Hot Revenge Box Set 2

*****

James

The message from Charlotte’s abductors…

Finchby…

Baxter…

… replays in my head…

Marsh Street under Barnbridge Road overpass 9pm

Bring the money

No police. No other people or she dies

If late she dies. So does the baby

Brandy and rage burn inside me.

The bag containing the ransom money swings heavy in my hand. I'm the decoy and at some level, I know I may not come out of this alive. Klempner's Kevlar vest gives me a little comfort, but it’s the fury inside that warms me against fast falling temperatures.

I should be afraid…

But I’m not.

Jade-Eyes…

My beautiful Jade-Eyes…

Cara… Your gift

met Charlotte, my Virgin, we have helter-skeltered from one

robbed her of what she deserves. None of it her fault, she has simply been the survivor of

I change any of

No. Nothing.

imprisoned in her cell, racked with pain, coughing up green slime, she

coming for

And me?

I’m the decoy.

dark, icy and with the merest hush of a breeze. High cloud makes a haze of the stars but does little to blanket in what passed for the heat of the day. The streets are glazed to a hoared sheen, except for where streetlamps

rendezvous point, near

not that late, but the cold is keeping people indoors and, after all, Christmas is coming. Most folks will be with friends, at

and welcome, sparkling with fairy lights, dressed with spray-on snow and Santa, Please Stop Here signs. In

I pass by.

and passing into more uncertain territory. This end of Marsh Street is

City, it was built before the main highways were developed, a remnant of the old town, under the overpass which carries the modern road to Barnbridge. It's a risky

fire or medical emergency

feeling

Better than the alternative.

to do

the overpass, dim under inadequate sodium lighting. From the road above, moisture trickles down, streaking stark concrete walls white before settling

on the overpass, late evening traffic grumbles past. But

“Hello?”

echoes briefly,

here.” I pace, circling,

Nothing…