Red

C H A P T E R F I F T Y O N E

“I want to see my daughter.”

I laughed, “you think you can just walk up to our front door and ask to see your daughter? You’re a fool.”

He leaned his head on his elbow, resting against one of the steel walls.

“Red, you’ve got five seconds to open this fucking door or I’ll blow your house up. You know how fond I am of bombs.”

The men around me entered panic mode and I touched my finger off of the button. “He’s bluffing.” I consoled them.

“You wouldn’t blow the house up with your daughter sleeping soundly in it, your scare tactics are reckless and quite frankly, dumb.”

He started banging the walls. “Let me see my daughter!” He yelled. Booting his foot against the steel.

I released my finger from the talk button and looked at Davis, “Prepare our men, surround the hold. We’re taking him captive tonight. Clear a storage unit for him.”

“Yes ma’am, right on it.”

Ace continued to shout and scream down my ear, he threatened violence against me and tried to break down the walls.

“Ace, you’re in no position to threaten me.” I warned. “You’re literally contained inside a thick steel vault. No bullets can get in or out. It’s completely airtight and inescapable. In five seconds, I could stop the ventilation. You’ll suffocate, pass out and probably die. Any last words?”

“You’re going to fucking pay Red, you made one huge mistake.”

“Or, alternatively I could pump sleeping gas in with you. You’ll slowly feel yourself slipping into an unconscious state. When you wake up, you’ll be mine to do whatever I please with.”

“I want to see my fucking daughter!” He yelled.

“Five, four, three, two, one.” I hit the button to stop the air flow and pump the gas. Ace glanced up at the vent.

He acted normal, refraining from coughing but after a minute he started pulling his shirt away from his neckline, his face turned a purplish red and eventually he passed out on the floor.

“Send the medic in, dose him with a heavy sedative and get chains on him. Act fast, he’s dangerous.”

I watched from the camera as they struggled with his heavy body. Muscles weighed a lot. They removed him from our safe house in chains and a van.

“I want cameras on him all night. Up the security here, Grace is our priority and I don’t want his men storming in while he poses as the distraction.”

“Yes ma’am.”

“I want at least two men with him at all times. Beat him up a bit but leave him coherent enough to talk. I’ll stop by tomorrow evening but right now I’m going to bed.”

•••

He hung from rusty shackles attached to his arms and feet, his body making up the letter X. I felt a nervousness bubbling inside my stomach. My men had worked him good.

His chest was beautifully bare, except brutally marked in cuts and bruises, stab wounds and burns. His head hung low, drooped because he ceased of the energy to hold it up.

Cameras moved with me, following my footsteps across the room but I didn’t look at them, I kept my attention on Ace. Poor, broken Ace.

I gripped his hair and pulled his face higher. His bruised, swollen eyes sharped on me and I held the glass of water to his dry, cracked lips. His facial hair had grown out to a dark stubble.

“You’re looking a little rugged there handsome.” He took weak sips and I half-smiled. When I pulled back the glass he spat all the water at me, soaking my T-shirt.

“Rude.” I commented, pulling off my T-shirt. “That’s not how you usually spray me.” He didn’t speak, he just looked at me with a disgusted expression. “You’re dehydrated but whatever you don’t want the water, don’t drink the water.”

“Where is my daughter?” Ace spoke, showing weakness through his words.

“I don’t know, maybe I’ve given her to Petrov, he has his uses for her, no?”

He fought against the shackles trying to get to me and I laughed. He was weak, spending all of his energy on pointless fighting. It was admirable.

“Shhhh.” I cooed, stoking my hand up his chest and settling him down. Even now, he shivered beneath my touch.

“Do you like that?” He tried to move my hand off him, using his torso but I just continued grazing my fingers up his sides and around his waist, making him squirm.

“Do you want to fuck me?” I whispered into his ear, my breath tickling his neck. “Do you want my tongue to edge your dick?” I licked up his neck and he closed his eyes tightly.

“You’re a psycho fucking bitch!” He yelled.

I grabbed his dick through his slacks and he gasped. “Then why are you hard?” He narrowed his eyes at me and pressed his lips to a thin like.

I laughed. “It’s okay baby, it can be our little secret.” I squeezed him through his trousers and he held back a moan.

“When I get myself free from here, I’ll blow your fucking brains out you manipulative whore.”

“Easy now, you’re not going to do Grace any favours by speaking to me like that. You should be begging for her life. Are too proud that you won’t even beg for your daughters life?”

“She won’t have a life.” My stance softened. “It’s the only comfort I’m taking in all of this. She’ll be dead within a few days, not able to be subjected to Petrov’s pedo ring or your torture.” He gripped the chains and used them to pull his body upright, gaining strength out of nowhere. “You think I give a fuck what you or your men do to me? You think I’ll beg you for my life? I have nothing to live for. You manipulated me and my daughter, you killed us both.”

“Oh dramatic!” I sighed. “She’s not gonna die.”

“She will die if she’s not taking her medication.” My mouth fell open a little, the heart defect. I got it wrong, Ace didn’t have it, Grace did.

He spat out blood and squinted at me through his swollen eyelids. “You’re surprised by that.” I didn’t answer him. Shit. This fucked everything up.

He pulled his body upright again, using the chains and groaned in pain as his torso stretched out.

“Red, I didn’t just turn up here unarmed like a fucking uneducated moron. I knew what I was risking and I knew it would likely end in my death but I needed to bring you the medication. One of your guys took it from my pocket. Please, she’s just a kid. She’s not part of this. Give her the medication.”

Conscious of the cameras, I grabbed his face, sinking my nails into his jaw. “Don’t say another fucking word.” I pulled my phone out and flashed him the photos I had taken of Grace wearing gorey makeup.

He visually winced and stared at the phone silently for a few seconds. Tears started silently streaming from his cheeks and it was heartbreaking but well deserved.

“You think I care about her well being?”

He looked withered and broken, a man who dedicated his like to protecting his daughter but he failed. I punched him in the face and he groaned in pain, spluttering more blood.

Ace pulled himself up on his rusty shackles. “You fucking bitch. You uprooted her life, made her trust you when you were just using her for revenge.”

“She’s your weakness Ace.”

“She’s just a fucking kid!” He yelled, trying to fight through his restraints and attack me. I laughed at his pathetic efforts.

“She’s your fucking kid.” I retorted. “Let’s get one thing straight Ace, I don’t give a fuck about you or your daughter. You killed my family! You killed my fucking family! Consider this the line.” I collided my knee with his torso and he flopped forward, winded.

“I’m getting back to them, it will interesting to find out how much her limp little body can take before her heart gives in.” I turned for the door.

“Red-” he mumbled, weakly. His small voice catching me off guard. He spat out blood and coughed.

“Please Red. Please I’m sorry. You win.” He worded out in cluster of struggled breaths and tears. “You win. I surrender to you. Whatever you want. However you want to kill me or torture me. I’m yours. Just, please Red. Please. Don’t beat her small body, let her go.”

I grabbed his face and dug my nails into his jaw, forcing him to stare me in the eyes.

“I’ll make her suffer and in her final moments, I’ll make sure she knows you’re the reason why.”

I turned away from him, leaving him to bleed, breathe and cry.

“They’re alive Red.” His voice spoke in a final effort to save his daughter. “They’re all alive.”