Murder Broods

Murder Broods

Chapter 11: The Wrong Redressed

Troy struggled to breathe, mouth filled with blood rising from his stomach as he slid down the wall; his arms handcuffed behind him, he glanced around the room -- its florescent light overbearing. He closed his eyes and spit blood onto the floor; his insides shook, stomach twisted remembering Gin’s hate engraved expression when the younger man first shoved him into this room.

---“Did you think I’d just kill you?” Gin stood over him, glowering; the blond gave a laugh seeing Troy’s widening eyes. “That’d be too merciful -- the wrong un-redressed.”

“Please…” Troy stared up at Gin, handcuffed arms useless as the younger man kicked him hard in the gut; he doubled over and coughed. The next moment thrown against the wall as Gin struck his ribs, breaking a few.

“…Of all the children you could have…you had to pick my daughter….” The overhead lights cast heavy shadows over Gin’s face, obscuring it; the blond bit down on his bottom lip, making it bleed.

Troy stifled a cough, blood rising to his throat from his rib-punctured lungs; he braced himself, and glared up at Gin.

“…Don’t say you actually care…you shot her to kill her that night, all to save your own skin.” Troy’s vision went black as Gin backhanded him with the handle of the Beretta; his temple and the assaulted side of his face throbbing, sticky with blood, he blinked and coughed. He tasted blood as his consciousness returned. “Gin….”

Gin glared down at Troy, his face filled with an uncharacteristic level of fury; he felt his heart beating faster from the older man’s words, and he placed his Beretta in his trench coat pocket. He waited until Troy looked back up at him, settling down his adrenaline-filled body in those passing seconds.

“I did shoot to kill that night, under orders…but Troy you’re the one who caused it. Betraying Toni’s identity…no….” Gin’s hair hid his expression from view as he thought. “I never believed Toni truly wanted to defect to our Syndicate when the truth came out after her death…her stubborn nature and overprotection of Saya I believed guaranteed she’d try the opposite.”

“Gin…” Troy stared at Gin with widened eyes, the side of his face swelling. He braced himself against the wall as he swallowed, heart pounding.

“But the moment I watched that video, I knew….knew why Toni wanted to defect. She found out what you did to Saya.” Gin flexed his fingers, murderous eyes staring down at Troy with disgust. “And you betrayed her to save yourself.”---

“No.” Troy closed then opened his eyes as the memory faded -- Gin had kept him confined since their altercation, torturing him sporadically during the passing hours. His body burned from the pain but he ignored it, his thoughts on the last text message Saya had sent to his phone. ‘Barren…Transposed Day…Saya plans on doing the same thing Toni…the Night Baron computer virus…I….’

His vision blurred and he felt himself falling as darkness suffocated his surroundings.

0

“Gin, how long do you plan on keeping him alive? It’s not like he’d give us any information….” Vermouth studied Gin as the man glared through the one-way glass window overlooking Troy’s confinement cell. She shuddered at the cold fury radiating from Gin, unable to continue until she averted her stare from his hatred etched face. “We should find Absinthe, even if she is Saya….”

“…I know Vermouth.” Gin remained in front of the window, glaring down at the unconscious Troy; he slipped his hand into his pocket and took out a cell phone. The cell phone found in Troy’s sedan when Vermouth and Vodka cleaned up the evidence of Gin and Troy’s altercation. “Any threat to the Syndicate’s secrecy has to be eliminated….”

“Gin….” Vermouth felt her mouth go dry, eyes widening a fraction as she watched Gin flip open Troy’s cell phone; the illuminated screen threw light on Gin’s face, contrasting sharply with the shadows caused by his hair. “We can just capture and detain her….if she proves her loyalty to the Syndicate….”

Gin turned around, ignoring Vermouth as he bypassed her and exited the room; Troy’s cell phone he dropped back into his pocket. As Gin’s footsteps fell heavy in the empty corridors, his right hand throbbed; he took it out from his pocket, the white dressing and bandage already stained with blood. Lips expressionlessly curved, he flexed his fingers, the sensation of his fist striking Troy tingling through each digit.

“I’ll kill him soon enough.” Gin’s footsteps halted as his eyes focused on the corridor ahead of him. Vodka stood there making no move to approach or back away, sunglasses blocking his eyes from view. Gin noted the cell-phone in his partner’s hand. “What is it Vodka?”

“ ‘That person’ sent a message, an order to kill Troy without delay. Before daybreak.”

“I’ll deal with Troy.” Gin stared down at his partner, the anger etched in the contours of his face and the cold-blooded glare in his eyes freezing Vodka’s response in the lower-ranked member’s throat. “You leave him alone.”

“Aniki….it’s an direct order from ‘that person’….” Vodka flinched at the icy snarl Gin gave as the blond’s hand went to the pocket that held the Beretta. Vodka swallowed, eyes wide beneath his sunglasses as he watched his partner’s hand freeze in its path, instead clenching into a fist.

“Vodka….” Gin bit down on his inner cheeks, his insides tremoring from the fire of anger mixed with frustration. “I’ll kill Troy by morning, an hour away.”

“Aniki….what is it that Troy did? This isn’t about Toni….is it?”

“Vodka.” Gin’s voice came out steady though he still kept his fist clenched, more to stop himself from retaliating that to express his anger. He stepped forward, teeth soon digging into his lips as Vodka stood his ground; his partner’s sudden stubbornness lit a spark in his blood. His fist hit the wall as he cursed, the hatred he’d struggled to keep in check bubbling unhindered to the surface. “It’s Saya…that cursed pedophile raped Saya!”

Both men stared at the other as the words filled the space between them, reverberating from the corridor walls. It grew to silence until Gin stepped forward once more, Vodka stepping to the side as his partner walked passed him. The lower-ranked man listened as the footsteps gradually faded behind him, eyes still widened in shock beneath his sunglasses.

Vodka flinched out of his shock when he saw Vermouth standing frozen in the corridor from which Gin had come. The expression on her face, with her hand half-covering her lips proved Gin’s last sentence hadn’t missed her ears.

0

Troy opened his eyes at the sharp kick to his abdomen, choking on the blood rising to his throat. His assaulter waited until his coughs died down before grabbing his hair, almost wrenching the strands from his skull. The handcuffs dug into his wrists behind his back, awaking his recollection as his vision cleared; above him Gin stood, the blond’s glare scorching through him.

“Gin…give me over the police, I’ll confess to what I did…just please….” He trembled as Gin reached into his trench-coat pocket, the pain and fear coursing through him breaking down his façade of adamancy. He started to struggle until he saw Gin’s hand held a cell-phone; he blinked and looked up at the blond, eyebrows knitted in confusion.

“You owe Saya something.” Gin said and watched the confusion in Troy’s eyes shift to realization as the captive recognized his cell-phone. The older man stared at the floor as the younger held the cell-phone close to his ear and lips after turning on the speaker phone setting.

0

Hakami awoke, her vision blurred by the increasing presence of sunlight; she blinked, the wall solid against her back, her left hand still clasped tightly around the gun in her pocket. Green eyes focused on her surroundings: the four walls and scratched up floor of an unfurnished, cheap apartment.

“Morning already.” She stretched, rising to her feet when the phone in her pocket vibrated; eyebrows raised, hand bringing the phone out and into view, Hakami’s eyes widened a sliver then narrowed. The display window showed Troy’s number. “He thinks I’ll answer?”

Teeth digging into her bottom lip, the vibrating stopped, changing instead to a lighted screen reading: 1 new message. The brightening sun drew Hakami’s attention to the window as she flipped open the cell-phone.

‘What message did he leave this time? Pleads to not use the Night Baron virus to bring an information apocalypse?’

Eyes settled on the few clouds floating in the otherwise clear sky, Hakami pressed the buttons to playback the message, phone to her ear. Overhead a cloud obscured the sun as she listened, face rigid, eyes gleaming with each passing second; the words burned in her ears transfixing her attention on the phone.

The phone fell from her grip as the gunshot sound boomed at the end of the message; it clanked on the splintered floor, unmissed by the blank shock etched on her face.

“He….he….” Her stance faltered though she steadied herself before hitting the floor; the phone she scooped up, fingers unconsciously pressing the off button. “…it’s over….Troy…Gin….” She moved her right hand to her face after dropping the phone in her pocket; the tremoring fingers spread over her eyes before cupping her mouth, moisture around the edges of her shut eyelids.

Swallowing, chest heaving with each silent breath, her other hand left her pocket, the cold steel still wrapped by her fingers. Awareness of the firearm in her hand returned gradually, her lungs burned as she uncovered her mouth and struggled to breathe normally; sharply her eyes opened, fixating on the automatic in her hand.

Clenching her fist she backed against the wall, firearm pressed violently against her temple; teeth ground tightly behind her parted lips. Her legs trembled but held her up, bent a little at the knees; her finger found the trigger, the cool metal beneath it smooth as she pressed slowly down.

She stopped, breath quickening as she wrenched the gun from her temple and slammed it on the floor. Her narrowed eyes glinting with rage, she watched the gun skid across the room, her legs buckling beneath her as she crashed to her knees. ‘…mine…’

“…he was mine…goddamn it….I’m the one who….” She glared at the floor, hands spread out on the wooden surface, lips bloodied by her teeth digging into them. “Only if all my attempts failed….only then….only….”

The sun shined once again unhindered through the window glass, illuminating her face as she side-glanced at the scenery outside -- hatred coloring her eyes and sculpting her expression as though in stone. She watched unmoving as the outside world awoke, the clouds sailing through the increasingly lightened sky.

“I was supposed to get revenge…my revenge….”