“You’re amusing me greatly.”
I set my jaw. “Glad I can entertain you.”
Another chortle.
“Are you going to be silent enough for me to answer your earlier questions?”
I hesitated. “I kind of forget what they were.”
“You asked why you were here and if I was going to kill you, and I’m prepared to answer them.”
It was twisted that I got a tad bit excited at the prospect of knowing my fate. Would it end in freedom or death—in a perfect world, the latter would win.
“Oh, right,” I said. “Go ahead, I’ll be quiet while you speak.”
“Thank you,” he said sarcastically.
“You’re welcome,” I replied, just as sarcastically.
A snort or two later, the piece of scum began to talk.
“Originally, my plan was never to come for you, or even for Aideen, it’s always been Kane that I’ve wanted. You can’t catch someone like him off guard though. I created him, and I know first-hand what he is capable of doing when he’s backed into a corner.”
I gritted my teeth in anger. He was speaking of Kane like he was some animal he trained… I suppose for a time, he was that, but not anymore!
“Then I got to thinking,” Big Phil continued. “Who would it hurt if I managed to kill Kane? None other than his brothers, and I don’t want that, I want him to suffer. When I got here last year, I watched him for a while, to see if there was someone important in his life outside of his family, and that’s when I came to know about Aideen, and her pregnancy. It was like God Himself was gifting me the lives I needed to end that would finally break Kane and force him to live with the pain I do.”
Sickness swirled in my lower abdomen, and I fought with my body not to heave.
“You’re a ragin’ fuckin’ lunatic.”
“My son was murdered, of course I’m a lunatic.” Big Phil argued. “You think losing your child keeps you sane?”
Kane stumbled upon his ‘precious son’ violating a little girl; he deserved a medal for ending the waste of space’s life, nothing less.
I shook my head. “Your son was a dirty paedophile who hurt children, it was justifiable what he got. I personally think he got off too eas—”
Big Phil cut me off with a bang to the face. It was so forceful, that the knock caused me to surge backwards, tipping the chair until it fell and hit the ground. I cried out in pain as fire spread across my cheek and pounding pain erupted at the back of my head.
“I’ll kill you right now if you talk about my son like that again, do you hear me?”
Death—to just be gone from this Earth, was what I wanted, but I couldn’t bring myself to ask for it. I didn’t acknowledge Big Phil’s warning, I only continued to whine in pain.
“That’s why you’re here,” he pressed. “I can’t have Aideen, and your sister is always with Nico. Alec and his woman are together constantly as well. That other girl in your group is single, and Damien has no one so that left you. I thought you would be as hard as the others to snatch, but I’ve come to learn a lot about Ryder’s routine, and yours. He leaves you alone a lot with only Damien for protection when you aren’t at the hospital. That was the weak link in your chain, and I took advantage of it.”
It sent chills up my spine that a stranger knew so much about us. It was a feeling I couldn’t describe—it made my already churned stomach twist once more.
“So that’s the answer to that question,” I said, curtly. “What’s the answer to me other one?”
I yelped when the chair I was bound to was pulled back into an upright position, and the blindfold I wore was yanked from my face. My instant reaction was to close my eyes until they adjusted to the light. It didn’t take long because the room I was in was dimly lit, and thanks to the window facing me, I could see through the net curtains that it was dark outside.
How long am I here?
I felt a presence to my left, so I turned and looked at the man who stood next to me. He was taller than the brothers with a normal build, but his face was severely scarred. He reminded me of Freddie Kruger, and that thought didn’t bode well with me. I refused to show it though.
“Well, aren’t you a sight for sore eyes.”
He slapped me across the face, and then laughed.
“I think you’re a bigger pain in the ass than Aideen was.”
I scrunched up my face in pain before I turned my head back in his direction and glared up at him. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“You shouldn’t,” he countered. “Mouthy pieces of ass give me headaches, and you and Aideen are a cut above the rest. I don’t understand what Ryder and Kane see in you both.”
I wasn’t fazed by the insult.
“You won’t ever want to meet Bronagh or Keela then, they’re worse than us.”
Big Phil lips quirked before he walked away from me and moved over to a fireplace across the room. He opened up a small bag of coal, threw two or three pieces into the already lit fire along with some wooden sticks. He reached over and lifted a poker from its stand and used it to move around the fire contents.
I used his distraction to take in my surroundings. I was surprised at what I saw because for some reason, when he said he brought me to his apartment, I envisioned it as being small, dark, cold and dirty, but it was the complete opposite. The sitting room I was in was really spacious and even with the lights dimmed, you could see everything clearly—the decor was beautiful. I wasn’t expecting such an evil scumbag to be living in such a nice place.