Page 39 of Encircled in Darkness
Today, I would free him from the pain of addiction... forever.
I looked at Devlin and he nodded before walking out of the room. There were many ways to get someone to talk, and from the amount of sweat pouring off Cole, he desperately needed a fix. He glared at a retreating Devlin and I slapped him again, drawing his anger back to me.
I asked again, ready to move past this waste of a human. “Why are you watching Amaya?”
“Is that the whore’s name?” He licked his lips and I saw his dick twitch. “Hmm, Amaya. I heard about all the fucked-up shit she does. Too bad I didn’t get a chance to fuck her. I heard everyone else did, usually at once.” He sneered and me and my vision grew hazy.
I grabbed his dick and squeezed until he stood on his tiptoes, screaming into the room. My nostrils flared and I released him as I drew my knife from the sheath. Dragging the blade up his leg, his eyes grew wide as I quickly sliced down the front of his thigh, a steady flow of blood running down his leg while he screamed like a pussy.
“Stop. Stop. Please.” He begged as tears streamed down his face.
Pathetic.
Devlin returned and sat down, his forearms resting on his legs as his eyes danced with delight. Inhaling deeply, I reached up and grabbed his pinky finger from his right hand and cut through the bone, severing the digit from his hand. Blood poured down his arm and dotted his chest and head. He puked and I bent backward as the bile splatted to the floor.
“Why are you watching my woman?” I screamed into his face, spittle landing on him as the monster demanded answers.
I went to cut him again and he pleaded, “Please. I’ll tell you. I’ll tell you.”
Stepping away from him, Freddie pressed a button and the chain holding his hand lowered as he sank to the dirty floor, vomit under his ass as he cried on the floor, naked, bleeding, and scared. I crouched in front of him; the vomit mixed with the stench of copper overpowered the smell of urine as he pissed himself.
“Speak.” The deadly tone echoed into the room and his eyes grew hazy.
I slapped his cheek a few times. “Focus, Cole. Why the fuck are you watching Amaya?”
“It wasn’t just her. I watched them both.” Devlin stood and the chair flew behind him as he stormed to Cole and kicked him in the chin with his steel-toed boots. Cole yelled, blood pouring from his mouth as he tried to crawl away from Devlin, only to be restricted by his bound hands. I stood over a broken Cole as Devlin became unhinged.
“What does my wife have to do with this?” Devlin bellowed into the room and Cole held his tied hands out, the stump from his missing finger pouring blood down his forearm.
“Not her. God, not her.” He pleaded, tears flowing as he looked at me, terror etched across his face. “The sister.”
Devlin caught me as Cole struggled to his knees at our feet. He wiped his face with a bloody wrist and continued. “He paid me to watch them both. Then the sister... went away, and it was just her.”
There was a glimmer in his eyes, and I realized what he meant. I bellowed into the room, “You had something to do with her being attacked, didn’t you, you sick son of a bitch! Why?”
“He paid to find them and report back to him. I had to monitor them, but I had no idea she was connected to you until last month. I swear.”
I grasped him by the hair and lifted him off his knees, so he was eye to eye with me. “Who? Who’s paying you to watch them? Who paid you to hurt Natalia?”
“Some lawyer in Lincolnville. He said she needed to be silenced and to make it look like a robbery. I swear I didn’t know they were connected to you. He paid me to find them and...” his eyes grew wide and something inside of me snapped.
I grabbed the knife from Devlin’s hip and plunged it into the side of Cole’s skull, sinking it to the hilt. His eyes grew wide and his mouth opened and closed, no words coming out as the blood flowed down the side of his head. Blood ran from his eyes and filled his mouth as I yanked the blade out and he fell face first to the floor, twitching and gasping as he fought through the last minutes of his life.
Turning, I pulled my phone from my pocket and opened the camera app. Looking through every camera, I felt physically sick when I couldn’t find her. Rewinding the feed an hour, I found her sitting on the back deck when her phone rang. There wasn’t audio on the app, but I could see her jump up and run into the bedroom as she spoke with someone on the phone. Tossing on a pair of pants and a shirt, she stuffed her feet into her tennis shoes, and ran out the front door.
I tried to call her, but the phone went straight to voicemail and I left her a message before calling again.
I barked at Skid. “She’s gone. We need to find her. NOW!”
Looking at Devlin, “Find that god damn lawyer and bring him here. I’m going to cut him into pieces until he tells me what the fuck he wants with Amaya and her sister. Then I’m going to kill Victor Yanos, whether he was involved or not.”
Amaya
The dream had been playing over in over in my mind and my gut was telling me something was coming. Something bad. I tried to shake the heavy feelings, but I kept seeing Natalia disappear in front of my eyes and the tears started again. Nova jumped into my lap and I started scratching his back as he happily purred.
I wanted to call James, but he said he would be gone all day and I didn’t want to become a bother for him. I hated depending on anyone, but I had grown so used to him always being around and I was struggling. Laying my head back, I felt the morning sun shining down on my face, warming the cold feeling deep inside. My phone rang and Nova jumped down at the shrill sound.
I immediately recognized the hospital where Natalia was from the specific ringtone and my heart jumped into my throat as I scrambled to answer the call.
