Page 91 of The Taskmaster
Drip.
I could hear the sound of water dripping as I came to. It was coming from a leaky pipe that I focused on as excruciating pain screamed through every inch of my body. The drugs they’d put in me before I fell unconscious, were warping my mind and distorting sounds around me, but it was wearing off. My body was used to fighting.
The muscles in my arms ached as I tried to move. They were elevated, and my fingers felt numb from the lack of blood flow. I was hanging somewhere, and I could feel the sting of metal cuffs around my wrists as my arms hung limply above my head.
Cold, icy air whipped around me. My chest was bare, but I was still wearing my jeans, although my shoes were also missing. Slowly, I lifted my head, my vision blurry as I blinked to try and gain clarity on my situation. I shuffled my feet, the metal cuffs on my ankles clinking as I moved. They weighed me down, halting my movement. I was shackled to the ceiling and the floor, chained in what looked like a disused warehouse. There were nowindows. The walls were grey concrete and everywhere smelt of oil, rust and mildew.
And in front of me, sitting on a wooden chair and grinning like a fucking fool, was a man I’d never seen before in my life.
“Nice of you to join us,” he said, sliding his hands down the legs of his black suit trousers, and then he leaned forward in his chair to stare up at me. “Hello, Isaiah Dalton. Or is it Isaiah James now?” He rubbed his hand over his jaw, regarding me suspiciously, and then he added, “Or Enzo Bailey, perhaps?”
My head was swimming from the pain, my mind a blur as I tried to focus on how I could get out of here. I had to figure out an escape plan. This was what I was good at, figuring my way out of a tricky situation. But as he listed those names, I sneered back at him, “Who the fuck are you?”
I spat on the floor in front of me, blood mixed with my saliva, and I ran my tongue across my teeth. They’d beaten me, bruised my face, but they hadn’t knocked any teeth out. They weren’t trying hard enough. “And who the fuck is Enzo Bailey?” I snarled, and he shook his head.
“You really have no idea, do you?”
I lifted my chin, staring back at him with a cocky grin on my face. “So fucking enlighten me then,” I sneered.
“Teach him some manners, boys,” he called out, sitting back in his chair as three men in black suits, wearing balaclavas to hide their identity, walked towards me.
They were the men from the black Mercedes, that’d jumped me earlier.
The first one sidled over to a table set against the wall. He picked up a set of keys and jangled them in my direction.
“You won’t have any use for these,” he sneered. “But the rest of this stuff has your name written all over it. He picked up different knives, a hammer and machete, then settled ona baseball bat. “I think I’ll go old school. I could do with a workout.”
He swung the bat as he stalked towards me, then slammed it hard into my stomach. I doubled over, hanging my head as I composed myself, and tried to regain my breath. I’d already tensed my muscles, and it still hurt like a motherfucker, but I could handle it.
The other two picked up different whips; one a cat o’ nine tails, the other a thick leather strap, and when the first guy stood back, they took it in turns to whip my chest. I breathed deeply, accepting each sting, and taking myself to the place in my brain where everything switched off. Just like I’d learnt to do at Clivesdon House, when they’d abused me in that basement. I was no stranger to pain, but pain wouldn’t own me. Nothing would ever hold power over me like that again.
I gritted my teeth as they sliced into my skin, and I hung my head, closing my eyes as the blows reined.
Eventually, the guy on the chair said, “That’s enough. You can leave us alone now.”
I felt like I could try to catch my breath a little easier as the blows stopped.
I wanted to say, ‘Is that all you’ve got?’ but I also wanted to get this over with. I had to find a way out of here to get to Abigail. I had to trust that in hiding her in my apartment, they hadn’t gotten to her already, and she was safe.
I watched through swollen, heavy eyes, my body screeching in pain, as the three men walked away, leaving me with the stranger. They thought they were hard men, beating me while I stood chained up in front of them. They weren’t hard. If I could break these shackles and fight back, I’d show them exactly what it took to be a tough guy. Three against one was nothing. I’d taken on more men than that when I was a kid. I could facethem. And I would, when I figured out a way to turn the tables and escape these restraints.
“I think it’s time for a little story, don’t you?” the man said, and he sat in his chair as calm as anything, no idea he had the devil’s son chained in front of him, and all too soon, the fires of hell were about to scorch him to smithereens.
If looks could kill, my stare would’ve sliced him to nothing, mutilated him until he was unrecognisable.
“But first,” he announced. “I have to say, bravo.” Slowly, he started to clap his hands, nodding at me with mock respect.
My lip curled as I growled back at him.
“You weren’t an easy man to track down,” he went on. “We’d been watchingherfor a long time.”
I snarled, telling him I’d kill him, but he ignored me, stating, “But you? We couldn’t get a hold on you. Every time we got close, you disappeared again. We got lucky when you started following her, though. You made it easy to target you. Granted, we had planned to take her first, but this works out so much better.”
He chuckled to himself, and what he said next made me rattle the chains that held me so violently, as both relief and unbridled fury fired through my veins. “Maybe I’ll keep you here for a few days, and when we find her, I’ll bring her in here and you can watch me fuck her on the dirty floor at your feet before I slit her throat. Would you like that?”
“Fuck you,” I snarled as the chains tore through my flesh from the savage way I shook and tugged on them. I wrenched the cuffs so hard my limbs felt like they’d rip apart at any moment. But I didn’t care.
She might be safe, but I would die before I let them take her. This ended, here tonight, with me.
