Redemption (The Bet) (38 page)

Topher grinned. "I'm just fucking witchu man. So what will it be, and how much you puttin up?"

He set the gun down, pulled the cigarette butt from his lips and whistled at the amount of money Nicholas was offering. "What's the guy done? Fucked wit
’cha girl?" not that he was complaining, but a hundred grand was triple the amount he usually charged for a job. The only time Topher believed such extremes were needed was if the target fucked or killed your mother, father, sister, brother or your cousin Bubba.  Only then would there be need to empty out bank accounts.

But then again, Topher silently mused, this was Nicholas Grayson we were talking about,
a hundred grand was just pocket change to him.

The rest of the
conversation had been one-sided filled only with Nicholas's succinct instructions of the location and time Topher would need to show.

That had been almost two and a half hours ago and like the good little hit man that he was, he'd shown up at the allotted time and place
. Topher found himself in front of a grubby, condemned apartment building in the heart of crack-head central also known as the South side, where the castoffs of society called their home.

The building was old and reeked of bodily fluids and feces, beneath the buzzing flickering lights, just below the staircase, Topher observed a hooker
turning a trick. They didn't seem to care that they had an audience besides himself. Not exactly the worst thing he'd seen in his thirty years of life on earth, the blond haired man continued on his way. There were other noises emitting from the thin, graffiti covered walls, but Topher was unaffected by them as he continued onwards. He only whistled his merry tune, the sound of his feet shuffling against the staircase blended in with the discord of the building.

Finally, he arrived at his destination. He bent down and picked up the key from beneath the nasty Welcome mat at his feet.

"Grayson?" he called as he closed the door behind him. He pocketed the key and kept a steady hold on his violin case. The apartment was empty; the odor from the halls followed him inside and although the lights worked fairly well in here, nothing else seemed different. In fact, there went the rat he saw on his way up here.

Topher stepped further into the room opened his mouth to call out again, but stopped when Nicholas appeared.

"Right on time, come with me Christopher, I want to introduce you to few people."

In his line of work, it was foolish to trust anyone but himself and his guns, but Topher wasn't the sanest of people, so he trusted Nicholas. He hadn't b
een given reason not too so far. They walked into the ruins of a living room and were greeted by two men and a petite red-haired woman who was wearing a rather fetching black cat suit that accentuated curves Topher didn't mind seeing at all.

"From left to right, that's Cyan, his lover Jace and Ginger. Everyone this is Christopher or Bones to some of you."

Cyan was like a young Arnold Schwarzenegger before he bent over for politics. Rippling brawn on top of rippling brawn, it was as fascinating as it was unpleasant to look at. Standing next to him, his poindexter lover resembled a stickman with glasses.

Ginger…
Ginger was just fucking hot. Like some anime babe, with gargantuan boobs and a small waist. She was every straight man's wet dream and if one could manage to peel their eyes from her chest long enough to look at her face, they'd fall in love with her huge blue eyes. Topher was a sucker for eyes.

"Hey there, sexy.
" he gave her his best boyish grin and she looked at him like he was shit.

"Come near me and I'll break your balls." Nothing like straightforwardness to wilt a man's dick.

"Good to know." He said mildly.

"I didn't gathe
r you all hear to pick up dates." Nicholas aimed his scowl at Topher, before continuing. "You're all here because you are all good at what you do and those skills will be utilized to rescue my children."

Right, the bastard
they were after was a kidnapper. One who unfortunately committed the grievous error of taking what belonged to Nicholas. Topher felt sorry for the guy. Before dawn kissed the sky, the rat bastard was going to meet his maker. "I work alone."

"You work according to however much money I wire to your bank accounts." He once again addressed Topher and this time he looked as though he was ready to do some serious damage if another word was spoken against him.

"Of course boss man, money talks. Right, so what's the plan?"

~*~*~*~

"Dylan...?" Bella whispered, a nightmare having startled her awake, she nudged her brother. "Dylan wake up." she persisted.

Dylan stirred and opened his eyes. "I wasn't sleeping," he quietly affirmed, "What's wrong?" his hands ached. The duct tape used to bind them together had been cutting off circulations to his hands. Trying to wriggle them only brought about an explosion of needle-like pains to his hands. He wasn't going to complain though, because Bella probably felt the same things too, complaining would only make it worse.

"Do you think Mom
and Daddy are going to find us?"

She didn't sound like the plucky, cheerful twin sister he was so used too, the very same one who could annoy him one second and make him love
her next. "Of course they're going to find us!" Her loss of confidence wasn't something Dylan was used to seeing in Bella.

Ever since they'd been very little, she'd always been the one to comfort
 him. Bella was the one to always look on the bright side of things and reassure him that everything would be okay. She'd taken the 'big' sister role quite seriously and had always seen to his happiness before her own. Now, however, it seemed as though he was going to have to be the one doing the comforting, the one to reassure them both that they would be get out of this and see their parents again.

Despite the risk of harming himself in the process, Dylan maneuvered his hands, wriggled his fingers until he found Bella's own. He took hold of her clammy digits and awkwardly intertwined them with his own. Taking a moment to breathe the pain away, Dylan cleared his throat before speaking. "Don't worry, Bell
e, they're going to find us. You know how Mom is. She wouldn't let anything bad happen to us." Dylan forced himself to laugh for Bella's sake. "She's probably on her way right now, with Uncle Gabe and they're going to tear this place down brick by brick until they find us. Like in those action movies, uncle Gabe likes to watch."

"You think so? Will Daddy be with them?" Dylan heard the tremor in her voice and so decided to double his efforts, he was going to make her happy again or so help him God.

"Yeah, Dad's definitely going to be with them and he's probably going to stop Mom from doing anything stupid, but they'll all come and save us."

"I like that," she whispered through her tears. "I want them all to rescue us."

"They will Belle and we'll all be a family again. Everything's going to be okay, we just have to hang on for a little bit longer…think you can do that for us, Belle?"

Bella squeezed his fingers back. "I can be strong for us, as long as you're with me, Dylan."

"Good, because I'll never leave you, Belle." He whispered with conviction.

WOOF! WOOF! WOOF!

"Grayson!" They chorused and turned their heads in the direction of the barks. Having escaped from his tethered restraint, the husky puppy stood before one the closed doors in the apartment and continued to bark.

"Here, Grayson, come here boy," Dylan called, as he struggled to
free his hands. "Come on boy…"

"Dylan, wait," Bella urged and strained to hear between Grayson incessant yelping. "Do you hear that?"

"No."

"It's Sopie! She's
saying something," she was beginning to sound like herself again. "Grayson be quiet, boy, shhh."

"Bella...Dylan," It was barely audible, but all the same the twins heard it and not just that, but they saw Sophie's fingers peek from beneath the door. Grayson approached the wiggling digits and fervently licked them. They saw the fingers pat the floor and Grayson immediately obeyed his mistress's command.

"Sopie...Sopie, are you okay?" Bella urgently inquired.

"Yeah, I'm alright. How about you guys?" Dylan looked to the side door and prayed that their kidnapper or his lapdog wouldn't come out.

"We're alright too. They tied us up, so we can't move."

They heard soft clicking coming from door latch, near the knob, "Don't worry guys, I'm coming." A few grunts and whispered curses later, Sophie emerged from the behind the wooden door.

She didn't look 'alright ' to Bella. In fact, she looked downright ill, so much so, that it appeared standing for her took too much of an effort. She was leaning heavily against the doorframe, eyes closed she drew in asthmatic breaths.

Dylan and Bella couldn't have been more worried, "Sopie!"

Their eldest sister opened her eyes, raccoon eyes that looked much to exhausted for a girl so young, "I'm fine," she croaked out, "my head just hurts, no big dea." she gave her best smile and hoped that it didn't appear as a grimace.

Walking the few little steps that separated them was an ordeal, but Sophie persevered, until she collapsed right in front of t
hem. "We're getting out of here." her confidence imbued her brother and sister to help her undo the tape around their wrists and ankles.

Far too busy struggling with the tape and whispering an escape plan to each other, they were too late in noticing Tony skulk from the confines of his room. "Didn't know you had it in you, kid. Thought the fever would've done you in by now." He stood right behind her and right in front of Bella and Dylan, who were looking at him as though he were the boogeyman.

Sophie slowly turned around from her knelt position, "Stupid of you to underestimate me, dad." her retort earned her a hard kick in the sternum from the man who fathered her. Bella screamed and began to cry, Dylan yelled and Grayson began to bark. Sophie fell on her side and curled in on herself to nurse her throbbing chest.

Tony knelt by her side, dug his fingers in Sophie's hair
and pulled her up by the roots. "You shouldn't mouth off to your father, baby girl, s'not polite."

"You're not my father. You'll never be half the man he is!"

Tony's barked laughter caused Sophie to wince. "You talking ‘bout, Nicholas? That asshole doesn't give a shit about you! The only reason why he pretends to like you is so he can fuck your Mom. Fucking your Mom can make people do some pretty fucked up things, like pretend to love the bastard daughter of an ex-con."

Without warning Sophie shook Tony off and tackled the man to the floor, not knowing the source of her renewed strength but happy to have it. "You don't ever talk about my Mom like that! Ever!" Sophie rained a barrage of surprisingly solid punches against her father's face.

Her victory was short lived and soon enough, Tony took the upper hold. He pushed Sophie off and began to kick her, "You stupid little shit!" Tony lifted her to her knees by the roots of her hair. "Who the fuck do you think you are? HUH!" he slammed his fist across Sophie's face and delivered another and another and another, until the twelve year old face was a canvas of spattered blood and bruises. "I could fucking bury you!" Tony snarled. "You're my daughter! I fucking made you, you little cunt, and I'll feel absolutely no remorse in taking you out. Do you hear me?" He shook Sophie's head. "Now apologize! Say Daddy I'm sorry for saying Nicholas is a better man than you!"

Sophie remained silent.

"Not going to apologize? Fine!" He shoved her away, turning his fury to the two cowering twins at his feet.

Wiping the blood from his lip, Tony scowled at the sobbing
nine-year-old girl, before returning his gaze to Sophie. "Do you think she can make you behave?"

"Stay away from her!" Tony's smirk widened.

He seized a struggling Bella and took hold of her jaw in a bruising grip. "Say you're sorry, Sophie, or your half-sister here'll get her first lesson in obedience."

"Don’t …
don't…"

Tony stared into Bella’s eyes
and squeezed her jaw tighter until her lips formed a pout. Her warm tears glistened against her cheeks. "Such a pretty mouth…"

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Dad, please! I'm sorry! Nicholas isn't better than you!" Tony turned his amused gaze to his sniveling daughter, blood dripping across her lids.

"See sweetheart, that wasn't so hard now, was it? Just remember, you will never be a Grayson, because my blood, Carlyle blood runs through your veins and you're going to be just like me."

"Never! Sopie will never be like you!" Bella vehemently assured, drawing Tony's attention back to her.

"Wanna know a secret?" he didn't wait for an answer. "I'm going to kill your Daddy. I'm going to shoot him again and again and again and again, until he's chocking on his blood. Then I'm going to rip him open, sell his organs for cash and wear his skin as a fucking coat."

"You're a very bad man." Said Bella between her tears.

"Bad men, sweetheart, are a necessary evil. Learn the lesson well."