Page 3 of A Game of Survival

"Brother, snap out of it. We need him to be able to answer us. Any more hits to his jaw and he won't be able to talk," Lincoln grunt, his voice clearing the fog ever so slightly.

Realizing my surroundings and the person in front of me, I bring myself back into reality shaking his hold from my wrist.

"Sorry, I fell down the rabbit hole again," I chuckle, shaking my head.

Lincoln smirks at me, "And who am I? The fucking Mad Hatter in your Alice in Wonderland? I always thought it was Cole that was the one who needed to be pulled out of the darkness. I guess crazy just runs in your blood."

I can’t help but smirk at that comment. I guess we are both a little crazy. Linc leans down where he grabs our prisoners' chin, inspecting the damage. "I have to say Silas, you have really fucked his face up, but it's almost an improvement," Lincoln jokes. Moving towards the side bench he grabs a glass of water and throws it over the Irish fuck, jolting him awake with a groan as his eyes flicker open. I’m surprised he’s still alive if I'm honest.

"Wakey, wakey, rise and shine motherfucker," Linc sings. Blood is trickling down the side of Seamus' face. His eyes are swollen and the bruising is already starting to show. I'd be surprised if he can even see us with how badly I’ve fucked his face up, but at least he can hear us.

"Seamus, it seems you are on the wrong side of things. Unfortunately, I can't guarantee you'll get to leave this room walking but I can give you a quick send off to the next life if you give us the information we need," I say calmly.

"I'm going to hell anyway, doesn't matter the route or speed I travel, so do your worst you Italian cunts," he laughs, spitting a mouthful of blood at us. Before I have a chance to respond or maybe overreact, Linc has pulled a taser from the workbench and zapped the bastard making his body spasm against the cement floor as his teeth grind together and a slow stream of piss spreads its way across the front of his pants.

"Now I don’t know about you, but I can keep this up for a long long time, so how about you tell us where they are keeping the boy? Or do I need to resort to paying in kind?" Linc snarls, leaning down to Seamus’s face.

Blood and sweat drips from his face as he shows his teeth with a grin. "Pay in kind? I have nothing that you can take to bargain with you fucking idiots. I am loyal to the cause!" Lincoln only laughs as he fishes out a picture from his trouser pocket holding it in front of the Irish bastard's face.

"Do you know this girl? It would be a shame if she got caught up in your mess wouldn't it, Seamus my boy." Lincoln taunts, waving the picture closer to his face. And that right there is everything we wanted. Seamus’ face pales and his eyes grow wide as he studies the photo carefully.

"Fuck you! That's my sister. If you hurt a single hair on her head you'll be fucking sorry!" Seamus roars and attempts to scramble to his feet. I would say I'm shocked at Lincoln's strategy to make him give us the information but when the stakes are this high, nothing is off limits. The piece of shit in front of us doesn't know we would never hurt a child.

"Let's see her face, Brother. If she's pretty enough maybe we can auction her off to the highest bidder. If not, at least we can hope she's a virgin. It will bring us a bigger profit if her cunt is still tight and unused." I join in, trying to get a bigger rise out of him.

Seamus glares at us, he’s taken the bait beautifully. “Look, just don't touch her please, she’s innocent! I can't tell you what I don't know!" He begs, his tears mixing with the blood on his face as he begins to sob uncontrollably.

His choice of words trigger me and I see the curtain of red close down across my vision, taking a step forward. "She's innocent!? Like the boy your boss has taken from his mother!? Tell us what we want to know and she'll stay safe from us. You have my word and you know I don’t give that freely." I growl, thrusting his head back to look me in the eye.

"I don't know! All I know is he is not in the city, please!" he chokes. I'm about to pull the gun from my back holster and blow the cunts' brains out for being such a fucking inconvenience when the vibrations of my phone once again catches me off guard. Reaching into my pocket I glance at the screen. Fuck, it’s the hospital.

Without a second thought I answer. "What is it?" I bark into the reciever. I gave my number to the doctor overseeing Lucille and Cole’s care and told him to call me if anything happened to either one of them while Lincoln and I were away. After threatening to slit his throat he seemed more than willing to do as I asked so he had been filling us in on their recoveries while we have been out trying to locate Teddy. In the beginning I hated the way she looked at me with such hope in her eyes when I had to snuff it out everytime I came back to her with no answers. It fucking broke me. Now I wish for that glimmer of hope because she is a broken shell of the woman I love, I can only hope that finding Teddy will restore her light.

"Yes sir, everything is fine."

“Then why the fuck are you interrupting me, Gerrard? I’m fucking busy here!” I seethe, rubbing my thumb and forefinger into my eyes to relieve the tension that’s building.

“It’s your brother, sir, he is awake.”

I snap my eyes open. “We’ll be there as soon as possible, don't let him leave. Where is Miss Holland?" I ask, spinning around to face Linc who’s watching me carefully.

“She’s still by his bedside, sir,” he replies calmly.

“Okay, good. Keep them there.” I instruct before ending the call and turning back to the Irish scum with a new sense of excitement coursing through my body. “He’s fucking alive!” I exclaim, silently thanking the gods that the mad fucker pulled through. “Looks like it's yours and your sister's lucky day. Goodbye, stronzo."

As soon as the words leave my mouth Lincoln has locked, loaded and squeezed the trigger. Blood paints the walls along with chunks of his skull and flesh, leaving a unique piece of art splattered against the entire room, it’s fucking beautiful. I nod to Linc who holsters his gun. "Let's get to the hospital, I’ll call for a clean up on the way. Cole has a lot of explaining to do."

Chapter 3

Cole

A low pitched beeping arouses my senses, pulling me from the depths of sleep. My eyelids flicker open as I take in my surroundings, the bright white walls of the sterile room piercing painfully through my skull. It's almost too bright for me to fully open my eyes,instantly forcing me to close them again. That's when I feel her. Her small steady breaths are warm against my neck, she's asleep, that much I'm sure of, clinging onto me while I lay in an unfamiliar bed. I think back for a moment, racking my brain to how I ended up here. My head is buzzing, tingling almost as I try to force myself to remember. Reality hits me like a freight train. A montage of images flash in my mind, Vinny, the warehouse, Ronan, Teddy, it all comes barreling back at an overpowering speed. I remember the intense pain, Teddy shouting at me to help him, the blood, Lucille's screams and then nothing. My eyes fly open. This is a hospital bed, I’m in a fucking hospital. I can feel my heart palpitating rapidly in my chest, as if it's threatening to crack through my ribcage.

Raising my arm on the opposite side to Lucille, I remove the oxygen mask from my face, allowing me to fully breathe in the distinctly harsh smell of antiseptic that's mixed with that horrible artificial fragrance contained in soaps and cleaner. My inhale hurts more than I imagined as the sterile air seems to burn down through to my chest making me wince. The sudden movement has Lucille stirring beside me and I instantly freeze. I want nothing more than to stay in this moment with her tucked at my side, feeling her petite body against mine, concentrating on the way her breath fans gently across my skin as she sleeps. She has no idea how much I need her at the moment but the memories and images of how I ended up here are filtering through my mind once more and they're too graphic to ignore. Teddy. I need to know they got to him in time.

Carefully shifting myself out of Lucille's embrace, I look at the tubes connecting me to several different machines that I am sure have kept me alive until now and as I take one last lingering glance over at my beautiful little mouse, burying the sight of her peacefully sleeping body deep into my core, I suck in a deep breath and begin to rip the wires from my body, setting off multiple alarms and ripping the skin open from my cannulas, causing blood to seep into the crisp white bed sheets. My movement alone would have woken Lucille but the alarming sound of the vital signs monitor blaring out its alert has her sat bolt upright, wide eyed and gaping at me as she takes in the bloodied scene. Her widened eyes snap to mine and it takes every bit of strength I have to look away from her.

"COLE! You're awake!" she exclaims standing up from the bed, allowing me to move away from her. I frown, noticing from the corner of my vision the way her body sways slightly at her sudden movement, but I have to ignore it. I’m not ready to speak with her just yet. I have failed her and her son, what the fuck am I meant to say to make that any better? I can feel her eyes burning into me, following my actions as I continue removing the mass amount of cannulas and monitoring pads from my body, the blood continuing to ooze from each one that I rip out of my skin. Welcoming the brief stabs of pain momentarily easing the anger that's building inside me. "Cole, stop! What are you doing? You'll hurt yourself!" Lucille pleads. Her voice rapidly becomes louder as she panics at my actions. But I continue to ignore her. "Please Cole, stop!" She screams at me.

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