by K E Osborn
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing? Intimidation tactics don’t work on me, Mad Dog,” she yells really loud, probably so the people in Cupiditas can hear, but let’s be honest, it’s too far away.
“Hush now little Violet, we don’t want to make a scene now do we?” My brothers step to the side letting me in the circle they formed around her. She inadvertently takes a step back bumping into the chest of Manson, and he grabs hold steadying her. “Get your filthy hands off me, you freak.” She turns and spits at him pulling her body away from his. He grins putting his hands up in surrender but doesn’t say a word as usual. “Mad Dog, this is ridiculous. Stop this now or I will scream.”
I laugh and nod to Blade, who grabs and holds onto her from behind. She can’t move, and she goes to scream when penetrator grabs a ball gag and shoves it in her mouth tying it around her head. She struggles in the grip of Blade, as Acid walks up clenching his fist and punches her right in the stomach. She hunches over breathing rapidly out of her nose, trying to recover from the pain. I don’t like intimidation tactics on women, but this little pocket rocket won’t go down easily, and I know this is the only way to gain her attention to see things my way.
“Now Violet, this can all stop if you agree to give us the money that you owe. It’s as simple as that. Now will you behave?”
She straightens back up like the strong willed woman she is, and shakes her head slowly from side to side. I chuckle and raise my eyebrow at her. “Seriously, you’re worried about giving us a measly two-fifty K when your life is in danger? Shouldn’t you be more worried about what we might do to you if you don’t pay us?”
She leans back in the grip of Blade and pulls her legs up slamming her feet into my shins hard. Pain radiates through my legs, and I lean over groaning as I try to catch my breath. My brothers all tense up wondering what I’m going to do.
“If you won’t play fair, then neither will we. Just remember you brought this on yourself, Violet,” I say through gritted teeth.
I look at Acid and nod at him, he’s the only one who will willingly bash a woman to near death for the fun of it. So I let him at her. He smiles widely and walks up to Violet as the others walk off excluding Blade, who’s openly wincing. I know he doesn’t like this as much as his brother.
“No one kicks Mad Dog and gets away with it, you filthy whore,” he says and then his clenched fist collides with her jaw, the thudding crack resounds through the nighttime air. He thrusts his fist into her stomach, she groans out loud as he pummels all over her body while I stand back and watch.
Do I feel bad? Yes, but I see no other option.
Her knees give out on her and Blade is merely holding her in place as Acid continues his assault. Blade pushes her to the ground and her skin scrapes along the concrete as they both kick her in the stomach. She contorts into a ball, but they continue their attack. Acid leans down punching her in the head again as she moans out loud, and tries to cradle herself to protect her flesh from the blows. Her body is going limp, so she must be fading in and out of consciousness. I whistle, forcing Acid and Blade both stop the aggression and look up at me.
Walking back over to her bruised and bloodied body, I wince and shake my head. I have to keep up my pretence of why I came here. “We’ll give you twenty-four hours to pay us. Don’t, and you’ll see what happens. This is only the beginning,” I tell her as she zones in and out. Her eye is half closed as she looks up at me and pain rips through my chest.
If she’s someone’s girlfriend, imagine how they’re going to feel when they see her.
If this were Millie, I’d be devastated.
I’d also be livid.
I am a cunt!
“Take off the gag,” I demand, and Acid bends down taking off ball gag. She coughs and spits out a large amount of blood. “Twenty-four hours, Violet, or next time you won’t wake up after we beat you. You’re fortunate that you’re a whore, because if you weren’t full of disease, we’d fuck you senseless in every orifice. We’d tear your insides apart. So you’ve had a lucky escape… this time.” I have to keep up the pretence of being a cunt, so I spit on her and walk off.
With the intense need to walk away filtering through me, guilt flares so fast I feel sick. Acid and Penetrator start to laugh as they each lay another strike with their foot, and I wince at the sound of her moaning as I step away mentally kicking myself.
After our little visit to Violet last night, guilt has been plaguing me. It has me thinking of Millie today and how much I wish I could see her. How much I wish I could just hold her.
Shaking my head as I stare out the window from the assembly room, there’s a light knock on the door.
“Yeah?” I call out.
The creak of the door hinges is the only thing letting me know the door is opening. I don’t bother turning to look.
“Sorry to interrupt, Prez, but I have a report,” Blade’s voice breaks through the sounds of ‘Dazed and Confused’ By Led Zeppelin playing in the clubrooms.
Taking a deep breath, I turn to face him and nod. He steps into the assembly room and closes the door behind him, moving over to the table and sits down.
“So, I have a mate in the force. He’s a crooked cop, just gone in as a recruit. He’s been doing some snooping, and found out that Violet went to the Police Station and made a statement about us, but not only that, apparently she’s having a fling with none other than Detective Hudson Stone.”
Opening my eyes wide, I shake my head. This is bad. Her making a statement about us means they’re building a case. We need to get to her. But the part about her and Hudson being a thing? Well, that’s just funny. He seems to be fucking popping up everywhere where we are concerned. He’s like genital herpes, he just won’t go away.
“Right, can we call this crooked cop?”
He nods. “Sure.” Pulling out his phone, he pushes the number and the phone rings.
“Blade, I’m at work, I can’t talk long. What’s up?”
“Matt, I’m in a room with my Prez, he wants to talk to you. You’re on speaker.”
“What? Shit! Really?”
“Hey Matt, thanks for letting us know about Violet ratting us out. I appreciate your intel,” I announce letting him know I’m actually here and can hear him.
“Crap. Yeah, no worries. I can’t talk for long, what do you need?”
“I need to know where Violet is now? Is she still in questioning?”
He huffs. “No, she’s gone into protective custody with Stone. They went somewhere not long ago, but I don’t know where. I’d have to do some digging.”
Goddamn it! This puts a spanner in the works regarding her signing the ownership of Cupiditas over to the Savages. I never expected her to be in bed with the fucking heat. Not a goddamned prostitute. I can’t seem to wrap my head around that little tidbit of information.
“Okay Matt, find out where they’re hiding out. I’ll make it worth your while.”
“Sure thing. I gotta go. I’ll call Blade when I have something.” The line goes dead, and I bang my clenched fist onto the table, the wood creaks with the harsh blow.
“Fucking hell, we need to find her, so she can sign over the paperwork and retract her statement. This is going to be harder than we thought, and we’re going to have to use extreme methods.”
Matt, the crooked cop came through and informed us where Hudson was hiding Violet—in a cabin up in the foothills of Adelaide. It’s the middle of the night, and we’re making our move. It’s already been too long, who knows what kind of a case the heat have already made against us. She needs to retract her statement as soon as possible.
We know the location has a dual guard on the gate, and Hudson is protecting her inside the cabin. So we have three men to take her down, and to be honest, I’ve been dying to get a bullet into Hudson for a long time.
We have a warehouse not far from the location of the cabin, and that’ll be where we’ll take her to make her see things our way. We’re in the two Volksw
agen Crafters on our way down the long stretch of road toward the cabin. I can see the unmarked police car sitting at the top of the driveway, so that must be it. My heart is racing at the thought that something might go wrong, but we need to get to Violet at all costs.
Penetrator pulls up the van, and I clearly see the two plain clothed policemen sitting inside the unmarked car. Acid steps outside of the cage wearing all black walks up to the car knocks on the window, and they both look up. He points the gun and shoots, the glass of the car window shatters as the first officer goes down. The other reaches for his weapon, but Acid puts a bullet in his head before he has time to shoot. He climbs back inside, and we drive down the long driveway. The tyres skid to a halt when the log cabin comes into view. The second cage pulls up behind us.
We all jump out and load up our guns. If we know Hudson like we think we do he’s going to come out all guns-a-blazing.
His gun appears through a crack between the door and the frame, and I immediately smirk.
“Come out, come out, Detective Stone,” I yell.
The door swings wide open and he storms out gun drawn with fury drawn across his facial features, the likes of which I have never witnessed before. “You killed my best friend and his partner, I’ll be damned if I let you kill my girl, too.” He pulls the trigger and races forward the sound a loud bang as the power ignites and echoes through the night as he fires shot after shot. We all scatter, and I watch as Penetrator falls to the ground. Shaking my head, I aim my weapon directly at Stone’s chest and pull the trigger.
His body jolts with the hit, as another shot from someone else lands in his side and another right where his lung would be. He falls to the ground, dropping on his back and gasping for air as his gun falls from his hand. We all move in around him, and I watch as his eyes slowly glaze over. A smile crosses my face as I watch his life slip away from him.
Acid turns suddenly. “Oi, there she is,” he calls out pointing toward the door at Violet, who’s standing there in a dress looking terrified. She appears frozen to the spot. Then I see it, something in her eyes clicks, and she turns to run. Acid takes off after her, grabs her by the hair and wraps his arms around her waist, pulling her tightly back against his front. She screams so piercingly loud it hurts my ears, and I wince as she kicks and wriggles trying to get away.
“Hudson, Hudson, help,” she yells as Acid drags her back toward us. She tries to break free, but Acid has her wrapped up too tightly.
“Now, lookie lookie, who do we have here?” I taunt as I stride up to her. “Boss, it’s good to see you again. Sorry about your protector,” I tease.
She stops thrashing about and looks me in the eyes, hers furrowed as her nostrils flare at what I’ve just said. She looks terrified.
“Where’s Hudson?” she demands.
I chuckle as I point over to where my brothers are standing with Hudson’s body. She obviously can’t see as she strains her eyes in the dark night light. Acid starts to drag her over toward the cage, and she thrashes about again then she screams as loudly as she possibly can. We laugh knowing no one will hear her as we all walk toward the van.
She suddenly stops thrashing about, and it’s like watching all the breath leaving her body. I glance in the direction she’s looking—she’s finally seen Stone.
“Hud-son?” the crack in her voice shocks me. She must actually care about him. Her entire body tenses and she lets out the most harrowing, blood curdling, agonising scream I’ve ever heard in my life. I have to bring my hands up to my ears it’s so intense, so piercing, so pain-filled. It shakes me to my core. She thrashes even harder as her tears fall hard and fast.
I’m actually shocked.
She doesn’t just care for him, she’s clearly in love with him.
I’ve just killed him.
I am a cunt.
“Hudson,” she screams as she smashes her head back, head-butting Acid’s forehead.
“Fuck,” he yells and lets her go. She falls to the ground and scurries on all fours rapidly over to Hudson’s lifeless body.
“Hudson, Hudson, wake up,” she pleads, then leans down and kisses his lips softly. He doesn’t react, and she cries even harder as she pulls his head into her lap.
We all watch her mourn over her lost lover, and I chew on my bottom lip. He didn’t need to die for her to hand over Cupiditas. I just wanted revenge on him so badly, I didn’t think about what I’d be doing to this poor woman. And, to be honest, she isn’t nearly at the end of her ordeal yet, she has so much more to go through. If only she weren’t such a firecracker, if only she weren’t so stubborn, things would be easy for her.
Silly, silly girl.
She moves her hands over two of the gunshot wounds pressing down hard. There’s so much blood, I can’t see how he could live through this.
“What have you done?” she yells at me.
I need to keep up my smart mouth through this.
“Looks like I’ve killed your boyfriend. Didn’t even know you were dating a cop! It’s a win-win situation,” I tease, and she screams again in despair holding onto Hudson so tightly, it makes my skin crawl.
“Just kill me!” she yells out, and we all laugh. I think more out of disbelief.
“It’s no fun when you beg to die. Plus, we have other plans in store for you, Boss,” I chuckle.
“Hudson, don’t leave me. Please don’t be dead. I can’t lose you, too,” she mumbles through her tears as she hyperventilates. I furrow my brows wondering what she means by that. Maybe she’s lost a lover before? It makes me want to know her story. She’s a feisty, fiery woman, and I sure would like to know what’s going on in that head of hers. She seems too beautiful, confident and well, perfect, to be a madam. I’d love to get to know her, but that’s not on the agenda. My chest hurts for her, as the tears flow endlessly down her face, and it’s starting to make me uncomfortable. I need to move this along. “Right, that’s enough. Someone get her will you,” I demand.
She screams again, then breathes in short and sharp bursts. “I can’t breathe,” she gasps as she struggles to pull air into her lungs in her obvious panic. “Hudson, wake up.” She cries into his body as Manson pulls her up by the hair. She doesn’t let go of Hudson though, as Manson pulls her up and so she drags Hudson’s lifeless body with her. “Let go of him, Boss,” Penetrator says walking over holding his bleeding arm from the one shot Hudson nailed.
“Let go, Violet,” I demand, but she keeps her grip firm.
Blade shakes his head and storms over, prying her stone like fingers from his cold body as Manson pulls her away. She screams and howls as he drags her away from her lover.
“No, don’t leave him here. Hudson wake up! Baby, please wake up,” she yells, as we take her toward the Crafter. She thrashes about, trying her hardest to get back to Hudson, but I walk over to her, look her in the eyes and glare.
“Will you shut up!” I’m a little sick of her screaming, so I punch her in the face, to not only drown out the noise but to put her out of her misery for a while. She flops into Manson’s arms, and he places her into the back of the cage. I jump in the front with Chops, and the others leap into the other and we drive toward the abandoned warehouse for a negotiation session with Violet.
We’re nearly at the warehouse when banging starts on the back door.
“Help, help me,” Violet calls out, pounding ferociously obviously trying to get it open.
“Turn up the radio, Chops.”
He nods and blasts ‘Stitches’ by Orgy over the stereo, the heavy bass drowning out her incessant whining and banging.
“Let me out! Let me out!” I hear faintly, so I turn it up even more. Luckily, we only have a short distance to travel, so we slow down slightly and turn left down the road toward the warehouse. It sucks she’s woken up, it would have been a lot better if we could have just carried her in there asleep and woken her up, but you win some you lose some.
We pull up, and the blaring music comes to a sudden stop. I expec
t her to start yelling again, but she’s deadly quiet. I glance at Chops, and he furrows his brows as we jump out. The other guys pull up next to us and get out as well. We all stroll up to the back of the cage door. I have no idea if she’s passed out again, or going to try and make a run for it. If I know her like I think I do, it’s the later.
“You ready, guys? We don’t know what she’ll do when we open the door.” They all nod and we step up to the back door in a line, so no matter where she goes one of us will get her. “Righto, on guard everyone,” I state.
Manson opens the door, and before we have time to think she is flying mid-air, ready to run, but Blade grabs her and holds on tightly. She screams again and thrashes about, trying to get away from him, but he rolls his eyes holding onto her strongly.
“C’mon now, Boss, no one can hear you out here,” Blade says while she continues that fucking incessant screaming. Tears run down her cheeks as she pummels at Blade’s chest with her fists, fiercely. We all laugh at her feeble attempts, but her energy is soon depleted as she gives up fighting while we drag her toward the warehouse.
“Where’s all that fight gone, Boss?” Blade whispers in her ear then bites her earlobe. I shake my head as she starts to cry again.
“Get her in the room,” I growl.
Blade carries her inside toward the small torture room. There’s no windows, it’s purposely dark. Her eyes widen when she sees the torture chair, and then her head hangs low and she exhales. She probably thinks she’s going to die. She isn’t. That’s not the plan for today. We need her alive. She just doesn’t know that.
Blade throws her into the chair while Manson and Acid strap her in. Striding up to her, I glance down at her dress covered in Hudson’s blood and purse my lips. “Sorry, we had to kill your man, Boss. He just got in the way, but he didn’t go down without a fight, though. Poor Penetrator got hit in the arm with one of Hudson’s bullets. So we put three in him,” I affirm.
She leers at me with disdain and spits at my feet. I chuckle as she looks up and notices all of my brothers surrounding her. “It’s rude to spit, Boss. Only men should do that! It doesn’t suit a nice lady like yourself,” I suggest leaning in closer to her.
