Dom turns toward me, his face immediately softening. Taking his jacket off, he covers my half-naked body with it. While Rob cowers on the ground and Jake stands over him, Dom takes the knife from the floor and cuts the ties around my hands and ankles. Then he takes me into his arms and hugs me tightly.
‘Come on,’ he says in my ear.
I pull away from him. He stands and pulls me up. My legs are shaking. He puts his arm around my back, and leads me out of that hellhole.
TWENTY-EIGHT
I wait for the door to close then I walk over to the man curled up and writhing on the floor. I stop in front of him and he looks up at me with bulging eyes.
‘Please, I beg you. Don’t hurt me. I’ll do whatever you ask,’ he whines like the coward that he is.
I yank him up, struggling, cowering and screaming like a stuck pig, and pin him against the wall, until he suddenly realizes I am not going to hurt him, yet. I let go of him so he falls to the floor. He lands in a heap, but quickly scrambles into a sitting position against the wall. I fix my eyes on his bloodied face. His left eye is beginning to swell, his cheek is grazed and there is a cut on his lip which is bleeding.
The knife is beside us. His bulging eyes stray to it, and I don’t try to kick it out of the way or reach for it. Instead I smile coldly and instantly his mouth begins to tremble uncontrollably.
‘You gave your word,’ he grovels.
Calmly I reach down and pick up the knife.
‘What are you doing?’ he cries in panic. He is so terrified he is trying to crawl sideways up the wall.
I move close enough to hear his heart thumping in its cage and say nothing. Simply watch the terror behind his pupils. Taking my time, I bring the knife to his throat and point it so the tip nicks his throat. He freezes. A drop of blood appears on his skin.
‘Please, please, don’t kill me. I wasn’t going to hurt her. I just wanted to frighten her, teach her a lesson. I love her,’ he begs pathetically.
I frown. ‘You don’t love her. You can’t. You’re a rat. She’s a woman. Rats don’t love human beings.’
‘Yes, yes, I’m rat. You’re right. I don’t love her,’ he agrees immediately, shaking his head wildly, snot running from his nose and into his mouth.
‘So we both understand this clearly. Whose woman is Ella?’
‘Your brother’s,’ he utters immediately
I inhale the stench of his urine. A dark stain is spreading over his crotch. I raise my eyes back to his blubbering face and feel nothing. Not even hatred. He could be a discarded bottle top on the floor of one of my clubs. A bit of waste. A nuisance. I have to pay someone to clean it up, dispose of it.
‘Good. I’m glad we agree. Now. You made a mistake when you took my brother’s woman, because that involves me and a whole world of trouble for you,’ I tell him.
Sheer panic leeches into his face. It’s been a long, long time since I brought a man to such fear. It’s irritating that I have to do this. I don’t want to be like this. But men like him force me to return to this unpleasant business.
My voice is emotionless and flat. ‘My brother isn’t a killer. Sure, you got his blood boiling, but a kicking within an inch of your life is as far as it would have gone. Me, I can kill in cold blood. I could kill you right now without breaking into a sweat. As painless as swatting a fly.’
His head jerks.
I continue as if we are having a polite conversation. ‘There are so many ways I could end it for you. Slit an artery and watch you bleed out on this floor. My favorite, actually. Or stab you repeatedly, slicing through every vital organ. A bit messy, but it has its uses. Or many non-fatal cuts to make you suffer a long, slow painful death. So far no one has pissed me off enough to make me resort to this method yet.’
He shudders visibly.
‘I would probably be doing the world a favor to kill you, but looks like you’re the luckiest man alive tonight. We arrived here before you had a chance to really fuck it up for yourself. So I’m going to make this one exception. I’m going to let you live. I am going to walk out of here and you are going back to wherever you presently call home. Once you get there you have twenty-four hours to put your affairs into order and leave London. For-fucking-ever!’
I nod slowly.
‘I don’t care where you go or how you get there. Take a flight, take a boat, take a train, but in twenty-fours if you are still anywhere within 100 miles of my brother, his woman, her family or me, you will have a sea burial. There are two men outside. They will follow you home. Don’t mind them. They won’t harm you. Their job is to escort you home safely.’
I stop and pause. ‘Do you understand me?’
He nods so violently his head bangs against the wall.
He reaches out a hand towards my leg, ‘Thank—.’