Finally, when they got close to the warehouse district, Bane drove to one isolated by a large distance from the others.He pressed a button and the door slowly rose.He drove inside.
Another person hit a button from inside and the door began to close.
When Bane stopped the vehicle, a man stepped out of the shadows.
James glanced over at Bane.
“Don’t worry,” Bane told him.“He lives here and he knows to keep his mouth shut.”
James nodded and watched him in the rear-view mirror.
The man walked up on Bane’s side.“You going down?”he asked in a gravelly voice.
Bane nodded at him.
The man walked over to the wall behind the car and pressed yet another switch.The car lowered down.
James glanced at Bane.“We are going to hell finally, aren’t we?”he quipped.
Bane grinned.“One day we will, but not today, brother.We’re just going down but notthat fardown.Don’t worry so, James.I would never lead you wrong.Besides, I do not believe you will be sent to the flames.Let alone with me beside you.”
“Well, that is good news!”James exclaimed with a false cheer in his voice and watched as the vehicle sank to another level.
When the floor under the vehicle stopped, the lights came on.
Bane moved the car off the ramp.The floor began to go up again.Finally, Bane opened his car door and got out.
James followed slowly and looked around while surprised to find it to be a clean area.The warehouse looked old and dilapidated on the outside.He looked at Bane and asked, “What is this place?”
“This, James, is my workshop in New Orleans.Just one of ten places I can do my own style of work.”Bane smiled.
That smile made James shiver.It wasn’t a regular smile, instead it looked like it meant something else entirely.Bane’s workshop?What did that even mean?
Bane clapped his hands together and said, “Let me show you around.This place is one of my favorites.I had it designed myself.”He motioned for him to come along and opened a door leading to a living area.He snapped the lights on, revealing a good-sized kitchen and dining area along with a warm comfortable living room.
The back of the living room was occupied by a computer station and three monitors on an L shaped desk area.
He motioned to the hall and said, “There are four bedrooms down the hall.”He turned to a doorway just to the west of the kitchen.“That leads to another hall and at the end of that one is my playroom.”
James turned his head and raised his brow.“Your playroom?”
Bane shrugged.Instead of answering James’s question, he went to the parking area and returned with Dominic over his shoulder.Then he led the way across the kitchen to the far west side of the room.He opened the door and disappeared down the hall.
James followed him.When Bane opened the door at the end of the hall, James stepped through and stopped in his tracks.His eyes widened at the sight of Bane’splayroom.
It resembled a modern-day torture room.He had a cell area against the far wall.The rest of the walls were covered in ancient torture devices.Like someone had decided the motif would be Hannibal Lecter and Jeffrey Dohmer-Esque.He had one locked cabinet and James could only imagine what might be in that.
In fact, he refused to guess at all.
James watched as Bane lowered Dominic onto a cot in the cell area.He didn’t untie him and James took note that he didn’t take the tape from his mouth either.
Bane came out of the cell and locked the door behind him.
“Now what?”James asked.
“Now we wait for the others to arrive, then we play a game with Mr.Russo.”
