Page 92 of Vicious
No, that’s stupid. There’s no way. Even if he had, he wouldn’t be able to find us in time. What would he do, anyway? He’s a lawyer and a swimmer, not an assassin. He can’t do anything against three men or more, especially not by himself.
“Things will turn around,” Baba repeats. “They always do. We’ve always gotten out of trouble before. You even got free of Giulio Pavone!” He gives me a strained smile. “You’re a lucky charm, May.”
I laugh but don’t respond.
Right.
So very fucking lucky.
CHAPTER 26
May
The hour drags on, especially since neither Baba nor I have anything to say to each other anymore. I start to get thirsty, and I have to pee. I laugh about that, earning myself a look from my father even though he still says nothing. Chase had been a more considerate captor, making sure I’d had access to water and a toilet even when I was chained to the fucking bed.
Maybe the thugs forgot about us, but I’m not sure that’s preferable. We’d end up dying of dehydration instead of getting cut open.
I don’t have time to wonder which of those deaths is preferable, though, because the door opens again.
This time, there’s a new person with them, an older woman with her hair tied back in a bun and wearing a facemask.
She’s Asian, too, but I don’t think that’s going to get me any sympathy.
She’s the one carrying all the doctor’s tools with her.
The thugs carry several coolers into the room and place them by the operating table. Jake looks at his phone, tapping on the screen.
“So the chick is blood type A, and Simon is O. I’ve got a list of people clamoring for the younger organs though, so I think we start with the daughter,” Jake says. “Brad, you’d better be ready to transport the organs as soon as they’re in the coolers. We don’t want a fuckup like last time.”
Last time. I almost laugh because the situation is impossible, yet it’s been reality for who knows how many people? We’re just two in a line of many, just part of a reverse assembly line.
One of the goons winces, but he quickly nods. “Yep. No hold-ups. I’ve got all the addresses, and we’ll write them down on the coolers too.”
“Wait,” Baba says. He tries to stand, but the chains don’t have enough give. “Leave May out of it. She’s got nothing to do with it.”
I don’t tell him that they don’t give a fuck. They’re probably going to rake in a hundred grand from my organs alone, but I’m distantly relieved that they’re going to harvest them at once instead of keeping me alive for weeks.
Hopefully.
Jake laughs. “You brought her into this when you didn’t fucking pay your loans, Simon.”
I’m resigned to this fate, just as I’d been resigned to my fate as one of Giulio Pavone’s drug-addicted dancers and whores and I’d eventually come to accept my role as Chase’s…
Whatever I am to Chase.
Whatever I was.
“Make sure to tie her down tight,” Jake adds. “She’s feisty, and we don’t want anything else to go wrong.” Brad is the one to approach me, and I steel myself for the fight of my life.
Just because I understand this is inevitable doesn’t mean I’m going to just lie down and let myself be cut to pieces without at least doing some damage—either to them, or myself, as a final fuck-you to the man who wants to break me down into parts.
Brad makes the mistake of thinking that I’m going to go meekly to that table I’ve been staring at all day, and I wait until he unbinds both of my wrists before ducking beneath him and running for the door.
Just like last time, one of the men grabs me, but this time, I fight even harder. I scratch and claw and bite and kick, doing everything I can to hurt him as he tries to carry me to the table.
In the end, it takes three of them to strip my clothes off and tie me down tight enough to cut off my blood flow, and I can barely even flex my fingers in the new bonds.
The doctor makes an annoyed sound. “This is taking too long,” she says. “I can’t be here all night.”