Luca pulled the curtains closed to his office, and he’s now strapped down in a chair, bound by zip ties. Even if he was able to get free, we wouldn’t let him leave this house alive. Luca has a pocket knife and has been walking around Cormac for the last fifteen minutes, completely toying with him in a mental capacity. I’m not too fond of mind games, however, in this case, I think it’s much deserved.
“Tell us how to get downstairs, Cormac. If you do, I might take it easy on you.” He doesn’t know I’m lying through my teeth, but I am. The last thing I’d ever do is take it easy on a sick fuck like him. I’m no saint, but I’m not like him. Not in the least bit.
Cormac raises his brows, and I see it. He knows I want something now, and he’s the type of bastard who will negotiate as much as possible to get what he wants. The only thing is, he won’t get a damn thing. I’m prepared to end his life today. I’ve thought about it in dozens of ways. I could burn him to a crisp until it’s fried up like the perfect piece of bacon. I could drown him in a bathtub, but I’d waterboard him first until he begged for death, and even then, I’d still continue to torture him. I could filet his skin bit by bit until his body wore out from the shock of it all. I could stab him in areas of the body that I know would bleed but wouldn’t kill him for a long time. I’d smile as he’d slowly bleed out in front of me. Those are only some of the first ideas that crossed my mind. I’m sure as time moves on, more will come, and they might even be better than what I originally thought about.
“Who told you there’s a cellar here?” Cormac thinks he’s being smart. In reality, he’s being dumb as shite, but that’s no surprise there.
“I accessed the blueprints. I know every nook and cranny of this place, so tell me how you get down there, and I might make things easy on you. It’s your choice, really. After all, we’re going to be family soon. It’s best we learn to communicate now, don’t you think?” Cormac’s eyes bug out of his head as he realizes the weight of my words.
“No. It can’t be. You’re bloody lying through your teeth.” He’s in denial, but this will be so sweet.
“No. You see, I’m not. I’ve loved your daughter for a very long time, maybe even since we were children. I proposed to Delilah, and she said yes, which means she’ll be Delilah Gallagher very soon. I’ll be frank here, Cormac. I can make things easy for you, or I can make every moment filled with immeasurable pain. The choice is yours, but so far, you’ve chosen the latter.” I push myself off the wall and walk around the man, take my knife from my pocket and poke the pointy end against his skin until blood draws. I do this ten or eleven times before he shakes in his chair in an attempt to get me away from him.
“I’m tired of taking things slow, Keenan,” Luca grits, staring at me from across the room. I can’t blame the man in the least bit, and so he walks forward and stands directly in front of Cormac. “What’s your plan here? You think by telling us nothing it’ll save you? Newsflash, it won’t. We’re only getting started.” Luca draws back his hand, closes his fist, and collides it with Cormac’s nose. It happens so fast that I barely realize it’s even happened.
“You stole money from the charity and you know it. You’ve been doing it for years, and you’re willing to let your own flesh and blood take the downfall for it? You’re a sick fuck,” I snarl.
Walking away from Cormac, I head to the bookshelves and grab a couple books, throwing them at his body. They’re heavier, so they must not feel very good against his skin. I imagine after I throw ten or fifteen against him, the pain will really start coming through.
“You’re taking clothes off needy children’s backs,” Luca hisses, punching him in the face again.
I grab more books and see a small orb that’s for decoration purposes. It’s see-through, but it has a yellow tinge about it. I take the books in my left arm, while I grab onto the orb and pull, but as I do, something lifts out of the bookcase. Sounds of metal against metal cause me to look back, and I spot another shelf moving over to the right, revealing an entryway. You’ve got to be kidding me . . . this is the type of shite that exists in the movies, and only in the movies.
The muffled voice is even louder now and carries up what appears to be a stairwell. I look at Luca, and we both seem concerned at the same time. We leave Cormac strapped to the chair and proceed to go toward the newly revealed doorway. We venture down the stairs, and as we make our way onto a landing, lights automatically turn on below us. We continue down the stairs, and before I reach the bottom step, I spot a girl in a white shirt off in the distance. She’s chained to the floor and is gravely thin. So thin, her bones stick out on her collar, and her elbows are protruding from her skin.
I dig my phone out of my pocket, unlock it, and immediately call Eamon. By the third ring, he answers. “What’s up?”
“Grab Keeva and get your arse over to the Quigley’s house. Park in the alley on the side of the estate and call me when you’re here. I need you both to get a teenage girl out of here.”
“A . . . what? I think I heard you wrong.”
“You didn’t. Just get your arse over here as soon as possible,” I order and hang up the phone, sliding it back into my front pocket.
I turn and face Luca, who appears to be as angry as I am. He’s in his suit jacket per usual, and his eyes are on the girl. He takes his suit jacket off and heads toward her, offering her the jacket. She looks at him as if he’s going to break her apart bit by bit, and she reluctantly takes his jacket. “You stay here with her until Keeva and Eamon arrive,” I order Luca, who gives me a nod in return.
I rush back up the stairs, and fury courses through every limb of my body. Like a Spaniard bull running through the streets, I charge Cormac and shove his body with all of my weight. The wooden chair he’s on breaks into pieces. He manages to roll around, and while he’s attempting to get up, I rush into him, knocking him back on the ground. “You’re one sick son of a bitch, let me tell you that. I should kill you right here and now, but I can’t. You’ve fucked with Delilah and the charity far too much. You’re going to ruin her reputation, do you realize that? Everything you’ve taken, every bit of the money . . . it will ruin her. All she’s ever wanted is to make this world a better place, and you’re willing to tarnish her name completely, and I doubt you even care.”
Cormac spits blood out onto the floor, from where I assume he busted his lip when he hit the ground. “You’re foolish. The fall would never come back to Delilah. I’m smarter than that. Don’t you know who it would fall on? My accountant. She’s been with me since the beginning, but every account has her name on it. She’s the one who would crumble, not me, and certainly not my daughter.”
“You’re lying to save your own arse.” I hiss at him.
“I’m not.”
“You are. I have the information first-hand. I’ve seen what I need to see, and your name’s on the accounts. You need to fix this before Delilah’s in ruins. She’s who matters here. Do you really want to see your own flesh and blood go to prison, or what?”
“She won’t go to bloody prison! I’ve made sure of it.”
“Then you’re as dumb as you look.” The more Cormac opens his mouth, the more I want him to die. “She will take the fall for everything, and you haven’t even taken it into consideration. She and I have discussed it. She has no way to protect herself.” I’m lying to him in the hopes he’ll believe my bluff. If I can get him to believe me, then we might be able to make things right. All I can hope is that my lies pay off, he gets confused, and then can get the money back to where it belongs.
Cormac glares at me with all his might and uses his desk to pull himself off the ground. I have one more card up my sleeve, but it’s a lie as well. “If you return the money, I’ll let you live, and I won’t report you to the police.” It’s a lie, a complete and utter lie. The moment I know the money’s transferred, I’ll make sure to make a few calls. Men like him doesn’t deserve to live. What they deserve is to burn in the fiery pits of hell.
“Give me my phone, and I’ll make a call,” Cormac states, and I reach into my back pocket and give him his phone. Luca confiscated it before we tied him down to the chair. I listen closely as I hear him authorizing a wire transfer from his Swiss accounts back into Knitted Hearts. The second he hangs up the phone, I take a few steps closer to him until I’m standing mere inches away from him. “You’re going to do one more thing, you’re going to transfer all ownership of Knitted Hearts to Delilah. It’s obvious she cares about the company much more than you do.”
Cormac nods, and I grab onto the statue sitting on his desk, then whack it against the back of his head. He falls to the ground like a sack of grain, and my phone begins to ring. Good, Eamon must be here. We need to get that poor teenage girl out of here, and quickly.
CHAPTERTHIRTY-SEVEN
DELILAH
