Page 119 of Menace

He patted my arm. “Now that wasn’t so difficult, hmmm?”

I didn’t answer. All I knew was pain. It engulfed my entire body with sharp insistence. I couldn’t stop crying, and my tears ran and ran and ran. Wetting my hair as it ran from my eyes and down the sides of my face.

I heard his voice as if from very far away.

“Clean the cuts and close them up. I’ll be back after I talk to the brother and Carmella.”

I must have been in and out of consciousness while one of the men cleaned me up. Every now and then I surfaced to hear him muttering in Spanish. The other man answered in a low voice. I kept on drifting off on waves of pain.

I woke up still on the table, still strapped down, a space blanket draped over me. My body shook with shivers and I moaned in pain.

“Drink.” A voice said in my ear. “It will help for pain.”

Slowly opening my eyes I saw it was the man who had flinched, he was holding a cup with a straw. His brown eyes were filled with compassion and regret. Opening my mouth I took the straw between my lips and sipped. The liquid was cold and I drank greedily.

“No, slow. Not too much. No want to be sick.” He muttered in broken English.

“Thank you.” My throat hurt and my voice came out sounding scratchy and hoarse.

His soft brown eyes closed slowly then he was looking at me again and shaking his head before putting the straw back to my lips.

I sipped slowly until he pulled the straw from my lips and stepped back.

The room slowly disappeared behind a haze.

Then thankfully the room and the pain disappeared.

THIRTY THREE

Carlos

He looked up from his laptop when his brother Jorge stormed into his study. He looked angry, angry enough that he knew someone was going to suffer for it later. He sat back in his chair and waited for him to tell him what had pissed him off.

“I just had a call from Maniac, the leader of those bikers. He says we attacked and took one of theirs. Apparently we shot their men and took a woman and her son who was under their protection. Someone called Harper Delaney. I told him it wasn’t us and that we don’t have her. I asked him why they took Joaquin and he was confused. He said they don’t have him but they do have information on who took him and where he’s being kept.”

Throwing himself into the chair across the desk he pointed a finger at Carlos.

“I was sure if you had planned such an operation you would have let me know. So I denied all knowledge and kept denying until they sent me footage of Carmella and that Salvatore piece of shit dragging a woman and a small baby into one ofourcars, withourmen covering their backs. Did you give them permission to do this stupid thing? I thought we were going after Lucky Boudreaux, not some woman who’s not even connected to the bikers.”

As his brother vented Carlos went over the things the woman, Harper Delaney, had told him. Unfortunately he had believed the lies the brother and Carmella told him and therefore thought she was the one who was the liar. That was why he had given Pablo permission to make her talk.

Carmella was fired up to sell the baby at an auction she was already busy organising.

This was going to be a problem.

A big problem.

“You’re right. I did not give permission for the attack. Carmella overstepped and convinced the men I had given her the authority to snatch the woman and her child. When I questioned this Harper Delaney she said she was the woman of the head of the Irish mafia in South Africa, Asa Malone. I didn’t believe her because her brother said she was engaged to one of his associates. He claims she ran away from her responsibility to her family. He came here to retrieve her and take her back home. I gave Pablo permission to make her talk.”

Jorge shook his head and jumped up and started pacing.

“Dios mio(My God), what have you done? My son isn’t stable at the best of times and you gave this woman to him? What were you thinking?”

Carlos shrugged. “Carmella and the woman’s brother convinced me she was the whore of one of the bikers. They weren’t sure which one. Her brother insisted he was here to take her home to marry his associate. He claims the child is that of the associate. He gave us permission to hurt her a little to get answers and gave us the kid to sell.”

Jorge paced in front of his desk, his phone in his hand as he typed furiously. Carlos sat back, watching his brother’s mind working. He knew he would come up with a way to smooth this over for them. This is why their business worked with the two of them, he was the power behind it and Jorge the brain.

“We have to stall. We can’t let them know Pablo hurt her. They will retaliate and we will lose what little foothold we have gained here. We can’t let it happen. How the fuck are we going to do this?” He muttered as he paced, waiting for a reply on the long message he had sent.

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