A Different Shade of Violet? (22 page)

The Dog throws me into the chair while two others strap me in, first my wrists and then my ankles to the legs of the chair. Mad Dog walks across to me and looks down at my dress, covered in blood.

“Sorry, we had to kill your man, Boss lady. He just got in the way, but he didn’t go down without a fight though. Poor Skud got hit in the arm with one of his bullets. So Skud put three in him,” Mad Dog states. I look at him with disdain and spit at his feet. He chuckles as I look up and see all the Dogs surrounding me. “It’s rude to spit, Boss. Only men should do that! It doesn’t suit a nice lady like yourself,” he says leaning in closer to me.

I start to breathe heavier the closer he gets. “Fuck. You,” I whisper when he’s mere millimeters from my face. He laughs and backs away. I breathe easier, but then suddenly he turns toward me and backhands me across the face. My head turns violently to the side and pain tears through my cheek as I scrunch my eyes tightly trying to ease the pain and the stars before my eyes.

“Ow,” I say sarcastically and suddenly I’ve got my spirit back. He’s taken everything from me, so I’m not going to make this easy on him. “But you still slap like a five-year-old girl,” I tell him bringing my face forward and looking at him while I spit out the small amount of blood leaking from a re-opened cut on my lip from my first beating.

He grins and shakes his head. “Violet, why are you acting out? Just behave and this will all be over and done with quickly. You can go home. I can go home. We can make this a happy ever after for all of us,” he berates and I scoff and try to suppress a laugh… I fail.

“I’m not some dumbarse, Mad Dog. You and I both know that I’m leaving here in a body bag. So before that happens I’m gonna try my best to make your life hell. Just to pay you back a little for ruining my life, you fuckhead,” I warn and sit back into the chair getting comfortable.

“I don’t have any intentions of you leaving here in a body bag, Violet. In fact, I need you alive. So if you’re acting out to try and get me to kill you, it won’t work,” he replies and I furrow my brows in confusion.

“Why the fuck do you need me around? Just kill me, get it over with.”

He laughs and shakes his head. “I want you to come out of this, Boss. I want you to live. You’re feisty, so I don’t want to kill you. You entertain me, but not only that, I need you alive so you can retract your statement to the police. The shit you said is damning us to hell, and we can’t have shit like that bring us down—”

“You think I’m going to retract my statement just because you want me to. Ha! Not likely. I’m going to name and shame each and every single one of you, and if you let me go, that’s a promise I
will
keep.”

“I would advise against that, Boss. We do have our ways of persuasion you know. Either way you
will
be retracting your statement. No matter how long we have to torture you for,” he says and then goes to walk out the door.

“Torture me for as long as you like, it won’t change my mind,” I yell and he stops in the doorway.

“Well, that’s a lovely shade of Violet on your face, Boss. It could get worse you know?”

“Yeah, well, if you’re referring to my bruising, some spineless fuck did that to me.”

He raises an eyebrow with a smirk. “Spineless, you say?”

“Yeah, couldn’t even do it himself, he got one of his vaginas to do it for him.”

Mad Dog laughs and shakes his head walking back inside and across to me. “You think you’re so funny, don’t you?”

“I don’t think… I know I am,” I reply with a shit-eating grin. I don’t care what happens to me now. Hudson is dead. Danny and Caiden are dead. I have nothing left to live for.

“Well then, how’s this for funny?” he asks and then grabs the top of my head by my hair and slams my head back into the metal chair. Pain cascades through my head culminating in a small yelp.

“And what about this?” he says as he slaps me harder than last time across the face, this time creating a new cut on my lip. “Still think it’s funny?”

I open and close my eyes a couple of times and then look directly at him, daring him with my eyes, even though my head is pounding and I’m starting to feel a little sick.

I spit out more blood onto the floor at his feet. “I think it’s hilarious,” I reply and he frowns and grunts looking over at a Dog.

“You’ll never learn will you, Boss?” he asks and nods at the guy.

The Dog walks over and my heart rate increases rapidly as he smiles at me like he’s having a great time.

Freak!

“Now make sure you scream. I like it when people scream for me,” the Dog confesses and I inadvertently tense up as he grabs my pinky finger in his hand and smiles crookedly at me. I try to pull away from his grasp, but he quickly pulls my finger backward and I hear the crack before I feel it. But when I do feel it, the pain pulsates through my finger and straight through my hand and up my arm as he bends my finger all the way back so it touches the back of my hand. I scream loudly because the pain is too much to bear. I start to cry as I look at my broken finger and my head slumps forward while I breathe in and out quickly trying to regain my equilibrium.

“Have some respect for Mad Dog, Boss, and you’ll get out of this with a lot fewer breaks and cuts,” he states kissing me on my cheek. I shake my head to fight him off.

“Have a good night, Boss,” he says and walks toward the door. I hadn’t noticed Mad Dog leave, but as I glance up through my agony, I see the Dog leaving and shutting the door behind him. I’m sitting in a chair all alone in an empty room, tied to a chair with a broken finger and bleeding lip.

Maybe I shouldn’t be so adolescent toward them. I look at my finger again and I can see the bruising already forming rapidly at the knuckle. The pain is like nothing I’ve ever felt. I’ve never broken a bone before so this kind of physical pain is all new to me. I rest my chin on my chest and just try to breathe steadying my racing heart and trying to think about anything other than the bile that’s rising steadily in my throat. Suddenly the lights in the room turn off and the room is pitch black. I open my eyes wide as they adjust to darkened room, but I can’t see anything other than endless blackness. A high pitch squeal reverberates through the room and if I could put my hands to my ears, I would. I hear someone coughing like they’re clearing their throat. It sounds like it’s coming over some speakers in the room.

“Boss, we suggest you get some rest. It’s going to be a long night,” the voice states and then laughs at the end.

“I’ll rest when I’m dead,” I yell.

“Fair enough! We’ll give you some thinking music to help you relax,” the voice says through the speakers again.

I tense up as I have no idea what’s coming. Suddenly death metal music starts to play in the room so loud I can feel the vibration all through my body, including my ears which are now ringing. It’s so loud, it’s actually painful. The singer is screaming and sounds like they’re in pain as I wince away from the noise. I really hope they don’t keep this going for too long. I close my eyes as I can’t see anyway so what’s the point.

“Here’s some peaceful mood lighting to settle you down, Boss,” I hear Mad Dog’s voice through the speakers.

I open my eyes again, only to be met by a bright white light, so bright I can’t see anything other than white. It turns off suddenly temporarily blinding me. All I can see is a bright light in the darkness. Then it turns on again, and suddenly it’s flashing like a strobe light. Continuously on and off disorientating me.

I clench my eyes tight and try to cut out the noise that I’m hearing, and the flashes behind my eyelids by going back to a good time in my memory. I think back to when I first met a mysterious stranger in a bar. He had multi-coloured eyes and his name was Rock. I think of all the good times I had with him. The way he made me feel. The way he’d look at me with nothing but love and adoration in his eyes. The way he’d make love to me and hold me so tightly. The images of his gorgeous face flow through my mind while the music gets louder. I clench my eyes tighter trying to keep the image in my head, but it’s quickly fading.

“Violet,” someone keeps repeating through the speakers in a menacing tone.

The over stimulation is getting to me and I know that’s what they want, but I can’t help getting a little emotional at the thought of how long this torture could go on for. Plus, the pain in my pinky is agony as I sit tied to a chair with nothing to help block out the lights and sound. I wish more than anything I could bring my hands up to my ears to get some relief from the monstrous noise. The strobe light flickers repeatedly and the song is played on repeat so many times I lose count. My entire body tenses feeling the ache of all my bruises and cuts. I’m really starting to get sick of this. I don’t know how long I’ve been in here for but it feels like hours.

I wish Hudson were here… no, I wish he were still alive. I wish I couldn’t feel his presence with me, but I can feel him… all around me. And instead of it calming me like it used to with Danny, it only makes me terrified to know that he’s truly gone. I scream out loud as the pain rips through my chest while I think about Hudson.

Suddenly the noise is gone and the lights are back on and the strobe light has stopped. I clench my eyes tightly seeing only a mirage of a ball of white light from the strobe and nothing else. My ears are ringing even though it’s deafeningly silent now. I slowly open my eyes adjusting to the sudden brightness as I look toward the door. I’m dizzy and nauseous from the strobe lights, it’s more than a little unsettling.

“Just kill me,” I murmur under my breath.

“But this is so much fun, Boss,” I hear Mad Dog say as he enters the small room.

“Fuck off! You fucking cunt,” I say with a smirk.

He laughs and shakes his head like he’s still amazed that I can argue back.

“Has anyone ever told you that you have a filthy mouth for a woman?”

I shrug. “Well, you have an ugly face, but you don’t see me complaining.”

He frowns and I see a crowbar in his hands. I open my eyes wide wondering what the hell he has in store for me with that. He walks across to me and his frown turns into a salacious grin as he brings the crowbar up and smacks it into my décolletage.

I scream breathlessly. The force of the hit pushes me back into the chair. I gasp and pant for breath. I’m sure I heard a crack when the bar hit me and apart from that it’s really difficult to breathe now. I lower my chin to my chest and pant as Mad Dog laughs hysterically.

“There, that should shut your vulgar mouth up for a little while. Now I want you to listen, and listen good, okay?” He places his hand under my chin and raises my head up to look at him. My eyes are watering from the pain and I can’t talk, I can only look into his eyes pleading with him to just get it over with. “Okay?” he reiterates and I nod my head slightly which results in severe pain lashing across my chest while I pant still trying to catch my breath.

“Right, we have you here and we won’t let you go until you have agreed to our conditions. Retract your statement about us, saying it was all a lie and you have nothing further to add,” he tells me taking his hand from my chin. I close my eyes as I shake my head from side to side slowly.

“Is that a no?” he asks. I still can’t talk so I nod. “Right, well, I guess I’ll get Chops in here then to see if he can change your mind,” he says and waves toward the door.

I’m finally able to get a breath in, so I take a deep one and as I do I hear slight cracking noises coming from my collarbone. I’m pretty sure Mad Dog just shattered it.

A man walks in with huge sideburns, I guess that’s why his nickname is Chops. Like mutton chops. If I could laugh I would, he looks stupidly hilarious. He’s carrying a bucket of water and a sack and he has a giant smile plastered all across his ugly face. I tense up watching him walk into the room.

“So as you remember most of us don’t like to fuck whores like you ‘cause you’re full of dirt and disease, but Chops here, he’s a crazy fucker. He’ll fuck anything with a heartbeat. Hell, he will even fuck anything
without
a heartbeat, if you know what I mean? He’s a sick, twisted fuck. So, I’ll leave you to it,” Mad Dog says and walks off leaving me with Chops.

Chops licks his lips and looks me up and down. “So sweetheart, there’s a couple of ways this can go. I can either get your acceptance of our terms now or we can play for a while and I’ll get it after? It really is all up to you,” he states kneeling down in front of me.

I open my eyes wide as he moves both his hands to my ankles and then starts moving them up my legs.

“Your skin is so soft, Boss. I can’t wait to taste it,” he informs and I furrow my brows in confusion.

What the fuck does that mean?

I still can’t form any words other than muffled gasps. The hit with the crowbar must have hurt my voice box or something. I try to flinch away from him, but it’s hard when I have nowhere to move. His hands run up past my knees and along my thighs. It suddenly dawns on me that I’m wearing no underwear, because I only had time to quickly pull on my dress when the Dogs showed up. I tense my body and he notices.

“Oh, now now, Boss. No need to be shy,” he says.

I wriggle as his hands move my dress up a little higher and my bottom lip trembles. I have no idea what Chops is planning. What I do know is that I don’t want his hands on me, they’re rough and dirty and not Hudson’s. Continuing to the inside of my thighs he moves upward. I start to really move around in the seat, trying to stop his hands from reaching me. Grinning and looking up my dress, he smiles that crooked smile as he pulls my dress right up over my hips which flashes my naked flesh.

“I’m going to enjoy this. I can smell that dirty cunt of yours.” His fat rough thumb grazes up my thigh and touches the crease leading to my clit. I don’t want any part of him on me so I do the only thing I can think of which is coating my mouth fully with saliva and I spit it right at his ugly face. He pulls back and wipes the spit from his mouth. He stands abruptly and I shuffle my hips forcing my dress down so it covers my bared flesh.

“Right, straight to the torture then, no play for you. Just so you know I would’ve made you scream in pleasure, but now I’ll make you scream in agony instead, you little whore,” he hisses walking over to the bucket and sack.

I swallow hard and the movement makes my collarbone hurt and a little moan comes out, almost a whisper.

I must be getting my voice back.

“Oh, it’s nice to know you’re getting your voice back, I wanna hear your gurgles when I drown you.”

I look toward the bucket and see a jug and I instantly know what he’s going to do. I start to involuntarily shake. I’ve heard of water torture, but I’ve never seen it done. All I know is that this is going to suck! I open my eyes wide as Chops brings over the sack and moves to place it over my head. I shake my head from side to side rapidly while he pulls it over my face. My collarbone is agonising, and I’m gasping for air because the thought of drowning scares the shit out of me. The room goes dark and I can’t help but let out a scream.

“That’s it girlie. Let me know how scared of me you are. You’re giving me a boner with the fear I feel pulsating from you.”

He pulls something and it makes my head fly backward. Pain strikes right through my collarbone and I yelp while he restrains the sack to something, which immediately stops my head from coming forward. I’m forced to have my head back against the chair and because the sack is tied I can’t move my head at all. My heart is racing a million miles an hour and I can feel every pulse through my veins. I’ve never been so scared for my own life as I am right now. Even though I have nothing to live for and the thought of dying doesn’t scare me, it’s
how
I’m going to die that’s got my attention.

“Please make it quick,” I say as I hear him fumbling about.

“Oh sweetheart, I’m going to make this last as long as I can. I fucking love this shit.”

The room goes deadly silent and my body stills, waiting for what’s going to happen next. I’m breathing rapidly and then I hear the trickle of water and I know even though I can’t see, that he’s scooping water into the jug. My body tenses and I grab hold on to the arms of the chair with my fingers while pain shoots through my pinky finger. I gasp loudly and suddenly a blast of cold water is shooting through the sack and into my mouth. I cough and splutter as the water goes down my throat and up my nose. I can’t breathe as I start to choke. I clench my eyes tight as I try to fight the water from invading my mouth, but it’s too hard because it just keeps coming.

Finally the flow of water stops. I spit it out while I start gasping for air while coughing trying to gain some oxygen into my burning lungs. My body heaves as it tries to pull in air quickly. My whole body is wet and because the water is bitterly ice cold, I’m shivering. I’m freezing cold.

“How was that, Boss?”

I gasp for more air and I cough slightly finally getting in enough air.

“You call that… torture,” I spit out through staggered breaths.

He laughs and pulls harder on the sack making my head fall back even further. My heart is galloping as I clench my eyes tight waiting for another round. I wait and wait and nothing is happening. I know Chops is still in the room, I can hear him breathing as I try to calm mine. I hear the trickle again and I take a deep breath and close my mouth waiting for the water to fall… it doesn’t. I’m holding my breath as long as I can, but I’ll need another breath soon. I hold for as long as possible and then I gasp and take in another big mouthful of air and then the water is poured on my face, making its way into my mouth again and up my nose burning my nasal passages from the sheer quantity of water.

I can’t breathe – the water keeps coming. Just when I gasp to get some more air, another load of water is poured over me. It doesn’t stop… every time I take a breath, another load. My heart is pounding ferociously and my lungs are so tight my chest is hurting bad. I’m starting to feel faint from the lack of oxygen. My body is so tense every inch of me is clenched tightly, even down to my toes. I need air and so I start to move my body in the chair from side to side, even though my hands, feet and head are locked in position I can still move my torso. So I try to move as I fight against the endless stream of water flowing through the sack. I gasp and a large mouthful of water goes down my throat and straight into my lungs causing me to choke. The water stops and I cough and wheeze while my eyes clench tight. I have no air coming in and I’m panicking.
I knew I’d die at the hands of Mad Dog, and I’m pretty sure my time has finally come.
I clench my eyes tighter as I feel the blackness engulfing me and my lungs feel like they explode as everything turns black.

A bright light comes into my vision. It disappears and then is back again. I realise that I must be on my way to the afterlife. They say you see bright lights when you die.
I wonder who I will see first Danny and Caiden or Hudson?
And how will I cope with both of the loves of my life here? How can I choose one over the other? Maybe I should fight to stay on earth? I feel like I’m floating. There’s a lot of noises, but it’s all muffled because the ringing is in my ears so loud that I can’t understand anything else. My vision is completely blurred and I blink a few times before I feel a slap across my face. I lift my head and my vision comes back into focus while light is shined in my eyes and then back out again.

“She’s coming to, Mad Dog,” I hear someone say and my body clenches in reaction. I sit bolt upright and look ahead to see Mad Dog and all his cronies gawking at me, concerned etched across their faces.

“Jesus Boss, we thought we’d lost you there for a moment,” Mad Dog says walking over and then grabbing my chin.

“I thought you were a fighter?” Mad Dog queries as all my bodily functions start returning. I gasp in a deep breath, but my lungs still hurt and it’s almost impossible to breathe properly. Now I know what asthma must feel like.

“You went too hard on her, Chops,” Mad Dog reprimands and then turns around and punches Chops in the guts. He hunches over and grabs at his stomach and I can’t help it as a slight smile crosses my face.

“Now get out of here before I kill you myself. You knew we needed her alive, you stupid fucking bastard,” Mad Dog says.

I rest my head against the back of the chair and try hard to concentrate on my breathing. In and out... in and out… very slowly, in and out.

“You with us, Boss?” Mad Dog quizzes grabbing my chin and forcing me to look at him again.

“You can’t get rid of me that easily,” I murmur through gritted teeth and he laughs.

“There’s that fighter we know,” he says as he leans in close and looks into my eyes. I don’t know what he’s doing, but I decide to take full advantage of his closeness. I pull my head back forcefully and smash it forward head butting him right in the eye socket. Pain sweeps through my already pounding head, but I just don’t care.

“Fucking hell,” Mad Dog barks, backing away from me and holding his hand to his cut left eye socket. I feel blood trickling down my face as well, but I couldn’t give a shit. If I can hurt any of them, I will, even if it hurts
me
to do it. He takes a step toward me and lifts his leg doing a side kick right into my ribs. I scream and gasp for more air as the pain in my ribs takes hold.

I’m not sure how much more of this I can take.

I just want to die.

I want to see them, all of my boys.

I want to see them now.

“Do you want us to kill you, Boss? Cause you’re heading the right way,” Mad Dog scolds.

“I have nothing to live for now, so yes, please kill me.”

He frowns and crosses his arms over his chest. “Well, that takes the fun out of it, but our plan was never to kill you – just to torture you until you give us what we want.”

“And what the fuck else do you want to take from me, hey? You’ve already taken the man I love, so tell me big man what else matters?”

“Sorry about the cop – he got in the way. It’s his own fault.”

“What the fuck do you want, Mad Dog? This isn’t just about turning around my statement is it?”

He smiles and shakes his head. “You’re a smart cookie, Boss.”

“So what do you want?”

“Cupiditas,” he states categorically and I open my eyes wide and purse my lips.

“What?”

“You are going to hand over Cupiditas to us, officially. You
will
sign all the paperwork saying that I am the new owner and that you have been bought out. Of course, there’ll be no money changing hands because technically you still owe us the second lot of money for the drugs, but we’re willing to let that all slide and to let you go so you can live a normal life away from Cupiditas. We want the business and all its profits, all legal like. So you
will
hand it over to us and you
will
retract your statement to the cops and tell them everything was a lie.”

I chuckle and shake my head. “No way! I worked too fucking hard to get that business and I’m not going to hand it over to arseholes like you. My staff are too important to me to have them work for a fuckhead like you,” I spit out and he shakes his head.

“Well, maybe this will change your mind?” he says and he pulls out a long knife.

I swallow hard and sit up taller in the chair letting him know he isn’t scaring me. Even though I’m utterly petrified.

“Go your hardest,” I say and he laughs bringing the knife’s tip to my left arm and running the blade slowly down my arm. I can feel the sharpness of the blade as it grazes my skin.

“I’ll give you another chance, hand over Cupiditas,” he says and I crease my lip and shake my head. He chuckles and then slices into my arm cutting right along the length. I scream as the blade slices through my flesh, the cut burns and I start to cry out from the pain.

“Oh, so you do have some feeling left in you then?” Mad Dog asks with a lopsided smile. “Ready to hand it over yet?”

I shake my head. “Never,” I reply and he chuckles again. As he brings the knife up to my throat holding the blade’s edge right along my jugular vein.

“Do you know how quickly it takes for a person to bleed out when their throat is cut?”

“Why don’t you just do it and I’ll find out?”

He grunts and pulls back from me grabbing the knife and thrusting it down into my thigh burying it to the hilt. I scream loudly as the blade rips right through my leg. I’m sure it must nearly be coming out the other side. I scream again and cry as the pain in my leg feels like a massive weight is pinning it down while it’s being set on fire. One of the Dogs hands Mad Dog a whiskey bottle and I look at him wide eyed as I try to come to grips with the pain in my leg and arm, and well let’s face it everywhere.