A lot of people wanted to blame the residents, and it was true, people needed to be responsible for their own actions, like not littering or committing crimes. But when liquor stores have more longevity than grocery stores, and mom and pop stores can’t afford the taxes to keep their shops open, this was what you got. A neighborhood without heart. A town without pity, and a people without hope.
I wasn’t sure if what I was doing gave people inspiration, but at least I could make sure the crime rate settled the fuck down, for sure. I looked at Richard, a man with enough money to make a difference, who would rather spend it on killing innocent people for kicks. I had seen his home, too… just two of them. He had five properties all together. One was big enough to donate as an orphanage, but would he? Nope. People like him, privileged beyond measure, didn’t feel like they owed anyone anything for their success. And they felt like anyone could pull themselves up by their bootstraps with enough determination.
Well, I knew for a fact that thinking like this was bullshit. Everyone couldn’t be rich. Someone had to work for someone else. Someone had to do the jobs that others couldn’t or wouldn’t do. Someone had to do the jobs that meant you took care of those who couldn’t take care of themselves. And surprisingly, those jobs were low paying. So, with this system, crime was bound to happen. In my opinion, vigilantes were a necessary good or evil, depending on how you wanted to look at us.
Bottom line: I was really going to enjoy cleaning the streets.
***
Richard began to stir a little, his head moving ever so slightly, and I knew he was finally coming to. He wasn’t going to like where he was, I was certain. But I did. I’d been waiting a long time for this moment. I was almost ashamed to admit it, but… my dick was actually hard right then. I walked over to him and bitched slapped him good and proper, jarring him awake. He yelped as his eyes popped open and he looked around frantically, trying to make sense of his situation.
“What’s going on?” he asked in his panicked state. His chest was heaving and he was struggling in his bindings. He looked up and down, seeing that he was bound to a makeshift device. I wasn’t into BDSM, but this St. Andrews Cross was very useful for such interrogations. “Where am I?”
“Where you should be,” I answered.
“You’re him, aren’t you? The guy who killed Cecily and Walter? Is this what you really look like, or is it just another façade?” he asked me, being very direct. I could tell his heart was racing a mile a minute. I couldn’t hear it, but he was sweating like a pimp whose whore stable was about to go independent. He knew he was in the biggest amount of trouble he’d ever been in. I had his ass. “Please… you don’t want to do this!”
I laughed at that, I couldn’t help myself. He had no idea how badly I really wanted to put an end to him. I think my dick got harder at the thought of me dealing out my own brand of punishment. Unlike the others I’d killed, I didn’t have their own blueprint for torture and murder to go off of. Richard hadn’t betted on anyone. He just liked to watch other members order executions. I was free to be as creative as I wanted with his ass and I was about to bring out all of my arts and craft tools.
“I’m going to give you the same choice I gave them. I hope you’re smart enough to take it.”
“Wha—what did you give them?” he asked.
Oh yeah, that once cold exterior of his was long gone now. Before me wasn’t the man who thought he was in full control with his attack dog at his side. Now, he was completely vulnerable and he knew his time was up. Either he was going to go out like a stubborn bitch, or he was going to try to reason with me, to bargain for his life in exchange for information. The latter was what I was hoping for, not that I was going to let him live. But he needed to believe that I would. When it came to people like him, being a man of my word was inconsequential. I had no problems going back on my promises to their evil asses. Let the games begin.
“You give me information—useful information, and I’ll let you live. I can’t say that I’ll leave you in one piece, though. I do have to repay you for the wonderful torture you dealt me last night,” I said.
“So that was you?” he asked in a calmer tone. He looked at me as if he admired me in a way, or was I reading what I wanted to read in that peculiar expression?
I nodded. “Yeah, that was me.”
“Takahashi said you were slick.” Richard shook his head and chuckled. “I’ve got to say… whatever your name is… you are remarkable.”
Okay, so it was a bit of admiration I saw in his eyes. Nice to know my deduction skills were up to par.
“Yes, I have a nice set of gifts, and you can call me Cobra.”
“Why name yourself that?”
“Because I’m deadly if you piss me off.” That seemed to silence him because he kept his fucking mouth shut. “Now, I’m guessing you were planning on bringing Alexander Foster into the Killing Game, right?”
“I was, didn’t expect for you to kill him and take his place, though. You’re unpredictable and that’s what makes you dangerous. I was planning on bring Alexander into the fold by having him instruct Takahashi on how to kill you. He was coming to get the full, up close and personal view of what the Killing Game offered. Needless to say, you ruined that plan.”
“Well, at least neither one of us got what we really wanted that night, am I right?” I taunted.
“You could say that,” Richard shot back.
At this point, Richard was calm… more at ease than I wanted him to be, really. I wasn’t sure how to approach him. The wrong move, the too forceful approach, might put him in a stubborn state. I needed to be as level headed as he was at the moment, because at least he was talking.
“Can’t say that I’m sorry to have ruined your plans. The good news is, you never killed anyone on the Killing Game. The bad news is, you’re still a prominent member. So, what do I do with you?” I put the ball in his court… or at least, he needed to think that I had. Richard was a man used to being in control. I needed to let him believe I was giving him some of that control back.
“I’ve already seen your face, you won’t let me live,” he said.
I snorted. “Have you, though?”
He frowned. “Have I what?”
I cocked an eyebrow, which was actually hidden behind my black leather mask that covered a nice portion of my face. “Seen what I look like. Remember, I can look like whomever I want. Frankly, you haven’t seen a damn thing. And without Takahashi by your side anymore, you don’t know my scent. I could walk past you on the street and you wouldn’t even know we’d crossed paths. So, I need you to think very carefully about your next response. Because if you piss me off, I’m going to give you something else to think about.”
“I want your guarantee that you’ll let me live,” he demanded.
“Like I said, you haven’t seen my face.”
“That’s not a guarantee.”
I smirked. “If you give me what I want to know, no bullshit, I will let you live. You can go back to your life of riches and privilege,” I lied.
“What guarantee do I have that you’ll keep your word?”
“Want me to pinky swear?” I asked, then held up my right hand, pinky extended and wiggling.
“I just need to know that you’ll let me live, because once I give up this information, my life of privilege, as you like to call it, will be over unless you kill those in real power. You see, Cobra, once I tell you what you think you want to know… and you pursue it… we’re both dead men walking,” Richard said. I liked the road he was driving on and I needed to get my thumb out there for a hitchhike. We could go through this together… in more ways than one.
“I need you to tell me everything. First off, why Russia?”
He looked away, and I grabbed his chin, squeezing a little, just enough to cause pain as I brought his face back to mine. The crease in his eyebrows gave me the satisfaction of knowing what I was doing to him hurt.
“Answer me,” I demanded.
“Beecuash,” he began. I let his chin go so he could speak properly. “Because, I have a contact there.” He flexed his jaw a little to loosen it up.
“Contacts?”
He sighed. “A contact. Remember, I get to walk out of here.”
“You’ll crawl out of here because I’m going to break one of your legs. Remember, I owe you pain,” I stated. I didn’t want him to forget that. Plus, giving him the threat added to the believability that I was going to let him live.
“Fine. I get it. As long as I live.”
I rolled my eyes. “I am a man of my word whether you believe that or not, which is why I don’t give it often. I don’t like being held accountable. That’s why I gave it to you, because this is that important for me to have your trust. I want to get to who’s in charge of the Killing Game. Its members are only important to me as a way to get to who’s in control.”
“I’m going to hold you to that.”
I held both hands out at my sides as if to prove I had nothing to hide. “By all means.”
He nodded, then licked his lips. “The contact I have in Russia was going to help me deal with you. I wanted to know more about you, track down your partner, and then kill you both. While they did the dirty work, I was going to hide in Russia, since you knew too much about my personal properties when I’d decided to let you continue to think you’d successfully infiltrated my life. In doing so, I had to reveal a lot to you and that’s left me vulnerable.”
“Is this Russian contact also a member of the Killing Game?” I asked, ignoring the fact that he was still trying to track down Jordan… for the time being.
He nodded. “The one who introduced it to me. If things get sloppy, they are the ones who do the clean-up. They have members everywhere in order to ensure that the secret of the Killing Game stays secret. We don’t know how you found out about it, but your public assassinations of Walter and Cecily has put you on the Killing Game’s radar.”
Oh, this was both good and bad news. Good news, because I wanted them to know. Bad news, because now I was learning this organization ran deeper than I thought. I had no idea how many resources they actually had or who else was connected.
“So, they have people looking for me?” I asked.
He nodded. “Of course, they do. They can’t have some vigilante out there killing off their members. You’re a liability, Cobra.”
“What I am is a threat.”
He smirked. “That too.”
“Keep talking. I like when information comes out of your mouth.”
“They have people in all levels of government from local police all the way to the C.I.A. Politicians, celebrities, socialites, religious leaders, and business moguls like myself, all a part of it. So, you see, keeping their identities unknown and each member safe is the Killing Game’s utmost priority.”
All the more reason why going to Alexi wouldn’t change a damn thing. “Who’s in charge?” I asked. “Like I said, I don’t care about the members. I want the people behind the Killing Game. Those who go out to procure the victims. Who you all pay to keep it going.”
“There’s a board of directors, if you will. But first, let me ask you this. What do you plan on doing with the information I’ve given you?”
“Hunt them down and kill them.”
“It won’t be easy. You see, I don’t really know who’s in charge. The person who recruited me may know or she may not. I do know that there’s more than just one person in charge. There are four of them. I’ve never seen their faces, but it’s true that they will be hosting a live hunt in a few weeks. I can help you get into that.”
“How?” I asked, wondering where he was going with this.
“You can be my new bodyguard since you’ve killed… Takahashi.” He said the man’s name with some semblance of remorse. I guessed he cared for the guy who risked his life to keep him safe. Maybe their relationship ran deeper than just an employee with benefits.
What he was saying was giving me ideas. I was planning on killing him and taking his identity, but that might expose me. Those who knew Richard would know he always traveled with guards. For him to no longer have any would be suspicious. If I wanted to really infiltrate the Killing Game, how far did I want to go?
“I’m still listening,” I encouraged. I wanted to see what kind of plan he was forming.
He licked his dry lips again, which annoyed me. “You pretend to be my new bodyguard when I get to Russia. The one who managed to save my life when Takahashi sacrificed his. They know I never go anywhere without protection. They also know that Takahashi was my lover. By now, I’m sure they know he’s dead and that I’m missing. If you want to get into their circle in any way, you need me. But, you’ll have to follow my lead.”
I cocked my head. “Like I don’t see you leading me into a trap. You get us to Russia, and they take me out or take me hostage. We’re not doing your plan. Just tell me what I want to know and let me worry about how I go about it.” Yeah, that plan of his sucked. But I was going to be forming one of my own that might be just as dangerous. We’d see. I would totally need back up with this one.
“It’s the only way,” he insisted.
“I’m going to find a different way. Now, what’s the name of your contact in Russia?”
He shook his head and I got fed up. I punched him hard in his side, making sure to break one of his ribs. He cried out and grimaced from the throbbing pain, but could only wheeze and puff through it.
“I told you, I’m all business and I want answers,” I warned.
He nodded as he huffed and puffed, then groaned. “She only goes by Zia. How well connected she is, I can only speculate. She does the clean-up. That much I do know.”
Well, now we were getting somewhere. “Where can I find her?”
“St. Petersburg.”
“About five million people live there, do you have her information? I’d like to not be looking for a needle in a haystack.”
“You have to take me with you, that’s the only way I will give you her information.”
“I can’t trust you to not stab me in the back.”
“I can’t trust you not to kill me and assume my identity, then try to contact her as me regardless of all your promises to let me live.”
Well, he had me there.
“That’s right, I could go back on my word, so why are you telling me this information?”
“Because I want to live. I have to believe that you will let me, so stabbing you in the back won’t help me,” he explained.
I knew he knew more than what he was letting on. He was allowed to bring people in, give them hook ups if they joined. I was sure not every member was allowed to expose the Killing Game, so Richard was definitely a person of interest on a higher level. I could torture him, but he might not give me what I wanted. He needed to believe that I would let him go if he assisted me. I was about to do something I never thought I’d do. But I knew it was the right thing.
“If… and that’s a big motherfucking IF, I decide to work with you, no more bullshitting me. I know you’re holding back. If I work with you, this becomes a partnership. By letting you live, you will become their next target, because you’ll be seen as a liability. I’ve already killed your bodyguard, and they don’t know where you’re at right now. They can’t reach you and they don’t know if you escaped my attack or if you’re dead like the others.”
“You’re smarter than you look.”
“Then you must think I’m drop dead gorgeous. Back to business. Like you said, you’re a dead man anyway unless I take out those in charge before they get to you. I can make that happen if I’m pointed in the right direction. You just have to decide which is more important. The Killing Game or Richard Tate.” I made my pitch and waited to see if he’d caught it.
He was thinking about what I’d said, I could almost see the gears turning inside that brain of his. “You’re right, I do know more, a lot more.”
“I figured as much. Yo
u’re a small fish, Richard. I want the big catch. The people who are profiting from the Killing Game. You play your part, you get to live. That’s more than I gave Walter and Cecily,” I said, reminding him that I was more than willing to cut his life off if he didn’t give me the goods.
“You go in as my bodyguard. They don’t really know how many I keep, they just know I have them around me at all times. They would have expected me to hire a bodyguard for protection after Takahashi was killed. They’ll vet you, but I can set you up with a profile. I’ll give you Zia, and through her, you may be able to get to those on the board. But we do it together.”
I walked over to him and undid the rope binding his right hand. “I’m going to take you home.”
“The cops will be all over it,” he pointed out.
“I didn’t say I was taking you to your home.” With that, I punched the shit out of him, hard enough to render him unconscious. I untied him from the cross and rebound his wrist and ankles. I also blindfolded him with his own tie and put some more tape over his mouth. Jordan wasn’t going to like this plan… but I thought he’d agree to it once he saw where I was going with it.
As much as I didn’t like the idea of letting anyone else in on this deal of mine… I really believed I needed to call in some reinforcements. I wondered what Crimson Fury was doing this coming weekend?
Chapter Twelve
Exposed
“Are you out of your fucking mind?” Jordan growled at me as discreetly as he could while dragging me off by my arm toward the farthest corner in the room from my captive. I had chained Mr. Tate to a nice steel chair I knew he wouldn’t be escaping from anytime soon. I understood Jordan’s apprehension. It was our private hideout, after all, and I’d never brought anyone there before. But desperate times called for desperate measures like a motherfucker. I was so close to shutting this shit down and I knew it wouldn’t happen unless I continued to take risks. This was just one of them.
Cobra: The Vigilante: Volume Two Page 14