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Face
“I’ll give you the key if we walk out of here with her and the antidote.” I tried to bargain.
“No. They leave, you stay. We have a few things to discuss.” Murchison had a look in his eyes I knew very well. He wasn’t going to budge on this.
We were out of options.
So I made the trade to the eternal disgust of Cuba. She protested vehemently. But we had no other cards to play. We had to do what he wanted.
My only bargaining chip was the key to open the files.
And he wasn’t getting it without blood being spilt. Mine or his, I didn’t care. I just wanted Cuba to get them out of here, fast.
But Rock wasn’t done.
“Who put his hands on my sister?” He snarled.
Murchison didn’t hesitate. He nodded at Alexander Harrison. “Him.”
No one expected what came next. A knife flew whispered through the air and lodged in Harrison’s abdomen. He gave a scream of pain and clutched at his midsection before falling to the floor.
Rock turned to Murchison. “We’re done. The Sinners won’t come after you for retribution.” With that he picked Keeley up again and walked out of the office. Cuba stood for a few seconds, shook her head then gave a stiff nod and left.
Turning in my chair I looked at the bastard on the floor moaning in pain. “You going to call someone in to take care of that?”
“No, why should I?” He said coolly. “I now have the Sinners right where I want them, in the palm of my hand with the heir to the throne’s fingerprints on a murder weapon.” He virtually crowed with glee and I just had to burst his bubble. Had to.
“You won’t find a single fingerprint on that knife, no DNA other than the dead guys’. Nothing that will link him to the Sinners or to my crew. But seeing that he’s here, in your warehouse, it links him to you and to Winifred.” I sat as if relaxed in my chair and watched him lose his shit.
Maybe I shouldn’t have needled him but he made it so damned easy.
“Get in here!” He shouted and two men came running into the office. “Take out the trash then get back here. We have work to do.”
By the look in the men’s faces they were looking forward to whatever the hell he had planned for me. I knew that as soon as Bruno had Dom secured he would come looking for me. All I had to do was hold on. I was good at that, at holding on. I held on to my sanity for ten years. I could hold on through whatever was coming. It wouldn’t be pleasant but he couldn’t kill me. Disfigure and maim me, sure...but kill? No, not as long as I refused to give him the key.
I had to hold on to the key until he agreed to let me leave.
The only other person who could give it to him, other than me, was Dominick. Which he didn’t know, obviously.
And by now Dominick was most probably not in a state to give anyone anything. Neither one of us were in a good place right now.
Half an hour later I was hanging in the exact position I had been in fifteen years ago. This time unlike before I was strong, much stronger than any of them suspected. I wasn’t wearing my clothes, only my underwear. The bastards had enjoyed cutting my clothes from my body. I silently thanked Cuba for her insistence on the unsexy underwear. It covered more than a bikini would have.
I stood on the balls of my feet on the cold floor and looked down at the bleached cement, an indication of blood having been removed plenty of times. I had to do it a time or two when I was younger. I didn’t say a word. I saved my strength and waited.
Murchison sat in a chair one of his goons had brought in and scrolled through my phone. Not that he was going to find anything other than the numbers of my crew. No texts, no social media connections, no emails. Nothing. Just phone numbers.
“You live a very boring life, Noelle.” He finally said as he threw the phone to the side. I didn’t look to see if it was broken because it didn’t matter. No one needed it to track me. Everyone knew exactly where I was.
He slowly stood and walked over to me. The way I was stretched out I was taller than him and I could see it pissed him off. He couldn’t look me in the eyes without lifting up on his toes.
“And here we are, right where we ended fifteen years ago. Isn’t it strange how life circles around and around? I have a surprise for you. Now, I don’t want you to be too shocked so let’s just say I’ve brought your past back to life to say hello.”
I had no idea what the hell he was talking about so I said nothing and waited to see what was going to happen next.
I couldn’t stop the gasp even if I had tried. He was right. He had brought my past back to life and he walked in through the door, very much alive.
Olaf. What the hell?
At first I was shocked and stunned and then rage started burning in my gut. Especially when he started talking.
“I thought that by now you would have the information we need. What the fuck is taking so long?” His voice was the same, deep and rumbly but his eyes weren’t. They were cold as ice and dead, exactly like Murchison’s.
“Who the hell are you?” My voice sounded scratchy and not like my own.
“Hello wife, long time no see.” He grinned before slamming a fist into my abdomen. It would have hurt a lot more if he hadn’t advertised what he was about to do and gave me time to prepare. But it did hurt. And so did my stupid, stupid teenaged heart that broke into a million sharp shards.
It couldn’t be. I saw him die. Or did I?
“I’m no one’s wife.” I rasped angrily.
Two more punches to my midriff left me swinging and gasping for breath. I had heard and felt my ribs give under the power of those punches.
“Wrong wife, you are mine until I say you’re not.” He snarled in my face. He had no problems looking in my eyes because he was almost seven foot tall and with the width to go with the height. And that’s why those punches had so much power behind them.
Me, his? No, not only no but hell the fuck no.
“You lost...that privilege...fifteen years ago, asshole. Had that mistake of a marriage annulled the minute I was able to.”
He was about to hit me again when Murchison moved him out the way with a tap on his back and took his place in front of me.
“I can make that marriage reappear as if by magic and you know what it would mean for you, Noelle, don’t you? If you die everything you own becomes the property of your husband. That includes your business, the property, the cars, the crew, the baby, all of it becomes his. And I’ll rip that place and those women apart to find the key. You know I don’t make idle threats.”
If I could have shrugged I would have.
“I’m not the owner of the business, the building, the cars, the crew or the baby. If I die you’ll get nothing, absolutely nothing. The key isn’t there anyway, how stupid do you think I am?”
Olaf shoved him out of the way and pushed his furious face into mine. “You were stupid enough to fuck some filthy biker where everyone could see you, you whore! You are mine and you fucked him! Why the fuck would you do that after staying faithful for fifteen goddamn years?” He raged.
What? He thought I had stayed faithful to him? Bloody hell, the years apart hadn’t made him any less of a jealous ass.
“Because Murchison told me to do it.” I threw the fucker right under the bus.
Olaf had always been jealous as hell. It was something the stupid lovesick little girl I had been hid from everyone back then. I didn’t want them to think badly of him when he got angry with guys looking at me. Now I had to wonder if he had been more than angry, if he had maybe gone after those poor guys. A couple of the guards had disappeared back then. Guards who had looked and smiled at me with appreciation.
He whipped around and snarled at Murchison who laughed and raised his hands in amusement. Olaf growled then he was back in my face. He traced the scars over my face almost lovingly with a small smile.
“I left my marks on you to ensure no one would touch you. Only me, I would be the only one to touch you. And now I have to add more to teach you a lesson because you let Dominick and that filthy biker touch you. I need to teach you that you belong to me, will always be mine, until the day I get bored or decide to shut your smart mouth forever.”
Over his shoulder I saw a worried look coming into Murchison’s eyes and I knew this was going to get bad. Really bad.
“Are you saying you’re the one who put these scars on my face? Sorry, but I don’t believe you. I have some memories from that night and I clearly remember you in chains when this happened. And I’m still not sure why it happened. I don’t get the reason for that night. All I did wrong was refuse to snatch a kid. That’s it. What was so bad about that? Why would you scar me and then let me rot in jail for ten years?”
I tried to get them to talk because if they talked they wouldn’t be cutting me. And Olaf didn’t disappoint.
“You ignored your orders. I couldn’t let that go, especially not from my wife. You undermined my authority with the men and I had to show them I wasn’t weak. Even if it meant I had to lose you for a few years.”
Now I was truly confused. “You were a bodyguard! Get real, Olaf! No one gave a shit about you. You weren’t even Murchison’s number two at the time. You were my bodyguard, expendable cannon fodder.” I was furious. “And ten years aren’t a few you bastard! You took my youth from me motherfucker!”
Maybe I should have played it differently but he pissed me off with his self-important shit. He was never sent on missions back then. He was considered muscle and that was it. He wasn’t a leader back then. And maybe not now either.
His knife was suddenly out and pushing painfully into the skin under my eye. It took everything not to flinch, to stare back at him, to wait for his next move. I silently prayed that Murchison would interfere because if he didn’t their only chance of acquiring the key would be bleeding out on the cement floor pretty soon.
“Step back, Olaf. She’s right, she’s no longer yours. There are more important plans for her once we’re done here.”
Olaf wasn’t pleased but he did as he was ordered and stepped back, only to swing around and cut me from below my bra to the top of my panties. Murchison swore viciously. I jerked in reaction as hurt flamed trough me and blood ran down my thighs. But the fucker wasn’t done. His fist slammed into my face right over the scars and I moaned in pain as my cheekbone gave way. Bloody hell! It felt as if a bomb had exploded in my head. Before I could even flinch his fist hit my face again and pain shot through my face and neck. I knew, after years of sparring and fighting that I was in trouble. He had done significant damage with those two punches, broken my nose and most probably shattered my cheekbone.
“Enough!” Murchison barked. “I need information from her and your bullshit isn’t helping.”
I hung in the chains, panting through the pain but watching him. Watching Olaf as he strutted back and forth in front of me like an oversized rooster. He kept glancing at the men standing around the perimeter as if to say, look at me, look at what I did. I slowly unclenched my fisted hands and wrapped them around the chains. Slowly, very slowly I took the weight of my body and waited. Waited for my chance. All I needed was him close enough to pay him back for years of torment and pain. I knew he wouldn’t be able to stay away from me, he would want to see the damage he had done up close and personal. Thinking that he had broken me, again. But he would be wrong, so very, very wrong.
And then he did it, he stepped into range. I swung, ignoring the pain and focusing on my target. I swung my legs up and around his neck, locking them behind his head as soon as my thighs settled on either side of his wide, thick neck. He was too shocked to fight as I dragged him closer and looked right into his eyes and started squeezing. His eyes widened as his airflow slowly diminished. I wanted him to die slow, to know he was dying before I broke his neck. His eyes bulged, his face was red and his mouth open trying to gasp air into his lungs.
And suddenly I had had enough, it was time to end him.
All it took was a full body twist that forced his neck into an unnatural and deadly angle. So intent was I on killing him that I didn’t feel the knife punching into my side and into my thigh. I felt nothing until I loosened my legs and watched him drop lifelessly to the ground.
Only then did I feel pain. So much fucking pain. But it had been worth it.
I welcomed the darkness that gathered at the edges of my vision.
Welcomed it as it pulled me under and I could finally let go.
Murchison
He looked at the dead asshole on the floor and then at the woman hanging from the chains. Damn, she was a magnificent creature. His creature. He had made her and he wasn’t going to allow her to die. Not now.
“Take her down, drive her over to her compound and throw her out at the gate. Her people will take care of her.” He ordered his most trusted man.
“You got it, boss. I think we should stop the bleeding before we take her home. We can take the bandages off before we get there, just to be sure she survives. We need what she has in that hard head of hers.”
“Do what you have to but get her home. Get the men to take care of this piece of shit. I’m going to see Winifred to report the loss of two of her fucking nephews. Not that she will be surprised, she knew they were weak.”
With one last look at the woman he had chosen to bear his child he turned and walked out. His mind was already on Winifred. On how he was going to play the situation in the best light. She wasn’t going to be pleased.
“Boss!” His man’s voice was excited as he came running after him. What now?
“Is this what you’ve been looking for?” He held up a blood covered tiny USB.
“Where did you find that?” His voice rasped as he looked at the tiny piece of electronics in the palm of his hand.
“Women always hide shit in their underwear. She had it in the padding of her bra. I searched her before we took her down and found it.” He was quiet for maybe a second. “Do you still want me to take her home?”
Murchison grinned. “Yes, only now you don’t have to bandage her up. Take her as is. If she makes it, she makes it. If she doesn’t she wasn’t as strong as I thought she’d be.”
With the key to opening the files clutched in his palm Murchison stalked out of the warehouse. Winifred was going to be so fucking pleased, he thought as he got in the back of his car. All thought of Noelle wiped from his mind as he focused on Winifred and how pleased she was going to be.
He left before Noelle was thrown in the back of the waiting van.
He didn’t give her another thought as his driver drove him away.
