Chapter 7 Seven

The room was so small and almost pitch dark if not a single bulb that dangled from the ceiling, only serving to slightly illuminate the figure of an enraged Nicole.

"Shut up!" She thundered again, glaring at Nicole who was trembling, tied to a chair in the center of the room with thick ropes that were tied around her wrists and ankles so tight she couldn't move an inch.

Strands of hair were clinging to her damp face, sticking there from sweat and tears.

Nicole was now standing in front of her, eyes lit with a rage that was more dangerous than the braided length of whip she was carrying.

"P-please..." Lucy whimpered as the hair on her skin rose, in anticipation of the whip. "Please-" Her plea was cut short.

"I said shut up!"

CRACK!

Lucy's head jerked back, a sharp gasp escaping her lips. The sting ran across her skin like fire, and she bit down hard, trying to keep from crying out again.

Nicole yelled again. "What do you think this is, huh? You think this is a game? Do you think losing that ledger means nothing?"

Lucy whimpered, shaking so bad anybody would think she was epileptic. The tears were pouring down her cheeks in torrents.

"I'm talking to you, answer me! You think this is a game?" Nicole fired at her.

"N-no, it's not-" She was almost done when the whip came cracking down on her again.

A scream of agony ripped out of her throat. Her shoulders were curling in on themselves, but there was nowhere to hide from this ordeal, no way to move away from it.

“You keep your mouth shut, or I'll put a plier up your ass and pull your guts out!”

"Pleease!" She begged, wailing this time, feeling the blood trickling down her back.

"You're worthless!" Nicole spat, pacing in front of her like a predator circling a wounded animal. "Good for nothing! Do you even know what you've done? Do you?! Aargh!!"

CRACK!

Another scream ripped out of her throat, but it was one of listless resignation. Her hope was gone, every single bit of it. Her cried echoed off the walls, her body was trembling, and every single muscle was tense and aching at this point. Her breath was coming in fast gasps and the fear still sat deep inside her chest.

Nicole leaned down once her cries had reduced to a quiet sob, with her face close enough for Lucy to see the cold glint in her eyes. "You are going to get yourself killed. Do you realise you also put my life in danger. And that's not happening. I'd rather you and your worthless mother die than anything happening to me."

Lucy's lips quivered, voice hoarse from yelling and begging. "Please... stop..." that was all she was strong enough to say.

Nicole straightened, still carrying the hard look on her face. "No. You don't get to beg. You don't get mercy. Not when you've put both our lives in danger because you couldn't handle something as simple as holding on to one fucking book! One!"

Another strike of the whip came barrelling down on her. She whimpered, then her head hung forward. Her body was too tired to respond to the pain at this point. Her tears kept falling freely, dripping onto her knees. At that point she wasn't just in pain, she was terrified.

Terrified of what she'd said. Terrified that Nicole’s threat about her and her mother was true, terrified that she might not make it out of here alive because of the madness she saw in Nicole's eyes.

A long silence followed after that, but it did nothing to give her any sense of respite. In fact, the silence was even more terrifying than the blows because it meant Nicole was deciding to keep going. And Lucy knew she could. She knew she would.

Nicole raised the whip again, brandishing it in the air, and was just about to hit Lucy with it again when a sudden, heavy knock sounded at the door. The sound froze Nicole mid-strike, then a look of irritation flashed across her face.

"Who is it?" She barked. A muffled voice answered from the other side.

"It's Maria, Ma’am. Mr. Blaze is here. He wants to see you."

Nicole's heart jumped, but she wasn't going to let the snivelling piece of shit tied on that chair see any of that. She looked back at Lucy with a glare sharp enough to pierce through her.

"You hear that? Don't you, huh?" She said. "This is your fault. All of it. And I'll make sure I'll kill you first before I go down."

Lucy's lips trembled, she felt dead. Nicole pulled the door open and stepped into the hall. Her posture shifted almost instantly.

And by the time Blaze appeared in the doorway, she had smoothed her expression into something that almost looked warm- almost.

"Blaze," she said, her voice softening.

But Blaze wasn't in the mood for the pleasantries. His jaw was tight, and his eyes were flaming with barely-contained, pent-up anger.

"Cut the act, Nicole," he said. "What the hell were you thinking? Giving that ledger to a maid?"

Nicole blinked, caught off-guard by his bluntness despite having expected it. "It wasn't-"

"It wasn't what?" Blaze cut her off, stepping closer, before his voice dropped lower. But the intensity it gained terrified the wits out of her.

"Do you have any idea what's in that thing? Do you have any idea how dangerous it is?"

Nicole glanced toward the room where Lucy was still locked up. "It was her. She was careless. I've already punished her."

Blaze shook his head. "Punishing her doesn’t flange that fact that its gone. Killing her won't even change that. You think pain brings back information? You think it fixes this mess?"

Nicole's lips pressed together in a tight line. "I did what I had to do."

Blaze's frustration shot up. "No. You did what was easy. And now we’re all paying for it." He shouted at her, before slamming the wall beside her head with his clenched fist.

She flinched, cowering and shaking as fake tears began to fill her eyes.

"I-I'm sorry."

"I don't want to hear that." He shot back before he turned and started heading back. "And stop torturing the girl, release her immediately."

As he walked away, Blaze thought to himself. Yes, he'd been careless with the ledger because it shouldn't be doing anything close to anybody that wasn't himself.

But it wasn't his fault either that Nicole had given it to a maid rather than delivering it himself. But Domenico wasn't the type to listen to reason, especially when he was involved. He'd come down on him, tearing into him with no mercy, even going as far as pointing a gun at him.

Dom had been like that ever since the accident, ever since he lost his sight. There was a corrosive bitterness in him now, and it was eating at him from the inside. Blaze knew things could get ugly fast if that ledger wasn't recovered.

That night, after hours of pacing and replaying every possible outcome in his head, he made a decision. He called in three of his most trusted men. "Go to my brother. Get the ledger. I'll let him know you guys are coming. And whatever you do, don't come back without it."

Once the men left, he sent Dom a message himself- a short, clipped line: Some of my men will be at your place in ten. Hand over the ledger, let's keep this peaceful.

However, peaceful wasn't in the cards. Domenico was a ticking, cataclysmic bomb.

Because when Blaze's men reached Dom's place, they didn't bother with negotiating or compromising. The order was to bring the ledger back, and they knew with certainty that Domenico wasn't going to hand it out without a lot of trouble.

And they were right, because as soon as he was told the men had arrived, he didn't wait before he started tearing into them.

"What do you think you're doing here? Turn around and leave. And when you go back, tell Blaze he won't be getting nothing."

One of Blaze's men, Rafe, shot back. "We are here to collect what should’ve never been in your hands to begin with. So you hand it over, and we leave. Let's not complicate things that shouldn't be complicated in the first place."

Locke cut in before Dom could. "Careful with your words, boy. This house has a way of swallowing men whole when they forget their place. Remember you're outnumbered."

"And what is that supposed to mean? Are you threatening us? Are you going to kill us?!"

Rafe was livid.

One insult rolled into another, and soon things started to get pretty heated. "It might come to that if you don't keep that mouth shut. Watch what you say next,  because it might be your last." Locke warned.

"And what do you mean by that?" Rafe questioned again, before grabbing Locke by the shoulder and hurling him forward. "I won't stand here and watch you-"

That's when it happened.

The moment he grabbed Locke, a gun was drawn so fast it was hard to tell who reached first.

Then came the deafening crack that shattered the air like a bolt of thunder.

Soon, Rafe was falling to the ground, with a hole in his head.