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“No.” Michael gave a laugh of disbelief. “And to be quite frank, I don’t care what the hell she said. I mean, how old are you? Five? For someone who claims to be ‘The Hardest Fella in the Hardest Family in Dublin’ you’re acting like a particularly pissy little bitch right now.”
The two men glared at each other in silence until Michael threw Ciaran a set of keys. “Now put some of that muscle to good use and get him down from there. Cuff his hands behind him, then give me the keys back once you’re done”
Ciaran unlocked the restraints at my ankles and wrists. I was free, for all the good that would do me. My legs buckled as I took my full weight on them again, and my arms and shoulders flared with fresh pain when Ciaran roughly pulled my wrists together behind my back. For good measure, he landed a pile driver of a punch to my stomach the moment I tried to take a step.
“He tried to make a run for it,” he explained when Michael turned to scowl at him as I doubled over and tried to catch my breath. “That’s for yesterday, you fuckin’ little faggot. I’d give you a dozen more if I had the time,” he muttered to me, and threw the keys back to his master.
“That’s why you’re armed, for God’s sake,” Michael said. “Maybe show him that, rather than play out whatever prizefighter fantasy you’ve got going on? Anyway, he’s unlikely to make any serious attempts to get away when I’ve got his bitch here. I think they’ve both finally had their teeth pulled tonight.” He had his Glock in his right hand now, and casually pointed it in Lilith’s direction. Even she was silent now, and I guessed that she too had hit the end of her road. “So, shall we step outside?”
As Lilith and I were marched out of the building at gunpoint I hated to admit it, but this time Michael was right. It appeared we were both pretty much fucked.
Chapter Thirty
Finn
I stood barefoot, shirtless, sore and shivering next to Michael Albermarle on a greasy and sodden stone jetty. A small dinghy with an attached outboard motor was tethered to an iron ring and I guessed that was our taxi to the boat that waited somewhere offshore to take me back to hell. The sky was pitch black and moonless and a gale howled in straight off the Irish Sea, whipping sea-fret and sleet into our faces. Beyond our little gathering I could make out the foam-tipped waves beyond the breakwater and the outlines of the ramshackle buildings we’d just left, and that was pretty much it. I supposed there was an outside chance of capsizing and drowning, but that seemed to be it when it came to any sort of Plan B.
For the second time that night Michael ripped off the duct tape that covered my mouth. “Right. I’m going to give you a chance to say your final farewells to your girlfriend, you little slut. I realise that you’ve been playing the stoical hero so far, but believe me when I say it’ll go in your favour if you come up with something suitably sentimental. Understand?”
I gave him a short, compliant nod. “Fuck you, you pathetic, inbred manchild cunt. May your death be slow, painful and lonely, and may you and your corrupted line rot in hell. Will that do you?” I said, and even managed to summon my finest shit-eating grin. I knew it was going to cost me later, but as I’d once said long ago on an island on an English lake, everything cost me. The only question was how much...
I turned to the amazing, beautiful woman that I’d said it to. Her eyes never left mine as I spoke to her now, likely for the very last time. “Lili, a chuisle mo chroí, I love you. That’s all.”
Lilith
“Oh, you think you’re so fucking funny right now, don’t you?” Michael snapped, and used the hand that held his gun to smack Finn hard across the face. He reeled backwards, and I could already see the skin on his cheekbone beginning to redden. Michael pulled him forward and slowly and deliberately dragged a fingernail down the inflamed flesh where he’d just branded the man he considered nothing more than his property. “This time tomorrow the only thing you’ll be using that mouth for is taking my cock until you choke or begging me for mercy, and believe me, I’m counting down every single second.”
I fought back tears of fury. I’d tried my hardest but I hadn’t had time to do enough. Nothing was fixed and I was about to lose Finn forever at the hands of two volatile, wired bastards. I told myself that maybe there’d never be enough time, not with men in the world who were prepared to commit evil like this, or maybe it was just that my luck had finally run out...
My disgust at my own self-pity brought me round. I couldn’t give up. There had to be one more thing I could do or say, surely? There was always one more thing...
“Are you going to ask him?” I said to Ciaran, as conversationally as I could manage. “I mean, I can understand if you’re too chickenshit, with him being your boss and everything. Or maybe you just trust him implicitly, which is rather touching under the circumstances.” He did his best to ignore me, but I knew that both he and Michael had heard me, even as the wind tried to whip the words away from my lips. “Aw, have you gone all shy?” I added.
“No, I’m not goin’ to ask him,” Ciaran barked. “Now shut your face, you stupid bitch.”
Michael frowned. “Ask me what?”
“Oh, it’s nothing, really,” I shrugged. “Just minor details. Your pet monkey here wants to know if he’ll be coming with you to Albania.”
“I already know-” Ciaran began, but Michael rounded on him.
“Whoa, you told her? What the fuck were you thinking? Or were you simply not thinking at all, as per?”
“She guessed, alright? I didn’t say anything!” Ciaran said.
Michael laughed. “Yeah, sure. There’s what? A couple of hundred countries in the world, and she just happened to ‘guess’ which one?”
“There are currently one hundred and ninety-five, actually,” I said. “But yes, he told me.”
Ciaran grabbed my arm and half-lifted me off the ground before giving me a shake. “I’m goin’ to shoot you myself if you don’t shut up! She guessed, I’m telling you – you know she can do that spooky shite, and she just said it. I’m not a fuckin’ idiot!”
“Well that’s rather bloody debatable,” Michael retorted. “But however she found out, it makes things considerably trickier for me now, doesn’t it?”
“Nah, not really,” Ciaran said, but there was real desperation in his voice. “But I am coming over with you, aren’t I?”
“Yes, I told you. You wait here for a few hours just to check everything’s nice and tidy, and then I’ll let you know where to join us on the boat,” Michael said, then sniffed and wiped his arm across his nose. He’d definitely taken something for the journey.
“Why not tell me now?” Ciaran asked.
