Beloved Beast

by Cathy McAllister

  She could hear footsteps getting slowly closer. It was about time this bastard came back. She had no idea how long she had been alone in the dark, but it must have been hours since Mario had locked her in this small, window-less room.

  The key turned in the lock and the door flew open. Crissy screwed up her eyes, blinking, as she was suddenly blinded by the light of a torch.

  “We’re going on a little trip,” said Mario, and dragged her to her feet.

  Crissy tried not to fall over as he pulled her along behind him. He pushed her into a car again, where her two bodyguards were waiting to force her into the foot-well again. She lay absolutely still, her heart pounding and her limbs aching. She tried not to panic, as that would make her cry and block her nose again.

  The car began to move. However they did not go far. They stopped in an industrial park. Several warehouses stood side by side. In between them were containers and piles of empty pallets.

  Mario went ahead into one of the warehouses. Crissy followed with her two guards. The warehouse was full of shelving stacked with various large boxes. They walked through the warehouse and entered an office. There Mario told her to sit in an armchair. With a wave he dismissed the two large guards, who closed the door behind them.

  With a smile of satisfaction Mario looked at his prisoner. Crissy glared at him angrily. But this did not appear to have any impact on him. He went to a cupboard in the corner and took out a bottle of Cognac and two glasses. He calmly filled both glasses and sat down in the armchair opposite her.

  “Oh, sorry, I forgot,” he said, and, putting both glasses onto the table beside him, he tore the tape from Crissy’s mouth with a single tug.

  “Owwww! You damn ass-hole!” shouted Crissy.

  “Shut your mouth!” said Mario coldly.

  He took one of the glasses and held it up to her. She ignored it.

  “Stop your nonsense, Crissy,” said Mario. “Take it!”

  She looked at him coolly and took the glass.

  “Drink it!”

  Hesitating, she took a sip and a pleasant warmth spread through her innards. So she took another sip and leaned back in the armchair.

  “Better?” asked Mario gently.

  She nodded.

  Mario looked at her whilst he drank. Crissy forced herself to look right at him. He looked like the man that she had fallen in love with over a year ago, and yet he was not the same man. Or rather – he had never been that man. For a year she had lived with an illusion and it hurt her; the memory of all the happy moments; the trust; laughing together – all a lie!

  “How did you know that I hadn’t been eaten by the alligators?”

  “Well, call it sentimentality or whatever, but I suddenly had a bad feeling about leaving you to such a horrible end. So I sent a man to finish you off quickly with one shot. But the man returned and reported that you had disappeared without trace. There wasn’t a single drop of blood to show that you were dead. So I sent him off again – this time with the task of finding you and assassinating you.”

  “Very moving,” said Crissy sarcastically.

  “Now you won’t believe me, but I really did want everything to turn out very differently. I wanted to marry you, you sweet thing. I wanted to have a family with you. But you threatened my family. I couldn’t allow that.”

  “Why have you brought me here?” she asked.

  “Haven’t I told you already? You’re my bait – for the beast.”

  “What business have you got with Ramon?”

  “Hasn’t he told you? We were very good friends. Almost like brothers. We shared everything. Even girls.”

  Mario laughed and took a sip of Cognac from his glass.

  “Has this got anything to do with this Angel?” probed Crissy, her heart pounding.

  “So he really has told you about it? Well, I bet he didn’t tell you everything. “

  Crissy let him think that Ramon had told her. She did not mention Jeanette. He could go on thinking that Ramon had told her his secrets.

  “So I’ll tell you how it really was. As I’ve already said, we were like brothers, sharing everything. My father gave me Angel as a birthday present. Obviously that wasn’t her real name. Her real name was Beth – just Beth. She was meant to bring me in a lot of money. Angel wasn’t intended for the normal customers. I made her into the main attraction in my luxury brothel. A night with her for ten big ones. And she was almost always fully booked.

  Then Ramon returned from a trip and saw her for the first time. He was obsessed by her straight away and absolutely wanted her. That wouldn’t have been a problem, if he’d wanted to shag her now and then. I’d have let him do that for nothing. But he wanted her to stop. So, OK, I’m a softy, especially when it comes to love. I sold her to him for a million. He married her, she got pregnant and then the little one arrived.

  Suddenly Ramon didn’t want anything else to do with the business. He wanted to live cleanly because of his little family. I told him that he had to do one more job for me – just a small matter, but he refused.”

  Mario emptied his glass and put it down.

  “What sort of job?” asked Crissy.

  “He was supposed to kill a man. It wasn’t his first assassination job. It wouldn’t have given him any trouble. But he just didn’t want to do anything else for me. And that was after I had shared everything with him. I’d even given him Angel.”

  “For a million,” interrupted Crissy sarcastically.

  “I could hardly give her away. And Ramon had the money.”

  “So you killed her!” stated Crissy.

  “I know you won’t believe me, but it wasn’t planned that way. I thought she was with Ramon. I’d invited them all for a chat, but Ramon came alone. Angel had stayed at home with the little one because the baby had a fever.”

  Mario sighed and got up. He went to the cupboard to get the bottle of Cognac, to pour them both some more. When he sat back down, he took a large swig before continuing.

  “I had sent two men to burn his house down. When Ramon turned up alone I realised that Angel and the little one were in danger. Ramon immediately saw my dismay. I told him what was going to happen and tried to get hold of the men who were supposed to be carrying out the job, but they didn’t respond. Ramon went straight back to the house, with me close behind him. We arrived at his estate at the same time. It was already blazing furiously. Ramon threw himself straight into the flames. My men and two of Ramon’s servants pulled him out by force. It was pointless. It was all pointless.“

  Mario emptied his glass and poured another one.

  Crissy had listened to the story in suspense. What a tragedy, and, as Mario had said, pointless.

  “Ramon was in hospital for ages. I expected him to try to kill me when he got out. But he did nothing of the sort. He just strutted into my office and put a picture of her onto my desk. He said that he hoped that her face would haunt me my whole life long. He was right. She still haunts me. I loved her. I never wanted her death – nor the death of the little one. I was her Godfather after all.”

  “But there’s one thing that I don’t understand. Why are you after Ramon now? He left you alone. He went into the swamp.”

  Mario laughed smugly.

  “Yes, he didn’t put a bullet in my head, nor a knife in my ribs. He took revenge in a different way. He gave me away to the police and told them a few bad details that should have put me into prison. It cost my father a lot of money to convince the judge to free me and to get rid of other evidence. Also Ramon took a case with him containing two million.”

  Now Crissy knew how come Ramon had so much money in his account.

  “And what do you intend to do if he comes here, which I don’t think he will?”

  “He’ll come. Just like he threw himself into the flames for Angel, he’ll come for you, too, and put his life on the line. He’ll offer me his life for yours. He may be a monster on the outside, yes, he’s even a multiple killer, but he has a weak spot f
or the gentler sex. He sees it as an honourable duty, to rescue helpless women – just as he rescued you from the alligators. “

  “I think you’re mistaken. He won’t come. I think you’ve probably done him a favour. He wanted to get rid of me anyway.”

  “Crissy, is that really what you think? I know him better than you do. I know exactly how he feels and how he acts. He will come!”

  “OK, let’s presume that he’ll come. What are you going to do then?”

  Crissy was not sure that she really wanted to hear the answer. She hoped that she was right and that Ramon would not fall into this obvious trap. Perhaps he did not even return to the guest-house. It was still possible that he had left her. Then he would never get the message, never come here and so live on. There would be no point in him coming. Mario was going to kill her anyway. There was no way that he was going to let her go. Her life was already forfeited. Only Ramon’s life could still be saved – if he stayed away from here.

  9

  A Trap for the Beast

  Ramon put the night-vision equipment to one side and checked, once more, the position of all of his weapons. He was calm. He was accustomed to carrying out difficult missions in a cool, considered way – he had switched off his emotions and spied on the place where Crissy was being held captive. He knew there were six guards outside and possibly two to four more inside the building. He knew Mario too well, how he would proceed and he knew that Crissy would not have been brought here until just before the agreed time. It should not be possible for him to get Crissy out of here in broad daylight. Mario will presume that Ramon would come alone and would not involve the police, and he was right. Yes, Mario knew his opponent, too. They had once been like brothers. If the Angel affair had not happened they may have still been like brothers.

  He shoved the vision equipment into his rucksack, pulled one of his knives out of his belt and slowly crept round to the back of the building in which Crissy was imprisoned. He hid himself between two containers and watched two men keeping a look-out at the back of the building. They looked relaxed. Maybe they thought that the expected guest would approach the building from the front, where the entrance was. But they were mistaken.

  “Man, I wish Mario wouldn’t kill the little slut straight away. We could have a bit of fun with her. I’d like to show her my Luis,” said the man and laughed.

  “You’re right. I’ve got something to fill her pretty mouth. Damn it! Just the thought of it gives me a hard-on.”

  Ramon came out of the shadows and crept up to the two inattentive guards. Everything happened very quickly. He slit the throat of the first man and before the second guard could raise the alarm he, too, collapsed with a cut throat. Now there were only four more guards.

  *

  Mario looked at his diamond-studded Zenith watch.

  “Your knight in shining armour has twenty more minutes. It’s time to prepare you a little.”

  Crissy’s heart began to race. During the last half an hour she had relaxed a little – lulled by alcohol and the apparently calm disposition of her ex-fiancé. Now he had brought her ungraciously back to reality. She was his bait and not his guest. He would kill Ramon and her likewise.

  “What are you planning to do?” she asked, with a tremble in her voice that she found hard to suppress.

  Instead of answering her question, Mario got up and went to the door. He opened it and called out to his two bodyguards. Crissy felt fear choking her, and her stomach seemed to have knotted. The two men looked anything but pleasant, which was of course the point of their job.

  “No!” she screamed, as the men came to her and dragged her out of the armchair. “What are you planning to do, Mario?”

  “It’s not that I don’t like you, Crissy. I already told you that when I left you in the swamp. Back then I had to get rid of you. Today I have another purpose for you. You’re my means to an end.” He laughed cynically. “Your dear Ramon seems to have a weakness for my girls. First I lost Angel because of him and now he wants you, too!”

  “You are so two-faced! You sold Angel to him! And you threw me to the alligators. He neither took Angel from you, nor me. You didn’t want her any more, nor me!”

  “Put her over there!” Mario ordered his men with a wave, without addressing Crissy’s question.

  “You damn ass-hole!” shouted Crissy and she defended herself violently against the two men who were dragging her along.

  Mario grinned.

  “I’ll prepare a little surprise for Ramon,” he said in a tone of doom that made Crissy’s skin crawl.

  The bodyguards pushed her against the wall where lots of metal pipes ran. They fastened her arms onto the pipes with ropes, so that she had to stand upright with her arms stretched high above her. Crissy had no idea how she was going to stand this. Her arms were already hurting and the ropes were cutting into her flesh.

  Mario pulled out a knife from beneath his jacket and walked up to Crissy. Her heart beat faster. Her eyes, full of fear, were fixed on the blade. She tried not to think of everything that he could do with it. Panic ran through her and she bravely tried to fight it and stay calm. Nothing occurred to her that she could do in this situation – apart from praying – so she did that. She silently begged God to stand by her. She did not believe in miracles, but she prayed that God would give her the strength to die well and not to give Mario the satisfaction of making her scream.

  Mario nodded to his men and, without warning, they tore Crissy’s blouse from her body. She screamed in shock and starred at her ex-fiancé in anger. Mario looked at her thoughtfully.

  “You really are very beautiful, Crissy,” he said, and slid the cool blade slowly over her breasts. “Immaculate.”

  Crissy summoned up all her courage and spat at his face. Just as the first time, when she spat at him in the swamp, he rewarded her with a smack on the face. Only this time he also thumped her in the stomach. She gasped and doubled up, as much as the ropes would allow.

  “Soon you won’t feel like spitting any more,” he snarled sinisterly, and he smiled nastily.

  He took the blade and cut Crissy on her left breast. Overcome by unimaginable pain, she screamed at the top of her voice.

  *

  Ramon pulled his knife out of the last guard’s chest and wiped the blade on the damp grass. Then he froze – a piercing scream shot through the night. Crissy! What had the bastard done to her? Ramon really had to stop himself from charging rashly into the warehouse. It would not help Crissy. Moreover Mario would not kill her before Ramon turned up. He would not kill her – but he would torture her!

  “Damn it!” he cursed.

  Warning himself to be calm and level-headed, Ramon carefully entered the warehouse. He could not see anyone. Of course someone could be hiding behind one of the shelving units, but Ramon’s instinct told him that no one was there. So he went on to the back of the warehouse, where the office was. Here there were blinds hanging at the window that looked from the office into the warehouse. But he could see silhouettes. A man in the room was moving back and forth.

  “How could I have been so wrong about you?” he heard Crissy say.

  He was relieved that her voice still sounded so strong. She was angry and that was good. If Mario had tortured her really badly she would now sound very different. Nevertheless he did not doubt for a minute that Mario had hurt her a lot.

  He heard Mario laugh and Ramon was filled with wrath.

  “Wait till your lover-beast comes. Then he’ll see how much time I’m taking over you. That was just a little foretaste of what is to come.”

  “And what if he doesn’t come? I’ve already told you. He’s left me. He won’t even have got your note.”

  “He has got it!”

  “How do you know?”

  “He killed the man who gave him the bad news. And he wasn’t particularly gentle with my cousin. He stabbed his hand with a knife, cut off his earlobe and then shot a bullet into his head. He’s not squeamish, our frien
d.”

  “But he doesn’t do it for such lowly motives as you do. You even enjoy doing it!”

  “You don’t know Ramon very well, dear Crissy. He goes lower than you would care to imagine. He’s not your romantic knight! He’s a killer!”

  “Good! Then I hope he kills you!” said Crissy, full of hatred.

  Ramon crept quietly around the built-in office to the only door. With a well-aimed kick he opened the door and held the pistol, ready to shoot. Mario, who was standing very close to Crissy when the door flew open, reacted very quickly and held the knife to Crissy’s throat.

  “Ramon!” shouted Crissy.

  “Good evening, Ramon!” Mario greeted him with a smile. “Great, that you accepted my invitation. I’m sure you won’t want to miss tonight’s performance. But I must warn you – if you don’t throw down the little toy that you’ve got in your hand, then the game’s pretty much over for the little one here, if you wouldn’t mind. So, throw the weapon nicely over here, OK?”

  Ramon tried not to stare at the blood that was running down Crissy’s breast. Mario had cut an ‘M’ in her skin to brand her. It was not as bad as he had feared – the cut was not deep, but still his blood was boiling with rage. And still he had to act with caution. Mario was capable of anything and Crissy was in great danger. Slowly Ramon lowered the gun and threw it across to Mario.

  “Good boy. I’m proud of you. And now come two steps closer and stand still.”

  Ramon took two steps forward without taking his eyes off Mario. He could see both bodyguards out of the corner of his eyes. They waited upon Mario’s command.

  “Seize him and bring him here!” Mario demanded, and the two brawny men got moving.

  Ramon knew that if he was going to have any chance, then he had to take it now, before the men tied him up. Once that was done he would be forced to watch Mario assaulting Crissy. He had to take the risk. They had nothing to lose.

  In one speedy move he took the landlord’s pistol from his waistband and shot. Mario looked in disbelief at the rapidly spreading patch of red on his white shirt – he clutched his chest and collapsed. Momentarily the two bodyguards were frozen to the spot. Then they pulled out their guns. Ramon shot the man on his left and threw himself to the ground, just missing the bullet fired at him by the bodyguard on his right.