CHAPTER 76 - ARIANNA
CHAPTER
Arianna
ISEE MANY DIFFERENT SIDES to Red. This is a side I rarely witness, but the one which gives him his formidable reputation. It’s a reputation that I once believed was all he consisted of, but I was so wrong about that.
The man I see - my husband - treats me like a priceless heirloom that he’d move the earth into a different galaxy for. That isn’t the side of Red Bateman others see. No smidgen of that man exists when dealing with people who have wronged him.
“This is just like the old days.” Liam grins as he removes another tooth from the mouth of a man chained to a chair.
Liam is enjoying this, but then they all are.
I stay against the wall in the cellar’s shadows. If Red realizes I’m here, it will put him off his flow, and I want nothing impeding with getting to the bottom of who instructed that me and my sister should be spied on.
Watching another spurt of blood add to the coating on Liam’s shirt, I have to admit I’m enjoying this a little too.
I peer closer at the young man chained to the chair. He isn’t who I expected to be behind planting that bug in Maria’s room or putting Luca’s ring and note on her bed. I’m not sure who I expected, but this man can’t be more than nineteen.
I watch transfixed as Red circles the room like a panther wearing an expression which would terrify me if I didn’t know him like I do.
He drops to his haunches in front of the young barman. “Dave, I’ve got to say I’m disappointed in you.” Red’s voice is level and smooth. It gives the impression that he’ll be reasonable, but this lad should know better.
“I never... never done nothing, Mr Bateman,” Dave splutters, blood flicking from his mouth, his voice impeded by the newly removed teeth. “You gotta believe me. I wouldn’t say nothing or do nothing against you, sir.”
“Quit groveling!” Red backhands Dave, his head rebounding off the wall. “I have to believe no one. Especially when I know they’re fucking lying!” At this he grabs Dave’s face, squashing it between his fingers, causing him to yowl in pain and fright.
Red jerks his head in Oscar’s direction, and Dave’s eyes widen as Oscar grabs his feet and pulls his boots off, his eyes darting to the bolt cutters in the other brother’s hand.
“Or you could accept that Lar Renton was right, and you did plant the bug in one of my bedrooms.” Red lowers further into Dave’s terrified face. “And then consider following that up with why you did it...”
“I didn’t... I... Let me speak to Lar. He’ll tell you that he...”
“No can do.” Red’s eyes gleam with wry amusement.
“Because he’s dead. The last thing he managed before I finished him was to tell me who gave him the information and guess what.
..” He tightens his grip of Dave’s face.
“It was you, so who the fuck are you working for, you cunt?” Losing his temper, he slams the back of Dave’s head into the wall. “Take his fucking toes off, Liam.”
“No! Please! There’s been a mistake. I can explain...”
My shaky legs press me further into the shadows. I can hardly watch this, yet it’s all-consuming. Morbid fascination with how Red delivers this leaves me unable to pull my eyes away from the grotesque scene.
“I don’t really fancy getting down here in case this prick shits himself,” Liam mutters as he gets on his knees and grabs Dave’s foot, the bolt cutters ready in his other hand. “Now, which toe shall I start with?” He muses, his eyes as alive as Red’s.
“Okay, okay!” Dave fails to twist his foot out of Liam’s iron grip. “I don’t know who the info was for. I... I just got paid to put that thing in the girl’s room.”
“And the note? The ring?”
Red gives Liam another nod, and the snipping crunch as Dave’s big toe is lopped off threatens to pull the contents of my stomach up over the floor, giving away my presence.
With my hand over my mouth, I will my ragged breathing to calm, but luckily for me, the curdling screams coming from Dave drowns out any noise I make.
“You sold us out for a few quid?” Red bellows. “You upset my wife and her sister because someone paid you? Where’s the loyalty to me in that?”
“I... I didn’t mean to,” Dave blathers, sweat pouring down his face. “Please, Mr Bateman.” He eyes Liam lining up the cutters along his remaining toes. “I had no choice. It’s my missus. She’s pregnant, and we’re about to get evicted, and...”
“Missus?” Oscar sneers. “He’s lying. He ain’t got a missus. Dave’s gay.”
“Stop mugging me off!” Red barges Liam out of the way and pulls Dave by the neck off the floor, then chair chained to him coming alongside. “String him up. If he won’t talk, keep stringing him up until he does.”
Oscar releases chains against the wall, and it’s then I spot the butcher’s hook attached to the ceiling. Oh, Christ. Before I can stop myself, I step from the shadows. “Tell us who paid you, then things will be easier.”
All heads swing in my direction at my sudden appearance.
“Arianna! What are you doing h...”
Ignoring Red, I move to Dave, purposely avoiding treading on the vast pool of blood and random toe. “Considering what you’ve done to the people who pay you, you could at least tell them who told you to do this. If you can’t tell them, tell me.”
Dave blinks, his eyes flitting between the men and me.
“Do as she says.” Red’s raised hand pauses Oscar from attaching the chains. “Do what my wife asks, and on this occasion I might find it in me to let this go.”
“What the...”
Liam’s dismay at this prospect is cut off as I lean over the shaking, sweating man in the chair and bend near to his mouth. “Whisper the name to me.”
Sweat drips from Dave’s chin onto my arm, and the acrid smell of his breath combined with blood makes my stomach turn, but it won’t dissuade me. He’s considering it, I know he is because terror overrides logic.
Whatever this man does, he’ll die for it. Red will lose his temper either way, but I want the name first. “Come on, Dave,” I coax, forcing myself to smile at a man who has made everything worse for us all.
His lips move, so I get closer. “Say that again.” I frown, desperate to make sense of the mumbled words coming from his smashed mouth. “Where is he now?”
Nodding at the mumbled response, I step backwards and turn to Red. “As suspected, it’s Luca...”
“I knew it!” Red lurches forward, pointing his sawn-off in Dave’s face.
Dave jerks around in the chair. “But you said... you said you’d...”
“Yeah, except I fucking lied.”
The blast from the shotgun in the enclosed space deafens me, and I turn away just in time as blood, flesh and bone explode everywhere. It’s only then that I see Maria peering through the crack in the door.