The Condemned

by Claire Jolliff

  Besides, what was so wrong with the idea of being all isolated and alone, just the two of them up in the cabin, once this business was all dealt with?

  Nothing at all, it sounded like a damn fine idea.

  The two of them?

  Ok, the four of them, but the Clones were alright, they kept to themselves and knew how to be discreet, they weren’t all that much of a hindrance.

  Hell, they were a good pair of allies, all things considered. Amato didn’t tend to trust strangers readily, and most certainly not ones that he had only helped to escape from prison a week or two before, but they were good people and he knew they could be relied on, knew that they were friends.

  He tapped the tabletop impatiently, drained the last of his whiskey, the stuff was weak as cat piss and almost certainly watered down. He cast the small glass aside in disgust, watching the milling throng for any sign of her returning to him, rewarded, finally, after what felt like a really, really long wait, by the sight of her squeezing between an overweight dude and a skinny hooker who was trying to pick his pocket.

  Leci slipped back into the seat opposite Amato. She looked pale, and frightened, she felt as though she might either be sick or faint.

  She struggled to make sure that neither happened and he didn’t push her, waited until she was ready to talk.

  When she had stopped shaking she nodded slowly to him, Amato raised an eyebrow.

  ‘All of them?’

  ‘No...’ She let out a breath she’d been holding. ‘Three of ‘em though. The one who I robbed, he’s the one who had the knife, the one who cut Xavian, he’s there, and two of the others, but the last guy ain’t.’

  ‘Did they see you?’

  ‘Yeah, they did. Didn’t say nothin’ though, just acted like I wasn’t there.’

  He was nodding slowly, looking very thoughtful, and he had a small smile on his face as though the information was pleasing to him, which, of course, it was, if they didn’t know who she was then all the better.

  Either they did that type of thing a lot and didn’t bother remembering the faces of their victims, or she had changed enough in five years to not be easily identifiable, especially along with the cap shielding half her face.

  She suspected it was some kind of mixture between the two. In the time since she had last seen them she had grown up a bit, filled out in places, the things she had seen and done had lent a haunted quality to her eyes that seemed to hang there permanently and the lines of her face, her features, were sharper, more defined than they had been.

  She still looked young but she was now at the point where she was starting to develop into the woman she would later become, rather than the child they had known her as.

  ‘Ok, that’s not a problem, we can find out if they know where he is when we get down to it. You ready?’

  Was she ready?

  Was she ready?

  She didn’t know.

  She felt kind of numb, a little sick, sort of excited, and very nervous. A quarter of her life spent waiting for this moment and now it was here... Was she ready?

  ‘Ready as I’ll ever be.’ She forced a smile.

  Amato stood, leaned down and kissed her forehead.

  ‘I’ll be waiting. I love you.’

  She turned her head away slightly, maybe embarrassed for him that she couldn’t say it back, maybe ashamed of herself for not even trying. If he noticed he didn’t show it, he turned and headed for the stairway, headed up to wait in their room.

  Leci sat for a few minutes, taking deep, even breaths, trying to force her nerves to settle, but not really doing a very good job. A part of her pushed at her, urged her to go, get on with it before it was too late! Another part of her was glued to her seat and couldn’t pry her hands from where they rested on the arms of the chair, her fingernails digging very slightly into the brittle wood.

  It was almost a relief when Amato’s vacated chair was suddenly occupied. The man in front of her wasn’t halfway bad, he certainly wasn’t repulsive, overweight, missing teeth, greasy skinned, like the majority of the men in here seemed to be. He looked about Leci’s age, maybe a little older, he had a pleasant smile and under any other circumstances she might’ve accepted when he offered to buy her a drink.

  Instead she threw a hasty ‘no thanks’ his way and stood quickly, making her way through the tightly packed bodies towards the table where the three men were seated.

  Hesitantly, and still not sure whether or not it was an integral part of the whole them not recognising her aspect, she removed her cap and shoved it into a pocket of her pants, fluffed out her hair as best she could. The dust from the three days of riding had turned it from blonde to a light, mousy brown, she hadn’t had a chance to wash it clean and realised now that even that might be a good thing.

  She let the thin strap of the tank top slide from one shoulder, it didn’t really expose any extra skin but she figured it was a cute touch.

  Sidling up to the table, Leci took a deep breath, swallowed her nerves and sat down on the edge, facing one of the men, the least gross one of them all...

  Ok, he was still pretty disgusting and looking at him would always make her insides shrivel, make her want to run away crying, like the frightened little girl within was begging her to do...

  But she had to make this believable, right?

  Right.

  And that meant hitting on the one of them who was most likely to expect it.

  Of the three, he was the least overweight, greasy, hairy, smelly, loud... All round least offensive to every sense, with maybe the exception of taste, but she didn’t want to get close enough to find that out.

  When she sat in his eye line he frowned up at her for a moment, she held her breath, waiting for the flicker of recognition in his eyes, it didn’t come and his annoyance passed, was replaced with a cocky smarm that she instantly hated.

  She smiled down at him sweetly. ‘Hey there handsome, looking for a good time?’

  The man sat back in his seat, arms folded across his chest as he eyed her up and down.

  ‘What you chargin’?’

  Leci licked her lips; she desperately hoped that her nerves wouldn’t give her away. Her heart felt to be beating too hard and fast, far too loud, couldn’t they hear it? Surely they could... Her palms were clammy, sweaty, and she resisted the urge to wipe them on her pants. When she spoke she was careful to control her voice, keep the waver out of it.

  She glanced over her shoulder at the other two men who were watching with interest and she smiled again, then looked back at the guy in front of her.

  ‘Nothin’ for you, sugar, I like the look of you, but if your friends want a turn too I can maybe play along for a couple of copper coins each.’

  Such a pitifully low amount was barely worth a thing, but she hoped it would be enough to entice them in without allowing them to become too suspicious, if she just offered to fuck the lot of them for free they might wonder what her motive was.

  He raised both eyebrows at the offer and looked around her to his buddies for their reactions. Leci almost flinched as a hand reached for her from behind, pinching her ass, accompanied by a grating laugh. She managed to keep still, managed to keep the smile on her face.

  She heard another voice from behind her, the voice of the one who had cowered in an alleyway at the wrong end of her gun all those years ago. The one who had killed her brother.

  ‘Yeah, why not eh? We ain’t had a better offer so far tonight, though fer the record, sweetheart, yer a little too scrawny for my tastes, I like a little somethin’ to grab onto, bit of meat on the bones.’

  She very nearly commented that he hadn’t been all that picky the last time around, but caught herself before snapping it out and spoiling everything.

  She slid down from the table, held a hand out to the first one.

  ‘Come with me, I got a room upstairs.’

  ‘La dee dah, upgradin’ from an alley like the usual sluts?’ Laughed the third guy, the one who had
caught her attention at the bar earlier.

  Leci itched to set his beard on fire and watch it burn nice and slow.

  She didn’t care what Amato said, she was gonna have some fun with these fuckers.

  The man took her hand and she led him towards the stairs, pausing once to check that the others were following. They drained their ales and joined their friend.

  Leci glanced around quickly, no one seemed to be paying any attention to the four of them.

  Good.

  She moved up the stairs and along the short hallway, towards the room at the end. When she reached the door she turned around, stood with her back against it, her hands behind her back.

  She wanted to warn Amato, let him know they were here.

  The three men stopped, watching her. She grinned and reached out a hand.

  ‘Pay up first, boys.’ She wasn’t loud but she wasn’t quiet either, he would be keeping quiet, waiting for her, listening out, and she didn’t doubt that he would now know she was outside with her prey.

  The fat guy, the one she hated the most, narrowed his eyes and shook his head.

  ‘You know, I don’t think I wanta pay for such a skinny little bitch after all.’

  Leci’s heart sank... He was going to walk away?

  She didn’t let her desperation show, shrugged her shoulders.

  ‘Fine, your loss, chubby.’

  The man laughed, a low, hostile sound that made her skin crawl. He reached out quickly, unexpectedly and took a hold of her throat. Leci let out a small, strangled cry and tried to pry his fingers away.

  The moment was so different from the one she had shared with Amato, when his hands had been around her neck, she had never been in any danger with him and this situation was an entirely different one, but for some reason it still felt oddly similar.

  He pressed his face close against hers, she closed her eyes to shut out the sight of him so near to her.

  Amato must be hearing this, must be feeling so helpless.

  ‘Stay there... Stay there...’ She silently prayed to him, if he ran out trying to come to her rescue it could all be over.

  ‘I think you misunderstand me, darlin’. I said I weren’t payin’. I never said I didn’t want the goods. And if you call me Chubby again I’ll gut you like a fish. We clear?’

  She nodded, or, she did the best she could with his thick, meaty fingers restricting her movement.

  They were more clear than he could ever know. She was fully aware of how serious he was, of how gutting people like a fish seemed to be his speciality, more clear than she had ever needed to be. She wanted to kill him where he stood but knew she needed just a little more patience. If she burned this sorry excuse for a human being his two buddies would be screaming the place down and running for their lives faster than she could-

  Ok, no, not faster than she could deal with them, but the screaming wouldn’t be ignored. Screaming was usually a sign that something interesting was going on and she wouldn’t be fast enough to shut the two of them up before they drew a crowd.

  The cheap fuck. She should’ve known to expect this really; them not to play by the rules.

  He let her go and she rubbed her neck. She still had bruises there from her tussles with Amato, this guy had probably just topped them up.

  The fat creep grabbed a hold of her upper arm roughly, hurting her, bringing tears to her eyes his grip was so tight. He pulled her away from the door and then leaned past her to open it.

  The room was black inside.

  There was no current source of light other than what scant moonlight made it through the window. Stood in the doorway, she scanned the place quickly, she couldn’t see Amato anywhere but then, she couldn’t see anything else either.

  The man let go of her arm and pushed her from behind. Leci tripped and went flying into the room, holding her arms out in front of her as she fell, protecting her face.

  The darkness didn’t help her depth perception and she struck the floor at a strange angle, feeling a burst of pain shoot up through her right wrist, she cried out in pain and then lay sprawled where she had landed.

  The door closed as the three of them entered the room behind her, shutting out the small amount of light that had entered from the hallway which was dimly lit by a few candles held in sconces along the wall.

  Their own room had a few of these but they were unlit, better to keep Amato hidden, except as she lay there a dull radiance burst into life and cast a warm glow over the room, a flickering play of light that sent shadows dancing around the small space like insane marionettes cavorting to the tune of some intoxicated puppeteer.

  ‘What the fuck!’

  ‘Whoa!’

  ‘If you move, I will kill you.’ Amato’s cold, calm tone cut through the surprised exclamations of their prisoners.

  Chapter 38

  Leci twisted around and sat up to take a look at the scene in front of her.

  Amato stood by the wall to the left of the doorway, beneath a lit candle and holding the men at bay with his pistol, which was carefully trained on the fat guy.

  He must’ve been waiting there to light it when they came in. There wasn’t much light, but there was enough, enough for the men to realise that they were suddenly involved in something that they didn’t quite understand just yet, but would do soon.

  ‘Look, man, we were gonna pay, honest, we were just havin’ a bit of fun first. If you’re pimpin’ the bitch then this is a really shitty way to do business.’

  ‘Shut the fuck up. Next one of you who speaks, I’ll blow his cock off.’

  They fell obediently silent.

  Amato took one hand away from the gun, he held something in it which he tossed towards Leci.

  It fell at her feet and she picked it up. The key to the room.

  She stood and moved back to the door, locked it and then leaned against it, watching, nursing her injured wrist.

  Aside from the bed, the only other furniture in the room was a small table and four chairs. Amato had already lined three of these up, side by side and, motioning with the gun, he directed their ‘guests’ to sit in them.

  ‘Leci, tie ‘em up.’ He pointed to the bed and she looked over at it, confused for a second.

  Wow, he’d been busy...

  The blankets had been torn into strips, they wouldn’t be strong but they’d do for now. She did as she’d been instructed, taking pleasure from the work and from the expressions on their faces, from the feeling of having them at her mercy for a change.

  Right now they looked more worried and apprehensive than scared, they figured they were in some shit but didn’t know how much. She was looking forward to seeing it register in their eyes when they did find out.

  She worked quickly, securing their arms and legs and when she was done with that she balled up some of the remaining strips, shoved them into their mouths and tied another around their heads to keep them from spitting out the gags.

  Amato tilted his head with a light smile and nodded his approval, Leci beamed.

  He pushed away from the wall and walked over to her, handed the gun to her, watching the three of them carefully. He leaned down and kissed her once, delicately, on her lips and then he moved over to the bed, got himself nice and comfortable, sat on it with his hands folded behind his head, his legs stretched out in front of him and crossed at the ankles, ready to watch the show.

  ‘All yours, babe.’ Amato grinned at her.

  The men were having the good sense now to start looking more than a little bit scared. This clearly wasn’t some pissed off pimp, and not understanding the weird turn of events left a whole lot of potential scenarios wide open.

  Alecia pulled around the fourth chair, setting it down in front of the three of them and sitting down.

  She said nothing for a few minutes, let their tension grow, let them wonder, but also taking the time to savour the moment for herself.

  It was here, it was finally, really here. The three of them, sat in front of he
r, bound and gagged, held at bay by the pistol in her hand. It seemed unreal, and the adrenaline pumping through her made her feel dizzy with exhilaration.

  ‘What’s the matter boys? Don’t you remember me?’ She finally asked them.

  They all looked confused, it shocked her to realise that they genuinely didn’t have a clue who she was, why she might want to hurt them.

  ‘Let me refresh your memories. Around five years ago, I held you...’ she pointed the gun towards Chubby and he cringed, ‘up at gunpoint in the alleyway behind this place.’

  She paused, watching as it slowly dawned on him, the worry in his eyes slowly transforming into panic. She nodded slowly.

  ‘Yeah, that’s right, remember now?’

  He didn’t move, she stood up, used the butt of the pistol to strike his head. The hit drew blood but he stayed conscious. She crouched down and met him at eye level.

  ‘I said... Do you remember me now, Chubby?’

  He muttered something against his gag and she pulled it down.

  ‘What was that, I didn’t catch it, had a little somethin’ in your mouth...’

  ‘I said ‘eat shit and die, cunt.’

  Leci gritted her teeth, tensing her jaw so much it ached. She shoved the gag back into his mouth and pulled up the strip that bound it.

  Moving over to the bed, she picked up one of the leftover scraps of material, toyed with it idly in one hand, holding the gun in the other.

  ‘Just in case you don’t know what I’m talking about... I’ll go through it, bring it all back, nice and fresh. I’m pretty good with the details too, see, it’s been nice and fresh in my mind ever since it happened. I can’t stop replaying it over and over, can’t stop hearing it and seeing it... and smelling you.’ The last words came out as an angry hiss, close to his face.

  Chubby’s eyes were narrowed and he glared at her balefully, the other two still had the good sense to look afraid, one was fidgeting nervously and the other was sat, stock still, watching the gun very closely, probably trying to figure out a way to get it off her.