*Abduction: Awakening III
Posted on Thursday, September 27th, 2007Her eyes squeezed shut, breaking our brief contact. I turned my back to her and poured some Disaronno in a glass. It was a distraction from the raven-haired girl, woman, who as now struggled to right herself on the bed. I watched her gag, choking back the contents of her throat that spilled forward. Her face was flushed red where it wasn’t hidden behind her hair, or the swath of tape that Lucio placed over her mouth.
I’d untie her once she got past the initial shock of it all, once she allowed her mind to embrace just how screwed she was. And she was, utterly screwed - just as involved now that her name had come up on the damned list Lucio assembled after my brother was killed a few months back. Here I was working for the man, who, no matter what circumstance would have me believe, killed him. Not Lou, Lucio, he was my man, but Joe - Joseph Rizzone.
Information. I doubted Anne had any idea why she was here. While their friendship, strained as it was after our affair, continued, Dante would not have burdened her with this weight. My job now was to make sure she made it off the list alive. Dante. I missed him, painfully, keenly.
I dragged my gaze back to the girl on the bed. She had pushed herself up so that she was sitting on the bed, her legs hanging over the side, bound at ankles and above the knees. Her eyes, dark, stared at me as if she were trying to process the site of me anew. The tape moved where her breath had moistened it and loosened it from her skin.
She was breathing too fast. Her cheeks were flushed. My lips twisted into a humorless smile. ‘You do remember me then..’
I leaned off the bar stool and she jerked back as if the condensing air between us had struck her physically. Tears started to leak out of the corners of her eyes. I never understood this reaction in other people; most of them were killed knowing that their actions had driven them to that conclusion. Anne, however, was allowed those tears.
I moved from the bar and her body stiffened, screaming its unwelcome without any words coming from her mouth. Her eyes were marbles in her head, wide, rolling with the rocking movements her body was making. ‘Calm down, Annerire. You’re making a mess of yourself.’
She didn’t, couldn’t respond, the waves of nausea were a side effect that some people encountered. It was a messy, unfortunate complication. I neared her and she bucked off the bed as if she were in pain, but froze as my hand reached for the tape on her mouth. I smirked at her. ‘You play the victim well.’
That phrase uttered as I ruthlessly separated the tape from her skin. She cried out, coughing, breathing and choking all at the same time – as if her body couldn’t decide if it first needed to be emptied or filled. She gave up, minutes later and coughed up the remains of her stomach before her eyes rolled back and she passed out.
I couldn’t blame her. The eyes she saw me with were as jaded as the ones that peered at me from behind window blinds in the neighborhood, except she knew, first hand, what I had done – could do. I hated that look. Even she had no right to fucking judge me. I did what I had to do to survive.
I was rough when I turned her limp body over, more than I had to be to get at the binds keeping her legs and arms still. Anger rolled through my head, staining my thoughts with retaliation that would kill that look in her eyes. I could empty her out; make her the same hollow, fucking shell.
I pulled a knife out and flicked it open with the practiced ease of a killer. The blade slid under the rope and split it open with barely a sawing motion. I pulled it from her skin. Cut the other ties. In that moment, I wanted to wake her up screaming. My hand tightened on the blade, I saw it a thousand different ways, the blade going into her skin, but didn’t act.
I didn’t act. I gathered the ropes and discarded them in the trash can sitting by the bar. There wasn’t a thing I could do with the comforter until she woke up, and I wasn’t going to risk that happening at this moment. Any doubt I had about the ending of this plan were cemented by the smile I felt on my lips when I remembered her fear.
Oh yea. I was too far gone.
I opened the lid on a bottle of Goose, ignoring the Disaronno, and just brought it to my mouth. I heard a knock on the door before the first drop even touched my lips. I reached for the gun tucked at the center of my back, aimed. ‘Come in.’
Lou’s cautious steps in the door were those of a man used to my greeting. His palms were up. He looked down at the key and I nodded, the gun still pointed at his skull prepared to blow a hole in the back of his head if the need arose. He pocketed the key and turned the lock again before facing me. I lowered the weapon, slowly, and put it behind my back again.
‘He says he’ll do it.’ Lou was casual as he walked towards me. One of the few people close enough to feel safe around me – in spite of the greeting and my guns. I nodded my head at his comment; I hadn’t really expected otherwise. Lou continued, ‘but he wants 4 big ones for the job.’
‘4?’ My eyebrows lifted. ‘Bit much for a little ink.’
‘And he won’t be here until Tuesday – something about us needing him, not the other way around.’
I glanced at the girl on the bed, nodded my head slowly. ‘That’s fine. It’ll look like I’m fucking her up real good.’
‘He’ll want to see.’ Lou pulled out a pack of cigs and took one out, offered on to me. I took it, took the light that came afterwards. A long drag later, I exhaled a cloud of gray smoke. ‘Invite Tony up. He reports back. I’ll give him something to report.’
‘When?’
‘Let’s give her a little time. Monday.’ I picked off a piece of tobacco from my tongue. ‘Yea, Monday.’
He shrugged.
‘Crowne turn out to be what we thought?’
‘Yea, Marco, he’s a real piece of shit.’
Posted in Abduction: Awakening by Daemon | 2 Comments »
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