Page 92 of The Taskmaster
I would happily tear my own hands and feet off to escape these chains, crawl through my own blood if it meant I could stop them getting to her.
“You’re a dead man,” I hissed. “You won’t ever fucking touch her.”
“You’re in no position to threaten me,” he said, sitting tall with a superior air that made me snarl louder. “But let’s focus on today, yes?”
He grinned as I bared my teeth, yanking on my chains, and growling like a wild animal.
“Now, where was I?” He folded his arms across his chest. “Let me start by introducing myself, seeing as you don’t seem to know who I am. I’m Doctor Charles Quinn, but most people call me Q.”
The wild animal inside me roared like a lion, desperate to escape its cage, and wreak havoc on everything and everyone.
It was him.
Q, the fucking rapist piece of shit.
He wouldn’t leave here alive. Not while there was still breath in my body and fight in my bones.
“I will fucking kill you,” I sneered, and he just laughed.
“Is that because I took your girlfriend’s virginity all those years ago? Or because I started stalking her before you?” He leaned forward, his brows furrowed as he grinned wickedly. “It’s fun watching them, isn’t it? Being in control. Having power. Like a cat toying with a mouse. The more you play with them, the more the anticipation builds, and we love the anticipation, don’t we? Admit it. You know exactly what I’m talking about. That’s why I waited so long to bring us to this point. When I eventually kill her, or you, it’s all over, and all I’m left with is memories. But the chase is fucking phenomenal. It’s what drives us on, isn’t it? It’s how men like us survive in the wild.”
“I am nothing like you,” I growled, venom burning fire in my belly.
“Oh, but you are. I know all about you. I know that you watched every one of my colleagues at Clivesdon House, pickingthem off one by one. You revel in the thrill of the chase, playing the little games you play. Did you think I didn’t notice?”
“Notice?” I tilted my head back, narrowing my eyes at him and giving my own cocky grin. “Why would I notice you? I have no idea who the fuck you are.”
I knew who he was, but I also knew that me not knowing him back then pissed him off, judging by the way he clenched his jaw in irritation. He fed off the fear that he thought his fucking name created. But in front of him stood a man that didn’t feel fear anymore. I’d been to the depths of hell. I’d stared the devil and his disciples in the face, and endured things that’d make others beg for death to take them away and end it all. And I was still here; dead inside, and programmed to kill to survive.
I was going nowhere.
“Then let me tell you a little about me,” he said, settling back, ready to tell his story that I had no fucking interest in. “For years I worked at the General Hospital in town. It was the perfect position for me. I could help people when they were ill and help myself at the same time. I made a hell of a lot more money in my private endeavours than I did in my medical capacity. Maybe I should give you an example of how that worked.
“Twenty-eight years ago, I was working the night shift, or the graveyard shift, as I liked to call it. A heavily pregnant woman walked in. Well... I say woman, she couldn’t have been older than eighteen. She was in active labour, and as luck would have it, I spotted her before she had the chance to go to the reception desk and check in. I told her I was a doctor, that I’d take care of her, and I ushered her down the corridor and into a side room.
“A young nurse called Fiona Tapp, was working that night. She was on my payroll and knew how to be discrete. She helped me deliver the baby. The mother did well, coping on gas and air. It’s a big thing for a young girl to go through, without family around her or strong drugs to numb the pain she was clearly in,but she was adamant she wanted to deliver the baby the best way she could. All she cared about was making sure her baby was all right. When he was born, he didn’t cry right away. A build-up of mucus had blocked his airways, and I gave Nurse Tapp the nod. She knew what was expected of her.
“Nurse Tapp took the baby away, and I told Tia, the mother, that it was all perfectly normal. The baby’s airways needed to be cleared, and we had to take him to another part of the hospital to do that with specialised equipment. She trusted me. I was the doctor. I was in complete and total control.
“I cleaned the girl up, gained her trust, and when Nurse Tapp came back in and delivered the devastating news that her baby had died, I held her as she wailed.
“She asked to see the baby. She wanted to hold him in her arms just once, so she could kiss him and say goodbye. I agreed, left the room and made my way to the morgue. There was a mortuary technician on duty that night. I paid him a sum of money to leave the mortuary for a while, making sure he knew that if anyone ever found out about it, his family would receive a visit from some men they wouldn’t want to meet. He knew me. He knew my threats carried weight, and he agreed to the deal.
“I took a baby boy from the morgue, cradled him in my arms and carried him back to Tia Bailey as she lay on the bed in the side room. She cried, kissed his head and said goodnight to her sweet angel, telling me she wanted to call him Enzo. We sat with her for a while, then I took the baby back to the mortuary. When I returned, I told Tia it was best to leave the funeral preparations to the hospital. The cost of a private funeral would be astronomical. More than a single mother in her position could afford. She agreed, and we managed to take her out of the side room so she could exit through the back doors of the hospital.
“I paid for a taxi to take her home. I never thought I’d see Tia Bailey again, but that girl was a persistent bitch. A week later, she came back in, saying she wanted to see her baby boy again. Said she wanted to give him a proper burial. The receptionists had no idea what she was on about, there was no record of her on the system, and there was no baby listed in the records under the name Enzo Bailey.
“She saw me walk past and called out to me, telling the staff that I’d delivered the baby, and I knew all about it. I told them I’d take care of it and took her to my office. I later told the reception staff that she had mental health issues and was convinced she’d had a baby at the hospital, and that it’d died. I told them I’d referred her to the mental health team, and they were relieved that it’d been taken care of.
“And I did take care of her. She was a loose end I couldn’t afford to have, storming into the hospital and throwing a light on me when I was happy to work quietly in the shadows. I couldn’t risk her coming into the hospital again, asking questions and causing trouble. So, I took care of Tia Bailey. I silenced her forever. She was a fighter though, a bit like your girl. Strangling her was heavy work, it took three of us to hold her down.
“There’s nothing left of Tia Bailey now. Her remains were incinerated at the hospital. And the baby she delivered, the little boy she called Enzo Bailey, was sold for five thousand pounds to a man I knew through my other line of work. Phil Dalton would do anything for his wife, Ruth. She was desperate for a baby, but it just wasn’t happening for them.” In a hushed tone, he said, “Low sperm count, you see.
“I think they got a bargain when they bought you, Isaiah. But after a few weeks, Phil became irritated with how much you cried, and what a drain you were on their finances. Not to mention the attention Ruth gave you that Phil was jealous of. I think he regretted getting you. But that wasn’t my problem. Youwere a business transaction. Not the most fruitful. The kids in Halliwell House and Clivesdon made me far more money. You’d be surprised how much a young girl and boy can go for on the black market.”
I didn’t want the tears brimming in my eyes to fall. I didn’t want to feel a fucking thing after what he’d just told me.
They weren’t my parents.
