Chapter 23 – Sebastian
Chapter
Twenty-Three
SEBASTIAN
I ring Lauren before I set off but it goes straight to voicemail. I try Scott next and tell him to find her and tell her to call me. “No,” I add before he hangs up. “ Ask her to call. She’s picky about that kind of shit.”
“Sure thing, Boss,” Scott says, unable to keep the amusement from his voice. “Shall I tell her you said pretty please with sprinkles on top?”
“Fuck off, you knob,” I reply, even though he made me smile.
Taylor is hovering outside in the drizzle, waiting for me to emerge. He looks pumped up and ready to go, and I recognize that feeling—the tingling excitement you get when violence is on the cards. I’ve seen him in action, and although it’s unlikely I’ll need backup to deal with Jimmy, you never know. I underestimated him once, and I won’t repeat the mistake.
“Can I trust you, Taylor?” I ask, staring at him.
He meets my eyes, no hesitation. “You can, Boss. One hundred percent.” He’s still hiding something, but I believe him on this.
It wasn’t hard to find out where Jimmy lives, and I let Taylor drive while I stare out at the wet and gloomy streets of London, my fury hidden beneath the surface but ready to explode any second. This vermin has seen my girl at her most vulnerable. He’s seen her gorgeous flesh exposed, and he watched her come. Nobody gets to do that except me. And now he’s got the nerve to threaten to share that private moment with the fucking world? He thinks he’s going to get away with this bullshit? I’m going to kill the little bastard.
My phone rings, and I’m relieved to see it’s Lauren.
“Hi,” she says, the cheerful purr of her voice enough to make me feel like the world’s a better place, even if it does contain Jimmy McIverson. “Weird thing happened—Scott turned up at the courthouse. What a coincidence, eh? Anyway. He says you begged me to call.”
“I don’t know about begged, sweetheart, but I do need to speak to you. What have you been up to?”
“Lots of things. Most importantly, I convinced a judge to allow us to file on behalf of Caroline under an assumed name when the time is right, as there is a credible threat to her life if she’s exposed. What about you?”
“Hot Sauce, you are a force for good in the world. Listen. I have a situation here. The night we, uh, enjoyed ourselves at the McIverson launch?”
Her laugh soothes me enough that I can draw a full breath for the first time since I got the email. “You mean the night you threatened to kill my date and then fucked me senseless? Such romance…”
“Yeah. A tale as old as time. I thought it was pretty fucking cute, anyway. Look, just to let you know I’m in the car with Taylor. You’re not on speaker phone, but I’m guessing from the look on his face that he heard that last bit because he’s blushing like a virgin bride.”
Taylor has the good sense to avoid my eyes and concentrate on the road.
“Oh. Hi Taylor. Anyway—what’s your situation?”
“It was caught on camera, and now someone is threatening to make it public.”
She’s silent for a few moments, and I can picture her face as she calmly processes it. She has as much of a temper as I do, it just takes longer for her to get there. “Is it Torres? I kind of hope it is. I’m sick of knowing he’s out there and wondering if or when he’s going to step things up.”
“That was my first thought, but I don’t think so. I think it’s Jimmy McIverson. Apparently he had a thing for filming the female staff.”
“Well, that’s not nice. What are you planning to do to him?” I can hear different background noise now, beeping car horns and human traffic, which means she’s gone outside to avoid having this kind of conversation in a courthouse.
“I kinda thought I might kill him.”
“No. Please don’t do that. Look, I don’t give a shit about a man like that on any moral level—the world would probably be a better place without him. But I do care about you, and it’s not worth the risk. I couldn’t bear it if you got sent to prison.”
“I thought you might say that, but Lauren, I can’t let it lie. I’d kill him for watching the video himself, never mind going public with it.”
“Seb, he might have watched—but you got to touch. He’s just a sad little man who gets his kicks spying on women, probably because none of them will go near him in real life. He’s not worth it. If a sex tape gets leaked, I’ll survive it—if I lose you, I’m not so sure. So don’t kill him. At least not yet. Maybe give it a year so nobody links him to you.”
I have to laugh. She really is something else, this woman—the perfect combination of Montoya and lawyer. “Is that your legal advice, Miss Hayes?”
“Yup. You can pay me in orgasms later and make it official. Look, I’ve got to go. I have a meeting. I’ll call you later—be good, now, you hear?”
Taylor stays wisely schtum as he pulls up outside Jimmy’s apartment block. We get out and climb the stairs to the first floor, which is sadly not high enough to be lethal if I throw him out the window. “Can I get a crack at him too, Boss? Don’t like the thought of him watching Chantal with her knickers down either.”
“You can be my fucking guest, Taylor. But as my lady friend said, we shouldn’t actually kill him. It’ll be messy, and there are too many ties between us. He’s not exactly kept his trap shut about the way he feels, and I’m pretty sure some forensic IT boffin could find out he tried to blackmail me. I’m mad as shit, but she’s right. He’s not worth doing time over.”
“Doesn’t mean we can’t hurt him, does it? Make him wish we had killed him.”
There is absolute conviction in his eyes, making it clear that he was born for this kind of work. We reach Jimmy’s door, and I can hear sounds of porn in the background. It better be professional and not another one of his homemade efforts or Lauren’s advice will evaporate from my brain. I nod at Taylor and silently count to three, then kick out at the door, aiming my heel below the lock. The wood splinters. There’s a shriek from inside, and I finish the job and bust it wide open. Taylor follows me and closes the door behind us while I advance on Jimmy, who is sitting in front of the TV with his dick out.
I glance down at his rapidly diminishing hard-on. “Oh dear. Don’t worry, Jimmy. I’m told that happens to a lot of men.”
He shoves his shriveled member back inside his pants and tries to stand up. Gotta give him his due, he manages a good bluster even though he must be shitting himself. Taylor turns the volume up, which creates a pretty fucking weird soundtrack, but it will drown out any screams. Jimmy yells at me to get out, and I shove him hard in the chest. He falls back into the chair, all the wind knocked out of him.
“Find his laptop and his wallet,” I say to Taylor while I hold Jimmy down. He’s struggling and swearing, and I punch him once in the face. “Shut the fuck up, you twat.” His eyes start watering and his nose is bleeding, and he looks comically shocked. I can’t believe a man like this has made it so far in life without someone punching him in the face before.
I get my duct tape out of my bag and secure his hands to the sides of the chair, then punch him again just for fun. His nose cracks this time, which is a sweet sound. “I said shut up.”
He whimpers and chokes on his own blood, snot, and tears, but apart from that, he does shut up. Taylor passes me his wallet, and I shake the contents loose on the table—the usual shit, plus a wrapped condom that looks like it’s been there since they were invented. There are three bank cards, and I check each one of them. Sure enough, one matches the account details in the email.
“Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy… You’re not exactly a criminal mastermind, are you? Didn’t you think we’d figure it out? Now, what’s the passcode to this laptop?”
He snarls and shakes his head, displaying an admirable level of stupidity. His eyes widen as Taylor stalks toward him. The boy grabs hold of one of his taped hands and pulls back the pointer finger until it breaks. “I could really get used to the sound of your bones snapping, Jimmy. Passcode?”
Once he stops crying, he tells us, and we’re in within seconds. Jimmy snivels in the background, telling us he’ll delete it all, that he’s sorry, that he’ll do anything if we leave him alone. I ignore him and flick through the video files on his computer without opening any of them. They’re all nicely labeled, detailing date, time, and who’s on them.
Lauren’s is right at the top. He really did have all the bathrooms wired, the sick fuck. Taylor’s face darkens when he sees Chantal’s name, and I lay a hand on his shoulder. He looks at it like he’s considering snapping it off, and I stare him down until he nods. Jimmy starts shouting for help, but his voice is drowned out by the porn film. “Do the honors, mate,” I say to Taylor, who punches him in the gut so hard he can barely breathe.
“Right, we’ll be taking this laptop with us, Jimmy. I’m sure you won’t mind.”
“We need to find out if he has a backup, or if it’s on the cloud, Boss.” I acknowledge Taylor with a wave to go ahead and check. I still don’t understand what the fucking cloud is, but I’m sure he’s right. Jimmy is doubled up and looks like he’s about to be sick. “No. No, it’s not on the cloud, that’s the only copy, honest.”
“I don’t believe him,” Taylor says, snarling. “Bet he had them all backed up so he could wank over them any time.”
The thought of this sick little fuck watching that video of me and Lauren while he jerks off makes me want to kill him and then bring him back to life so I can do it all over again. Not only her, but all those women who were violated so Jimmy McIverson could get his rocks off. Suddenly, taking his laptop and slapping him around a bit doesn’t feel like enough punishment—nowhere near enough. He looks up at me and starts to cry as I walk toward him. “No, please, I’m sorry…”
“Sorry you filmed those girls? Sorry you watched my woman come? Or just sorry you got caught?”
“No, all of it—I’m sorry for all of it. I’m ill, it’s a condition—I need help!”
“What would really help,” I say, looming over him, “would be if you couldn’t watch anymore. What good’s a peeping Tom if he can’t fucking see?”
I slam my fist into his eye socket so hard his body lifts off the chair. If he hadn’t been taped in, he would have flown. His head wobbles back down, and I hit him again and again and again. I think of that night with Lauren. I think of Chantal. I think of every other neatly labeled little file on his computer, and I keep hitting him.
Eventually, Taylor pulls me back. “You said not to kill him, Boss. If you’ve changed your mind I’m in, but…”
I whirl around, fist raised, my temper so high I almost punch him too. When I look back at Jimmy, I see that his face is mush with one eye is hanging out of the socket at an unrepairable angle. He’s gibbering away, lips trembling, blood seeping from the corner of his mouth. Fuck. Taylor’s right. He can’t take much more.
“All right, Jimmy. I’ve left you one eye, so think yourself lucky. If you go to the police or so much as think about looking in the direction of another woman again, I’ll be back to take the other, and this time I’ll use a knife. Or maybe a spoon. And if that video of Lauren ever sees daylight, I’ll fucking well kill you, you understand?”
He nods, his damaged eye bouncing like a rubber ball. It’s not pretty, but I don’t feel a scrap of sympathy for the twat. He brought it all on himself.
Taylor strides over and snaps all of the fingers on Jimmy’s right hand, one by one. His screams are pathetic now, like he’s endured so much pain he’s given up. “Just to make sure he’s not back on a computer anytime soon, Boss. That was his wanking hand.”
We leave Jimmy to enjoy the sound of strangers climaxing in glorious surround sound. From the car, I call Kenny McIverson, holding the phone under my chin as I use alcohol wipes on my skinned and bleeding knuckles. Stings like a bastard, but it was worth it.
“Kenny, it’s Seb. Did you know your little brother was secretly filming the girls who work for you?”
“No, of fucking course I didn’t! Are you sure?”
“Yep, the proof is all over his laptop. He could do time for it, no doubt, but I’ve helped him out. I’ll keep that laptop safe for him. You’ll find him at his place, bit worse for wear. Looked like he was going into shock when we left, mate, so if I were you, I’d get there quick as you can. Or leave the prick to die—I don’t give a shit.”
I hang up and open the message that just came through from Lauren.
Did you kill him?
No. Might have been some maiming.
Perfect compromise.
I lock my phone and grin. I fucking love that woman.