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And headed out to Bordello, seeking blissful oblivion.
Chapter 38
BETH
With my ear pressed up against the cellar door, I tried to hear what was going on upstairs. Jacob was talking to his men, but I could not make out his words.
I scowled at Jonathan, who had fled to near the radiator he was shackled to when Jacob had come in. Now here stayed there, watching me, biding his time. He had figured out his chain wasn’t quite long enough to reach the door.
The table was near him and I could not get to it. Even if I could, I couldn’t drag it over here to listen through the grille without him kicking up a fuss about it.
“You’ll have to come here sometime,” he said with a smirk. “I’ve got all night.”
I shot him a filthy look. “You’re deranged. What sort of creep are you?”
“Not deranged. Completely sane for once. Funny, the clarity that the knowledge you’re going to die brings you. You know, I almost had your mother once. Took her to a movie and dinner. Treated her real nice. We were young. I couldn’t afford much, but I took her to the best restaurant in town. And when I drove her home, you know what she did?”
I didn’t bother responding. Didn’t even look at him.
“She thanked me for a lovely night and said she didn’t think we were suited.” He laughed angrily. “You believe that?”
“She didn’t owe you anything just because you took her to dinner.”
“I beg to differ. She owed me a little taste, and she knew it. Those were the rules.”
I snorted in sheer disbelief. “You’re delusional. And it sounds like you’ve been a creep your whole life.”
“Oh honey, is that what you call foreplay? I bet you’ll like it once I’m screwing you. Why don’t you come over here and we can get started?”
I finally looked at him. At his jowls. His thinning hair. His pudgy midriff. It all made him look like some ordinary middle-aged guy. His face was pleasant enough. Like someone you should be able to trust.
I wanted to scream at him that if he wasn’t a creep then maybe he would have had a good life. Found a lovely woman who would adore him. And that it was the fact he was such a creep that had kept him lonely and turned him into such a disgusting freak.
But I had to bite back my anger and frustration. My brain was ticking. There might be one way to save Marco and Chiara. If only luck was on my side. If only I could stomach what I had to do.
“What if there was a way we could both live?” I asked him.
He laughed. “You don’t know a bad situation when you see it, do you? Don’t worry. I’ll kill you easy. Unlike those bastards who’d rape and torture you for days. Fucking mafia, can you believe it?”
He whistled in disbelief. Which struck me as funny, since he was wrapped up with money laundering criminals himself.
“No, really,” I insisted, fighting to keep my voice steady. “I have a way out of here, but you’ll have to play along.”
He seemed to realise I was being serious. His eyes narrowed. He looked around the basement room with its bars over the single narrow window. “What way?” he said sceptically.
“I can get out, but you can’t because you’re cuffed,” I told him, “but I swear I’ll send help for you. You’ll have to trust me.”
He stiffened, like he suddenly feared his prey was getting away from him. His eyes flicked up to the ceiling as if he was considering yelling to bring Jacob down.
“Don’t!” I whispered desperately. “You’ll ruin our only chance of escape.”
He sneered. “Oh yeah? And if you could get out of here, you expect me to believe you’ll come back for me?”
“I’m not like you. I have no desire to see you dead. In jail for killing Dolly? Yeah. But not murdered by the mafia. So you decide. You want to let these bastards kill you, or are you going to keep quiet while I go to get help?”
His eyes narrowed. “How do I know you won’t leave me here to rot?”
I grimaced. “I’m not a sociopath. The thought of leaving you to rot would haunt me forever. No thanks.”
