Page 2 of Bishop

“Like I told you before, I’m never going to let you go. You and my brothers left me in that jail to rot. I didn’t even get a birthday card or anything. Do you know how lonely it is locked up in a cell for twenty-three hours a day?” Liam dumps another bucket of ice into the already chilled water, and I groan as the water drops another few degrees.

“I’m doing this to you for one reason and one reason only. I want to break you, Bishop.” He stands in front of me, capturing my pained gaze in his demented one. “I want you to curse the day you ever met my brothers and decided to ride for the boys of Djinn. I’ll turn you against them even if I have to beat the loyalty out of you.” He smiles and walks off, probably to get more ice, while I’m left to shake through the pain of being frozen alive.

My eyes begin to droop as I feel the effects of hypothermia start to set in. He’s not going to let me die, though, right now death seems like the sweet release I’ve been wishing for over the past few weeks.

Liam starts humming again and picks up his phone to slide mindlessly through the apps and internet.

I give him my best glare. How the hell can he be this fucked up in the head and we not know it? Sure, when he first went after the Wings of Diablo, we knew he was a bit overzealous, but at least he had excuses for why he was doing what he was doing. Now there’s no excuse. He’s hurting us just for the thrill of it.

Hurting me and Gabrielle.

“You… you… You know,” I stutter before taking a deep breath and trying to talk again, “I… I always thought I was the outsider in the club. You are all brothers and I’m just some man you met at work. It’s plain to see who the outsider is though. You’ll never be the same caliber of people your brothers are.”

This gets his attention. “The same caliber? Are you out of your fucking mind? I’m the best of them. I’m the one with the drive and ambition, the one that they should’ve all been taking their orders from.” Liam rushes over to where I am, his hands balled into fists.

“Don’t you remember? They were taking orders from you. They were doing your bidding, which included getting one of our members killed and pulling a child from his mother to be put into the foster care system. Those was all your orders. Don’t you remember that? You were the start of our downfall.” Every part of my body is shaking and the pain is surreal, but I find quite a bit of joy in the look on Liam’s face as he realizes everything I’ve just told him is true. When he was running the boys of Djinn, we were going down fast and hard all because he didn’t know how to play nice with others.

“That's the same thinking that got you guys in this situation to begin with. The reason why the club is shattered to pieces, with some of the members scattered to the furthest corners of the earth. The reason you and your woman are locked up in this little slice of hell.” The sneer drops from his face and he replaces it with another smile. “You shouldn’t have tried to turn the club against me. You should’ve just followed along.”

“You turned them against yourself. This is all you, Liam. No one else.”

He sighs and reaches over for another bucket. “I hope that’s not true. I don’t mind spilling your blood, but I’d hate to have to kill my brothers too.”

I keep my eyes glued on his, just to see if there’s any bit of hesitation, but I don’t find any.

Liam Djinn is so far gone he’d rather see his own flesh and blood dead and in a grave than admit that he’s not the leader he thinks he is.

Two

Gabrielle

I’d always thought there was a little good in everyone. Shade and Liam are the exceptions.

Twenty paces to one side, ten paces to the door, twenty paces to the other side.

Being locked up in this cell has left me with a lot of downtime. Not that I'm complaining. Either I was in the cell, or Shade pulled me and Bishop out to entertain his guests.

I know it’s going to happen again, but any time that I don’t have to endure those creepy men leering at my body I'll call a win.

Just outside the door, I hear shuffling. They must be bringing Bishop back. I quickly rush to the opposite end of the small cell. The cold, somewhat damp stone shocks my skin as I press my back hard against the wall.

I make sure to keep any emotion off my face as the door opens. So far I’ve been keeping up a strong front, trying my hardest not to show Shade or Liam that they are getting under my skin, but it’s getting harder and harder as the days go on.

My heart shutters to a stop as Liam opens the door and Bishop is shoved into the room. His chestnut brown skin is a much deeper color with almost a bluish tinge to it. “I hope you get enough rest; tomorrow we start up the fun again.” Liam chuckles and he looks up in my direction.

"You fucking asshole!" I snarl but I don't take even one step forward. I can't do anything. Even now, the force of guards behind Liam let me know that if I attempted to fight I'd be beat mercilessly, again.

"Fucking asshole? I thought you were an educated woman? That's all you have to say to me? I have to say, I'm rather disappointed."

"I don't give a damn what you think of me. You're nothing but a speck of a man, an insignificant flea put in a place of power. You're a nobody. These guys only keep you around so they can laugh at the poor little boy playing like he's a king." My words are laced with barbs and venom. By the look on his face, I'd say they hit there mark.

His lip curls up slightly and he takes a long stride in the room. Beyond reason, Bishop pushes himself up to get between Liam and I. "D..d..don't ffff...ucking touch her."

Sensing the tension rising in the room the guards step in as well but Liam puts his hand up to stop them, "There's no need for any of that. Besides our guests don't want to see our leading lady with bruises all over her body, " Liam peers in my direction once again, "Ms. Katt, I'd save my energy for tomorrow if I were you. Last I heard, the clients wanted a show that would take their breath away." Looking to Bishop he continues, "and if you even get the notion that you're going to try and spare her, just remember, there's nothing either of you can do. You've got no protection here and the minute you stop proving to be useful will be the day you both die."

Liam smirks one final time before he gestures for the guards to leave the room and he follows, closing and locking the door behind him.

The minute the heavy locks engage with the closed door, Bishop collapses back down to the ground and I drop to my knees and crawl over to him.

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