by Eva K. More
Ivo then stepped next to the futon and gripped her hair tightly, pulling her head upwards painfully. “Hello, slut, long time no see. This time we’ll have zero interruptions; I guarantee that.”
When Kat whimpered, he mocked the sound and then laughed harshly. “So daddy’s little girl, how does it feel? Last time, Beast could have killed me– but Maryan stopped him.” He pulled on her hair harder, making more tears gather at the corners of her eyes. “How does it feel that he placed more value on the life of a whore than on yours?”
Kat’s eyes took in his gaunt cheeks and serpent-like expression. She trembled all over, but this time it wasn’t as much out of fear as it was of anger. Yet, she didn’t want to satisfy him. Her teary eyes slowly wandered to the woman in question and saw that her face carried a passive expression. Then her eyes traveled to Gabriel, his head lying limply on his chest.
“Let go of her, Ivo. She will be my plaything first,” Anton said levelly, not sparing the man a glance. “You can torment your little traitor,” he nodded in Gabriel’s direction.
“It’s no fun; he’s still sleeping.”
Anton took a sip, shrugging one shoulder. “Then wake him up.”
Ivo fletched his teeth, and with a jerk, he tore his hand away. Her scalp stung, but she took her first deep breath.
Kat watched as Ivo poured himself a glass and downed it completely, then sauntered over to Gabriel. She could not hide her jump when Ivo hit him so hard that his head swiveled in the other direction. “Wake up, asshole!”
Gabriel groaned but did not lift his head.
“Jesus, he’s one ugly motherfucker. Guess I know now why he hid behind that mask.” Ivo circled the stool and laughed, his sneer making goosebumps appear on Kat’s skin. He hit his other cheek. “Wakey, wakey, sunshine.” And when that didn’t result in the wanted reaction, he kneeled in front of Gabriel, lifted his head by his hair, and shouted into his face. “Goddamn you, you fucking son of a bitch! Wake up so I can kill you!”
As if those were the magic words, Gabriel’s eyes fluttered and then finally opened, his dizzy gaze barely focusing. Despite the odds that were so painfully against him, Gabriel still managed to lift one bloody corner of his lip to smile at Ivo mockingly. “Long time no see, princess.”
Ivo’s retaliation was quick and dirty as he hit Gabriel straight in the nose and then let go of his hair. “You never learned your lesson, didn’t you? This time it’s me having all the power, not you.”
As Ivo retreated to fill his glass again, Gabriel’s eyes met Kat’s, and then they were surprisingly clear and angry. He didn’t look scared, but determined. If beaten as he was, he could summon such strength, she could do it too.
Then she saw as Gabriel’s gaze flickered to her side, seizing Anton.
Anton had yet to look into his direction, as Kat could feel his eyes trail up her legs and remain glued to her chest area. “You see, pet,” Anton started saying, “your father and I go way back. We were friends once, the best of partners even. Good times, really. Help me remember what broke us apart, boy.” Then he shifted his body in Gabriel’s direction and, at the same time, lifted his hand to stroke Kat’s head as if she were a kitten. “Remember? It was a placement like this. Me, you… a woman you like.” He said as he took another sip of his glass, a wistful expression on his face.
Kat didn’t understand what he meant, but she could see the unbridled anger flaring inside Gabriel.
“Oh, how interesting,” Ivo said, polishing a gun in his hand. “You want to tell us before or after I shoot him?”
“You won’t kill him until I show that motherfucker what’s behind that door. Lina!” Anton lifted his hand in the direction of the metallic double door. Dutifully, Lina went and unlatched the big hook in the middle, widely opening the doors so everybody could look inside.
The room held no windows, and a strange plastic film covered every surface. There was a metal bed at the center, and the items surrounding the room appeared to be a mix of medical and BDSM devices. Chains were hanging from the ceiling, and a row with big, phallus-like shaped objects was on a wall beside it. Kat noticed the cameras surrounding the metal bed and fought to keep her stomach steady. Anton grinned.
“You see, I’m not using my hands anymore, little boy. And good thing these rooms are completely sound-proof – not that my men would ever interfere - but it’s always good to have them girls really desperate.”
Kat could see Gabriel’s whole body freeze, disgust and loathing written in his stern expression. Ivo, on the other hand, completely forgot to point his gun at Gabriel and stalked into the room, a look of awe on his face.
“Damn! That’s a nice dungeon,” the other sick man stated. The moment he reached to touch one of the metal chokers, Anton made a loud clicking tone.
“Don’t touch, or I won’t let you watch,” Anton said, and Ivo immediately pulled back his arm.
“I’ll be very pleased to have a place in the front row,” Ivo replied, walking back into the main room.
Warily, Kat watched as Anton looked at Gabriel with a smug grin. It didn’t escape her notice that Lina had once again morphed into the background.
“Front row, Gabriel, what do you say? This time I can show you exactly what I did to your mama many times. But I will be careful not to squeeze too hard like I did that last time with her – I like to keep my new pets alive a bit longer,” Anton said, stroking Kat’s head, and the room grew quiet.
Dear God! Had she understood correctly? Had Anton been responsible for Gabriel’s mom’s death?
“You bastard,” Gabriel sneered, his face turning red.
Ivo stepped in the middle of the room, pointing his gun at Gabriel lazily. “Let me get that straight,” he said, “Toni, you killed that fucker’s mother?”
As if being modest, Anton lifted his eyebrows and hands, grinning tightly. “She was a pretty good whore. Well, that is, until she lost that stupid baby. Fell into a depression, but no way in hell would she have raised my bastard, after all, if it weren’t for me, I’m sure the drugs would have killed her sooner or later.”
Lina had uttered the gasp that followed his admission. “Good god, Anton. You’ve always been such a piece of art.” She tried for nonchalance, but Kat could see that Lina had become white as a ghost. What was up with her? Could Kat somehow appeal to her and have the woman help her escape again?
Now, more than ever, Kat was determined to somehow free Gabriel and end this charade. Anton was even more disgusting than she had ever imagined, but Lina kept her gaze deliberately out of sight.
Why hadn’t Gabriel told her that it had been Anton who had killed his mother? It spoke volumes that instead of killing him and exacting revenge, Gabriel had played along to save others.
“I know, darling. You’re too old for me, or I’d have shown you the best time,” Anton said.
“What a shame,” Lina muttered.
“Ha!” Ivo cried out. “You really are a son of bitch,” he said, looking at Gabriel before he started guffawing. “Like, literally.”
“At least she kept me, I bet yours gave you away the minute she saw your ugly face,” Gabriel growled.
Kat could see the tension overcoming his body, the pulse point in his neck jumping visibly. She wanted to convey a message to him; she wanted him to know how sorry she was; how much she knew he hurt. Because she knew due to their previous talks that he had loved his mother, and reliving a traumatizing event like this must have been hard. Kat hurt for him, and she hated for him. But he was avoiding her gaze, concentrating on Ivo alone.
Ivo’s fuse was short, like always, and he shot forward, leaning toward Gabriel and putting his gun beneath his chin. “What makes you so smug, motherfucker? I’m the one with the fucking gun!”
In a move faster than an eye-blink, the tables turned. As if the rope that had bound him to the chair had disappeared, Gabriel stood up, turned Ivo in his arms, and restrained him, one hand holding a knife directly beneath his head.
“And I’m the one with your knife, motherfucker,” Gabriel drawled in Beast style. He had trapped Ivo in a vice grip, barely letting him breathe because Ivo could only gargle in response. “You’ve always been led by your ego rather than your head. Circling me with that knife so obviously stuck in your belt? Bad idea.”
Ivo let the gun fall to the floor and tried to rip Gabriel’s arm off his throat, to no avail.
Kat held her breath, watching Gabriel but shooting alarming glances into Anton’s direction. He had become eerily quiet and red. The fat man didn’t look frightened, and Gabriel was hurt, so in some way, Kat knew that it didn’t matter that he could overpower Ivo with the knife. She had a feeling that he wouldn’t get much further, though, because he could not hide his slight limping.
Kat jumped as Anton threw his glass on the ground and watched it shatter. The shards splayed in front of the couch, but the base of the glass had remained relatively intact. One of the jagged ends brushed her ankle.
“You’ve always been a disappointment, Ivo. Overpowered by a cripple? Let him go, boy,” Anton said and then sighed deeply.
“Let her go, first,” Gabriel said, inclining his head in Kat’s direction.
Anton shot her a glance and then shook his head, mock pouting. “Oh, no. We’ve yet to have fun.”
“Then Ivo’s dead,” Gabriel said.
“Are you sure about that?” This time Lina interrupted their interaction and drew all gazes to her. She was now pointing a gun at Gabriel.
Using the opportunity, Kat finally moved. It had been hard keeping herself still, although she had regained her feeling back, now she forced herself to make one single move correctly. Bending forward, she gripped the base of the shattered glass, and in the next moment, she turned to Anton and smashed the sharp edges against his thick thigh. It didn’t do much damage, but it shocked him, maybe hurt him a bit because Anton’s yelp was loud and had his spit sputtering in front of him, which gave Kat enough time to move off and behind the couch. Unfortunately, her legs still felt unsteady and shaky.
Then Lina took a shot.
nto the silence that followed the shot, Kat heard the crunchy sound of the glass when Anton stepped on it.
“Bitch, fucking cunt!” he groaned.
Kat barely registered him as she was watching the place Gabriel had been standing with Ivo in his arms scarcely a second ago. Now Gabriel laid on the ground, and Ivo was crawling on the floor, breathing hard.
Did Lina shoot him? Was Gabriel dead? This could not be true; it couldn’t.
Throwing all caution to the wind, Kat hurled herself forward. Her knees were weak and crumbling beneath her weight, but she didn’t care that she stumbled or that she cut her knees on the few shards lying on the floor. There was white noise in her ears, and she was blind to her surroundings as her whole focus lay on Gabriel.
Gabriel, the man who had done everything to protect her.
Gabriel, who - without knowing it - had a bigger heart than he could even begin to understand.
The second she reached him, she stretched her hand to touch his chest but was yanked back by her hair, dragged upwards until tears gathered in the corners of her eyes as a reaction of the skin stretching so harshly.
“What do you want me to do with her, boss?” It was Ivo talking above her.
“Bring her into the room; I’ll teach that bitch a lesson,” Anton answered.
Kat could have cared less about what happened with her now that Gabriel was dead – except, there was no blood. What little she could see between her squeezed eyes showed his body lying lifelessly on the floor, but there wasn’t a new stain or a pool of blood building beneath him. And she could have sworn she felt something brush her knee.
“Coming, boss.” The pain on her scalp was barely tolerable as Ivo started pulling her across the ground, and to ease the strain, she pushed her legs, feeling the shards brush the skin on whichever part of her body grazed the floor. Ivo certainly had a fable for hair-pulling, and if his previous tone of admiration had held any truth, then he was a fan of brutal abuse of women as well.
“What are we gonna start with first?” Ivo asked, almost giddily.
Kat couldn’t see Anton, but she heard him loud and clear. “I have a special toy called: the lift. I can’t replicate the elevator that killed her mama, but she can get a feeling of it.”
Kat’s heartbeat stopped for a second. Then she deliberately pulled her foot in front of the coffee table, so Ivo was forced to stop.
“Fucking cunt,” he growled. “Bet your mother deserved what she got just like you!”
Anton laughed in response. “She did. It should have actually killed Maryan’s whole family, but obviously, there was something off in the timing. I mean, that bastard had me deluded for a long time that I had taken my revenge on him deserting me by having killed his precious daughter. If it weren’t for Lina here, I’d still be deluded. This way, I still win.”
When both men laughed sinisterly, Kat felt numb.
She saw Gabriel slowly rise, readying himself for an attack. But this time, Kat was closer, in a better position, and if she remembered his limping and labored breathing, in better shape.
Also, Kat had taken the little knife that had been lying next to his body when she had thought he was dead. And she was angry. So much so that she couldn’t breathe or think or wait anymore.
Ivo saw Gabriel standing and stopped dead in his tracks, right inside the threshold, a foot already in the torture chamber. The impression of seeing someone he thought dead made him lose the hold on Kat’s hair. “What the- Lina shot you!”
“No, I didn’t,” Lina said, standing off the side, still holding the gun. With a quick sweep of her gaze, Kat could see Anton standing at a small distance next to her. His trousers were slightly bloody on one side, but he was slowly backing up against the wall behind him. Lina cocked her head in his direction. “I shot your alarm system so you won’t call for extra help.”
Ivo made a sharp noise in the back of his throat. “Bitch!” He lifted his arm with the gun and pointed it at Gabriel.
Gathering all her strength and hatred, Kat pushed herself to a standing position and attacked as fast as she could. The knife in her hand slid against the skin of his throat and broke it, half of it vanishing inside, and for good measure, she twisted it before letting go.
“Who will kill who, now?” Kat whispered right next to his ear.
She barely registered something wet splashing on her face because she was focused on Ivo’s expression.
Within seconds, his shocked eyes turned dull; there was a short gurgling sound and then heavy dry-heaving. Blood was not only gushing from the wound in his neck; it was slowly pouring out his mouth. And as if she were a ghost watching from above, she saw him fall to his knees and then collapse to the side. His flailing arms lost their energy, and when he stopped moving altogether, his eyes were widely open, staring into nothing, a pool of crimson expanding beneath him.
If she had any qualms about killing, she didn’t feel them at the moment. The only thing she felt was a profound relief because she had somehow hit the artery in his neck and that she had prevented him from shooting Gabriel.
When the dark edges around her vision retreated, she finally registered the shocked silence in the room. And then, there was a heavy hand on her shoulder, but it didn’t scare her, because without turning around, Kat could feel him. She knew that Gabriel had somehow limped his way to her.
The moment his gunmetal eyes reached her, she wanted to bury her face in his broad chest and fall asleep into a deep, healing slumber. He might have looked like a savage, bloodied, and bruised, but when she had stabbed Ivo, she had felt his equal. An avenging angel, no longer an innocent. Now, there was a part of a beast inside of her forever. And deep within his eyes, she saw the understanding, care, and devotion he held for her.
At that moment, she knew that whatever beast he was on the outside, or caring man on the inside, she would forever love them both with her
whole heart.
“Stop moving!”
All eyes turned to Lina. How surprising and yet how fitting.
She had remained inconspicuous, watching the scene in front of her with a certain air of aloofness. She hadn’t flinched even once.
But it wasn’t that she had addressed Kat or Gabriel; she was pointing her gun at Anton, who was plastered to the wall and slowly inching his way to the door.
He lifted his hands in surrender. “Now, come on pet. Did you think that I’d mistreat you? I knew you were smarter than that stupid idiot. I will give-”
“Stop!” Lina cried again, waving the gun in front of her body and taking a step closer to Anton. When it appeared that he didn’t listen, she shot him in the leg.
Anton howled loudly. “You bitch! You fucking cunt! I brought you to my place; I saved you from going down in the streets. And you betray me? You’ll pay for that, I swear.”
Slowly, Lina crept to him. Her expression was surprisingly sharper, more so than what Kat had seen so far from her. “You poor soul, you don’t get it, huh? You ought to have died for what you did to all those women – just like Ivo. He liked to strangle them, and you like to cut and rip them apart. But your time has come because I have everything I needed from you now. Your confession.”
“Fucking cunt, I should have done those things to you, you old bitch!” Anton said, anger now keeping the pain away from his voice.
Clicking her tongue, Lina cocked her head to the side. “From your point of view, there’s one thing you should have probably done to me – bury me in that elevator twenty years ago.”
With her words, Kat’s heartbeat increased. Could it be?
“What? What the fuck are you talking about, you crazy bitch? I can spear you on ‘the lift’ if you want!”
Lina laughed in response, her eyes gleaming dangerously. “That’s not the same; it should have been that day, that hour, that elevator.”