Page 72 of The Big Fix

“Yes, but we’re running out of time. Your cavalry…how sure are you they’re coming?”

“I’m betting our lives on it.”

“I’m just so scared that between the fever and the infection—”

He was interrupted by the click of the door lock. My adrenaline kicked in as it opened and Fang entered, two men flanking him, both carrying guns. Fang held a strip of heavy-gauge industrial hose, a couple of feet long. In the hands of a sadist like Fang, it was a cruelty tool.

“It’s time we resume our game, Colonel.”

“Leave him alone,” Owen said, standing up and taking a step toward the men.

Reaching out, I took hold of his wrist. “Don’t provoke them. It will only make things worse for you.”

Fang had been nothing but brutal and cruel. Perhaps in other areas of his life he was different, not so callous and unfeeling, but I was betting not. He was likely the kind of guy who drowned kittens and kicked puppies, just an absolute waste of a human being. I couldn’t imagine how many atrocities he’d committed. I didn’t want him, even for a second, to have Owen in his sights ever again.

“No tricks left?” Fang said, crossing the room to me, only a foot away, the two guards trailing behind him.

I stared into his smug face and thought of a way to keep his focus on me and off Owen. “Only one,” I answered.

Rising fast, lashing out with a quick forward jerk of my head, I slammed the hard bone of my skull into the center of Fang’s face. I followed it up with a savage right hook to the jaw, and the second to his nose. Both blows landed hard, but the second caused the crunch I knew well. Fang was stunned for a moment, his nose bleeding profusely.

But that was all I had, my adrenaline gone in seconds, my strength sapped. I was grabbed roughly, and one of the guards put me in an arm lock and marched me out of the room. I heard Owen pleading behind me, and then the door closed loudly. My legs gave out as they dragged me down the corridor.

“Stand him up,” Fang snarled, and once I was, he lashed the hose across my chest.

“Honest combat is man-to-man, you fucking coward,” I choked out.

Fang flicked the hose back again, then beat at my bruised ribs. I couldn’t contain my howl of pain when he smashed already bruised skin, or again when Fang punched me in my overly tenderized face. My spirit was willing, but my flesh was done. When he hit me again with the hose, I could feel my brain spinning, taking me to the brink of blacking out. Once more and I succumbed to the darkness.

THIRTEEN

When I came to, I opened my eyes to find that my vision had darkened at the edges. I had nearly zero peripheral sight. All the blows to my head were taking their toll.

I tried to move but couldn’t, and my heart started pounding in fear. I was terrified I might be paralyzed. Quickly, I took in my surroundings and realized I was in a sitting position, strapped to a five-foot-long plank with a vertical backrest. Ropes bound my chest, thighs, and legs. My arms were tied behind the backrest.

I tested the ropes that secured my hands, but they’d been tightened nearly to the bone. It was impossible to move a muscle from my chest downward. I cried out as I tried to move—the side of my chest where my ribs were bruised was on fire.

“I would advise against struggling, Colonel.”

At the sound of Suwan’s voice, I tried to suppress the sharp pain in my side. If the man in charge was here, that meant they were done playing.

“It will do you no good,” he continued. “Those knots tighten against tension. You will find the chair unpleasant enough without the strangulation of your limbs.”

My gaze didn’t move from him. I knew what the chair was and what they were going to do to me.

Bricks would be placed underneath my ankles, elevating my lower legs. They would continue adding bricks to cause hypertension in my knees as they unnaturally forced my legs to bend backward until either they snapped, or my bindings did. There was little chance of the latter happening.

“I once saw a man tolerate five bricks before his legs broke,” Suwan informed me. “Most beg for death after three. I wonder what you have in you, Colonel?”

I said nothing, remaining impassive. Glancing around, I saw a man in another corner recording on his phone.

“Ready?”

As if he’d stop if I said I wasn’t.

Suwan gave a nod. The man beside him placed the first brick under my ankles.

A bolt of pain jolted into my knees. That fast, it was terrifying. Brick placed, instantaneous pain.