Chapter Fourteen #2
“Only as long as I want them to be.” He held up a small gray remote control. “I can let them out any time I want with this. The press of one tiny button. And you know what, it won’t be me they’ll attack, I feed them. Dogs know what side their bread is buttered. It’ll be your throats they go for.”
“Let’s leave them be,” I said. “Pretty attached to my throat.”
“Who the fuck are you?” Beelzebub gave me the once-over with his beady gaze.
“I’m with your customer here.” I clasped Jamie’s shoulder. “He’s going to let me share his…tea party.” I nodded past the big guy to his right whose neck was wider than his head. “Where’d you keep the Alices?”
“You think I’d tell you that before I’ve seen the cash?” Beelzebub snorted then spat on the ground.
“It’s here.” Jamie held forward the worn black holdall. “All of it.”
“Good.” Beelzebub tugged the zipper and peered inside. His eyes glinted with greed as he straightened. “This way.”
The muscle to his left took the bag and led the way back around the building. Beelzebub strutted like he truly believed he was king of the castle. Like nothing could ever touch him.
Just before we went out of view, I risked a glance over my shoulder. Finn was sneaking toward the barking dogs, a length of rope in his hand. They were making a wild fuss, but it was no different to when we’d arrived.
Good, trapping the dogs would take one problem out of the equation. We needed those dogs secured with more than a damn magnet on their gate. If they got out…well, I didn’t fancy shooting a dog but I would if it went for my throat.
In the shade, at the rear of the house, were two shipping containers. They had MAERSK written on their rusting sides, and the bolts were looped with chains to keep whatever was in there well and truly in there.
“Redhead with matching pubes, yeah?” Beelzebub said. “That’s what you ordered.”
“Perfect.” Jamie nodded.
Beelzebub produced a key and undid a padlock. The big metal door creaked and groaned when he opened it, and from the depths of the shadows I was hit with the rank smell of unwashed human bodies, terror, and misery.
I swallowed a bitter taste of fury and willed myself to be patient. We had to find out what we were dealing with before we started taking prisoners.
“Right, bitches,” Beelzebub shouted into the darkness. “Get out here. We’ve got a buyer. And look smart, you’re commodities, remember.”
There were a few squeaks and sobs and a shuffle of movement.
“Now!” He drew his gun and aimed it inside. “Unless you want today to be the day you take your last fucking breath.”
Five bedraggled women, huddled together, shuffled into the daylight.
They were grimy, pale, and clearly terrified beyond all belief.
God only knew how long they’d been kept prisoner.
Their clothes were filthy, and they had dark rings under their eyes.
None of them had curves, they’d clearly been half starved.
“Take your pick,” Beelzebub said. “They ain’t virgins, but that’s not a product that’s easy to find these days, unless you want to go into the pedo game; not my thing. I have standards, you know.”
“Yeah, got to have standards,” I said through gritted teeth. My gun was pressing into my skin, begging to be let out to play. A bullet to the temple would be too good for this asshole.
“You’re charging a lot for women in this state,” Jamie said.
I could hear the abhorrence in his voice, the absolute soul-deep fury that this had happened. He tried to cover it up, though, keep his words steady.
“Hey, they’ve got all their limbs, haven’t they? Scrub them up a bit, a few meals, they’ll be solid. Perfectly fuckable at any tea party.”
I nodded and clenched my jaw so tight it hurt.
“This one’s a goer.” Beelzebub snatched the girl nearest to him and hauled her to his side. He reached for her left breast and squeezed. “I can recommend. Took her myself last night, I did, just to pass the time.”
“You think I want your sloppy seconds.” Jamie raised his eyebrows.
The woman whimpered and hunched forward, trying to shrink in on herself.
“Hey, I give a decent price for these Kosovo chicks. You want Romanian or Albanian, you pay a premium, and for what? Wet pussy is wet pussy right.”
The woman yanked free, and he let her retreat to the huddle.
I checked out the two heavies. No one else had turned up, so I hoped we were just dealing with three.
“How about we go in the house?” Jamie gestured toward it. “You can count the cash.”
“Nah, I trust you, bag’s heavy.”
Jamie laughed, a strained, deep sound that really didn’t sound like him. “For all you know I could have put a few bricks in there.”
“Which would get you a bullet to the head before you even left my premises.”
The tall stocky guy to his left pulled his gun, though he let it hang in his hand, business end pointing at the ground.
“Not easy to get away with these days,” I said, “Murder. Bodies are a bitch to hide with search dogs. You should know that, you’re a dog guy.”
“Yeah, well, we have our means.” Beelzebub laughed. “And my men are a real fucking ace shot. Never miss. When I say shoot to kill, they kill. Done it many times before. Not something that scares us, killing. Could even call it our hobby.”
I stared at him over my bandana. My breath was warming my face, and my muscles were infused with adrenaline. I hoped Andrew and the Galahad crew had heard what we had.
“Your means?” Jamie asked. “What are they then?”
Beelzebub laughed and grabbed another girl, yanked her close, his fingers biting into her upper arm.
She winced and squeezed her eyes closed.
“You really wanna know?” he said.
“Sure.”
“I reckon you’ll puke, posh boy.”
“Probably, but try me.”
Beelzebub indicated back toward the house. “The dogs, hungry fuckers Dobermans. Can get rid of a body in twenty-four hours, turn it to dog shit, then no questions asked.”
I swallowed. The way he spoke, pride in his eyes, glee in his voice, told me he’d done just that.
“A woman, skinny bitch like this one, twelve hours and her body would be gone,” he said.
“Sometimes merchandise don’t make the journey, like, and I’ve got to get shot of them fast before they stink the place out.
The dogs ain’t fussy, they eat anything and everything, chew the bones until they’re dust.”
Now I really did have to swallow down an acrid taste of bile. I wanted this guy dead. Dead and fed to his own fucking dogs.
“Hey, what the…?”
A sudden scuffle at Beelzebub’s side. The woman he’d been gripping had seized his gun and stumbled back several paces, the weapon aimed right at her captor’s head. Her elbows were locked and her hands steady. Her eyes were wide and frightened but with a glint of madness and revenge in their depths
“Hey! Hey!” I said, holding out my hands, palms up. “Take it easy.”
“What the fuck? Bitch!” Beelzebub snapped. “Give me that.” He took a step closer to her, menace oozing from him.
Her finger locked on the trigger, holding it poised for action.
I got the feeling she’d held a weapon before. Her stance was balanced and her hips square on to him.
Beelzebub must have thought the same thing because he stopped in his tracks. “Give it to me, love, no one needs to die here today.”
She shook her head. Tears streamed down her face, and her bottom lip trembled. Her grubby white vest top shifted up and down with each of her rapid breaths.
But still the gun didn’t move from her captor.
“Bitch! Now,” one of the heavies said, his gun on her. “Or else you get it. You all get it.”
One of the other girls squealed, and they pressed closer, arms entwined. Another spoke rapidly in a language I didn’t understand.
Jamie backed up, next to me. I could feel the tension vibrating from him as both heavies aimed their guns at the woman who held their boss in her sights.
“It’s okay, put the gun down,” I said. “You really don’t want to shoot him. We’ll help you, I promise, we won’t hurt you.”
“We have already been hurt,” she said, a sob threatening to snatch each word. “I don’t believe you.”
“I promise you, I—”
BANG!
She’d fired, straight at Beelzebub, and a cracking shot, too.
He fell backward, as if in slow motion, and then stared at the sky with unseeing eyes and a bloody hole in the center of his forehead that oozed with scarlet blood.
I grabbed my gun and took aim at the big guy to my left. I wasn’t about to give his dull brain the chance to decide whether or not to shoot the woman. He dropped as fast as Beelzebub. My bullet perfectly on target in his temple.
“Fuck!” Jamie said and aimed at the third guy who was spinning to face us.
A piercing agony burst through my left side at the same time as the gunshot rang out.
The force of it was so violent it spun me around and threw me into the air at the same time.
I hit the dirt, taking in a mouthful of grit as my bones ricocheted within my body, and pain, hot searing flames, raged through my guts.
Another shot echoed around the containers, and then I heard women screaming. Panicked and desperate, they were a bluster of energy that I could do nothing about.
My legs had gone from under me, my body still rippling in the aftershocks of the blast.
I gripped my side. Groaned. And drew my hand up to my face for examination. It was covered in rich sticky blood. My blood. I’d been hit.
Of course I had.
“Jesus Christ.” Andrew’s voice. “What the fuck?”
“I’ll go after them.” Finn to my right.
“Take Cillian, don’t lose them.” Andrew again. “Fuck, don’t lose them.”
“On it,” Finn’s voice then thumping footsteps.
A presence next to me. A hand on mine. “I’ve got you, mate. Stay with us.” Dalton’s calm voice.
“Fucker got me.” I blinked in the bright light of the sky above.
“Yeah and we got him. Don’t move, let me see the damage.”
“What are we dealing with?” Andrew was next to me, too. “Fuck, that’s bad, Dalton.”
I hissed in a breath when Dalton shifted my torso to examine me.
“Yeah, it is, there’s an exit wound back here, bullet went right through, and fuck knows what damage it did on the way.”
“So what do we do?” Grant’s voice now.
“We need to get him to hospital, he’ll need surgery.” Dalton paused. “Sorry, Prof, I know that’s not ideal, but it’s his only hope.”
“Then it’s what we’ll do,” Andrew said.
“And these three bodies?” Grant asked. “There’s going to be questions, a cop with a bullet in his side, and we don’t want no evidence here.”
I closed my eyes. My heart was thudding, as though it was working overtime, and my breaths were shallow and difficult to catch.
“Fuck,” Andrew muttered. “Okay, here’s a plan.
Cillian and Finn will catch those girls, hopefully, so we can help them get home.
Me and Grant will feed these bastards to the dogs, they’re not fussy what they eat, or so I heard Asshole say.
And getting rid of evidence will suit us well.
And Dalton, can you get Mitch to the hospital, drop him off, and then get out of there fast so you don’t have to answer any awkward questions. ”
“Don’t…don’t get Galahad in the shit…for this…” I managed. “I don’t want…”
“It’s going to be okay, mate.” Grant squeezed my shoulder. “We’ve got this, minor hiccup, but the main thing is you’re okay.”
I really didn’t feel okay, far from it. But at least I was breathing even if I was bleeding out.
“Help me get him to the van,” Dalton said as something tight went around my torso, presumably to stem the blood flow.
I gritted my teeth. The discomfort was necessary, but that didn’t make it easier to bear.
“Anyone asks, you got mugged, okay.” Andrew hoisted me up. “Had your wallet and phone taken.” He pulled my phone from my pocket then searched for my wallet, found it.
“Location is off,” I managed.
“Good, but I’ll still turn power down and get you a new SIM.”
The pain reached a new level as I was half dragged and half carried over the yard. It was like having my innards twisted into tight knots and then set alight. “Ah fucking hell…” I moaned.
“Sorry, mate,” Dalton said. “But stay with us okay, keep talking to us.”
“Yeah…I’ll try.”
The dogs were going wild, but for me, their barking was fading fast. The pain was sharp and deep and all-consuming. Sucking me in, taking me with it. A warm blackness that was so tempting to slip into.
I’d been shot.
I was dying.
“Fuck, stay with us, Mitch.” Dalton’s voice, almost a whisper, as though he was underwater and floating away.
“Drive fast,” Andrew said.
“I will.”
The blackness took hold, and the last thing I saw in my mind’s eye was Amy’s smiling face.