you think they’re going to kill me?” I ask as I stand under the water pounding on my back. It’s a small shower, covered in rust stains, but it’s better than nothing.
He’s quiet for a moment, and if it weren’t for the slight pull on the handcuffs, I would have thought he’d left.
“I think it all depends on what your dad does. When you get done fondling yourself because of thoughts of me, I have a video I want to show you,” he says.
“I’m not… fondling myself. You’re not even attractive. Your… attitude erases all physical attractiveness.”
His laugher invades my shower. “Makes sense, really. What about you?”
“There’s no hope for me. I don’t have the physique or the attitude,” I say, and he snorts.
“True. True. Are you done? I have shit to do.”
“I’ve been in here about two minutes. At least give me time to scrub the blood off.”
Using my one hand, I gently rub away the blood before shutting the water off. Shepherd holds a towel through the door that I grab before drying off.
“Here,” he says as he drags me into his bedroom. “You kind of stink, so put on something else.” He hands me some clean underwear and pants. Once they’re on, I’m forced to put my dirty shirt back on and get pulled after him as he heads out the door. He stops in a room that looks like it was originally set up to be a break room. There’s no stove or oven, but there’s a fridge and microwave.
“What is this place?” I ask as he shoves a box of cereal in my hand and heads off again.
“A building.”
I hug the cereal with one arm while realizing that I’m not going to get a bowl or milk or even a spoon. “Yeah but… like… it’s weird. Is it a factory or something?”
“Used to be. But we’ve been hanging out here since Tony thought it’d be a good idea to target the police. Smart, right?” he says sarcastically.
“Sure.”
I’m led back into the room with the computer. My mural of penis pictures have all found their way in the trash can.
Shepherd slides into the seat and I point over at the other chair. “Can I have that chair today?”
“No.”
“Please?”
“Why are you saying ‘please’? It’s a sign of weakness.”
I give his arm a gentle tug. “Being polite is not a weakness.”
He doesn’t seem convinced.
“I’m sorry we’re not all barbarians like you, Shep. You know, people who viciously grab innocent people who’d been walking down the street and shove them in a trunk, chase them, beat them, and threaten to kill them.”
“Sounds like a fun Friday night to me,” he says. “And my name isn’t Shep.”
“Cute. Fine. I’ll play your game,” I say as I slam my foot down on the chair, right between his legs, inches from his dick.
He glances down at it with a raised eyebrow before looking up at me.
“I would fucking like a chair, asshole. And if you don’t give me one, it’s going to be your balls next time and I’ll just take your chair,” I growl even though I have absolutely no idea how I’d do any of that. “Did you understand that better?”
He gives me the cockiest fucking look ever as he leans back in his chair like he’s planning on getting comfortable.
“The issue is that you don’t have the balls to back it up,” he says, so I press down with my foot which makes him grab for my ankle. “Nope! You’re not stepping on my balls.”
“Chair?”
“Fine,” he says as he rolls back enough that I can hook the chair and pull it over to the computer.
“So what were you going to show me?” I ask.
He hesitates before logging on to the computer. “Last night Tony released footage of you being beaten on the internet. They’ve tried getting it removed, but there are still a few traces of it,” he says as he clicks on the video. I don’t really need to watch myself being beaten, but I notice he jumps all the way to the end and presses play.
As my body curled up on the ground fades out, some letters fade in.
You know what I want.
“That’s all it says.”
I’m sure my father does know what Tony wants, but I have my doubts my father will give in and hand over anything to Tony. “Isn’t this insanely stupid? Tony is practically announcing to the world it’s him, right?”
“No, he’s not. Your father is the only one who knows who it is.