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‘So, what is it? Money? How much do you need? Let me go, and I can have it in your account within the hour.’ My elbows dug into my knees from sitting on the edge of the mattress, trying to keep my body language open. Non-threatening.
‘I don’t want your money.’ Leaning her body against the bars, she grinned at me, sending warning flags soaring in my head.
‘What do you want?’
‘Information.’
‘That’s it? On what?’ I asked.
‘On your father’s depraved group of perverts. I need names.’
My brow creased at her words, what was she talking about? ‘My father is dead.’
‘Indeed. I’m quite pissed that I wasn’t the one to see him take his final breaths. Still, his associates are likely very much alive. I need their names.’
His business associates were all public knowledge. It couldn’t have been them that she meant. She’d said perverts, did she mean Rosenhall?
‘Rosenhall is a club. The people there might be classed as perverts to some, but they are all there because they choose to be. Safety is a priority of mine.’
She looked at me as though I was an idiot, rolling her eyes.
‘I’m not talking about your little club, Alfie. You know what I’m talking about, and playing dumb won’t save you. I’ll have those names out of you one way or another. The longer you hold out, the less intact you’ll be when you die.’
Ah. That little slip was all I needed. She meant to kill me with or without the information I didn’t possess. My best hope was to hold out until someone found me. But would anyone even look for me? While I lived part time with Ewen McGowan in the city, it wasn’t unusual for me to go off on an adventure for a few weeks at a time.
Shit.
My own unreliable lifestyle would be my fucking down fall.
I was going to have to try and smooth talk my way out.
Somehow.
‘You may as well kill me now,’ I said, hoping bluster might work.
‘Don’t tempt me with a good time,’ she replied.
‘You wish.’
Her jaw ticked at my words, clearly having some effect on her. Hopefully not a murderous one.
Her manfriend, servant, boyfriend? Whatever he was, he stood by in the background intently watching her talk to me. Most henchmen at least tried to look uninterested in the goings on around them. He was focused on her like a hawk.
Would he be a weak point to exploit? Or an obstacle?
Either way, I was entirely at their mercy.
SIX
HARRIET
Even the sight of his stupid smug face filled me with rage.
What I wanted to do was to storm into his cage and make him suffer. To pour all of my years of anger into a thousand cuts on his tattooed chest.
Sitting on one of the sofas, I half listened to the chatter around me as the room filled. A mixture of excitement and nerves was palpable in the air. The club room where Alfie had been detained was always busy on an evening, but especially so at the weekend. Women and men we’d helped knew it was a safe space they could come to with people who understood what they’d been through.
The half-naked man in the cage was a bit of a talking point.
