Questioning
It was impossible. How could Daniel, the man who had been your boss for years, be the same man who was initiating these barbaric plans to kidnap women. Sure, he had always given off strange vibes – he was egocentric and vulgar – but never had you thought he would be capable of this. He seemed too stupid. Had that been an act?
Daniel’s hand started patting your cheek and you fought hard to keep yourself from reacting.
“She did all of my dirty work,” he said.
“Really?” Jay said and you could hear the double meaning in his question.
Daniel let go of your face but you could still feel his presence. “Not in that way. It’s a shame, she would’ve made a good whore for me.”
“She could still be yours, boss,” another man piped in.
There was a moment of silence. “I just might.”
Ice started running up your spine – surely he wasn’t going to...
A finger started tracing your lower lip.
“She always had this look in her eyes.” Daniel chuckled. “She knew I was taking girls in my office. She probably dreamed of being one of them.”
You felt repulsed.
“Isn’t that right, y/n?”
Your breathing stopped.
Daniel made a disapproving sound with his tongue. His finger disappeared from your face. For a moment, you wondered what he was up to and why he had called out your name.
The feeling of cold air reached your face before his hand did. The smacking sound that followed, echoed through the warehouse and your face was thrown to the side – it could only go so far with your neck being restrained against the chair.
He had slapped you. And hard. But somehow, you remained stoic. Maybe it was because of the surprise attack – you hadn’t been prepared to react.
His fingers gripped your chin and made sure you were facing him again. Meanwhile, your cheek started burning hotly, the stinging feeling told you it was probably going to leave a nasty bruise.
“Stop faking it,” he snapped. And his hand collided with your face again.
This time your body reacted before you could stop it from happening; your eyes flew open and tears welled up as you let out a painful scream.
“There you are,” Daniel said and you could hear the smugness in his voice.
You breathed in harshly, trying to get yourself back in control but the build-up of anger, pain and fear had you in their grip.
Slowly, you turned your head back towards the man who had slapped you twice. His half long blonde hair fell in his face, he was leaning towards you as his full height would tower over you. His green eyes were boring into yours, making you extremely uneasy – he had never looked this intensely at you when you had just been his employer.
His hand suddenly shot out and grabbed your hair, pulling you even tighter against the back of the chair and you let out a soft grunt. “So, tell me,” he hissed between his teeth, “what exactly are you doing here, and why,” he said, turning to look over his shoulder towards Jay, “isn’t she drugged?”
Jay was clearly caught off guard as he stumbled out a few words. He certainly hadn’t expected you to be fully awake and sober.
Daniel let go of your hair and started demanding from one of his men to grab him a chair. It was an opportunity for you to quickly scan your surroundings.
You had been right; it was a warehouse. It was huge, with lots of crates and boxes pushed up against the walls. Your chair was positioned almost in the centre, as were six men surrounding you, excluding Jay and Daniel. Why were there so many men watching you? Was this some type of entertainment to them? It must be, since their boss was here.
The place was not very well lit up – only a few overhead lights were turned on but they hung up very high.
That’s when you noticed another chair next to you – it hadn’t been noticeable as you couldn’t turn your head that far. It must be the other girl. She didn’t make a sound, though. She must’ve been drugged.
Daniel got a chair from one of his men and he put it right in front of you, the back facing you so he could sit down and lean his arms on the backrest.
His knees basically touched yours, his black combat boots almost stepped on your heels and you wanted to pull away, only to realise you were trapped in your chair. You couldn’t move an inch.
“Now, speak,” he said, his arms folded over the backrest as he stared at you.
You swallowed. The pain from his slaps still burning and you didn’t need a mirror to know you probably had his hand printed on your face.
“I -” you started, only to notice how weak your voice sounded. You couldn’t sound weak, you had to keep up the act. He had to speak. “What are you doing to all those girls?” you said, snapping at him and you scrunched your brows together to force an angry look. Reality was, you were scared shitless, but you knew you could call out Michael’s name if you wanted to.
But not yet.
Daniel raised a brow at your sudden boldness. “I don’t think you are in any position to ask questions.” His voice was suddenly deeper than you remembered and you wonder if he had multiple personalities.
“Did you kill them?” you continued.
He simply stared at you.
“Are you in human trafficking?”
“Let’s just shut her up already,” Jay said, folding his arms across his chest, clearly done with the show.
Daniel raised a hand to shut him up. “Let’s trade answers,” he said. “I will answer a question if you answer mine.”
You pressed your lips into a thin line. He was mocking you, making a game out of the situation. But if it would help you with your questions, so be it.
“Fine.”
He smiled, but it wasn’t a warm smile. “What are you doing here?”
Your eyes went to his men. They all stood with judging looks on their faces. They wouldn’t harm you until Daniel would give them a sign, but the guns strapped to their hips and thighs still made you uneasy.
“I wanted to know where your buffoons were taking the girls.”
Daniel grinned. The men around you, however, did not. They looked anything but amused. Jay even less so. He had pulled out a knife from one of his pockets and was playing with it as he stared you down. You quickly averted your gaze back to the man in front of you.
“And here you are. And what’s next, you’re going to call the cops on us?” He laid one of his hands on your knee and started stroking your skin. “I don’t think you’ve thought this through, sweetheart.”
You gritted your teeth. “Get your hand off of me.”
He cocked his head, his fingers digging into your flesh. “Or what?”
You didn’t answer him. You couldn’t tell him you could scream for the doctor who would rip their throats out in just seconds.
“That’s what I thought,” he said after you remained silent. “No, I did not kill them.”
He actually answered one of your questions. But it didn’t help you at all. If he didn’t kill them, one of his men could have.
“My turn.” He let his fingers travel upwards and you could curse at yourself for picking out such a short dress. “How did you know Jay was part of the organisation?”
Jay made a disagreeing noise. “Before you go any further,” he said, walking towards you, “let me search for a wire.”
Daniel pulled his hand back from your leg and laid it back on the backrest. “She’s all yours.” His green eyes twinkled; he was enjoying this deeply.
Jay put the knife between his teeth and leaned in, his hands suddenly roaming your body without any decency. When his hands reached your breasts, you couldn’t restrain yourself any longer and spat in his face.
He froze and his eyes widen. He quickly pulled his knife from between his teeth and you could’ve sworn he was about to stab you – Daniel was just in time as he grabbed a hold of Jay’s arm.
“No, no. I wasn’t done talking with her yet.” His voice was so calm. A contrast with your wild heartbeat.
“She’s mine if she pulls a stunt like that again,” Jay snarled and he walked away, out of your sight. But you were sure he was still around.
Daniel snapped his fingers in front of your face. “Now answer the question.”
“He had tried to kidnap me before, but I escaped.” You let out the part where Michael Morbius had saved you.
The blonde-haired man looked puzzled for a moment. But didn’t question it any further. “You must realize by now the job you had was part of this organisation.”
You clenched your jaw. You were very aware.
“I must say I’m a little disappointed in you. I always thought you were smart, but you never discovered the truth whilst working for me.”
“And I always thought you were stupid, how can someone like you lead such a big crime organisation?” Your adrenaline was definitely getting the upper hand, but if he had wanted to kill you, he would’ve done so by now.
He frowned at you and leaned forward even more. “You have some nerve, girl.” One of his hands disappeared for a second, only to return with a gun. He pushed it up against your leg, aiming it straight at your private area. “Let’s not forget who’s tied to a chair and who’s not.”
Okay, you had taken it a bit too far.
“This stupid man is more powerful than you know. If I die, the city will collapse. It would be poorer for it.”
“Then I will kill you.”
He laughed, but there was no humour in it. “What did you just say? I don’t think I heard you right.” He turned his head and tapped his ear with his gun. “Say it again.”
Your breath hitched in your throat. Maybe you should stop. But then again, this bastard just admitted his organisation was huge and he probably had lots of connections with other people to keep his business up and running. You had the information you’d came for. It was time to let them meet their end.
“I said, I will kill you.”
He laughed hard and then his face turned into something you hadn’t seen before; all emotion drained from his face and it gave him an unreadable expression.
What he did next, had you wishing you hadn’t threatened him. He smacked the gun across your face and you instantly tasted copper. Your mouth started bleeding in a constant flow and you had to spit some of it out, sputtering it over your own dress and naked legs.
Jay appeared in your vision and in his hands was a roll of tape. You knew he was about to shut you up.
You breathed in and then screamed Michael’s name.
The silence that followed was deafening.
“Michael Morbius?” Daniel said, his face full of disbelieve.
“Yes,” you said, feeling the blood drip down the corner of your mouth.
He jumped off his chair and kicked it to the side. “He killed my men,” he snarled and aimed the gun at you.
“I know,” you said.
Before any of you could say anything else, a loud crashing sound echoed through the entire space and multiple windows shattered above you. They had been up and high, only touching the ceiling and going down a few meters. And now they were shattered into a thousand pieces as a dark figure shot through.
A loud growl followed.
And it was Daniel who still had his wits as he stood at your chair and pressed the gun against your head, his finger on the trigger.
You held your breath.