“Yeah, well, we have our means.” Beelzebub laughed. “And my men are a real fucking ace shot. Never miss. When I say shoot to kill, they kill. Done it many times before. Not something that scares us, killing. Could even call it our hobby.”
I stared at him over my bandana. My breath was warming my face, and my muscles were infused with adrenaline. I hoped Andrew and the Galahad crew had heard what we had.
“Your means?” Jamie asked. “What are they then?”
Beelzebub laughed and grabbed another girl, yanked her close, his fingers biting into her upper arm.
She winced and squeezed her eyes closed.
“You really wanna know?” he said.
“Sure.”
“I reckon you’ll puke, posh boy.”
“Probably, but try me.”
Beelzebub indicated back toward the house. “The dogs, hungry fuckers Dobermans. Can get rid of a body in twenty-four hours, turn it to dog shit, then no questions asked.”
I swallowed. The way he spoke, pride in his eyes, glee in his voice, told me he’d done just that.
“A woman, skinny bitch like this one, twelve hours and her body would be gone,” he said. “Sometimes merchandise don’t make the journey, like, and I’ve got to get shot of them fast before they stink the place out. The dogs ain’t fussy, they eat anything and everything, chew the bones until they’re dust.”
Now I really did have to swallow down an acrid taste of bile. I wanted this guy dead. Dead and fed to his own fucking dogs.
“Hey, what the…?”
A sudden scuffle at Beelzebub’s side. The woman he’d been gripping had seized his gun and stumbled back several paces, the weapon aimed right at her captor’s head. Her elbows were locked and her hands steady. Her eyes were wide and frightened but with a glint of madness and revenge in their depths
“Hey! Hey!” I said, holding out my hands, palms up. “Take it easy.”
“What the fuck? Bitch!” Beelzebub snapped. “Give me that.” He took a step closer to her, menace oozing from him.
Her finger locked on the trigger, holding it poised for action.
I got the feeling she’d held a weapon before. Her stance was balanced and her hips square on to him.
Beelzebub must have thought the same thing because he stopped in his tracks. “Give it to me, love, no one needs to die here today.”
She shook her head. Tears streamed down her face, and her bottom lip trembled. Her grubby white vest top shifted up and down with each of her rapid breaths.
But still the gun didn’t move from her captor.
“Bitch! Now,” one of the heavies said, his gun on her. “Or else you get it. You all get it.”
One of the other girls squealed, and they pressed closer, arms entwined. Another spoke rapidly in a language I didn’t understand.
Jamie backed up, next to me. I could feel the tension vibrating from him as both heavies aimed their guns at the woman who held their boss in her sights.
“It’s okay, put the gun down,” I said. “You really don’t want to shoot him. We’ll help you, I promise, we won’t hurt you.”
“We have already been hurt,” she said, a sob threatening to snatch each word. “I don’t believe you.”
“I promise you, I—”
BANG!
She’d fired, straight at Beelzebub, and a cracking shot, too.
