Page 2 of Restitution
His gaze floats around the room again, to the guys lifting one of their dead friends, then back to me. “Stop asking questions,” he grits.
My right eye twitches as their head of security enters the room. “We’ve got orders to lock you up, kid,” he says, and I imagine him dead on the floor like the other two. “You’re not to be released until the induction is over.”
Base is lifted onto a stretcher and carried out while my eyes gobetween him and the guards. They won’t let me go with him – they have guns pointing at me now, but I know he’s not going to die.
Since I don’t have my phone, I glance at the guard I just spoke to. “I want Bernadette on the line. I’ll go to the cells, but I want to speak with her first.”
We’re in one of Archie’s houses on the outskirts of London – somewhere they like to go when things get too heated and want to lay low.
The main guard huffs, and he pulls his phone out, taps the screen then puts it to his ear. “It’s Polner. Yeah, everything is fine down here. Is the boss there?” He straps his gun away and turns his back to me while the others keep their aim on me. “The mouthy one wants to talk to her. No, not the Russian. Tobias Mitchell’s son.”
There’s a pause, then the faint sound of the voice I despise.
“Good evening, Mrs Sawyer. I have Kade here. No, sorry, he isn’t in the cells yet, but he said he’d go willingly if he speaks with you. Yes, the Russian is alive – he’ll survive his injury.”
He turns, his face red as he hands me the phone, and I snatch it from his grip. My body trembles with a mixture of everything I’m feeling. “Call off their deals,” I demand when Bernadette stays silent, yet the sound of her nails pianoing on her desk echoes through the line. “My sister and Stacey. Call it off. Or I’ll pay for them and let them go. Dosomething.”
She hums, and I can tell she’s smiling. “And why would I do that?”
“The only thing you hold over me is the people I care about. The only thing you ever held over me was those I loved. You fucked with my dad for years, and now you’re fucking with my sister and my—” I stop, gripping the phone tighter. “You’re playing a dangerous game here.”
She laughs. “Is that a threat, Kade?”
“It’s a promise. If they’re inducted and leave with whoever fucking bought them, I will fuck you up. You’ll no longer have anything to blackmail me with. You sell them, and I will make sure the last day of your life is a nightmare. Your daughter? I’ll record her screams while I skin her alive and send you her fucking bones. I’ll make you watch Archie suffer, and I’ll leave you for last. If anything fucking happens to those girls, you better hide, you piece of shit.”
“So feisty, my dear boy.”
Then the line cuts out, and I throw the phone at the wall, smashing it to pieces.
“Nice one, asshole. You owe me a new phone. Now do as you’re told and get in the cuffs.”
Glancing up, I see the mouthy one – the main guard, head of security – unsheathing his gun. He’s much larger than me and built like a fucking tank. I drive my fist into his face so hard, I hear a snap. I’m so blinded by rage that I think the snapping sound might have come from my hand, but when I look down at him on his knees, his broken jaw hangs as he cries in pain. I sigh and let them shackle me then drag me to the cells.
2
STACEY
The room is dark and cold – icy air licks at my exposed skin. Compared to the elegance of upstairs, down here looks like one of thoseSawmovies.
Am I about to die? Where’s Luciella?
The elevator dings behind me as it starts ascending, leaving me to tremble in fear and terror. There’s a shadow of a guard standing by the door, his gun strapped to his chest, and I can hear light sobs coming from somewhere. Through the air vent?
“We have another one!” he calls out, and I flinch. “Should I send her through yet? Is the other one sorted?”
I have no idea what the person says in response. It’s a mumble. Faint. An echo. The sobbing through the vent stops, ormaybe it just gets quieter, or maybe I’m just imagining it in my state of shock.
I need to find Luciella. We need to get out of this.
“Stacey Fields,” I whisper, shaking uncontrollably, a lone tear slipping down my cheek. “Pl-ease.”
Then I flatten my lips and pause as the guard briefly shines a torch in my face before turning around again. “She’s young, maybe early twenties. Appears unharmed,” he says and then laughs. “Well, for now. How much did she go for?”
He whistles and laughs again. Glancing over his shoulder to me, frozen in place, he sneers. “She’s tainted with ink though. It’s a disgusting sight. Are you ready for her yet? Should I strip this one too?”
Strip…
Oh God.
