Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 91423 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91423 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
She will not see his cruelty coming. He will keep her in a state of blissful ignorance until it is too late, and then what he does to her will be so terrible we will never be able to get it out of our minds.
Leo and the doctor are in two seats at the back of the cabin. I know Leo should not be out of the hospital, but his presence was requested.
Luke is seeking reassurance via the medium of questioning me.
“We’re just going to go and deliver ourselves to Mr. Red, are we? Hope he doesn’t paint the walls of his home with our blood in retaliation for what we did to BP?”
“We don’t know that he wants to hurt us.”
“He started with a kidnapping. That’s not a great sign,” he points out. “And someone attempted to hold us hostage.”
“Luke, do you think I have any intention of letting anybody take what is mine, I mean, ours, and threaten us with it after we lost Teddy?”
I ask the question in a tone that is relatively balanced, but I think he hears the cold rage under it fairly well because he shakes his head emphatically.
“No,” he says. “I don’t think you will.”
“We are going to go and see this man, and we are going to ask nicely for Ella to be returned, and if she is not, then the streets of London will run red. Is that clear enough for you?”
Luke smiles and nods. “It is,” he says.
Our plane lands on a private runway at Heathrow. A wheelchair transports Leo down the stairs. He hates it, but the doctor doesn’t want him walking unless he absolutely has to.
The three of us make our way to a modified car. It has enough space in the back for Leo’s wheelchair. He’s practically seething with rage as he’s pushed about. He wants to get up and raise hell, but he can’t.
I have to focus on what is about to happen. We have all been summoned, but only one of us is really required here. Luke and Leo know Mr. Red by reputation. I have had more personal dealings with him. I know him in ways I hope they never will.
London is a pretty and impressive city to drive through. So much history, so many people. There are throngs of humanity here all hoping to drink in the ambiance and experience the city in all its richness.
I don’t like it. I don’t like the damp that hangs about the old stone, or the menace I sense in the air. This is a city in which power has been brokered for generations. The Romans were here for over three hundred and fifty years. It was their capital. I don’t like to give into the metaphysical too deeply, but this is a place in a way many places are not.
The car pulls to a halt outside an address in the heart of the city. Some people would be calmed by that. They’d assume that nothing terrible would happen on such a refined street where everybody is dressed sharply and emanating a safe, staid energy. But that, I fear, is how they get you.
“I’m going in alone,” I say. “The two of you are going to circle the block until you’re called in. I don’t want to call you in. I want to come out with Ella, and we all go home.”
“I thought he wanted to see all of us,” Luke says.
“That is what he said, and if we have to do that, that is what we will do. For now, I want to be sure that we are exposing as few people to danger at one time as possible.”
I get out, and the car pulls off. I feel a significant amount of relief being on my own. Ella is nearby. Perhaps directly behind that front door. I step forward, and I knock.
The door swings open almost instantly. Ella is not there, but Eric is standing in the frame wearing the beigest of slacks and the broadest of smiles.
“Aiden, you came.”
Eric greets me like an old friend, or an old enemy, to be more accurate. This is not our first meeting. Our first meeting took place over ten years ago, on a battlefield where we stood opposed.
I would have been happy never to see Eric the Red again, but he does not forget. He bides his time and he waits to strike, and that is why now, at my moment of greatest weakness, he has blackmailed me here.
“Of course,” I say, letting him take my coat. A cold bolt runs down my spine as his fingers briefly brush over my shoulders. I do not like him touching me. He is the sort of man who absorbs life into himself. Even a limited exposure can be very draining.
“Can I see Ella?”