Page 5 of Skin Deep

“And I didn’t need yours, but we’re both here.” I sighed, wiggling my fingers to try and keep the blood flow going. “I promised her family justice, and I’m not going to back down. The way I see it, you’ve got two options—either you kill me for no good reason, or you believe me and you let me do what I came out to do tonight.”

“Or I could leave you tied up here and forget all about you,” he said, standing.

My eyes tracked him as he walked back over to his chair. I thought of my girls, waiting for their daddy to come home, and how heartbroken they’d be if I never did. But I wouldn’t beg him, and I wouldn’t use them as a bargaining chip. The last thing I wanted was some vigilante knowing anything about my family.

“But you won’t,” I said.

“What makes you think that?” He placed the scalpel down on a little silver tray.

“Because if you were going to kill me, you’d have done it already. You strike me as someone who knows what he’s doing. Someone who doesn’t fuck around. And you’ve got no reason to kill me.”

“I’ve got no reason to let you go either,” he pointed out. “If anything, you’re a liability. You’ve seen my face.”

“And you’ve seen mine.”

He turned around, crossing his arms over his chest. The new posture highlighted his broad shoulders and trim hips in a distracting way.

“We’re on the same team,” I reminded him.

“How do I know I can trust you?” he asked.

I lifted my shoulders and let them fall. “Guess you’ll have to take a chance.”

He studied me for a little while longer while Alvin screamed in the next room. I didn’t know what I was going to do if he decided he wasn’t going to let me go. While I didn’t want to hurt him, I would if I had to. I’d do anything to make sure I got home to my daughters safe and sound.

He sighed and turned his head, muttering something in what might’ve been Russian before coming back over. I tensed as he stepped up behind me, half expecting him to slit my throat.

Instead, he sliced through the plastic ties around my wrists and ankles. “You make any moves I don’t like, and you’ll be dead before you can blink.”

I nodded and stood before he could change his mind, rubbing more circulation back into my hands. “You got a name?” I asked the other man as he went back to the little metal tray where he kept a briefcase.

He paused and looked up at me, his fingers frozen on the clasps. “Warrick,” he said after a long pause before fastening the briefcase closed. “Come with me.”

Warrick led me out of the smaller room into a big open space, our footsteps echoing. A set of metal stairs climbed up the wall on the opposite side to a second story, where there was a dirty glass looking out over what must’ve been a production floor at one time. For an abandoned factory, the place was immaculately clean, not a speck of dirt on anything.

I followed him through some plastic sheeting into another room with several metal gates, the kind used to corral animals at a farm. Chains dangled from the ceiling, a hook attached at the end of each. At the front of the room was a rectangular pit. Alvin was strung up naked over it, hanging from a meat hook, while one of the other guys I’d seen in the parking lot took his time slicing carefully into Alvin’s torso. Alvin was covered in blood, but he was still conscious and whimpering pathetically.

The young man cutting into Alvin looked up with a scowl. “What the fuck is he doing here?”

Without so much as a word of explanation, Warrick walked over and plucked the scalpel out of the young man’s hand.

“Now wait one fucking minute,” the young man protested. “Mom and Shepherd said he was my kill!”

“Well Annie and Shepherd aren’t here, are they?” Warrick snapped. “I’m in charge, and I say step aside.”

He glared at Warrick and then at me before moving out of the way and crossing his arms with a scowl.

Warrick held the scalpel out to me. “Do what you came to do.”

I looked him up and down with a quick smirk. “I brought my own, if you don’t mind?” It was gone now, no doubt taken from me when they patted me down while I was out, but I’d brought that knife for a reason. It was Jamina’s older brother’s, and he’d wanted me to use it. It was part of the deal.

Warrick frowned. “That way will take forever.”

“That’s the idea.”

He eyed me a second longer before reaching into his pocket and coming out with the switchblade I’d brought.

I seized it from him and turned to Alvin. “Remember me?”

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