“Welcome back to the land of the living,” Murphy said, right before he punched Liam in the face.
Liam sluggishly tried to turn his face with the blow to lessen the impact, but the follow-up meant it didn’t matter. The blows to his face left blood in his mouth, split his lip, and loosened a couple of teeth. Liam tongued a molar free and spat it out when Murphy stopped using his face as a punching bag.
Rather than swallow the blood pooling in his mouth, Liam spat it out on the floor between them. His face felt hot, his left thigh a grinding point of agony he tried to ignore, and his fingers felt curiously numb. It had less to do with how tight the cuffs keeping him tied to the chair were and everything to do with the neuro-jamming from the Faraday cage.
“Is this how you always invite people in for a chat?” Liam rasped out. “Your manners need some work.”
Murphy scrubbed a hand through his short brown hair, then shrugged, the smile never leaving his face. “Me mum always tried to beat some manners into me. They never stuck.”
He slammed a fist down onto Liam’s left thigh, right next to the rebar, and Liam screamed as the world blackened at the edges of his vision. When the overriding agony finally faded enough that he could think through the pain, Liam lifted his head again.
“What do you want?” Liam asked.
Murphy rubbed Liam’s blood off his knuckles using a rag someone else tossed to him. “We got what we wanted. You.”
Liam blinked slowly, processing the words. He let his gaze drift beyond Murphy, taking in the high ceiling of a warehouse whose windows had been boarded over to keep light from showing. He was cuffed to a chair, secured at the wrists and ankles, with no weapons close at hand if one didn’t count the guards aiming their guns at him.
“Why?”
“Because you’re payment.”
Liam licked his lips, tongue catching on the cut on his bottom lip. The sting was buried beneath the rest of the pain settling in his body. He looked down at his leg, swallowing tightly as he stared at the rebar sticking out of his thigh. Blood seeped from the torn flesh, the flow slower than it would be if Murphy had nicked the femoral artery.
If he was payment, at least they wanted him alive.
For now.
“I’m fairly certain I’m not worth as much as the Crown Jewels,” Liam said after a moment.
Murphy shrugged. “Your sentimental value was worth the effort of getting you.”
Despite the heat from pain suffusing his body, a cold chill snaked down Liam’s spine. “Sentimental value?”
“You’re Jamie Callahan’s friend. He was our first choice once we knew he was in town, but the Callahans were harder to get to than you.”
Liam dragged his gaze back to Murphy, staring at the older man. “Jamie?”
Callused fingers grabbed his chin and shoved his head back. Murphy produced a knife from somewhere and pressed it to Liam’s throat, right beneath the hinge of his jaw. Skin split, drawing blood, and Liam held his breath.
“Seems Bennett doesn’t appreciate his exile. I figured he’d be more likely to offer up what we wanted if we offered up some revenge on his behalf.” Murphy angled the knife along Liam’s jaw and pressed down until it grated against bone. Liam kept still, breathing harshly through his nose. “We can’t deliver Callahan, but we can deliver you.”
“I’m not worth anything to Bennett,” Liam got out through clenched teeth and lips that were starting to swell.
“Aye, mate. But you’re worth something to Jamie Callahan. If he’s hurting because your dead, it’ll make Bennett happy.”
Liam swallowed thickly, wishing Murphy didn’t have such insight into Jamie’s character. Because Liam knew that if he ended up dying at Bennett’s hand, Jamie would blame himself for Liam’s death.
“Bennett won’t trade you the Splice lab for me.”
Murphy pulled the knife out of Liam’s face, using Liam’s shirt to wipe the blade clean over his shoulder. “We got enough money for the buy. You’re just here to sweeten the pot.”
Liam closed his eyes, fingers twitching against the armrests. Becoming part of the purchase price for the Splice lab meant there wouldn’t be a ransom to the British government—no potential call for the UMG to trace, no chance of a rescue. Hell, Liam didn’t even know if they were still in London.
His stomach clenched at the thought that Murphy’s teleporter could have taken him off the island. Trapped inside the warehouse, with no view of the outside, Liam knew he could be anywhere in the world. But the UMG had solid intel on the buy going down somewhere on English soil, and Liam held on to that tiny thread of hope with everything he had.
“You know what?” Liam said, opening his eyes. “Handing me over to Bennett isn’t going to get you what you want.”
“We’ll get the Splice lab,” Murphy said confidently.
