The NSC Boxset: Heart of Stone

by D H Sidebottom

  Her body trembled and I fought the urge to hurt her. I had never ever laid a hand on a female but today was a day I was fighting many demons and I hoped I could restrain my temper for long enough. I pursed my lips and narrowed my eyes on her, my infuriation at her silence feeding my fury. “Etta. Imagine how George will feel if you have a helping hand in ending his mother? He will hate you forever.”

  She scoffed then spat straight at me. Layla growled and wrenched Etta across the bed until she was dumped ceremoniously on the floor at the base of it but she held firm and looked over at me, “You fucking grass!”

  I sighed and closed my eyes for a calming second. “And do you know what I served him up for?”

  She stared at me as though I was some stupid delinquent she had dragged off the street, “Of course I know, my dad was proud of my involvement in the firm.”

  I stared at her in confusion. For all the years I had known Etta, she had seemed like a delicate little thing, her softness and graciousness being one of the things George had fallen in love with. I inhaled roughly as I struggled to dampen my wrath before I once again considered her, “And you stand by what he has done?”

  She gazed at me in bewilderment, “You’ve done much worse.”

  Layla frowned at me and I realised this small waif thin girl before me had no idea what her father was actually capable of. Now I had the torturous decision whether to hurt her with revelations about her parents or struggle to find another way to find Ava.

  “I need to know where she is, Etta.” I closed my eyes and swallowed my pride, “Please.”

  She smirked at me, causing my jaw to clench and my teeth to grind together. “Finish me, Mr Fox, if you think that will help but I’m afraid I don’t know. My parents handled much of their business off the estate and I have no idea where that was, and to be frank, even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you. Both you and Ava deserve everything dished up to you for what you have done. Both me and my child will now grow up without a stable family, without my father who was so much looking forward to his first grandchild and to watching me flourish and take reign of his business.”

  I barked out a bitter laugh, triggering a nasty snarl to curve her lips. “You want to take over the family business yet you have no idea what that actually is.”

  “Oh I know.” Her lips curved into a cruel smirk, hardening my body and making it really difficult to suppress the deep rise of my wrath.

  I nodded slowly as I rose to stand in front of her, “How many were there this time compared to the previous shipment?” I studied her puzzlement and knew for certain she didn’t have a clue but I wouldn’t be the one to break her. Yes, I was a bastard but my wife was adamant I was a glorious one and I would never turn that into an evil one, no matter how much I needed Ava. I knew she would rather die than let me ruin this girls’ hopes and aspirations.

  Layla gave me an incredulous look as I gave a simple nod and walked away.

  Chapter 9

  Ava

  I GRUNTED AND hissed as the shackles holding my wrists were unlocked and I dropped heavily to the floor, my legs now unable to take my weight. Instinctively I curled my fingers around each wrist and started to rub against the furious pain flowing through my bloodstream eagerly, my body’s natural need to feed the dried and persecuted veins in my arms.

  “Get up!” The human brick shithouse snapped at me as he nudged me with his foot.

  “Gimme a minute, yeah?” I growled as I kneaded furiously at my calves, trying to feed them some blood. I had never been so exhausted or thirsty in my entire life. My body had begun to shut down, the loss of blood and lack of hydration overworking my body and causing my heart to work harder. My lungs protested with each inhalation as I stretched them wide and pressed them against the couple of broken ribs.

  Shithouse grabbed at my wrist and started to drag me across the floor. I didn’t have the energy to stand so I relaxed my body and made his work harder. He knew what I was doing as he turned and glared at me but then his lips twisted into a mocking grin, “Don’t worry, pretty lady, I’ll make sure to fuck some energy into you later.”

  I grit my teeth as my heart popped with panic.

  Never show fear, Ava. Even when you are facing death, never divulge your weaknesses to your opponent.

  “I’ll look forward to it” I retorted but I knew he could feel my fear eclipsing around me. After Dane, although I was proud of myself for how I had dealt with being chained up, I knew my mind would never withstand another violation on my body. Dreams of torturous rapes and whippings still haunted me and although I only just managed to survive the surreal visions, I would never endure the real thing.

  My arse bumped harshly along the corridor, small gravel and pebbles alerting me to an outside space somewhere. From the tell-tale sign of various scraps of mud and grit, I knew this corridor lead to an entrance, therefore leading me to an exit. My eyes scanned quickly and stealthily until I spotted a huge metal door, a few bolts and a lock guarding its freedom. I spotted a window high up the edge of the wall and squinted at the daylight streaming through it. I could make out the edge of a grass verge, the sight of it telling me we were below ground, maybe an old bunker of some sorts and my heart rate quickened when I realised there was only one area that still housed a bunker, the old wreck site behind the Mondego embankment.

  Shithouse dragged me through a doorway into an open space. I cringed when I saw the single chair in the centre of the long room. Before I could try to pick up the courage to escape from my sentry I was flung into it and rope was hoisted around my middle. I struggled as much as possible, my arms flaying as I tried to claw at him, my legs kicking at him furiously but I knew in my wrecked state I had no chance against him.

  He growled at me, spit flying from his mouth as he bound me and planted his knee into my stomach. “I’m warning you bitch, keep still or I’m knocking you out!”

  I conceded as my body begged me to give it some reprieve but I continued to glare at him, hoping superpowers would suddenly be bestowed to me and lasers would split the fucker in two, “Mason will fucking kill you for this!”

  He barked out a bitter laugh and smirked at me, “Really. I think your husband is a little busy with some coke and a couple of whores at the moment.”

  I swallowed the bile and refused to let him see the ache in my heart. I knew he was just hurting me with words but . . . but it was Mason, and every other time he had coped in the exact way Shithouse had depicted. I shook my head in anger as I drove down the fear and focussed on Mason’s loving voice and his love for me. He wouldn’t go there again, he knew it would finish me, but what if he thought it was already too late, that I was finished, that I was dead somewhere? I knew Shithouse was right, Mason would demand the high and oblivion given only by his old habits.

  “That shut you up!” he laughed as he finished his tethering and his eyes flashed with heat and lust. “Look mighty fine, pretty lady, trussed up in eagerness for me.”

  I just smiled sarcastically at him as a door at the other end of the room opened and Vickie walked through, her hard face watching me as she strolled over to me with her hands behind her back, her elegant grace, the one thing I had always admired about her now mocked me. There was nothing elegant about this bitch.

  She reached me and smirked, “Thirsty?”

  I nodded, not caring that I was surrendering to her. I would kill my dog for some water. She nodded and revealed a can of Energy Shot. My eyes widened on her and I shook my head, “Vickie, please.”

  She smirked again and grasped my hair, tipping my head harshly backwards until I could feel it groan under the pressure. My heart was already struggling with keeping my body and brain nourished. There was hardly any blood left in my system and I knew I was waning quickly, but the sudden stimulant would make my heart go crazy under the strain.

  My jaw clamped closed, sealing my mouth off to her but she nodded to Shithouse, demanding that he open it for her. I tried to bite at him but the way he held me gave me n
o room to fight with my teeth. I desperately compressed my throat but as soon as the liquid started to hit my mouth, fingers closed around my nose and halted my oxygen supply. My instinct caused me to choke on the first gush down my throat but there was nothing I could do but swallow the fluid running freely into me. I begrudgingly rejoiced in the nourishment and found myself gulping greedily at it as nature took over and devoured the sustenance.

  I slugged back furious lungful’s of air as I tried to make my heart remain calm and steady. My eyes started to glaze as my ribs screamed in protest to the heavy breaths. My teeth sliced through my lower lip as Shithouse smacked me hard in the side of the head, “Stay with us, bitch, I haven’t finished with you yet!”

  Vickie dropped to her haunches before me and palmed the side of my face tenderly, a mocking contradiction to the hatred in her eyes, “Well, Mase can’t be that besotted with you, he has been nowhere near.” She laughed loudly causing my teeth to vibrate, “So Ava, we all know how much of whore you are and you’re probably craving your daily fuck by now. Hugh, here, is more than willing to feed your addiction.”

  The caffeine suddenly hit with force and I looked up at Hugh—Hugh . . . Hugh. I laughed loudly, “Hugh? Hugh? Fucking Hugh?” My mind had gone into temporary—well I hoped it was temporary—insanity as I giggled furiously. Hugh? Never in a million years would I have labelled him Hugh, it was just . . . wrong, so wrong for him.

  I knew my heart was pumping what little blood I had left too energetically around my system, leaving me lightheaded and slightly delirious but I couldn’t hold back the laughter, even when he pulled out his knife and leaned across me. “That’s it, you keep laughing pretty lady, you’re gonna enjoy this so much.”

  My hands dropped limply as he cut through the rope holding them and then carved through the twine holding my legs together. His fist once more grabbed a handful of my hair as he yanked me from the seat and dragged me over to the edge of the room, throwing me down harshly so my back thudded on the cold concrete floor and the back of my head bounced off it. He kicked at my ankles, his boot knocking my bone painfully but I still couldn’t stop giggling. Everything was now surreal and I was suddenly grateful to Vickie’s caffeine hit, the fevered rambling it brought on may actually save my mind from what was about to happen.

  All that filled my head as Hugh tore through the front of my pretty party dress was Mason’s smile, his soft twinkling eyes and his beautiful face. Although he wasn’t here, my glorious bastard once again encouraged and supported me throughout what was to become my final coherent moment, because I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, my spirit wouldn’t tolerate this, I would irrevocably never be the same again but I swallowed it back and strived to stay strong for my man.

  Chapter 10

  Mason

  HIS NOSE EXPLODED when my knuckles connected with the bridge of it, his low groan bringing on a rush of adrenaline through my system. I had needed this, hankered for permission to let my wrath break free. The torturous pain of keeping it in lockdown was nearly as uncontrollable as my need to find Ava.

  “Try again, Estevo” I growled as I picked up the bat from beside me and ran my fingers delicately over the smoothness of the fashioned wood. “I’m growing impatient.”

  He smirked at me and shook his head, “You really think I’m gonna tell you?”

  I regarded the bat with a slight tilt to my head and decided it wasn’t sufficient enough for the extraction of information. I needed something more potent, something with the promise of carnage.

  I nodded and smiled, “Yeah, I agree, the bat isn’t quite gonna make the grade, you deserve something more . . .” I pursed my lips and contemplated the arrangement before me. “Something more complex” I whispered more to myself than Frank’s minion as I picked up the small knife and ran it between my fingers.

  Estevo smirked at me; obviously he had a different idea to how I would use it. I strolled around him a couple of times, studying him and perceptively working out how much self-worth he had. He was a typical Portuguese guy, his dark hair and tanned skin healthy and radiant from the nutrients in the local fish and herb cuisine.

  I leant over him from behind, my malice savouring the way he clenched his hands in expectation. “You are a pretty little thing aren’t you? I imagine with a face like that you get your choice of women.”

  He remained silent and stiff beneath me as I brought the knife up to his face. “Go ahead, cut me Fox, I’m sure a few scars will add to the rugged appeal women find sexy.”

  I rolled my tongue around my cheek as I placed the flat of the blade against his cheekbone. He squirmed as I pulled it upwards like a razor, peeling his skin away from his face with just the right pressure on the knife. “But I’m not going to leave scars, Estevo, there’s going to be no skin left to scar.”

  I shivered as his blood pooled heavily down his face, the flesh beneath his cheek now angry and exposed as I unwrapped his face. He squealed deep in his throat as I nudged the knife across to his other cheek, “Anything coming back yet?”

  He pressed his lips together and shut his eyes against my unsettling smile but the significant shiver in his chest notified me of his distress and agony. “I’m amazed how different you look already, this is quite exquisite. I can actually see your veins pumping your body with as much blood as it possibly can.”

  I dragged the blade over his face again, his skin detaching in a way that made it curl upwards in a delicate pattern. “Fuck!” he breathed as his fingers curled around the arm of the chair and his leg started to twitch rapidly, the ball of his foot bouncing wildly on the floor as he tried to control himself and override the pain.

  Once more, I moved over to the right side of his face and smirked when a gurgle crept from his throat. “Please” he begged but I shrugged him off as I drew the knife downwards this time, causing a more painful sweep but still only deep enough to shed his skin.

  His scream was louder this time and I laughed as a tear slid from the corner of his eye and trickled over the sore tissue, the salt in it evidently causing a sting to accompany the agony. Both his legs were now vigorously bobbing up and down as I moved the tip of the knife along his broken nose and across the delicate area of his eyelids. “Fox!” he choked out as my finger pressed against his eyelashes and held his eye closed in preparation. “Please.”

  “Tell me then!” I urged as I taunted him and traced the edge of his eye socket with the curved tip.

  “I . . . I can’t!”

  As soon as the words left his mouth I knew I would break him. He was now arguing with himself if it was worth losing his face over. “Frank is gone, Estevo, he can’t hurt you.”

  “But . . .” He gulped as I ran the point back over the previous path with a little more pressure, leaving a trail of blood to bubble to the surface of his thin skin. “But Vickie . . .”

  I laughed and shook my head slowly, “You’re scared of Vickie? What the fuck is she gonna do?”

  “The same as what she is doing to Ava.”

  I bit my tongue but refused to let that thought take control, “Ava is a woman, Estevo. You’re telling me you put yourself in the same league as a woman?”

  I hoped and prayed he wasn’t aware of Ava’s strength and combat skills. I needed him to think she was just a small timid female. “Well, no but . . .”

  “But my wife is worth losing face for?” I scoffed at the double meaning, finding my humour quite disturbed but amusing.

  He was panting as I pulled back once more, my eyes following the path of the knife with a cold excitement. His eyes screwed closed and I knew I had him. “Fornos de Algodres shelter.”

  I dropped the knife and spun around. “Thank you, Estevo” I muttered as I flew across the room.

  Chapter 11

  Ava

  I STARED AT the ceiling, focussing on the domed metal as Hugh slipped the knife through the front of my bra and released my breasts to the cool air. “Very nice” I heard him mumble as my foggy brain tried to keep up
with the frantic flow of blood supplying it.

  My heart was racing but there wasn’t enough blood to fuel the rocketing throb. My pulse couldn’t keep up as it strained to either slow itself down and adapt to the weakness of my body or speed up and fight to push the blood around my ailing system.

  My mind was hazy and frenzied as visions of my family laughing in the sunshine tormented my soul yet comforted my heart; George’s happy smile as a young boy playing ball with his sister, Mason’s soft smile as he watched me sway across the room and love him with my body and Kade’s beloved arms holding me tight against him. They all laughed happily and waved to me as I shuddered against the harsh touch of Hugh’s hand up my inner thigh.

  Fight, baby.

  “I can’t” I whispered back.

  Hugh slapped at my face as my eyes closed wearily, “Keep awake, bitch.”

  Yes, you can, Ava. Fight!

  “I . . .” I gulped at the dryness in my throat and then shivered as harsh rough hands cupped my breasts and squeezed cruelly, “I want to but. . . .”

  My face shot sideways as his palm struck me again, “I aint fucking no dead slapper so you need to keep your eyes open. You hear me?”

  Endurance, Ava. Fight the bastard.

  His voice was strong and firm as he reprimanded me and I gazed around me groggily to see if he was actually here with me. A choked sob erupted from me when I saw him stood in the corner of the room smiling softly at me. “Mason?”

  I felt Hugh turn to scan the room, checking to see if Mason was actually with us. He snorted and peered down at me, “You’re losing your shit pretty quick; we need to do this now.”

  His knee wedged between mine and pushed my legs apart. I didn’t have the strength to struggle anymore. My body was giving up, I was giving up and I turned my head once more and stared lovingly at my husband. “Help me,” I rasped but he shook his head.

  No, fight him. You can do this Ava, you are strong. You can take this prick.

  Fury rippled through me with his refusal to help me and I glared at him, “Fucking help me!”