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?”

something from the floor, shaking off drops of gunk, then showing it to me. “What’re these for? They don’t look much use

In case I have to cut the cord. And it looks as though I

“Did no-one tell you at school that scissors are

again, arching back against James. Straining, mouth flung wide, she pants and heaves, and then, scarlet-faced, with a shriek of

… I move fast…

package drops into my hands then starts squalling loudly as Cara protests

the door. “I’ll catch

wrong? You’re not bothered by a

curls a lip at the mess on the ground. “You handle it.” Shuddering,

“So that’s

Charlotte levers herself forward.

of inspections: head, arms, legs… Eyes, toes, fingers… “She’s fine. Everything where

hands outstretched. “Give

second.” I’m casting around, looking for the

Crap!

cold and stinking. I pick it up, hoping… But it simply drips muck back

the useless thing into the

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

your monkey there just soaked the wrap I brought for

the hem of the fleece he’s wearing… my fleece…

thirty-five degrees and sixty per

a hundred per cent humidity

out sized as the garment is, I wrap the squalling, protesting Cara in it,

filth and the gunmen standing guard over

when after hours of gruelling pain and utter exhaustion, the baby is placed in her

smile spreads like a rainbow over her face. Taking the fleece-enveloped Cara, she stares,

cradling her, holding up the small be-wrapped squaller. “I did it, Mas... James. I gave

kiss her, his lips cracking open, bleeding with the gesture. “So you did.” He touches his daughter’s face,

Abruptly, Charlotte shudders…

through his swollen face, looks panic-stricken.

placenta

“Not a chance.”

something to

“Improvise.”

Bastard…

to let me have the clamps and the surgical

and hand back and forth, as though

touch, a strange braided alien-looking thing; thick, meaty and blue, pulsates in my hand, the pulse dying away by the

finger through the heap of towels and blankets stewing in the muck. “I

Baxter shifts. “What for?”

the clamp and

flat, “Take what you

I’m likely to be

chin at Hickman who moves to stand over me as I open the transparent plastic bag containing clamps, gauze and the bottle of spirit.

carefully fix the

the cord in both hands, I pull

of me wants to heave. Another part tells me not to

It’s just meat…

cord, nothing to cause pain to either Charlotte or Cara. But I’m

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

And it’s through…

and the trailing tail still attached

her belly, naked skin to naked skin, caressing her, stroking her,

magic of seeing

stands back, leaning

slops to the floor and I scoop it up, about to toss it

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

What the hell…?

echoes my thoughts. “What the fuck do

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