Endurance (Heart of Stone) (5 page)

I barked out a bitter laugh, triggering a nasty snarl to
curve her lips. “You want to take over the family business yet you have no idea
what that actually is.”

“Oh I know.” Her lips curved into a cruel smirk,
hardening my body and making it really difficult to suppress the deep rise of
my wrath.

I nodded slowly as I rose to stand in front of her, “How
many were there this time compared to the previous shipment?” I studied her
puzzlement and knew for certain she didn’t have a clue but I wouldn’t be the
one to break her. Yes, I was a bastard but my wife was adamant I was a glorious
one and I would never turn that into an evil one, no matter how much I needed
Ava. I knew she would rather die than let me ruin this girls’ hopes and
aspirations.

Layla gave me an incredulous look as I gave a simple nod
and walked away.

I grunted and hissed as the shackles holding my wrists
were unlocked and I dropped heavily to the floor, my legs now unable to take my
weight. Instinctively I curled my fingers around each wrist and started to rub
against the furious pain flowing through my bloodstream eagerly, my body’s
natural need to feed the dried and persecuted veins in my arms.

“Get up!” The human brick shithouse snapped at me as he
nudged me with his foot.

“Gimme a minute, yeah?” I growled as I kneaded furiously
at my calves, trying to feed them some blood. I had never been so exhausted or
thirsty in my entire life. My body had begun to shut down, the loss of blood
and lack of hydration overworking my body and causing my heart to work harder.
My lungs protested with each inhalation as I stretched them wide and pressed
them against the couple of broken ribs.

Shithouse grabbed at my wrist and started to drag me
across the floor. I didn’t have the energy to stand so I relaxed my body and
made his work harder. He knew what I was doing as he turned and glared at me
but then his lips twisted into a taunting grin, “Don’t worry, pretty lady, I’ll
make sure to fuck some energy into you later.”

I grit my teeth as my heart popped with panic.

 
Never show fear, Ava. Even when you are facing death,
never divulge your weaknesses to your opponent.

“I’ll look forward to it” I retorted but I knew he could
feel my fear eclipsing around me. After Dane, although I was proud of myself
for how I had dealt with being chained up, I knew my mind would never withstand
another violation on my body. Dreams of torturous rapes and whippings still
haunted me and although I only just managed to survive the surreal visions, I
would never endure the real thing.

My arse bumped harshly along the corridor, small gravel
and pebbles alerting me to an outside space somewhere. From the tell-tale sign
of various scraps of mud and grit, I knew this corridor lead to an entrance,
therefore leading me to an exit. My eyes scanned quickly and stealthily until I
spotted a huge metal door, a few bolts and a lock guarding its freedom. I
spotted a window high up the edge of the wall and squinted at the daylight
streaming through it. I could make out the edge of a grass verge, the sight of
it telling me we were below ground, maybe an old bunker of some sorts and my
heart rate quickened when I realised there was only one area that still housed
a bunker, the old wreck site behind the Mondego embankment.

Shithouse dragged me through a doorway into an open
space. I cringed when I saw the single chair in the centre of the long room.
Before I could try to pick up the courage to escape from my sentry I was flung
into it and rope was hoisted around my middle. I struggled as much as possible,
my arms flaying as I tried to claw at him, my legs kicking at him furiously but
I knew in my wrecked state I had no chance against him.

He growled at me, spit flying from his mouth as he bound
me and planted his knee into my stomach. “I’m warning you bitch, keep still or
I’m knocking you out!”

I conceded as my body begged me to give it some reprieve
but I continued to glare at him, hoping superpowers would suddenly be bestowed on
me and lasers would split the fucker in two, “Mason will fucking kill you for
this!”

He barked out a humorous laugh and smirked at me,
“Really? I think your husband is a little busy with some coke and a couple of
whores at the moment.”

I swallowed the bile and refused to let him see the ache
in my heart. I knew he was just hurting me with words but… but it was Mason,
and every other time he had coped in the exact way Shithouse had depicted. I
shook my head in anger as I drove down the fear and focussed on Mason’s loving
voice and his love for me. He wouldn’t go there again, he knew it would finish
me, but what if he thought it was already too late, that I was finished, that I
was dead somewhere? I knew Shithouse was right, Mason would demand the high and
oblivion given only by his old habits.

“That shut you up!” He laughed as he finished his tethering
and his eyes flashed with heat and lust. “Look mighty fine, pretty lady,
trussed up in eagerness for me.”

I just smiled sarcastically at him as a door at the other
end of the room opened and Vickie walked through, her hard face watching me as
she strolled over to me with her hands behind her back, her elegant grace, the
one thing I had always admired about her now mocked me. There was nothing
elegant about this bitch.

She reached me and smirked, “Thirsty?”

I nodded, not caring that I was surrendering to her. I
would kill my dog for some water. She nodded and revealed a can of Energy Shot.
My eyes widened on her and I shook my head, “Vickie, please.”

She smirked again and grasped my hair, tipping my head
harshly backwards until I could feel it groan under the pressure. My heart was
already struggling with keeping my body and brain nourished. There was hardly
any blood left in my system and I knew I was waning quickly, but the sudden
stimulant would make my heart go crazy under the strain.

My jaw clamped closed, sealing my mouth off to her but
she nodded to Shithouse, demanding that he open it for her. I tried to bite at
him but the way he held me gave me no room to fight with my teeth. I
desperately compressed my throat but as soon as the liquid started to hit my
mouth, fingers closed around my nose and halted my oxygen supply. My instinct
caused me to choke on the first gush down my throat however, there was nothing
I could do but swallow the fluid running freely into me. I begrudgingly rejoiced
in the nourishment and found myself gulping greedily at it as nature took over
and devoured the sustenance.

I slugged back furious lungful’s of air as I tried to
make my heart remain calm and steady. My eyes started to glaze as my ribs
screamed in protest to the heavy breaths. My teeth sliced through my lower lip
as Shithouse smacked me hard in the side of the head, “Stay with us, bitch, I
haven’t finished with you yet!”

Vickie dropped to her haunches before me and palmed the
side of my face tenderly, a mocking contradiction to the hatred in her eyes,
“Well, Mase can’t be that besotted with you, he’s been nowhere near.” She
laughed loudly causing my teeth to vibrate, “So Ava, we all know how much of
whore you are and you’re probably craving your daily fuck by now. Hugh, here,
is more than willing to feed your addiction.”

The caffeine suddenly hit with force and I looked up at
Hugh – Hugh… Hugh. I laughed loudly, “Hugh? Hugh? Fucking Hugh?” My mind had
gone into temporary – well I hoped it was temporary – insanity as I giggled
furiously. Hugh? Never in a million years would I have labelled him Hugh, it
was just… wrong, so wrong for him.

I knew my heart was pumping what little blood I had left
too energetically around my system, leaving me lightheaded and slightly
delirious but I couldn’t hold back the laughter, even when he pulled out his
knife and leaned across me. “That’s it, you keep laughing pretty lady, you’re
gonna enjoy this so much.”

My hands dropped limply as he cut through the rope
holding them and then carved through the twine holding my legs together. His
fist once more grabbed a handful of my hair as he yanked me from the seat and
dragged me over to the edge of the room, throwing me down harshly so my back
thudded on the cold concrete floor and the back of my head bounced off it. He
kicked at my ankles, his boot knocking my bone painfully but I still couldn’t
stop giggling. Everything was now surreal and I was suddenly grateful to
Vickie’s caffeine hit, the fevered rambling it brought on may actually save my
mind from what was about to happen.

All that filled my head as Hugh tore through the front of
my pretty party dress was Mason’s smile, his soft twinkling eyes and his
beautiful face. Although he wasn’t here, my glorious bastard once again
encouraged and supported me throughout what was to become my final coherent
moment, because I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, my spirit wouldn’t tolerate
this, I would irrevocably never be the same again but I swallowed it back and
strived to stay strong for my man.

His nose exploded when my knuckles connected with the
bridge of it, his low groan bringing on a rush of adrenaline through my system.
I had needed this, hankered for permission to let my wrath break free. The
torturous pain of keeping it in lockdown was nearly as uncontrollable as my
need to find Ava.

“Try again, Estevo” I growled as I picked up the bat from
beside me and ran my fingers delicately over the smoothness of the fashioned
wood. “I’m growing impatient.”

He smirked at me and shook his head, “You really think
I’m gonna tell you?”

I regarded the bat with a slight tilt to my head and
decided it wasn’t sufficient enough for the extraction of information. I needed
something more potent, something with the promise of carnage.

I nodded and smiled, “Yeah, I agree, the bat isn’t quite
gonna make the grade, you deserve something more…” I pursed my lips and
contemplated the arrangement before me. “Something more complex” I whispered
more to myself than Frank’s minion as I picked up the small knife and ran it
between my fingers.

Estevo smirked at me; obviously he had a different idea
to how I would use it. I strolled around him a couple of times, studying him
and perceptively working out how much self-worth he had. He was a typical
Portuguese guy, his dark hair and tanned skin healthy and radiant from the
nutrients in the local fish and herb cuisine.

I leant over him from behind, my malice savouring the way
he clenched his hands in expectation. “You are a pretty little thing aren’t
you? I imagine with a face like that you get your choice of women.”

He remained silent and stiff beneath me as I brought the
knife up to his face. “Go ahead, cut me Fox, I’m sure a few scars will add to
the rugged appeal women find sexy.”

I rolled my tongue around my cheek as I placed the flat
of the blade against his cheekbone. He squirmed as I pulled it upwards like a
razor, peeling his skin away from his face with just the right pressure on the
knife. “But I’m not going to leave scars, Estevo, there’s going to be no skin
left to scar.”

I shivered as his blood pooled heavily down his face, the
flesh beneath his cheek now angry and exposed as I unwrapped his face. He
squealed deep in his throat as I nudged the knife across to his other cheek,
“Anything coming back yet?”

He pressed his lips together and shut his eyes against my
unsettling smile but the significant shiver in his chest notified me of his
distress and agony. “I’m amazed how different you look already, this is quite
exquisite. I can actually see your veins pumping your body with as much blood
as it possibly can.”

I dragged the blade over his face again, his skin
detaching in a way that made it curl upwards in a delicate pattern.
“Fuck!”
he breathed as his fingers curled around the arm of the chair and his leg
started to twitch rapidly, the ball of his foot bouncing wildly on the floor as
he tried to control himself and override the pain.

Once more, I moved over to the right side of his face and
smirked when a gurgle crept from his throat. “Please” he begged but I shrugged
him off as I drew the knife downwards this time, causing a more painful sweep
but still only deep enough to shed his skin.

His scream was louder this time and I laughed as a tear
slid from the corner of his eye and trickled over the sore tissue, the salt in
it evidently causing a sting to accompany the agony. Both his legs were now
vigorously bobbing up and down as I moved the tip of the knife along his broken
nose and across the delicate area of his eyelids. “Fox!” he choked out as my
finger pressed against his eyelashes and held his eye closed in preparation.
“Please.”

“Tell me then!” I urged as I taunted him and traced the
edge of his eye socket with the curved tip.

“I… I can’t!”

As soon as the words left his mouth I knew I would break
him. He was now arguing with himself if it was worth losing his face over.
“Frank is gone, Estevo, he can’t hurt you.”

“But…” He gulped as I ran the point back over the
previous path with a little more pressure, leaving a trail of blood to bubble
to the surface of his thin skin. “But Vickie…”

I laughed and shook my head slowly, “You’re scared of
Vickie? What the fuck is she gonna do?”

“The same as what she is doing to Ava.”

I bit my tongue but refused to let that thought take
control, “Ava is a woman, Estevo. You’re telling me you put yourself in the
same league as a woman?”

I hoped and prayed he wasn’t aware of Ava’s strength and combat
skills. I needed him to think she was just a small timid female. “Well, no
but…”

“But my wife is worth losing face for?” I snorted at the
double meaning, finding my humour quite disturbed but amusing.