Chapter Nineteen #2
“Ready to say fuck you to this monster, so we can get out of here?” He looked more unnerved than me in this place, but maybe it was just that we were facing the man who’d tried to destroy me.
He’d failed. I knew that now. I’d still have my struggles, but he didn’t ruin me completely, and that meant I could still look forward to a future he’d never have.
He wasn’t leaving this room alive, and nobody here was in any doubt about that fact.
With Henley and Lenore beside me, I stepped up as close to Sean as I could, because he was tethered to the chair so firmly that he couldn’t move.
His glares would have terrified me before today, maybe even a few hours ago, but now I felt nothing.
This was my revenge, my chance to be reborn outside of the hell of my marriage to him. My chance to live, while he wouldn’t.
“Can you remove the tape?”
Lenore sucked in a sharp breath. “Are you sure? He’s a bit of a twat.”
“Danno?”
I heard one of the bearded guys say that, but I paid no attention until a dashing man dressed all in black, with shoulder length grey-blonde hair, and a scar down his cheek, stepped around us and behind Sean.
Sean clearly recognised him because his breathing became frantic and he tried to jerk away from him.
“Aw, it’s like you don’t love me anymore, Sean,” the guy said cheerily, waving a scary curved blade in front of my former husband’s face.
“Oh god,” I gasped, and Lenore laughed.
“He loves his knives. Don’t worry, he’s just here to make sure he behaves.”
The guy called Danno dipped his head at me, like a gentlemanly bow, and sliced through the tape, accidentally, or maybe not so accidentally, nicking Sean’s skin in the process, before he ripped it away from his face.
Sean yelled out in pain, and then fell silent as that blade settled at the base of his throat.
Danno, who looked a little like a sexy pirate, leaned close to his ear, whispering something I couldn’t hear, and Sean started shaking his head frantically.
“Good boy.” He patted his head, and lifted his eyes to me. “He’s all yours, love.”
I swallowed hard, tugging on Henley’s hand until he moved closer. I needed his closeness to get me through this right now.
“You’re going to make him suffer, right?”
I thought I’d speak to Sean, but instead I was asking those around him, and I received answers ranging from ‘fuck yeah’ to ‘only a lot’.
“Oi, where’s my pinking shears, bruv?”
“Gloria,” Sean gasped out, and the room fell quiet in a way that the silence felt like more knives aimed directly at him.
“My name is Glory,” I hissed at him, feeling my spine straighten a little as I glared back at him. If this was my last moment in his presence, I wanted him to see that he’d failed, that he hadn’t broken my spirit. That I’d survive beyond him. In spite of him.
“Be nice,” Danno hissed at him, moving the knife just enough to elicit a few drops of crimson blood on the blade.
It was a jarring reminder of the reality of this entire situation.
Death waited for him. And it was pretty impatient, if this room of scary people, shifting eagerly from one foot to the other, was anything to go by.
“G-Glory… help me.”
That was it? His last words weren’t an apology, or even an attempt to explain himself? Just him begging for his own life?
“Fuck you, asshole!” I balled up my fist and lunged forward, hitting him right in the jaw, and that’s when I realised I should have let someone else do that. My fingers felt like they were all smashed out of their sockets, and the pain shot up my arm.
“Oh god,” I gasped, turning and leaning my face against Henley’s chest. I didn’t want to show how much pain I was in, because Sean had already seen me weak too many times, but it was agony.
An older guy tapped Henley on the shoulder and jerked his head to the door so we started to follow. Surprisingly, I was done. I didn’t need anything more from Sean. His suffering would be enough, it was just a pity I’d hurt myself by trying to add to it.
“My turn?” Lenore asked, a brutal smile on her face.
“Break him slowly,” I gasped out as we stepped out of that horrifying room, and I finally gave into the pain, “Oh god, oh god.”
“It’s okay, love. I’m a doctor, so will you let me check your hand for you?”
I glanced at Henley through the veil of tears and he nodded, even though he clearly didn’t know the guy either.
“Jeffrey Turnbull,” he said quietly, “they have me on standby for stuff like this.”
“Stuff like that?” Henley asked, pointing at the doorway we were far enough away from to not see through, but close enough that we could hear an agonised scream, and cruel laughter.
“No. I’m here to patch up our guys if they’re injured. Sometimes they get… carried away.”
“Oi, you’re the one who shot me,” the big guy from outside hissed at him as he passed by.
Jeffrey sighed, gently cupping my hand in his, and checking my fingers one at a time.
“Doesn’t feel like anything’s broken. Can you curl your fingers?” He took me through an agonising sequence of checks, and nodded grimly.
“First time punching someone?” I nodded then shook my head, remembering my attempt at punching Henley, and he grimaced.
“Next time, do this,” he demonstrated with his own fist, “and punch the softer areas, not solid bone.”
“Aren’t you supposed to be encouraging her to do no harm or whatever?” Henley gasped, and Jeffrey chuckled.
“You’ve seen who I work for. It’s always better to know how to do these things properly.”
Henley studiously ignored my sassy look, and Jeffrey stroked his jaw as he stared at my fingers.
“I’d get home, get ice on it, and take some ibuprofen and painkillers. Rest it for tonight, but tomorrow, unless they swell or the pain becomes a crap-ton worse, start gently moving them. You don’t want them stiffening up.”
“Are you sure you’re a real doctor?” Henley asked.