by piece… if you do not surrender yourself. If you do, I will be released with no further harm.”
Four men. One big. I’ve seen faces. I sign as discreetly as possible, and as well as I can with one hand bandaged.
Not much, but enough to let them know it’s a lie, and I’ll never be let free with breath in my body.
24
Road…
“She’s in pieces.” Rascal’s eyes widen as he watches the screen. “Fuck, I hate seeing her like that.”
“No, she isn’t.” Once again, it’s Stormy who’s come to her defence. “They think she’s a fuckin’ club girl. They have no idea of what they’ve taken into their lair. She’s being as clever as I expected and is doing what she has to–she’s acting a part.”
“And giving us a message. Play it again, Duty,” Pip instructs. “So far we’ve made out what she’s signing. We’ve got four men, one a large fucker, and that she’s seen their faces so they’ve no intention of letting her go. Anyone picked up anything else?”
Dutifully we watch it again. Those who can sign, concentrating on her fingers. Me, who can’t, well, I’m watching her face, trying to read everything written on it, the main message shown in the tightening of her eyes. As expected, she’s in pain. It must hurt like a bitch to lose your finger. They wouldn’t have used anaesthetic.
Last night I hadn’t been able to sleep, tossing and turning, worrying about Swift and what the fuck she was going through. Breakfast had been subdued, none of us wanting to go through the bother of eating, but doing it anyway, just to keep our bodies fuelled. Then it was back to the meeting room to put our heads together again.
A summons for Pip had him leaving. When he’d returned, what he’d brought with him had my breakfast threatening to make a reappearance.
Now it’s been half an hour since Pip received the horrendous package containing what at first we could only suspect to be Swift’s finger, quickly confirmed once we’d viewed the footage that was on the USB stick which arrived with it, and had seen her hand injured and bleeding. Thirty minutes when I’ve had to digest that the woman I want back in one piece is already missing part of her body and is obviously hurt. She looks just how a club girl would, scared. But her eyes, along with pain, show an expression that I’ve seen before—the one she bestows on Stormy. She’s fucking angry.
I’ve witnessed just what she’s capable of, so while we view the footage for the fifth time, I force my eyes away from Swift, and view her surroundings and how she’s secured instead. She appears to have a cuff around her left wrist, and that attaches to a chain which in turn is fastened to a wall. Swift will have tried to escape already, but is clearly biding her time, or has found it impossible.
“So now we know it’s you they want, are we any closer to finding her?” Snatcher asks, directing his question to Pip.
“It’s my past,” Pip confirms, his face darkening. “It has to be. When I was with the agency, I worked on many cases. I was with them twenty years. We put people inside, killed, broke up families. I don’t know where to begin to start identifying anyone who’d want me. There would be too many. But I went by the name of Mr Black in those days—nothing to connect him with me.”
“Unless someone broke into the CIA database,” Duty observes.
“Philip Hound didn’t exist back then,” Pip states, his hand wiping down his face. “My real name is Lawson Kraft. In the CIA, my cover, as I said, was as the anonymous Mr Black. I had sufficient connections, when I… left… my new identity was constructed up carefully. I’m a wanted man.”
“You had plastic surgery as well,” Cowboy reminds everyone, viewing us one by one as he makes his statement.
“You didn’t,” Pip tells the man who brought him to the club. “It’s possible someone located me via you, but I’m inclined to rule it out. Twelve years is a long fucking time to wait for vengeance.”
“So, could it have been something while you’ve been with the Devils? A job you’ve worked on?” I might be able to string a sentence together, but inside I’m seething, wondering what kind of people kidnap, torture and from what Swift signed, would kill the innocent girl that they believe she is, just to get even.
“Unlikely. The MC