Hot Revenge Box Set 2

Chapter 11

*****

 

Michael

I recognise the face of James’ guard, the one they’re calling Hickman. I’ve seen it before in the photo Klempner identified; Baxter’s henchman.

He shoves James towards us, James shooting him a look that would knock flies from the air, before squatting down by Charlotte. He runs a finger over her cheek. “Sorry we took so long to get here.”

She returns the gesture. “They’ve hurt you.”

James’ brows rise. His head tilts. “They’ve hurt me?”

I struggle out from behind her. “James, take my place, support her. I need a look at what’s happening.”

He manoeuvres to sit behind Charlotte, his back against the wall, kissing her rank hair as he supports her against himself.

And now, kneeling between her open legs and with a decent view, I can see Cara’s head is all but out. “I think one more good push will do it, Babe.”

Baxter waves the barrel of his pistol at Klempner. “On your knees. Hands behind your head.”

Klempner gives him a slow look then drops to the ground, fingers clasped at the back of his neck.

“Stannis, you keep him there.” Baxter jabs a finger at the other guard who moves to stand by Klempner, gun muzzle pressed to his temple. Then he nods Hickman to my bag and Klempner’s. “Check them out. See what’s inside.”

He tips out Klempner’s first; his mobile armoury tumbling to the floor with a clatter. Baxter kicks guns, knives and rope to the far side of the cell, out of Klempner’s range.

Then he looks him up and down. “Larry, have you put on weight?”

Klempner adopts a pained expression. “I’m wearing rather more clothes than usual.”

Baxter cocks a brow. “I'm not sure about that outfit as a sartorial statement.”

Lips pressed tight, Klempner casts eyes sidelong, then back again. “What's your gripe with me, Baxter?”

“You have to ask? More than twenty years I worked for you, and you left me behind like I didn’t matter. Abandoned me to the cops like some piece of rubbish.”

“The police were coming. I had about a minute to get out of sight. When I last saw you, you were unconscious after you'd let a complete amateur take you out. As I left, you were nowhere to be seen. What was I supposed to think? You’d gone. I assumed you’d run for it.”

“No. I hadn’t. I’d just crawled into the shadows while I got my head back. You didn’t even look. You walked out and you kept walking.”

“Yes, because I didn’t know you were there. You couldn’t have called out or something? I could see blue lights flashing. What was I supposed to do? Mount a search? As far as I was concerned, you’d gone.”

Baxter sneers. “Make your excuses, Larry. You owe me. You’re going to pay.”

“I owe you nothing. I never did. And besides, you have the money.”

Baxter rocks on his heels. “Money’s not everything, Larry. Money’s not everything.”

He turns from Klempner, dismissing him, nods to Hickman, then to my rucksack. “Turn it out. Let’s see what’s in his bag of tricks.”

I try to interrupt, to stop what I can already see happening… “No… don’t…”

But it’s too late. Clean towels and wraps tumble out, dropping into the slops on the floor, no longer fresh and sweet-smelling but wet and fouled.

“Was that necessary?”

Baxter smirks, poking through the heap with the end of a boot, wiping them further into the dirt. “Can’t be too careful, can we. Who knows what you have in there?”

“What I had in there were the basics for a young woman to safely deliver her baby. Now…” I poke through the pile, trying to find something useable…

Christ…

“… What the hell am I supposed to do with this lot?”

then showing it to

In case I have to cut the cord. And

no-one tell you at school that

wide, she pants and heaves, and then, scarlet-faced,

… I move fast…

into my hands then starts squalling

the door. “I’ll catch

wrong? You’re not bothered by

lip at the mess on the ground.

that’s what

alright?” Charlotte levers herself forward. “Is Cara

the briefest of inspections: head, arms, legs… Eyes,

reaching out, hands outstretched. “Give her to

second.” I’m casting around, looking for

Crap!

which was soft and fine and warm, is now wet; cold and stinking. I pick it

the useless

“The baby’s healthy, isn’t it? It’s making

wrap her in. You and your monkey there just soaked the wrap I brought

gun muzzle at his temple. “Here, use this.” From his kneeling position, he tugs the hem of the fleece

happened to you coming from thirty-five degrees and sixty

“It’s thirty-seven degrees and a hundred per cent humidity

in it, tying the sleeves around

filth and the gunmen standing guard over

it. That transformation that happens with a woman, when after hours of gruelling pain and utter exhaustion, the baby is placed in her arms and her face illuminates. Young or

Taking the fleece-enveloped Cara, she stares, as

back to James, still cradling her, holding up the small be-wrapped squaller. “I did

at her, reaching around to kiss her, his lips cracking open, bleeding with the gesture.

Abruptly, Charlotte shudders…

through his swollen face,

a palm. “It’s okay. It’s just the placenta being ejected.” Snapping fingers

“Not a chance.”

to have something

“Improvise.”

Bastard…

least going to let me have the clamps and

rocks head and hand back and forth, as though deciding, then smirks.

my hands the cord, hot to the touch, a strange braided alien-looking thing; thick, meaty and blue, pulsates in my hand, the pulse

heap of towels and blankets

Baxter shifts. “What for?”

clamp and the surgical spirit

hesitates, eyes flat, “Take what you need. No

to be with a

and the

then carefully fix the first clamp in place, over the cord close by Cara. Then, just

hands, I pull it tight and

to heave. Another part tells me

It’s just meat…

are no nerves in the cord, nothing to cause pain to either

a gristly texture and slippery in my hands; resists. I’m almost sawing through the thing

And it’s through…

stub on Cara and the trailing tail still attached to the placenta as I swipe blood from my mouth with the back

skin to naked skin, caressing her, stroking

magic of seeing your child born. The sheer savagery of

back, leaning against

mass of the afterbirth slops to the floor and I scoop it up,

speaks quickly. “Hickman, get the placenta. Put it

What the hell…?

echoes my thoughts. “What the fuck do you want with

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