Page 58 of Hurt to Love
“I think it’s time we wrapped up all the loose ends, don’t you, brother? Go and take care of Rico. Send Pauly and Carlo in to me. I can handle them.” Scarface picked his gun up and started to check the chamber, whistling as he did as if he was on a family day trip.
Death meant nothing to him. Pain was something he thrived on. It was part of his everyday life. He lived for these moments of torture and he didn’t give a fuck about anyone else.
The younger brother, Enzo, smirked and headed out of the lounge area, striding with real purpose.
“One thing you should already know about us, little dog, is that we don’t trust anyone but each other.” He pointed the gun at me and I felt cold sweat seeping out of every pore. In that instance, I realised I didn’t want to die. I didn’t want my world to end on a boat at the hands of these two men. That instinct, the most important instinct that any human possesses kicked in with full force. The instinct to survive at all costs. I pushed myself up and ran for the door that I knew led to the rooms below deck, but he beat me to it and threw me down to the ground.
“Not so fast,dog. There is a bullet in here with your name on it, but I’m not using it yet. We haven’t finished with you by a long shot.” He leant down, bringing his face nose to nose with mine, and I turned away in disgust at the spittle that sprayed out of his mouth as he spoke.
“You wanted to see us, boss?”
The two guards that’d taken Cill away from me were standing in the middle of the room. Their evil grins made me want to scream through my gag that they wouldn’t get away with this. They would pay tenfold for what they’d done. But I needn’t have bothered.
“Yes.” Scarface lifted his gun nonchalantly, and without a second to react, the men were gunned down one after the other, each receiving a single shot to the head in quick succession before falling to the floor. Blood oozed into the cream carpet, but I didn’t flinch. I’d seen enough bloodshed to last me a lifetime. The only shock I felt was that Scarface had killed his own men. Why would he do that?
Another shot went off at the front of the boat, which I assumed was aimed at their guy, Rico. The two brothers were beyond psychotic. They’d need to invent a whole new category of crazy for their fucked-up minds. A thought which didn’t bode well for me. No matter how much they wanted to use me as a pawn, my chances of survival were back to almost zero.
“As I said, we don’t trust anyone.” Scarface kicked the bodies of both men then put another bullet in each of them for good measure. It was obvious from the glazed over expression on both the guys’ faces that they were dead. What was the point of shooting them again? Vanity, no doubt.
Scarface sauntered over to a large mirror hanging at the far end of the room and smoothed his slick, black hair back into place. His hand was as steady as a surgeon’s, despite the fact that he’d just executed two men he called friends only moments earlier.
“And then there were three.” Enzo came back into the room, grinning from ear to ear and looking between me and his brother. “So, are we gonna ditch the boat or what?”
Scarface pulled a bag out from behind one of the couches. I hadn’t noticed it before, and my stomach rolled at the thought of what was in there. He pulled out some handcuffs and walked over to me, pushing me face down onto the carpet and yanking my arms behind me.
“Let’s get this one secured first. We can’t afford to lose her overboard now, can we?”
He cuffed my hands tightly behind my back, then, dragging me by my hair, he pulled me towards the door that led to the rooms below deck.
“I’m gonna have a ciggie outside before I join you,” Enzo said, taking a packet of cigarettes out of his jacket pocket and strolling back out onto the deck.
“No worries. I’ll get this one ready downstairs.”
I scrabbled around on my knees, trying to stand and ease the pain of his pull on my hair as he dragged me to the depths of the boat and the depths of hell. Once I’d been hauled down the small staircase and coaxed along the short corridor, we came to a small bedroom. It was furnished white, pure, but ready for the sins they were about to commit.
He lifted me onto the bed, and although I protested as hard as I could with my kicks and jolts, I was no match for him. He unlocked the cuffs, but the respite to my skin didn’t last long. Threading them through the metal frame of the bed, he clasped them back onto my wrists even tighter than before. I was chained to the bed now. Chained and ready for them.
He stood back to admire his handiwork and chuckled to himself.
“You know, when all of this is over, I think I’m gonna miss you, little one. I’m gonna miss our crazy games. It’s been fun, hasn’t it?”
Who the fuck was he kidding? I wanted to scream back that I’d see him in hell, but all I could do was grunt and moan through the gag.
He started rifling through drawers to see what he could find. Then, after a few minutes of searching, he looked around with a puzzled expression on his face.
“Shit. I left my bag of tricks upstairs. Don’t go anywhere.” He winked and walked out of the door, leaving me to suffer alone with my excruciating thoughts.
Present time…
“Now here’sa face I didn’t expect to see again in this lifetime. I should’ve known better than to trust those two dumb fucks to do a decent job and shoot you.” The gravelly voice, which was channelled straight from hell, made my blood boil. “What is it they say…?”
“Once a cunt, always a cunt?” I hissed out, turning my head to see Isaac glaring hellfire right back at me.
“You should know, Cill. It takes one to know one.” He kept his gun raised and his arm steady, but his eyes slowly strayed to the door behind us.
I followed his gaze to see Jackson walking back in, only ahead of him was Enzo, with his hands behind his head. Jackson’s gun was pointed at the back of Enzo’s head. We were like a pair of mismatched warriors, ready to take each other down like some badly written Wild West saga. Fastest finger first and all that. I had faith in Jackson, but I didn’t trust Isaac, the trigger-happy psycho. I don’t think he really gave a shit about his brother. If push came to shove, I think he’d have happily let Enzo take a bullet if it meant he could take me out at the same time. The nerves that would’ve usually surfaced at a time like this were absent. All I felt was the shots of adrenaline firing off inside my body. I had a job to do, and I needed to stay focused.
“Where the fuck is she?” I growled. “I swear to God, if you’ve hurt her, then my killing you will be the least of your problems.” I clenched both of my fists in fury, but Isaac just laughed and kicked my gun across the room out of my reach.
