Page 26 of The Sicuro

We are in the car, Anders following in his. When we got in, I looked over at Anders car and there was someone in his driver’s seat, their stature making me think it was David. After some time in the car, we pull into The Manor’s driveway. I glance at Gabriel with a look of confusion on my face. As we pull to a stop Gabriel looks over at me.

“You don’t have to come in.”

“I want to.”

Anders opens his car door, and Gabriel steps out, helping me out after him. He holds my hand and walks at a pace that allows me to walk beside him. We follow Anders into the building, and I note that it was David who is now following behind us. We take some stairs via a fire exit down to another floor. I thought we would be entering a basement but it’s a long corridor with rooms coming off each side of it. It’s decorated but feels cold, the floor is concrete, and the doors to the rooms look thick and heavy. We stop at a door halfway down the corridor.

Seventeen

Gabriel

Ilook at her, trying to gauge her expression and if I should let her walk through this door. It’s the first time I can’t see any kind of emotion on her face, it’s blank, she’s ensuring that no one knows what she is feeling. After the initial confusion of us turning up at The Manor, it was like the things that were discussed at the meeting I had with Charles started to fall into place.

I look at Anders and give the nod, he unlocks the door slowly pushing it open allowing the light to enter the pitch-black room. As it does the sound of metal hitting the ground and mumbling fills the silence. I walk in, Anders following, David then guides Kelcie in, directing her to stand in the corner of the room. The room is the size of an average meeting room, allowing plenty of space for what will take place. The floor and walls are concrete, with a drain in the corner. It’s what you would expect a basement to look like except for the metal chair secured to the ground around a third of the way from the back wall. One long wall has a racking system with tools neatly hung and stored.

The man in the chair is thrashing around trying to free himself. It won’t be possible, his ankles and wrists are chained to the chair, with another across his chest pinning him completely to it. He’s gagged with duct tape that goes across his mouth and around his head several times, then another across his eyes. Blood, snot, and sweat are dripping down onto his chest and bruising covers what part of his face you can see. His wrists and ankles bleeding from where he has been trying to escape.

As David shuts the door behind us and turns on the dull light, I turn to Anders and give him another nod. He picks up a knife and places it on the man’s head to cut off the duct tape that covers his eyes. As he feels the cold blade against his skin, he shakes his head causing the blade to slice across his temple.

“You stupid bastard.” Anders snaps at him as he grabs his head to hold him still. He makes a clean cut through the tape and rips it off, the guy screams but they are muffled by the tape across his mouth. He squeezes his eyes shut, then opens them a few times trying to get his vision to adjust. As it does, I’m standing in front of him, he immediately starts thrashing around when he clocks me.

“If I take that off your mouth, are you going to tell me what I want to know?”

He muffles from behind his gag, shaking his head letting us all know that it’s play time. As Anders sees his head shake, he takes a diamond sharpening file from the racking, steps forward and slowly pushes it into his shoulder. The muffled screams louden and tears stream downhis face, before pulling it out Anders pushes it in a little further. I see the man’s eyes dilate, the muffling stops and his breathing shallows. He’s going to pass out. Before he does, Anders swiftly slaps him across his face bringing him back round.

I nod to Anders to remove the tape from his mouth, he cuts one side before ripping it partly off, leaving it hanging from the side of his face. I grab the end of the rag that is in his mouth and pull it out, as I do, he gasps in a deep breath, and then vomits. As his head hangs forward, I push it up with the palm of my hand.

“Who do you work for?” My voice is cold and dull. He shakes his head. I push my thumb into the wound that Anders just caused. He screams.

“O’Connell”

“Why did he want her dead.”

“Because of what you did to him and his father.” I glance over at Anders, and we both clock that he means O’Connell’s son James.

“And O’Connell approved this.”

“No, but realised he couldn’t stop him, he’s signed over the business and disappeared.”

“And you’re the one doing the dirty work. Where is he?”

“I don’t know, he just calls.”

“Does he know you’ve completed what he asked?”

He nods. I look over at David, he has been standing near the door to let Kelcie out at any point. I’ve not looked at her since we walked in. She has been able to see everything going onbut where we are positioned, the piece of shit in the chair doesn’t have a direct view of her.

Anders passes me a knife, I move around to the back of the chair, and he knows what’s coming and starts thrashing around again. Gripping his forehead with my forearm I pull his head back presenting his throat. I look over at David who steps slightly to the side putting Kelcie in his view. His eyes widen and his thrashing increases.

“You failed.” My words are rough. I press the knife into the left side of his neck, feeling his pulse beating fast, as I pierce the skin Kelcie takes a step forward.

“Do it slowly.” The words from her mouth are cold and heartless, I look at her for the first time since entering the room, her eyes black and void. I do as she asks, keeping my eyes locked on hers, I slowly pull the knife across his neck, causing thick deep red blood to flood down over his chest, slowly killing him.

I hand the knife back to Anders who passes me a cloth so I can clean my hands. By the time I have handed the cloth back to Anders, the man has stopped spluttering, his head hanging down and body drenched in his blood. I walk over to Kelcie she is standing still, staring at the corpse that now sags in the chair, I take her hand, David opens the door and I have to give her a small pull to walk with me. She turns and walks by my side in silence, her body calm, relaxed and breathing normal. As we walk back up the stairs, she turns to walk out the door, but I guide her up to the top floor with the suites. The room that Charles had arranged for me isgoing to be used, I’m not waiting until I get her home, reaching the door, I punch in the code to open it. It’s a suite that has a bedroom, en-suite bathroom and a lounge that houses a seating area and desk.

Pulling her into me I can feel her heart hammering in her chest, it’s the only sign I can feel or see that indicates she has had any reaction to what she has just seen. I wrap my arms around her, she leans in but only for a moment before pulling away.

“I’m ok.” Her voice is still flat.

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