The Telltale Heart (5 page)

“Don't kill him,” Edmund moaned. His fear for his companion was obviously overwhelming him.

“Stand firm,” Drex commanded Edmund. But Edmund could not. Fear for Tommy had him in a deadly grip. He laid his machine gun on the ground.

“You as well, Uncle,” Nugent said with a sneer on his face and in his voice. The man threatening Tommy cocked his pistol. Inside the padded room, the noise was deafening.

The door to the room opened and three bully boys stepped inside, each one carrying a pistol. “You're dead in the water, Uncle. Put down your weapon.”

Drex felt like a fool. He'd walked right into this and because of Edmund's love for Tommy, was now trapped. His only hope lay in Cam and he hated that. Once more, she would have to come to his rescue.

He dropped his huge machine gun to the ground. One of Nugent's toughs strode over and picked his and Edmund's guns up. “These little gems would mow down an army,” he said.

Nugent, balls and cock swaying inside their bag, strode over to Drex. He ripped his uncle's shirt open to reveal the chain mail vest that was keeping him alive. “So, this is the little device your whore invented to keep that bad ticker going. Take it off or Augustus Clapperly over there, is going to shoot poor little Tommy in the head.”

Edmund moaned with terror for his lover. “Don't do it,” Tommy called. “He wants to kill you so's he inherits yer position and wealth. If you let him, we're all done for, me lord.”

Nugent walked over to Tommy and slapped his face hard. “Be quiet. You are nothing but a pawn in this game. Killing you would be like swatting a particularly annoying fly.”

Drex opened the buckles holding his vest in place and slid out of it. The sensors began making beeping noises as Drex dropped it onto the floor. Drex felt his heart flutter immediately. He was done for if Cam didn't show up soon. The stress of this situation would surely kill him without the support of the vest.

* * * *

Cam slid over the wrought-iron railing and through the set of French doors. Lacy curtains fluttered in the breeze, touching her with ghostly fingers as she passed into the room. It was dark. She pulled her night-viewing goggles out of a pocket cleverly hidden inside her shift and dropped them over her eyes. She saw a couple sleeping on the bed, both naked, their bodies entwined. Cam stared for a moment. She was a virgin. Sights like this were novel. Would she and Drex one day sleep entwined in this way?

Tip-toeing, Cam let herself out without disturbing the sated sleepers. The hallway was filled with the scent of perfume and something else. Cam thought it might be sex. When people made love, it was logical there would be an odor, private parts being what they were.

Noises issued from the rooms she walked by; groans, moans and sighs. She found the stairs Drex had told her about at the back of the house and slipped down them. The steps were carpeted like the hall in a thick red and pink carpet making her footsteps silent. She didn't stop at the second-floor landing, but continued to the ground floor. At the bottom of the stairs there were two doors just as Drex had told her. One door led to the kitchens and the scullery, one was a closet filled with sheets, towels and other linens. She opened that door and moved deep into the closet. At the back, she found the latch to the secret door hidden under one of the shelves holding towels.

When she slid the catch aside, a door opened. It was low and narrow. Cam was sure it was made by servants for their secret use. Servants were people with ideas, dreams, plans and the skill set needed to carry their plans to fruition, even though the aristocracy treated them like furniture.

It was dark but her night goggles enabled her to see everything clearly in a purple light. A set of stairs loomed out of the dark. When she looked down it seemed like they descended into the bowels of hell.
How appropriate
, she thought. She quietly moved down one step at a time, stopping after each step to listen. When she finally reached the bottom, she was faced with a heavy wooden door barred on this side. She lifted the iron bar and took a deep breath. She had no idea what she would find on the other side.

She opened the heavy door carefully. It didn't squeak or squeal. She sighed with gratitude. The thought of announcing her arrival with a screeching hinge was terrifying. She only opened the door far enough to slide through. Thankfully, she was thin so she didn't have to open it far. The door led to a pantry.
Templecombe's club must have a small kitchen
, she surmised.

After shutting the door behind her, she realized it was fashioned to look like it was part of the wall. Even though she knew it was there, it was hard to make out. There was no handle and for a moment, she was afraid if she had to come back this way in a hurry, she wouldn't be able to open it. In the purple glow from her goggles, she made out a tiny indentation at the edge of the door. When she fit her fingers into it, she felt the catch. Thank goodness.

At the exit to the pantry, she laid her head against the door and listened. Most kitchens were noisy places with clanking, steaming, hissing from equipment and the constant chatter of the help. She heard nothing. If indeed, there was a kitchen on the other side of the door, no one was in it.

After taking another deep breath, she opened the door a crack and peered out. It was dark. Her goggles illuminated a silent, dark kitchen. The huge stove was cold and the dishes and pots put away. She tiptoed through this room and into a hallway. Drex had told her to go left and wind through the passageways to the back of the club.

She'd gone about ten feet when the sound of muffled screams reached her ears. Doors began appearing on each side of the hall. The passage was cut from the rock and more like a tunnel than a hallway. Her goggles made everything clear, but soon, torches placed at irregular intervals lighted the passage and she flipped her goggles on top of her head.

The screams seemed to be coming from behind a wooden door halfway down the passage. She took a breath and shoved it open. Inside, a hooded man was whipping a naked woman. Horrified, she grabbed the stunned man's whip hand and applied pressure to a spot in his palm close to his thumb. He screamed as she stuck her thumb into the point in his palm and dropped the whip. She let his hand go, elbowed him in the chest, whirled and kicked him in his genitals. He bent over with a woof of pain and she hit him on the back of the neck with a hammer fist.
Thank you Jinqua, your teachings are invaluable.

The man dropped to the floor unconscious, which considering the damage she'd done to his privates was probably the best thing for him. Cam unshackled the woman and the poor thing, her back a bloody mess, fell to the floor at her feet.

“Are you a slave or hired for this work?” Cam asked her gently.

“I be indentured miss.”

“Then find some clothes and escape. I plan to destroy this place.”

The girl stumbled to her feet and Cam saw she was scarred both in the front and the back. These monsters had been torturing her. Cam backed out of the room, stood in the doorway and fired her machine gun into the room. The big bullets tore up the padding on the walls and all the torture devices. Feathers flew into the air as chunks of debris rained down around the unconscious man. When the room was destroyed, Cam backed out and closed the door. Well so much for secrecy. If they didn't know she was here before, they did now.

She checked the clip in the gun. She had over a hundred large caliber rounds left. When she went back out in the passage, it was filled with clients and their slaves. Naked people, or men wearing the strange and slightly ridiculous cloth bags to hold their privates, stood in the hallway staring at her. Naked women groveled on the floor shaking with terror. She waved her huge gun. “If I were you, I'd leave now. I'm after Templecombe. I have no fight with any of you.”

The clients and the slaves scattered, running down the passage to a set of stairs. Cam swept by the stairs and deeper into the tunnels running under the club's main floor. She ran down a stretch with no doors and finally arrived at a massive wooden door at the end of the passageway. This was the way Drex had told her to go and this looked like the door he'd briefly described. It was old, made of ancient timbers held together with beaten metal straps. The handle was a large ring set into the wood and locked with a massive padlock. The lock hung open. The door was not secured.

Cam laid her head against the ancient wood and listened. She heard talking. A gun fired inside and she yanked open the door. Tommy was a small crumpled figure in front of Templecombe and Edmund knelt in front of the man who had to be Templecome's hired assassin. Her beloved Duke lay on the floor without his vest, his skin a ghastly gray, his lips slowly turning blue. The evil specter in front of Edmund, dressed in a long black coat, held the gun she'd given Drex under one of his arms pointed at Edmund's head. With his free hand he held Edmund by the hair, his cock out of his pants hung inches from Edmund's mouth.

Nugent Templecombe, dressed only in a small red bag holding his privates, looked up at her and smiled. “My dear, welcome to our party. We weren't expecting you, but I am so glad you could make it.”

He pointed to one of his bully boys. The three local toughs were standing against the far wall enjoying the spectacle of Edmund about to suck the assassin's cock. “Take her weapon.”

Cam backed slowly toward the door. “Edmund, wake up. Don't give into despair. You are stronger than that. Jinqua's first rule. Remember it.”

Edmund's eyes suddenly focused. He came out of his trance, spun around, dropped into a low
hibadachi
stance, both feet planted, and slammed a classic knife hand into Templecombe's groin. Then Nugent Templecome, the honorable Marquis of Barrasford, dropped his weapon and fell to the floor screaming.

The scary assassin carrying Drex's weapon turned and pointed the gun he carried at her. Before he could fire, she dropped him with one shot to the head. The three bad guys on the other side of the room rushed her all at once. Edmund picked up the gun and screamed. “Drop, Cam!”

She fell to the ground and Edmund mowed the three bad guys down in a hail of bullets. When they crashed to the floor around her, she leapt to her feet and ran to Drex placing one hand on his bare chest. “Where's his vest?” She yelled at Edmund. “Hurry, his heart is barely beating.”

Edmund tossed the vest to her and went to comfort Tommy who sat on the hard stone floor crying softly, blood dripping from a flesh wound to the side of his face. All Templecombe's hired help were dead. The only bad guy left alive was Templecombe who clutched his genitals while shrieking and wailing. “You have destroyed my cods. I'll be a eunuch after this.”

“We can only hope,” Edmund provided.

She lifted Drex tenderly, slipped the vest on his body, and attached all the wires. Praying the box held enough life to provide succor, she strapped the buckles tightly. Drex's body jumped as the vest did its job and sparked his heart. Nothing happened. Drex's skin remained the color of ashes and his breathing so shallow Cam could barely detect it. “Please work,” she cried. “You have to.”

When she fell on Drex's chest sobbing, she felt the vest shock him again. Suddenly, he coughed and took a deep breath. The gray color began to change to a ruddy hue. Drex took several more deep breaths and his eyelids fluttered.

“Come back to me, my darling,” she whispered with her lips touching his cold blue ones.

He groaned. “Is it truly you, my heart, my one and only love?” His eyes fluttered open and she stared into their depths. A tiny smile cracked his lips. “Saved me again, didn't you?”

She kissed him softly and helped him sit. “Yes,” she breathed her heart aching with love for him. “I'll always be here for you.”

He wrapped his arms around her and surveyed the room. “Why is Nugent bellowing like a stuck calf?”

“I fear Edmund has fixed it so Nugent will never have children.”

“Really?” The Duke said. “I say, Edmund, are you and Tommy all right?”

Edmund had Tommy in a strong embrace and was pulling him to his feet. “I think we shall do, as long as I get this poor boy out of here soon.”

Drex used Cam to hoist himself to his feet. He looked around the room and shuddered. “What a bloody mess. Do you think Nugent can walk?”

“I sincerely doubt it,” Edmund said. “I hit him as hard as I could. I swear my fingers went all the way up to his throat.”

“Classic knife hand,” Cam told Drex and demonstrated with her own hand. “He drove his fingertips into Nugent's, uh, Nugent's privates.”

The three of them headed for the door stepping over bodies as they went. “Look at all this,” the Duke marveled. “You two are dangerous.” He stopped, leaning heavily on Cam and lifted her chin. “I'm glad you're on my side, wife.”

He dropped a kiss on her lips. “Always,husband,” she said.

* * * *

They were already married, but Drex could not consummate his marriage when they got home. He had a day of recuperating to do, but the waiting was finally over and the moment of Cam's deflowering had arrived. Cam was a bundle of nerves, filled with anticipation clouded with some dread.

The vest was working its magic, maintaining his heartbeat. Edmund and Tommy had returned to their flat above the laboratory, and it was time for Cam to become a woman. Drex's woman.

Her nerves had her pacing the floor. Her maid helped her bathe and dress in a filmy negligée purchased just for her wedding night. Her golden curls had been brushed to glossy perfection and hung down to her waist. She felt naked and exposed in the sheer garment, but Drex was already in bed awaiting her. There was no time for backing out or being missish, something she hated.

She dismissed her maid, who gave her one last look and giggled. “Oh, do go away, Jean. You only make it worse.”

She opened the dressing room door and stood framed in the doorway for several minutes. Drex saw her and gasped. “My dear, you are so beautiful. Come to me.”