Chapter Ten
She stopped messaging, didn’t even send me that link, and I had no idea what I’d done to fuck this up.
I reread our messages about fifty times.
Nothing seemed bad or wrong. Did I cross some line only women knew about?
How the hell would I even figure that out, short of showing the messages to a woman, and I damn sure wasn’t about to trust any old lady of a brother of mine.
They talk. They don’t think we know, but we know.
God only knows what kind of shit they say about me.
In case she’d fallen asleep, I waited until morning to message her again, having slept late thanks to being awake into the early hours, and whoops, having missed community service last night. It was probably fine though. We’re all allowed an off night, right?
I wasn’t completely irresponsible. I did send a text to the supervisor explaining that I had a bad dose of the shits. I was even unnecessarily graphic with it. No way they’d think that was just a line.
Anyway, I dropped her a quick message.
Me: Good morning, sorry if I talked too long into the night. If you have that link, I’d love to check out the classes.
That was good, right? It read well. It sounded good. I wasn’t due to work today, so at least I could lounge here and wait for her response.
When my phone pinged again while I was brushing my teeth, I dashed back to check it. Oh fuck.
Bennetts: Got a job for you, bruv. Meet us at the following address in one hour. Do I need to say ‘come alone’?
Fuck fuck fuck! I tapped in a response, while simultaneously attempting to drag my clothes on, and hoped I nailed that message too.
Me: What if I have other plans?
Yeah. Definitely nailed that one.
The next message was the address to that creepy place they’d killed Glory’s husband in, and then they replied again.
Bennetts: Ha ha, you’re a fucking comedian. One hour.
Wow. What a jackass, whichever one of them it was.
Me: Pres, The Bennetts have a job for me, I have to leave now, and it’s at that creepy death place, so if I don’t come back, they killed me.
I grabbed my cut, and then paused. Should I be wearing that to do crime for mobsters? Fuck. I set it back down, smoothing my hands over the phoenix patch on the back.
“I’m doing this for you,” I said quietly, knowing I’d have told them to shove it if it wasn’t a threat to the club to reject them.
There was no chance to meet up with anyone first, so I slipped into my leathers, minus the most important piece of my wardrobe, and I headed outside, helmet on already so I wouldn’t be expected to talk to anyone.
“Oi, where’s your cut, dickhead?”
I flipped Rocket off, and straddled my ride, taking a deep breath to steel myself for this shitshow.
Why the fuck did I follow that prick down an alley, and why was I now heading into the lion’s den alone?
This was a brotherhood, and yet, I was being thrown into this shit like cannon fodder.
Or whatever a lion eats since it’s a fucking lion’s den.
The whole journey there, which I struggled to enjoy and was pissed about them ruining, I wondered what the fuck I was gonna find when I arrived.
What I found was two smirking bearded assholes, waiting outside that place, and two vehicles, the black Range Rover from before, and a black Jeep Grand Cherokee. I’m not a car person, because who wants to travel in a fucking cage, but they’re both pretty nice.
I dragged my helmet off as I approached them, and rethought it when I remembered this was a brand new fucker after they helped my last one get smashed. I turned back and went to leave it with my ride.
“Ooooh he’s legging it already.”
“Thought you were a tough guy, bruv.”
I glared at both of them as I headed back their way, pointing behind me.
“Not letting you fuck up my new helmet. They’re not fucking cheap, you know.”
They stared at me for an unnervingly long time, and side-eyed each other.
“Well, you know. Do a good job for us and you can afford a spare.”
The other one grinned, and that was even creepier than the smirks.
“Or you could take out a loan, bruv. We could do you a deal you’d never escape.”
Yeah, that’s exactly what I was worried about.
“So what’s the job?” At least if we could hurry this up, I could try and get out alive.
“Well, we’ve got a fucker in there who tried to steal from us. Why don’t you make him pay for that.” It literally wasn’t a question. It was an order, but it begged a real question; why me?
“Don’t you like doing that part yourselves?”
One of them gestured to me to follow them and they headed for the door.
“Date night with Cass tonight, so she said, and this is a direct quote ‘if we come home looking like thugs, we can play with each other’. I mean that’s just not our bag.”
“Wait. Cass? Like you both date the same person?”
“He’s quick, innit.”
I was crossing the threshold when I suddenly realised my mistake.
I was willingly walking into the place that they kill people in, and I only had their word for it that there was someone else in there, and it wasn’t about to be me in that chair of death, or hanging from the hooks I saw hanging from chains the last time I was here.
“You wanna hurry? We’re not paying you by the hour. You do the job, you get a lump sum. That’s how it works.”
I glanced back at my ride, wishing I was on it, and literally going anywhere else.
“How do I know I’m leaving here alive?”
One twin rolled his eyes at the other and disappeared into that room, while the other waited with me.
“Bruv, if we wanted you dead, you wouldn’t be walking in here, yeah? You’d be dragged by your fucking throat. I’d say balls, but I ain’t touching those.”
“Nobody’s touching my fucking balls.”
He laughed. “Knew you were a virgin, bruv, but don’t worry. We’ll get you a nice book to teach you how to fuck. For now though, you wanna come and show us your other moves?”
I ignored the jibes, because I still wasn’t sure whether I was going in there to die, but I had a feeling death was certain if I ran right now.
“It’d help if you guys wore name badges, so everyone doesn’t have to wonder who’s who,” I said as I edged past him and into that large concrete room. Thank fuck there was a guy hanging there from those bastard hooks, although he clearly didn’t share my relief.
He already looked pretty well beaten to me.
“Go on, bruv.”
I paused and looked back at the Bennett bellends.
“You said he stole from you or something? Is that just like he didn’t pay his loan back or something? Do you kill those? How do you get your money?”
The bearded git closest to me scratched his jaw.
“Did I say it was twenty questions time? This fucker robbed one of our dancers, okay? Broke her fucking cheekbone, and left her in a pool of blood. He dies today, yeah? You wanna get on with it, or do you want his shoe size first?”
He hurt a woman? Suddenly I was more than ready to beat the fucker, but did I want to pound on him with fists, or hit him with something more deadly?
“Got any weapons here?”
“No, we don’t equip our kill house properly, we’re dicks like that. Marco?”
Oh fuck. I felt the blood drain from my face as that fucker appeared from behind me. Did I move into a defensive stance almost immediately? Did he just laugh? Do I need to answer?
“Over here, there’s all kinds of shit.” I followed him, eyeing the guy I was about to kill as I passed him. He was frowning at me, but silent because of the tape across his mouth. Ha. Stitch would have literally sewn it shut. Bet these fuckers would love that.
The weapons were lined up at the back of the room, two long tables with all kinds of shit there. Bats, golf clubs, knives, a few swords, even. Then there was the torture stuff, pliers, hammers, a pretty hefty wrench or two, then a car battery, no prizes for guessing what that was for.
“Use whatever, just do it fast. The Bennetts don’t like being kept waiting,” Marco said in a low voice, narrowing his eyes at me as I looked at him at last. What the fuck? I’m the one who should be looking uneasy, I mean, unless my attempt to beat him the other day actually freaked him out.
“I’m on it,” I said finally, watching him walk away to go and mutter something to those fucking twins, who both started laughing with him.
It was time to put aside everything but the task at hand.
This guy attacked a woman, and that meant he was due for a beating at the very least. Did they actually say kill him?
Did I imagine that? I should check before I do that, right?
I grabbed a baseball bat, that looked like it had soaked up way too much blood already, and a hammer. Those are always fun.
I walked back over to the hanging guy, glancing at the three fuckers who were going to watch me do something all three of them could have just done themselves.
“Before I do this, you definitely said dead, right? You want him dead.”
One of the Bennetts frowned at me. “You wearing a fucking wire, bruv? You fuck us and you’ll be up there next.”
Well, shit, that’s not what I meant.
“Of course I’m not. I’m just making sure I don’t go further than you want me to. I’ll get carried away, see.”
“Check him, Marco.” Oh fuck. The big bastard came back toward me and I groaned, pulling my leathers open to lift my t-shirt. That’s where they put them in the movies, right?
“Nothing to see. I’m good.”
“Remove the leathers. You can do this in your jeans.”
I hesitated in the middle of removing the heavy leather layers. Wait, he meant jeans and t-shirt, right?
Nope. As soon as I set the leathers aside, they raised their eyebrows.
“Is this some kind of kinky thing?”
“I know it’s scary for virgins to strip off for the first time, but get on with it. We’ve got other shit to do today.” Why the fuck did they keep saying that? Assholes. Still, I wasn’t looking to prolong a second of this, so I tossed the t-shirt on top of my leathers and slowly spun on the spot.
“Good enough? You wanna read my tats while you’re eye-fucking me?”
The guy stepped in my direction, and his brother caught his arm, murmuring something that had them both laughing. Fuck me. How did I end up in this situation?
“Can I get on with this now?”
“Go on, v-boy. Make him bleed, yeah?”
V-boy? Motherfucker. Still, I wasn’t getting out of here until this was done.
It took maybe six minutes to kill the fucker, using the hammer and the baseball bat to inflict some pain first. Pain that I hope made him regret attacking a woman. Marco tossed me a towel to clean myself up, along with a pack of wet wipes, because clearly this is how they do it in the mob club.
“Okay, so we’re done?”
The Bennetts grinned widely. “Once you’ve helped with the dismembering and disposal, bruv.”
Ugh, so why the fuck was I wiping myself down if I’d get bloodier first.
“Look, I’ve gotta ask, bruv. Is the makeup thing like a statement, or is it you desperately trying to get your hands on some goth titties?”
Makeup. Makeup? OH FUCK.