tried to get the job done,” he said. “Things didn’t work out.”
Eddie shook his head as he started to pace back and forth. He brought up the gun to bang it repeatedly against his forehead and it was a scary sight. Matt tried to gauge if he could make an assault, but the gang boss was too far away and he calculated that a shot would be fired before he got to his feet. It meant he needed to wait for a better opportunity.
“Put your forehead on the floor.” Eddie shouted.
“What?” Matt said to try and stall.
The gun was raised to point at him.
“I said put your fucking forehead on the floor,” Eddie screeched in a belligerent voice. He stepped forward and tightened his finger on the trigger.
Matt knew he needed to comply and leaned forward to do as he was told. He tried to keep his eyes on the gangster, but that proved impossible when Eddie moved behind him. A brutal kick connected with his guts to throw him violently to the side and all he could do was curl up in a ball to defend himself against the onslaught.
The pain of the attack was agonizing and he could hear Brigitte screaming his name until she was told to sh
ut up. He’d promised her they’d get out of the situation, but that was looking less likely by the second as the assault resumed. Eddie screeched cursed insults as he lashed out with his foot and the pitch of his voice increased towards the madness that would tip him into losing all control.
Matt knew he was dead when that happened, but he was lying on the ground and in no position to fight back. The assault ended abruptly as Eddie managed to pull himself back from the brink.
“You having fun, Harris,” he shouted when he leaned down. “Maybe you’d like a show of your own,”
“No,” Matt yelled as Eddie moved towards Brigitte.
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