The Condemned (41 page)

    
Leci itched to set his beard on fire and watch it burn nice and slow.

    
She didn’t care what Amato said, she was gonna have some fun with these fuckers.

    
The man took her hand and she led him towards the stairs, pausing once to check
that
the others were following. They drained their ales and joined their friend.

    
Leci glanced around quickly, no one seemed to be paying any attention to the four of them.

    
Good.

    
She moved up the stairs and along the short hallway, towards the room at the end. When she reached the door she turned around, stood with her back against it, her hands behind her back.

    
She wanted to warn Amato, let him know they were here.

    
The three men stopped, watching her. She grinned and reached out a hand.

     
‘Pay up first, boys.’ She wasn’t loud but she wasn’t quiet either, he would be keeping quiet, waiting for her, listening out
,
and she didn’t doubt that he would now know she was outside with her prey.

    
The fat guy, the one she hated the most, narrowed his eyes and shook his head.

     
‘You know, I don’t think I wanta pay for such a skinny
little bitch after all.’

    
Leci’s heart sank... He was going to walk away?

    
She didn’t let her desperation show, shrugged her shoulders.

     
‘Fine, your loss, chubby.’

    
The man laughed, a low, hostile sound that made her skin crawl. He reached out quickly, unexpectedly and took a hold of her throat. Leci let out a small, strangled cry and tried to pry his fingers away.

    
The moment was so different from the one she had shared with Amato
,
when his hands had been around her neck, she had never been in any danger with him and this situation was an entirely different one, but for some reason it still felt oddly similar.

    
He pressed his face close against hers, she closed her eyes to shut out the sight of him so near to her.

    
Amato must be hearing this, must be feeling so helpless.

     
‘Stay there... Stay there...’ She silently prayed to him, if he ran out trying to come to her rescue it could all be over.

     
‘I think you misunderstand me
,
darlin’. I said I weren’t payin’. I never said I didn’t want the goods. And if you call me Chubby again I’ll gut you like a fish. We clear?’

    
She nodded, or, she did the best she could with his thick, meaty fingers restricting her movement.

    
They were more clear than he could ever know. She was fully aware of how serious he was, of how gutting people like a fish seemed to be his speciality, more clear than she had ever needed to be. She wanted to kill him where he stood but knew she needed just a little more patience. If she burned this sorry excuse for a human being his two buddies would be screaming the place down and running for their lives faster than she could-

    
Ok, no, not faster than she could deal with them, but the screaming wouldn’t be ignored. Screaming was usually a sign that something interesting was going on and she wouldn’t be fast enough to shut the two of them up before they drew a crowd.

    
The cheap fuck. She should’ve known to expect this really; them
not to
play by the rules.

    
He let her go and she rubbed her neck. She still had bruises there from her tussles with Amato, this guy had probably just topped them up.

    
The fat creep grabbed a hold of her upper arm roughly, hurting her, bringing tears to her eyes his grip was so tight. He pulled her away from the door and then leaned past her to open it.

    
The room was black inside.

    
There was no
current
source of light other than what scant moonlight made it through the window. Stood in the
doorway, she scanned the place quickly, she couldn’t see Amato anywhere but then, she couldn’t see anything else either.

    
The man let go of her arm and pushed her from behind. Leci tripped and went flying into the room, holding her arms out in front of her as she fell, protecting her face.

The darkness didn’t help her depth perception and she struck the floor at a strange angle, feeling a burst of pain shoot up through her right wrist, she cried out in pain and then lay sprawled where she had landed.

    
The door closed as the three of them entered the room behind her, shutting out the small amount of light that had entered from the hallway which was dimly lit
by
a few candles held in sconces along the wall.

    
Their own room had a few of these but they were unlit, better to keep Amato hidden, except as she lay there a dull
radiance
burst into life and
cast
a warm glow
over the room, a flickering play of light that sent shadows dancing around the
small space
like insane marionettes cavorting to the tune of some intoxicated puppeteer.

     
‘What the fuck!’

     
‘Whoa!’

     
‘If you move, I will kill you.’ Amato’s cold, calm tone cut through the surprised exclamations of their prisoners.

Chapter 38

Leci twisted around and sat up to take a look at the scene in front of her.

    
Amato stood by the wall to the left of the doorway, beneath a lit candle and holding the men at bay with his pistol
,
which was carefully trained on the fat guy.

    
He must’ve been waiting there to light it when they came in. There wasn’t much light, but there was enough, enough for the men to realise that they were suddenly involved in something that they didn’t quite understand just yet, but would do soon.

     
‘Look, man, we were gonna pay, honest, we were just havin’ a bit of fun first. If you’re pimpin’ the bitch then this is a really shitty way to do business.’

     
‘Shut the fuck up. Next one of you who speaks, I’ll blow his cock off.’

    
They fell obediently silent.

    
Amato took one hand away from the gun, he held something in it which he tossed towards Leci.

It fell at her feet and she picked it up. The key to the room.

    
She stood and moved back to the door, locked it and then leaned against it, watching, nursing her injured wrist.

    
Aside from the bed, the only other furniture in the room
was a small table and four chairs. Amato had already lined three of these up
,
side by side and, motioning with the gun, he directed their ‘guests’ to sit in them.

     
‘Leci, tie ‘em up.’ He pointed to the bed and she looked over at it, confused for a second.

    
Wow, he’d been busy...

    
The blankets had been torn into strips, they wouldn’t be strong but they’d do for now. She did as she’d been instructed, taking pleasure from the work and from the expressions on their faces
, from the feeling of having them at
her
mercy for a change.

    
Right now they looked more worried and apprehensive than scared, they figured they were in some shit but didn’t know how much. She was looking forward to seeing it register in their eyes when they did find out.

    
She worked quickly, securing their arms and legs and when she was done with that she balled up some of the remaining strips, shoved them into their mouths and tied another around their heads to keep them from spitting out the gags.

    
Amato tilted his head with a light smile and nodded his approval, Leci beamed.

    
He pushed away from the wall and walked over to her, handed the gun to her, watching the three of them carefully. He leaned down and kissed her once, delicately
,
on her lips and then he moved over to the bed, got himself nice and
comfortable, sat on it with his hands folded behind his head, his legs stretched out in front of him and crossed at the ankles, ready to watch the show.

     
‘All yours, babe.’ Amato grinned at her.

    
The men were having the good sense now to start looking more than a little bit scared. This clearly wasn’t some pissed off pimp
,
and not understanding the weird turn of events left a whole lot of potential scenarios wide open.

    
Alecia pulled around the fourth chair, setting it down in front of the three of them and sitting down.

She said nothing for a few minutes, let their tension grow, let them wonder, but also taking the time to savour the moment for herself.

    
It was here, it was finally, really here. The three of them, sat in front of her, bound and gagged, held at bay by the pistol in her hand. It seemed unreal
,
and the adrenaline pumping through her made her feel dizzy with exhilaration.

     
‘What’s the matter boys? Don’t you remember me?’ She finally asked them.

    
They all looked confused, it shocked her to realise that they genuinely didn’t have a clue who she was, why she might want to hurt them.

     
‘Let me refresh your memories. Around five years ago, I held you..
.’ she pointed the gun towards C
hubby and he cringed, ‘up at gunpoint in the alleyway behind this place.’

    
She paused, watching as it slowly dawned on him, the worry in his eyes slowly transforming into panic. She nodded slowly.

     
‘Yeah, that’s right, remember now?’

    
He didn’t move, she stood up, used the butt of the pistol to strike his head. The hit drew blood but he stayed conscious. She crouched down and met him at eye level.

     
‘I said... Do you remember me now, Chubby?’

    
He muttered something against his gag and she pulled it down.

     
‘What was that, I didn’t catch it, had a little somethin’ in your mouth...’

     
‘I
said ‘eat shit and die, cunt.’

    
Leci gritted her teeth, tensing her jaw so much it ached. She shoved the gag back into his mouth and pulled up the strip that bound it.

    
Moving over to the bed, she picked up one of the leftover scraps of material, toyed with it idly in one hand, holding the gun in the other.

     
‘Just in case you
don’t
know what I’m talking about... I’ll go through it, bring it all back, nice and fresh. I’m pretty good with the details too, see, it’s been nice and fresh in my mind ever since it happened. I can’t stop replaying it over and over, can’t stop hearing it and seeing it
...
and smelling you.’
The last words came out as an angry
hiss, close to his face.

    
Chubby’s eyes were narrowed and he glared at her balefully, the other two still had the good sense to look afraid, one was fidgeting nervously and the other was sat, stock still, watching the gun very closely, probably trying to figure out a way to get it off her.

     
‘I was just a stupid kid back then. Came back here a couple nights later, didn’t figure I’d run into your sorry ass again, too ashamed after you let a little girl get the better of you.’ She laughed bitterly, Chubby carried on glaring.

If looks could Kill...

    
Leci found the thought amusing, since that was exactly what she planned to do, kill them with a look, with the power of her mind.