The Tied Man

by Tabitha McGowan

  Lilith

  ‘So where do we start with you, you uptight little slut?’

  As far as chat-up lines went, I’d heard better but Alasdair Dalziell’s intentions were anything but romantic. Blaine had led me through the darkness and now I was handcuffed and blindfolded in the presence of a man who clearly had the constitution of an ox, and the intellectual capacity to match. I couldn’t detect the slightest slurring in his speech, when he should have been at least halfway to comatose.

  Dalziell stood behind me with his hard-on grinding into the small of my back, and his fetid breath in my ear. I half-expected him to begin licking my cheek, and I concentrated on keeping my breathing steady as he decided what he wanted to do first.

  He had clearly decided on mindless violence, and I was grabbed by my waist and thrown backwards. I felt myself falling, helpless, until I landed hard on a bed, and then Dalziell pounced. He straddled my hips and ripped my blindfold away, all the better to observe the terror in my face. I had to remind myself that I wasn’t meant to be fighting this, when instinct was screaming at me to do all that I could to make him stop.

  He took a length of rope from a selection of toys beside the bed and threaded it through my handcuffs, then roughly tied me to the headboard. Once he was content that I was secure, he leaned over me to grab his wineglass. ‘Cheers, bitch.’ He took a long drink. ‘First of the night. No point in being too pissed to remember the highlights, eh?’ He sat back, putting his full weight onto my thighs. ‘Now, time to sample the goods, eh?’ He tore my ridiculous excuse for a dress from me in one move and threw it aside, before taking a pair of scissors from the table and cutting away my thong so I was entirely naked; Blaine had clearly provided all the tools for whatever job he had in mind. He refilled his glass.

  *****

  ‘That’s a good girl,’ Dalziell said, and cupped my breasts with his hands. He squeezed hard and I could feel his ragged fingernails dig into my flesh. ‘You know you want it, don’t you, you little… little whore.’ He paused and frowned, then glanced at his glass. ‘Bloody good stuff, that.’ He was still poised above me, but I felt his focus begin to shift. At least it was beginning, but too slowly to be of any use to me. I was going to have to help the process along.

  I got my one chance when Dalziell knelt up to fumble at his fly. ‘Shall we start by seeing if you’re as good at sucking cock as your paddy friend, eh? See if you fucking choke on it like… like he did.’

  I pulled against my wrist restraints and kicked upwards with both legs, catching him under the chin full force with my heels. Months of running over the roughest ground I had ever encountered paid off, and he gave a grunt of shock and tumbled backwards off the end of the bed, out cold.

  I lay back on the pillow and shut my eyes. Now all I had to do was figure out how the hell to pick a lock on a set of handcuffs and find some clothes, and I was good to go.

  Finn

  God was still firmly on Blaine’s side, because nothing was going right. Coyle was not only still upright, but on patrol and deliberately idling outside Dalziell’s door. I should have guessed; he was meant to be checking that all was well with Blaine’s precious guests, but he was far more likely to be looking for an opportunity to catch a glimpse of some action.

  There was no doubt that he’d been helping himself to the drink; Nat’s magic potion was kicking in, and by the look of vague panic on his ugly mug, it didn’t look like it was going to be the best of trips for the big fella. Still, even a half-stoned Coyle was not a good thing to meet down a darkened corridor and until the very second that bastard was flat on his back and snoring, he was a real threat. I turned to Gabriel. ‘Kiss me,’ I ordered.

  ‘What?’

  ‘Just fuckin’ kiss me, will you?’

  ‘Fuck off, no way! I’m not…’

  I grabbed him by his collar. ‘Look, you stupid twat – that fella right there is capable of rippin’ the lot of us a new arsehole without breaking a sweat if he thinks there’s something the least bit dodgy going on. So, you’ve just paid thirty grand for a bit of cock, and that’s what he needs to see going on. Now!’

  To give the lad his due, he cracked on with it. By the time Coyle clocked us, Gabriel was snogging me like his life depended on it – which wasn’t too far from the truth – as Nat stood and watched us with as much interest as he could possibly muster. ‘They fancied somewhere a bit more public,’ he explained to a clearly disgusted Coyle.

  ‘Fuckin’ pervs,’ he muttered, but didn’t stop in his shambling trajectory away from the door. He looked like he was about to topple at any second, but I waited until he was well out of sight before I shoved Gabriel away. He staggered backwards and wiped the back of his hand across his mouth.

  ‘Dear God. Well, that was a first.’

  He looked so shell-shocked that I nearly smiled at him. ‘Ach, not bad for a beginner.’ Then I pushed the fire in my knee to one side and ran the rest of the way to Dalziell’s room. With each step I prayed that he hadn’t hurt her, but I knew all too well what the man was capable of.

  I was the first inside with Gabriel and Nat just a stride behind me, and my immediate thought was that I was too late because Lilith was already naked and handcuffed to the bed. Then I saw Dalziell, spark out on the floor.

  ‘Oh thank fuck.’ I lurched to Lilith’s side and grabbed the key on the bedside table. As soon as the cuffs clicked open she flung herself into my arms. ‘You stupid cow! He could have killed you! I’m not letting you out of my bloody sight again until we’re off this fucking island, you hear me?’ I pulled a sheet around her shoulders and held her close and I could feel her trembling against me. ‘What the hell were you thinking, Lili?’

  ‘They would have killed you, Finn. For definite,’ she said. ‘And I just need you to not say anything else and hold me very close right now, if that’s all right with you.’

  Gabriel gave a polite cough. ‘Um, is it okay to turn around yet?’

  Both he and Nat had been standing with their backs to Lilith since we came into the room, and there was something unexpectedly touching about their courtesy. ‘Yeah, she’s decent now. Thank you.’ I looked down at Dalziell, sprawled across the floorboards. ‘The stuff worked, then?’

  Lilith shook her head. ‘He didn’t want to play. He only started drinking ten minutes ago, so he was just starting to get groggy.’

  ‘So how come he’s down there?’

  ‘I had to improvise.’ She wrapped the sheet around herself and fashioned a makeshift toga.

  ‘What, you did this?’ I pointed at the prone form at the foot of the bed .

  ‘Got my feet free. But I think he’s stunned rather than finished, if you get my drift.’

  As she said the words, Dalziell dragged himself to his feet. ‘You fucking little slag,’ he hissed, and lumbered towards us. ‘I’ll…’

  He never finished the sentence. Gabriel threw himself in his path to land a perfect right into Dalziell’s jaw and the ugly ginger twat hit the floor again.

  ‘Jesus Christ!’ Gabriel cradled his fist. ‘If I’ve broken a finger, I’m killing him.’

  I looked down at Dalziell. He didn’t look like a man who was planning on waking up anytime soon. ‘Nicely done, posh lad.’

  ‘Hey, any time, yeah?’ Gabriel said, shell-shocked all to hell as he inspected his hand for damage. I guessed this was the first time he’d hit anything except a school gym punchbag.

  ‘Right, gentlemen. Shall we return to the party?’ Lilith stood and smoothed down her makeshift dress, then linked her arm through mine. I took a step with her and my knee went from under me. Just for a second I thought I was going to throw up right there on my shoes.

  ‘What happened, Finn?’ Lilith asked, and gave me one of those looks that suggested she already knew anything, so there was no need for me to even open my gob.

  I was about to try a ‘Nothing,’ but Nat got there first. ‘Coyle went all postal on his ass,’ he said. ‘Booted him in the knee, the nutter. I
think it’s cartilage.’

  ‘Grass,’ I muttered. ‘It’s fine, Lili. Well, not fine exactly, but I’ll survive. I promise, you can poke it around as much as you want, once we’ve got this sorted.’

  I’d expected a bit of an argument, but to my surprise she just took held my arm a little more firmly, and nodded. ‘Okay. Just take it easy on the stairs. And you’re not allowed to break anything else for at least a year, do you hear me?’

  Lilith

  Henry met us at the door of the Great Hall, and I’d never seen him look so happy. ‘Oh thank goodness, you’re all safe! I was so worried, especially when those two monsters started to bid for Finn, and then Alasdair got Lilith, and… oh, for heaven’s sake, now I’m rambling. Come in, come in – I’ve never seen anything like it! It’s like a scene from Sleeping Beauty in here!’ He beckoned us inside.

  ‘Sleepin’ Ugly, more like,’ Finn said as we stepped over the threshold.

  The place looked like a scene from a bloodless massacre. Only five guests remained: Blaine was at the head of the table, dead to the world with her head resting on her folded arms, and Maxwell was next to her with his head tipped backwards over the back of his chair and his gentle snores punctuating the eerie hush. Ellis and Chester had made it all the way to the sofa, where they now slumped against each other in oblivion.

  ‘It was amazing – a couple of them staggered off to their rooms, and then the rest just started to doze off one by one, whilst I stood here and watched. Not a murmur from anyone! What on earth did you give them?’ Henry asked.

  ‘Custom-made just for tonight, mate,’ Nat replied. ‘I never got round to giving it a name, but basically it’s got a pretty heavy anti-psychotic foundation, combined with a muscle relaxant, and my esteemed client here,’ he nodded at me, ‘stipulated that any dreams should be bad ones, so I whacked in a hallucinogen on top.’

  ‘Good grief.’ Henry looked nervously at where Laura Fenworth had curled up on the rug. ‘They will be all right though, won’t they?’

  ‘Hell, yeah,’ Nat said. ‘I tried it on myself before I left – twelve hours, out for the count. It wasn’t what I’d call the best night’s sleep ever, but there was no lasting damage. The last thing I’d want to do is kill someone by accident.’

  I glanced at Blaine. Even when unconscious she was beautiful, but to my satisfaction a thin trail of saliva dribbled from the corner of her mouth onto the linen tablecloth. ‘I wouldn’t be too worried. We could probably cover it up without too much difficulty; I should imagine the lake’s deep enough.’

  Nat stared at me.

  ‘What?’

  ‘Nothing. Nothing at all.’

  ‘Jolly good. Well gentlemen, it would appear that we have approximately twelve hours until the grand unveiling, so I suggest we make a start with the tidying up. Gabe, would you give Henry a hand in getting these delightful people to their accommodation?’

  ‘Sure, as long as he tells me where they’re meant to go,’ Gabriel said, plainly relieved at being given something to do in the midst of this madness.

  Henry began to roll up his sleeves. ‘Don’t worry, lad. I’ve got a list of luxury suites lined up.’

  Gabriel took his dinner jacket off and threw it over the nearest chair. ‘Right then, Henry, my good man. Head or feet?’

  ‘Find Coyle and start with him, would you?’ I asked. ‘I’ll feel so much better knowing he’s behind a locked door. And watch your backs when you’re lifting him.’

  ‘Yes ma’am!’ Henry gave a particularly cheerful salute, and he and Gabriel left to start their labours.

  ‘Right, I’d better fetch the rest of my kit,’ Nat said, once he’d surreptitiously checked the pulse at Maxwell’s throat. ‘And a sweater or three; I’d forgotten the delights of the great British winter. I’ll be back in two minutes.’

  Finn waited until he’d gone, then limped over to Ellis and Chester. He stood above them in silence, his hands clenched into fists.

  ‘Finn?’ I called, but he didn’t move. ‘I’m going to get us both some warm clothes and something for your knee. When Nat gets back, I need you to take him up to Blaine’s study.’

  ‘Do you not trust me with the clean-up, then?’

  I looked down at the two unconscious men, both of them impeccably groomed and dressed to kill. Just the scent of their aftershave threatened to make me heave. ‘Do you really think that either of them deserves a painless death in their sleep?’

  ‘Fair play.’ To my relief, Finn finally turned his back on them and gave me the tightest of smiles. ‘Wonder how they’d feel, knowing Lilith Bresson just saved their miserable lives?’

  Chapter Thirty One

  Lilith

  The study looked misleadingly cosy. The fire in the hearth had been rekindled, giving the room a warmth and soft glow it didn’t deserve, and Nat was working by the light of a green glass desk lamp. By the time I got there he had switched Blaine’s computer on, and was busy adjusting the office chair to his satisfaction.

  I set down an ice bucket and an armful of blankets, tracksuit bottoms and sweaters onto the coffee table and joined Finn on the divan, where he had already lit his first cigarette. He was as edgy as hell.

  Nat had his washkit with him and emptied the contents out onto Blaine’s desk. He held up a small tube of toothpaste and a pack of razorblades to show me. ‘Memory stick and external hard drive. Pretty cool, huh?’

  ‘What, that’s it?’ Finn asked.

  ‘That’s it.’ Nat pulled the lid off the toothpaste to reveal a USB connector. ‘All I need for a brute force attack. I’ll be feeding millions of passwords through an encryption algorithm…’

  ‘And again, in English?’

  ‘Just think of it as bludgeoning down Blaine’s front door.’

  ‘Now that I can imagine. But it just seems kinda… insignificant for what you’re goin’ to have to do. There’s no way she would want this stuff leaking out into the world. If this thing doesn’t work…’ Finn’s anxiety was an entirely unneeded reminder of what was at stake, and I doubted that any of his concern was for his own skin.

  If Nat was in the least nervous about the role he was playing in our scheme, he hid it beautifully. ‘Look, from what Lilith’s told me, and what I’ve seen so far, Blaine’s a collector. Which means she’ll want to be able to look through that collection whenever she wants, yeah?’ He adopted the same laid-back tone he would use in Santa Marita, when discussing which bar we might go to. ‘Think of it as her own virtual gallery. She’ll reckon that her IT guy’s some kind of genius – which, hey, he might well be, but he’s nothing compared to me. Anyway, it’ll make her believe that anything that goes on behind the wall can be as sick as she wants it to be.’

  ‘Sounds familiar,’ I said.

  Nat plugged the disguised memory stick into Blaine’s desktop. ‘So once I’m in, I can pretty much guarantee that everything I’ll need is going to be laid out in front of me, probably in alphabetical order with a nice, handy index.’

  ‘But you can’t be sure?’ There was real anguish in Finn’s voice now.

  ‘I can never be a hundred percent sure.’ Nat calmly turned his chair away from the desk to face us. ‘Look, mate, I don’t know if Lilith told you, but I’ve done this before – I spent two years of a Master’s degree writing programmes to catch sick bastards. Right now there are five men still doing time because they were stupid enough to think a password was going to keep me out of their grubby little collections, and I fully intend to make it six after tonight. Now go and get that bloody knee sorted out, will you?’

  *****

  Finn dragged himself off to change his outfit, then begrudgingly sat next to me and rolled up the leg of his tracksuit. Even the soft jersey fabric brushing against his skin made him wince, and what he revealed was barely recognisable as a knee. The whole joint was swollen and hot to the touch, and had already begun to turn an interesting shade of claret where the tip of Coyle’s boot had connected.

  ‘Oh good
grief, Finn,’ I sighed. ‘I am so bloody glad this is the last time I’ll do this.’

  ‘I think it’s touching that the fucker gave me something to remember him by,’ Finn said, then fell quiet as I tentatively explored the misshapen kneecap with my fingertips.

  ‘That utter cunt of a man.’ I packed handfuls of ice into a towel and twisted it into a parcel. ‘At a guess, I’d say it was your anterior cruciate ligament.’

  Nat looked up from the screen and grimaced. ‘Ouch.’

  ‘How do you know all this shit?’ Finn asked. ‘The first time you did this for me, you were rattling off all the Latin – thought you were cursing me at first.’

  ‘I probably was,’ I smiled, remembering. ‘It was a course of anatomy lessons years ago, when I was just starting out. I went out with a junior doctor, just so he’d let me into the hospital morgue at night. I spent two solid months reading all his textbooks and sketching cadavers from dusk ‘til dawn, then dumped the poor sod.’

  ‘Really?’ He watched me for a while to see if I was being serious. ‘Y’know, I’m not sure if that’s normal, Lili.’

  I shrugged. ‘It worked for Géricault.’

  ‘If you say so.’ Finn paused to take a low breath as I slid a small silk-covered cushion under his leg. ‘God, there’s so much I don’t know about you, isn’t there? A whole lifetime of things I don’t have a single clue about.’

  ‘And so very soon we’ll have all the time we need to catch up.’ I paused in my nursing duties to kiss him on the lips. He returned the gesture and I packed the ice-filled towel around his knee. Meltwater trickled down onto the delicate fabric of the cushion and the floral pattern’s subtle colours began to run and merge, ruining it forever.

  ‘Ah, what a shame,’ Finn said with satisfaction. ‘I think you’ve fucked it.’

  ‘Whoops. Right, that’s about the best I can do. We’ll find a proper doctor tomorrow, but for now, keep it elevated and keep it still, do you hear me?’