Page 75 of Havoc

“Do you approve?” Cordell asked me, a smirk on his face.

“Where are the girls? I’d like to see what you’re working with, find out if you have quality stock, as it were.”

The words felt like lava on my tongue but all for the greater good, right? Dell could have ended up here if I hadn’t had a change of heart. What the hell had Hendrix been thinking working with a man like Cordell?

Lennon moved up close to me as Cordell led us down a hallway and in through a door painted purple.

“What’s the plan?” he asked me, quietly.

“Get the key from him, I know exactly what to do to him.”

Lennon nodded, and we moved in through the door. Cordell was standing back against the wall as I looked through a wall of windows, looking down at the dorm-like rooms with women laying on their beds, exhaustedly, some crying and others strung out.

“What do you give them?” I asked.

“Whatever their pleasure, I’m a giver.”

“So am I,” I turned to him. “And you know what, I like to dish out some justice whenever I can. I’m not Gideon, or Hendrix. I will not have this sex ring in my city, do you understand?”

“Try and stop me,” he said with so much confidence, I wanted to barf.

“Not necessary, but they will,” I said. “I’m all about karma, Cordell.” Lennon threw me the key and I opened the door to the rooms. Lennon knocked Cordell out, and carried him back down to the treatment room.

The girls looked up at me, fear in their eyes.

“I know what he’s done to you, and what your future holds if you stay here. My name is Presley and I run this city now,” I told them. “Cordell is in the treatment room, you know what happens in there.”

Some girls shuddered, others wept, and one girl looked at me with anger.

“And you want to show us who’s boss?” she asked me.

I liked her.

“No, I want you to show him what it feels like.”

The feisty one looked at me with curiosity.

“When I say he’s in the treatment room, I mean he’s at your mercy, girls. Make it count.”

I moved back out of the room and left the door wide open. I could hear the footsteps behind me, unsure at first, but now it was almost a stampede. Moving into the treatment room, I stood next to the wall with Lennon, who had strapped Cordell to the chair. He was coming to now, anger replacing that cocky little grin.

The feisty one led the girls into the room, an odd sense of happiness on her face at seeing her captor at her mercy. She went to the basin, and filled a bucket before grabbing a cloth and moving over to him.

“Paloma, you don’t want to make me angry…”

“My name is not Paloma,” she spat in his face. “My name is Linda and you stole me from my life. You did this to me when I wouldn’t break, when I wouldn’t dance for you and your fucked-up friends. Now, you’re going to dance for me.”

She stuck the cloth over his mouth and nose and poured the water over. Cordell spluttered and kicked in his restraints. Linda stopped and put the bucket down. Cordell continued to choke on the water as she pulled the cloth back, a sinister smile on her face.

“Bitch,” he gurgled. She put the cloth back over his mouth and nose and poured again.

The other girls looked at the wall of devices to torture and picked their own. I pushed Lennon out the door and moved over to Linda. She had stopped pouring the water and revived him so the others could have a go.

“I need someone like you in my ranks,” I said. “Care to join me?”

“Doing what?” she asked.

“Whatever the fuck you want.”

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