Mal is content to sit in silence, soaking up the delightful atmosphere, as Brandt takes a beating. I think he'd have enjoyed it more if I'd have appeared bothered by the ordeal, though. Now he thinks I'm not he's likely to move things along more quickly. This is a blessing for Brandt, although I'm sure he wouldn't thank me for it.
Just as I've suspected, after a couple of minutes Mal barks, 'Blood!' He's not interested in watching Brandt get fucked up; he wants to move on to the next course - the one where I'm the main dish.
It takes every ounce of my willpower to pretend to be unaffected as Gabriel goes at Brandt as if he's something out of a Freddy Kruger movie. He knows exactly what he's doing, which doesn't surprise me, and he does it with alarming efficiency. Within minutes Brandt is hissing all kinds of expletives through his teeth, while little red rivers of blood dribble down his back. I want to cry. Instead I smile and try to look at Mal as if he's not a reincarnation of Adolf Hitler. In order to give myself a little extra credibility I also begin humming and bob my head from side to side as the shitshow continues. In the end Mal gets bored, as I knew he would.
'Enough. It's her turn.' Both men turn towards me, as Mal sits calmly beside me with a dark gleam in his eye. He expects me to fight, or at least beg him for mercy. I'm tempted not to bother, as I know it won't get me anywhere, but this is the part that turns him on. Hopefully, if we get it out of the way, he'll want to finish what he's started and this can all be over. I'm not in a rush to fall headlong into my own gruesome death, but neither do I want to drag this awful mess out. I just want it to be over. With any luck the boys can then somehow scrape together an escape plan and get themselves away. There is no chance of that happening for me.
My clock is ticking down to ground zero, but that doesn't mean I have to take everyone else with me.
Chapter Two - Brandt
'Please don't do this, Mal,' Harper whispers miserably. 'Take me home. We can have some fun together there. Don't leave me alone with these monsters.' Her face is pale and her eyes are lifeless. I want to believe that all her earlier words were an act, but my head is all over the place. Which side is the woman on? It takes me a moment to get the facts straight, but when I do I'm sure of my answer.
Mine; if she wasn't I'd already be dead. As it is, we're going to be lucky to pull ourselves out of here alive. I can't say she didn't warn me. Why didn't I listen?
'Baby, you know I love it when you bleed for me, and I haven't seen you in ages, 'ave I? Do this for me, sweetheart. You know how this shit turns me on.' Mal grabs one of her bruised ass cheeks and squeezes cruelly. I want to lump him.
In response Harper nods slowly. This is not acquiescence. She knows she has no choice. She's played this game before. You sick fucker, I think, but wisely keep my mouth shut. The less said the better.
Mal turns to feast his dark eyes on me. 'Brandt, why don't you 'ave a turn with the whip? It's time to get your own back, buddy.' He looks pointedly at Gabriel, who has a firm death grip on the thing and looks very unhappy at the thought of relinquishing it. He's not convinced by Harper's innocence, and he wouldn't mind ripping into her given half a chance. He doesn't know her like I do. Gabriel thinks everyone is a liar until proven otherwise.
Reluctantly he offers the whip to me. I take it and wince; my back is a mess. Now I have to do the same to Harper, and the thought turns my stomach. She has been through enough. This has to stop.
Placing the whip carefully down on the bed, I climb up and straddle her. I think I do it to antagonise the bastard sitting beside her, which is pretty stupid, all things considered, but then again, he's the one sitting there waiting to watch other men fuck 'his girl'. If Harper was mine I wouldn't let anyone near her.
As it happens Mal doesn't say a thing, but he watches me carefully. He's worried I'm about to pull something stupid, but he can rest easy. I'm being a good boy. I'm not going to get a chance to take the bastard out today, but when I do, I'm going to do the job properly. The man is going down like a hooker in an orgy. He's going to hit the floor hard, too.
Lightly brushing my fingertips up Harper's back, I make my presence known. I need to unfasten the cuffs she's wearing, otherwise her arms will be in the way. Grabbing the key from the table, I slip it into the lock and remove them, but when I set them down on the bed Mal is not happy.
'Keep her cuffed. If she can move she'll be running around the room wailing. I want to see her properly punished.'
My jaw stiffens. This means he wants us to mess her up bad, and that's exactly what I'm afraid of. If he takes her away almost crippled with pain, she won't stand a chance at being able to defend herself. Who am I kidding? She stands no chance against the fucker anyway. None of us do.
'I can't whip her back if her arms are in the way,' I say. The cuffs are redundant, anyway. I know Harper won't move once I start laying into her. It's not her style. She'll take everything that's coming, like the meek little lamb Mal has trained her to be. No wonder the poor girl is so screwed up. Getting him out of her head will probably take years of therapy. There's also another reason. If she isn't cuffed we stand a chance at escape. If the guards take it in shifts to babysit us during the night, there might be an opportunity for Gabriel and me to take them on. If Harper is tied up it will make an escape attempt far more difficult.
'Then cuff her 'ands to the headboard, idiot. It's not rocket science. Wait, my mistake, it probably is for you.' That little barb isn't even worth my time. Mal is hardly the smartest man on the planet if he's dealing crack cocaine and heroin, is he?
'Grip the headboard,' I order. My voice is sharp. If Harper's acting I need to follow suit. There's a reason she's doing what she's doing, and I'm sure she'll explain it to me when she gets a chance, but I can probably already join up the dots. Mal is jealous, and if he suspects Harper and I are anything but enemies my life will expire faster than the average celebrity marriage.
Harper obeys instantly. Now I know why she barely batted an eyelid at all the crazy shit I pulled on her when I first brought her to the house. What I did was child's play compared to the stuff she's had to suffer under Mal. I feel like a jerk. If I'd talked to her at the beginning, instead of going gung ho on her, I could have figured this all out and been halfway to Bali by now.
The handcuffs close around her wrists, pinning them in place. Thankfully I can't see her face as it's pressed into the pillow because if I did, my resolve would probably evaporate in an instant. Gabriel is better at this sort of shit. The man doesn't have a conscience. Unfortunately, I do, and if Harper is telling me the truth, the last few days are going to sting when I think about them too carefully. Shit, shit, shit. Is there any way out of this mess?
'I'm waiting, tough guy. Let's move it along now, shall we?' Mal brings me back into the here and now, standing up from his perch so he can watch me from a distance. It's always nice to make sure you have a great view just before some random bloke is about the beat the shit out of your girlfriend.
Hovering over Harper, I feel a moment of indecision. Blinking, I try and clear my head and think about what I'm going to do next.