Chapter Three
Close to midnight, Bane and James parked behind the Black Rock Hotel.
Bane was dressed in all black and James had followed suit.
James took out his laptop and tapped in the override for the cameras on this side of the hotel.
He’d rigged it with a loop showing the back parking lot and this loop did not show them arriving and it would not show them breaking in like actual thieves in the night for sure.
He wrapped a medium-sized fanny pack around his waist then he looked up at Bane and nodded.
Everything seemed quiet and dark when they got out of the car.
Bane nodded back then found the fire escape and they both began climbing.
When he reached the ninth floor, Bane stepped out of the way and left it to James to open the door.
With some device that Excaliber had invented, James had the door open easily and swiftly.
Bane walked into the hotel hallway and quickly spotted the room they needed to get into.
James knelt onto the floor then pushed a flat eye camera under the door and looked around the room. He found the connecting door shut and Dominic laying in the bed. James decided at this hour he was sleeping. He looked up and nodded at Bane.
Bane went over to the other door and listened but he heard nothing inside the room.
He took out a similar card to James’, opened the door and slipped inside.
He walked through the room and he saw the bodyguard fast asleep.
Bane stepped back a little and smiled as he raised his tranc gun and hit the man in the upper arm.
The bodyguard woke up briefly with a groan of pain then slowly closed his eyes.
Bane moved to the bed then quickly ziptied his wrists together behind his back, he also ziptied his feet together. Finally, he taped his mouth shut. Looping a rope around his wrists, he tied him to the bedpost. Raising the covers, he tucked him in.
When he finished, he knew the man would not be able to get himself free, when he awoke. He allowed himself to smirk. “Nighty night, sweet pea.”
Next, he stepped over to the connecting door and jiggled the door handle just a tad. It wasn’t locked, so he eased the door between the rooms open enough to slip through. He paused then listened. He smiled slightly when he heard snoring sounds coming from the bed.
Bane moved closer to study the man. The sheet rested on his waist and Bane could see his bare chest.
Dominic didn’t even know Bane was in the room...He was clueless.
Bane knew for sure that he would’ve heard the door opening if this was happening to him.
Dominic must truly trust his bodyguards to do their job.
Well, he shouldn’t have trusted the man who was now all tucked up in the other room.
That was a huge gaff. Some crime lord he was. Bane found himself smirking again.
He reached around to his back to pull out the tranc gun and without expression, he aimed at the other man and shot the dart into his chest. The very same way he handled the bodyguard.
Dominic growled as he instantly bolted up into a sitting position. With his eyes beginning to open they then shut tight and he flopped back down onto his pillows.
Bane moved forward and checked his heartbeat. He slowly pinched his eye lids open. When he didn’t react, Bane knew he was sound asleep. Heading over to the door, he quietly opened it.
James stood there with a laundry cart from the housekeeping closet.
Bane immediately pulled the cart into the room. He turned to Dominic and quickly bound him. Taping Dominic’s mouth shut he and James lifted him into the cart.
Neither man spoke a word. They simply executed their capture without a sound or miscue. James seemed very experienced at this sort of thing. Bane then realized James had helped The Priest to capture many men over the years they worked as a team.
Bane quickly grabbed Dominic’s phone and laptop then they left the room with the cart.
James quickly looked up and down the hall to make sure no one else was present.
At this hour, there shouldn’t be any employees on site or people walking about.
James hurried just the same while pushing the cart to the service elevator.
Once they got the cart inside they went down to the basement floor. They pushed it outside then lifted Dominic out and placed him into the back of the car. They also added the laptop to the floorboard.
They returned the cart to the service door then they left the hotel. Bane drove them through the side streets quietly.
Finally, when they got close to the warehouse district, Bane drove to one isolated by a large distance from the others. He pressed a button and the door slowly rose. He drove inside.
Another person hit a button from inside and the door began to close.
When Bane stopped the vehicle, a man stepped out of the shadows.
James glanced over at Bane.
“Don’t worry,” Bane told him. “He lives here and he knows to keep his mouth shut.”
James nodded and watched him in the rear-view mirror.
The man walked up on Bane’s side. “You going down?” he asked in a gravelly voice.
Bane nodded at him.
The man walked over to the wall behind the car and pressed yet another switch. The car lowered down.
James glanced at Bane. “We are going to hell finally, aren’t we?” he quipped.
Bane grinned. “One day we will, but not today, brother. We’re just going down but not that far down. Don’t worry so, James. I would never lead you wrong. Besides, I do not believe you will be sent to the flames. Let alone with me beside you.”
“Well, that is good news!” James exclaimed with a false cheer in his voice and watched as the vehicle sank to another level.
When the floor under the vehicle stopped, the lights came on.
Bane moved the car off the ramp. The floor began to go up again. Finally, Bane opened his car door and got out.
James followed slowly and looked around while surprised to find it to be a clean area. The warehouse looked old and dilapidated on the outside. He looked at Bane and asked, “What is this place?”
“This, James, is my workshop in New Orleans. Just one of ten places I can do my own style of work.” Bane smiled.
That smile made James shiver. It wasn’t a regular smile, instead it looked like it meant something else entirely. Bane’s workshop? What did that even mean?
Bane clapped his hands together and said, “Let me show you around. This place is one of my favorites. I had it designed myself.” He motioned for him to come along and opened a door leading to a living area.
He snapped the lights on, revealing a good-sized kitchen and dining area along with a warm comfortable living room.
The back of the living room was occupied by a computer station and three monitors on an L shaped desk area.
He motioned to the hall and said, “There are four bedrooms down the hall.” He turned to a doorway just to the west of the kitchen. “That leads to another hall and at the end of that one is my playroom.”
James turned his head and raised his brow. “Your playroom?”
Bane shrugged. Instead of answering James’s question, he went to the parking area and returned with Dominic over his shoulder. Then he led the way across the kitchen to the far west side of the room. He opened the door and disappeared down the hall.
James followed him. When Bane opened the door at the end of the hall, James stepped through and stopped in his tracks. His eyes widened at the sight of Bane’s playroom.
It resembled a modern-day torture room. He had a cell area against the far wall.
The rest of the walls were covered in ancient torture devices.
Like someone had decided the motif would be Hannibal Lecter and Jeffrey Dohmer-Esque.
He had one locked cabinet and James could only imagine what might be in that.
In fact, he refused to guess at all.
James watched as Bane lowered Dominic onto a cot in the cell area. He didn’t untie him and James took note that he didn’t take the tape from his mouth either.
Bane came out of the cell and locked the door behind him.
“Now what?” James asked.
“Now we wait for the others to arrive, then we play a game with Mr. Russo.”