Beauty and the Dark (20 page)

Jack

T
he cockroach has stripped her naked and squeezed her into a metal cage that is meant for nothing bigger than a medium sized dog. Her skin is blue, her hands open and limp, the way the dead keep theirs. When I shout her name she doesn’t reply.

In a flash I get over to her.

Crouching down I touch her skin through the bars. Her blood is pulsing strongly. The door is secured with a padlock. I try to bend the metal and pry it open, but the metal is sturdy and won’t budge. Blinded by tears of rage, I half-crawl and half-scramble over to the bastard’s body.

I rifle his pockets, tearing impatiently at his expensive clothes. I find what I am looking for in his trouser pocket. Clutching the key in my trembling hands I stand over him. I thought I had seen the worst of humanity, but I have never met such a creature with such a black, pus-filled, moldy, walnut-sized heart.

Unable to help myself, I viciously kick at his despicable corpse before I rush back to the cage and open the door. She falls out and I see the needle mark in her arm instantly. I run my hands down her body. Nothing appears to be broken or hurt.

Going to the bed I rip the sheet off it and roll her in it. I shake her, rub her body, and kiss her cold cheek. I take my jacket off and wrap it around her mummy-wrapped body.

“Baby, it’s me. Wake up,” I urge.

Sofia

“Baby,” he calls.

His voice sounds like it is coming through a long tunnel. Oh, he’s so far away and I’m so cold. So freezing cold. Something hot touches my cheek. I force my eyes open.

“Jack,” I whisper.

His mouth is like a furnace against my cheek. I try to wrap my arms around him, but how strange, I can’t move my hands at all. 

“I love you.” My voice sounds like it has gone into the same tunnel to reach him. “Don’t watch the videos.”

I feel his hands slide under my neck and my knees as he scoops me up and carries me.

“I’m sorry. I promised I’d never take that shit again, but I had to break my promise.” A tear slips out. “I had to choose between broken legs and a needle. I chose a shot in my arm. This is an old friend. I kinda like him, Jack. He makes all the hurt go away. He makes it so that nothing hurts anymore. Not even you.”

“Shhh …” he says.

My head hangs down. I should warn him about Valdislav. He could be coming any time. It is too dangerous. I open my mouth. I want to speak, but I can’t. I want to keep my eyes open, but they won’t stay open. I hear a voice. Is that Gorky? I should warn Jack about him. He is dangerous. He always carries a gun.

Jack

Oh fuck! The other guy that Kaja described, scar, black hair, dead eyes, has just suddenly appeared in the corridor. We face each other. Me, standing in the middle of the landing carrying Sofia and, at the end of it, him pointing a gun.

“Your boss is dead,” I tell him.

“Put her down,” he says, releasing the catch on his gun.

“Valdislav is gone. You can be the new king of all of this.” I swivel my head to indicate the building around us. “All I want is her.”

He doesn’t blink. “Put the bitch down.” There is absolutely no expression on his face, but I can tell that he doesn’t know what the fuck is going on, and he dare not take my word for it that his boss is indeed dead.

“If you shoot me, you’ll have the police crawling all over this place. Do you think I came here without precautions?” Behind Dead Eyes I see a shadow creeping up the stairs. Simply the way the man is moving tells me he’s not a friend of Dead Eyes.

“Put her down or I’ll shoot you in the head,” Dead Eyes warns.

“Okay, okay, I’m putting her down.” I just need to keep him talking for a little bit longer. Enough time for the shadow to creep up on him.

As I lay Sofia on the ground at my feet, I look up at him. “You don’t believe your boss is dead? Go ahead and look behind me.”

“Now, step away from her.”

“Okay, okay, don’t shoot,” I say, as if I am really afraid of him.

A second later the shadow coming up the stairs digs the barrel of his gun into my enemy’s back and says, “I’ve got no problem with you. Have you got a problem with me?”

I see the fear come into his black eyes. “I’ve got no problem with you either,” he says.

“Then drop the gun and kick it away.”

He drops his gun and kicks it.

“You all right?” the man asks me.

I nod. I don’t know him from Adam and the only thing I can think of is that Noah sent him. Our strange impasse is suddenly broken by a man in his boxer shorts suddenly opening the bedroom door next to them. In that split second of confusion, Valdislav’s man turns around and kicks the shadow’s knees so he loses his balance, his hands jerking.

Expertly, Dead Eyes grabs the gun.

The man in his underwear starts screaming like a girl. In one smooth movement I reach into my sock, withdraw my knife and throw it. It’s not for throwing. It’s small and meant to be used up close; between the ribs directly into the heart.

It moves in an arc towards Dead Eyes. The aim has to be perfect, or we’re dead. It pierces his neck, the impact throwing him backwards. He falls to the ground clutching his throat. I walk towards him. For a moment I stand watching him, gasping, eyes bulging, mad with pain.

I feel nothing. No remorse, no pity, no guilt. In fact, no point wasting a good knife, or leaving it behind as evidence. I bend down and pull the knife out. Blood gushes out of his body like a scarlet fountain. He dies from a bubbling neck wound. I move away even before his eyes become blank.

“Jesus Christ. What’s going on here?” the man in the boxer shorts squeals in a terrified voice.

I look at him. His face is white. On the bed behind him there is a naked girl lying spread eagled. There are red welts all over her body.

I stretch my hand out and he jumps back in fear. He is too late though. I have cut his boxers and his wrinkled worm of a penis is hanging out. “Get out asshole,” I tell him.

“My clothes,” he says, covering his private parts with his hands.

“Get out you fucking sick bastard, or I’ll cut your shriveled up, useless dick off.”

He hesitates for less than a second. Then he runs, his pale body streaking down the stairs.

I look at the girl. “Get dressed and run. No one will come after you,” I tell her.

The shadow has picked himself up and is watching me expressionlessly.

“Tell Noah, thanks,” I say. I pass him by and pick my precious cargo up in my arms. I start down the stairs. The shadow follows me.

He opens the front door. It is freezing cold. There is another man waiting at the bottom of the steps. He nods at me as I come down the stairs.  He goes into the house, closing the front door.

“Why is he going back in there?”

“He’s part of the clean-up crew. One of the girls or the neighbors could call the police. They’ll make sure the CCTV tapes are wiped clean and any evidence cleared away.”

Another man comes towards us, nods at the shadow as he passes us.

Whatever. I’m not interested. I clutch Sofia tightly against my body. I need to get her to a hospital. I don’t know what he has injected her with.

I place Sofia in the passenger seat, belt her up, and start the car. She mumbles something. I tell her to hold on. Then I call Lena and tell her that I’ve got Sofia and I’m taking her to the hospital. I give her the address then I end the call and concentrate on getting there.

Sofia

I
don’t know what he injected me with, but it was so strong my eyes rolled back in my head, or maybe I’m just not used to it anymore. The night is a hazy blur of memories. I remember being cold. Shivering. Giving up. Wanting to die. Fading away. Getting lost in the soft dark.

Then being shaken awake. Jack. Noises. People screaming. Being carried out into the cold night. The stars in the sky. Feeling sick in the car. Jack talking to me in a crooning voice. Begging me to hang on.

“You’re safe now. It’s all going to be all right,” he said again and again.

Then being carried into the hospital. Bright overhead lights. I recall the jarring sound of Jack shouting. Noises, nurses. Being wheeled down a corridor. People peering down at me, calling me, ‘love’. Kind words and hands, cold instruments.

Lena’s swollen and red face hovering over mine. Kissing me, wetting my face with her tears, talking to me in Russian.

“Don’t worry, I’m all right,” I tried to tell her, but she cried even harder.

Eventually, it is all over. My body feels exhausted and heavy, and all I want to do is sleep. I close my eyes with the safe feeling of Jack’s hand holding onto mine. In the night I wake up, suddenly, terrified. I raise my head.

“Where am I?” I gasp.

Jack leans forward. “Home. You’re home, baby.”

“Oh.” I lean back on the soft pillows. How silly of me. Of course I recognize Jack’s ceiling now.

“How do you feel?” he asks.

“Thirsty and ravenous for sugar,” I reply.

He smiles. Slipping his hand under my body, he holds me up while he tucks two more pillows under my back. “I guessed you would,” he says, taking a bar of chocolate from the bedside table. He tears the wrapper off and holds it out to me. I take it and watch him break open a can of Coke. He hands that to me too.

I take a sip. “Do you want a bite of my chocolate?”

He shakes his head.

All of a sudden I feel oddly shy. I drop my eyes and take a bite of the bar of chocolate.

He puts his finger under my chin. “Never hide from me, Sofia.”

I swallow the chocolate and look into his eyes. “He didn’t do anything to me,” I blurt out in a rush.

I see relief cross his eyes. “I’m glad, but even if he had it wouldn’t have changed a thing for me. Nothing can change the way I feel about you. Nothing. You will always be mine and only mine.”

I try to hold back the tears that burn at the back of my eyes. “I love you so much it hurts.”

He uses his thumb to wipe away the tears that roll down my cheek. “My brave, brave Princess. There are no more monsters coming for you.”

“What if he comes back?”

“He’s a bit too dead to come back.” His voice is hard.

My eyes widen. “What? You killed him?”

“I did.”

I stare at him, horrified.

“To be perfectly honest I actually took great satisfaction doing it.”

I cover my mouth with my hand. “Oh, Jack. What will happen to you now?”

He shrugs. “Nothing.”

“Nothing? How can that be?”

“Trust me. I know what I’m doing.”

“I really thought I’d never see you again.”

“That was never going to happen, Princess. I would have gone to the end of the earth to find you.”

“I was so afraid he would hurt you.”

“Hurt me? I was willing to sell my soul to the devil for you.”

“You do know that you’re the most amazing man on earth, don’t you?”

“I do,” he says gravely, but his eyes are twinkling.

I put the chocolate down. “Jack?”

“What?”

“I’d like to have a shower. I feel grimy and my skin smells. I need to wash.”

He helps me out of bed. My legs feel a bit shaky, but I’m all right. Before I can take the first step though, he sweeps me into his arms. I look up at him. “Oh, Jack. Not even in my dreams did I dare imagine I’d have a man like you.”

“That’s good because I never dreamed I’d get a beauty like you.”

In the bathroom he runs the shower to fill it with steam, then sits at the edge of the bathtub and watches me brush my teeth and use the toilet. I turn to him. It is as if it’s the first time I’m with him.

“Do you want to come in with me?” I ask, blushing.

He springs up and immediately begins to strip. “You won’t believe how much, but I was trying to be patient,” he says with a grin.

I pull my nightgown over my head and step into the shower.

The sensation of the water hitting my body, washing away the feel of Valdislav’s hands on me as I lay on that dirty brothel floor, is wonderful. Jack shampoos my hair. He washes my body. When I am completely clean his mouth starts exploring me, starting at my ears.

Jack

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJL4UGSbeFg

(Save The Last Dance For Me)

Her scent intoxicates me and I experience a sudden and urgent need to take her forcefully. Prove to her and me that she is mine and only mine, but I don’t indulge in that primitive craving.

No, I will savor every part of her slowly.

This whole night will not be enough for the kind of relishing I intend to do. I’m gonna lavish every inch of her body with Jack Irish. I linger at her breast, the soft flesh filling my hands, then my mouth. The nipples are little stones between my tongue and the roof of my mouth. Warm water beats down on my head. My resolve weakens. Fuck this woman has me in knots.

She is panting. Driving me insane. We both need it. I trail my mouth down to her stomach, her hips, her secret place. My tongue parts her and slips into that familiar sweet taste.

She cries out. I eat her out until her body shudders and quakes with an orgasm. I rest my head on her stomach.

“You came too quickly,” I whisper.

Sofia

He stands. Looking down at me, he wraps his big, manly hands under my thighs, lifts me up, and enters me. I breathe a sigh of contentment. I’m home.

Finally.