RYDER (Slater Brothers 4) (28 page)

“If you move, you’ll be sorry.”

I didn’t reply to Big Phil when he spoke to me because I was simply too weak to. I hurt all over, and felt like never moving again. I heard more talking and shouting coming from both parties on the phone, but I couldn’t pay attention any longer and I allowed myself to fall into sweet, sweet darkness.

“Wake up.”

Those two words were the first thing I heard, the second was my own heartbeat, and the third was my scream as it tore from my throat.
Pain
. So much fucking pain. It filled me from head to toe and it was constant.

I opened my eyes and whimpered when I realised I was still trapped in Hell.

“Please,” I pleaded to no one. “Please, help me.”

My voice sounded scratchy, and felt like it needed a big glass of water to soothe away the ache in my throat.

“They’re in the building,” Big Phil mumbled, making his presence known. “I just buzzed them in.”

I had no idea who he was talking to; I looked at him and found him gazing out of the window with a gun in one hand, and a glass of brown liquid in the other. My eyes lingered on the gun for a few moments, and I prayed to God that he wouldn’t use it.

“Wha-what are you sayin’?” I asked as I lifted my right arm and used my hand to press against my left wounded shoulder in an attempt to stop the pulsing sting.

“The Slaters,” Big Phil replied. “I just buzzed them into the building, they’ll be here soon. I unlocked the front door for them.”

What?

“Why?” I asked, trying to control my sobs. “Why did they come?”

“For you,” he replied and took a sip from his glass. “I told you they would.”

“You can’t hurt them, please, just—”

“Be. Quiet.” He growled. “This isn’t about you anymore. You can leave if you want to, you have served your purpose.”

I made an attempt to sit up, but hot pain filled my leg keeping me from doing so. When I jerked in response to the pain, I fell to the side, off the sofa, and hit the floor with a sickening smack.

“Branna?”

Kane.

“No!” I cried. “Get away!

I heard quick paced footsteps, then a loud bang as the door to the sitting room was swung open and cracked against the wall.

“Oh, my God,” I heard Kane rasp.

I tried to turn over to see him, but I couldn’t. I was so weak, and hurting so much that even breathing was a struggle.

“Kane,” I groaned. “Get out.”

While you still can.

“What the
fuck
have you done to her?” he asked, his voice gruff.

“It looks worse than it is,” Big Phil responded as he turned around. “She brought most of it on herself if I’m being honest.”

“Kane,” I rasped as I forced myself to roll onto my back. “Run, he has a gun!”

I reached up with my good arm, gripped onto the arm of the sofa and pulled myself into a sitting position. I blinked when I saw Kane standing mere metres away from me. He was dressed… odd. It looked like he had on hospital scrubs, and booties people wore over there shoes when then didn’t want to get dirt or stain on a floor.

“He doesn’t want to shoot me,” Kane replied to me, but kept his eyes on Big Phil. “He wants me to suffer like I made his piece of shit kid suffer. A bullet will be too quick.”

Fear gripped me when Big Phil dropped his glass to the ground and didn’t flinch when it smashed to pieces. I screamed when he lifted his hand that contained the gun and pointed it directly at Kane’s head.

“Where are the rest of your brothers’?” Big Phil asked, sounding eerily calm.

“At home… it took a lot of convincing, especially with my oldest brother who wants to tear you limb from limb for hurting his woman… but they know ending your miserable life is my task. Mine
alone
. I’ll make you pay for everything.”

Big Phil sneered. “The student has come to take out the master, huh?”

“Something like that,” Kane growled through gritted teeth.

Big Phil gestured to Kane’s cover-ups with the gun he still had trained on him.

“You want no trace of you ever being here, do you?” he humourlessly sniggered. “If you manage to kill me, you won’t need to have gone to such extremes. This apartment may look nice because I did it up, but the rest of the place is a dive. No cameras, no security, and no paper trails. The son of a bitch who owns this place made the rooms sound proof too, he runs a brothel on the first five floors, and I’m pretty sure he runs a drug cocktail lab on the sixth.”

“Is that why you picked here?” I asked, my voice sounding like sandpaper. “Killin’ us, and then yourself, won’t draw attention… not until your rent is due at least.”

Big Phil sniggered, and I took his merriment as a big whopping yes.

“You’re going to off yourself?” Kane probed Big Phil. “Really?”

“What’s left for me once you’re dead?” he grilled.

Kane didn’t acknowledge the question, instead he asked, “Do you really want to shoot me, or do you just want me to hurt? All those times you hit me and stabbed me with needles to punish me, and now you switch to bullets? Have you lost your creativity? Does burying a hell-bound child do that to you?”

I wanted to tell Kane to stop, because with each verbal jab, Big Phil’s face was getting redder and redder.

“This is for Johnny.” Big Phil suddenly exclaimed then surprised me by
dropping
the gun to the floor. “This is for everything you have put me through.”

“
You’re
my last job, you son of a bitch!” Kane spat before he ran at Big Phil, and speared him to the ground.

The sickening sound of fists connecting with flesh would forever be seared into my brain. It was relentless, and I wanted it to end as quickly as it begun.

I could do nothing but watch Kane and Big Phil roll around on the floor, but I was delighted to see that Kane had the upper hand. He was landing all the hits… it almost looked like Big Phil wasn’t even trying to fight him back. I knew how much of a snake he could be though, so I used my good leg to push myself up into a standing position, and I hobbled over to where he dropped the handgun.

The pain I felt surged me on, and when I picked up the gun, I allowed my adrenaline to take over.

“Kane, move!” I ordered.

He turned his head so he could look at me, and his eyes widened almost instantly.

“Branna, no!” he shouted and hit Big Phil once more across the face so he could break free and jump to his feet.

With Kane out of the way I had a clear view of Big Phil and was shaking as I pointed the gun at him. I squinted my eyes to make sure my aim was precise.

“Branna,
no
!” Kane said again, but this time his voice was different, like he was pleading
without
having to beg.

My arms were trembling as I kept the gun aimed at Big Phil, my body was weakened and exhausted from the torture he had put me through. The gun was heavier than it looked and it caused my arms to ache from holding it up in the air for just a few short moments.

“Branna, this is not your call, okay? Look at me,” Kane said, his voice firm but soothing at the same time. I flicked my eyes to his. He slowly came to my side, and carefully lifted his hand to mine, but I quickly stepped away when his intentions became clear. He wanted the gun.

“He isn’t worth it, Bran.”

Kane was right… Big Phil
wasn’t
worth it, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have to die.

“Look what he has done to you.” I snivelled. “To our family!”

“We’re
still
a family,” Kane assured me. “And he has no hold over me anymore. He has nothing. He
is
nothing.”

I began to lower the gun, until finally it hung in my hand by my side.

“Good girl,” Kane breathed in relief, his shoulders sagging. “It’s all going to be—”

“Kane!” I screamed when Big Phil pushed himself from the floor, and charged at Kane. Every thing felt like it happened in slow motion. Big Phil grabbed the knife he used to hurt me from the table he rushed past, and sprinted at Kane with the knife-wielding arm raised.

Kane swung around, and grabbed hold of Big Phil’s arm as he began to bring it down in his direction. They both struggled for the knife, and I saw the muscles and veins in Kane’s are bulge as he used all his might to keep Big Phil’s arm at bay. My arm was raised once more and the gun was pointed straight ahead, but I didn’t pull the trigger because I didn’t have a clear shot. I couldn’t risk hitting Kane.

I tensed when the pair of them hit the floor, for a moment there was grunts, and fumbled movements, then the next there was a sharp intake of breath, and everything went still. Kane was on top of Big Phil, but neither of them were moving.

I heard my heartbeat in my ear as I approached them.

“Kane,” I whispered.

Silence.

Oh, please, no.

“Kane,” I said a little louder.

I heard a wheeze then and rasp of, “I’m okay.”

Relief smacked into me like a tidal wave.

I watched as Kane rolled of Big Phil and groggily pushed himself to his feet. He stumbled for a second then steadied himself. He looked down at a still unmoving Big Phil then he turned and walked towards me. Before he could reach me, I dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes when I saw the scene before me.

The blade that was used to stab my thigh and shoulder… it was lodged in the centre of Big Phil’s chest.

“Oh, my God,” I breathed.

“Branna, slow your breathing—”

“Is he dead?” I cut Kane off, my chest tight with fear. “Is he fuckin’
dead
?”

“Yeah,” he replied, calmly. “He took his last breath, and I saw the life leave his eyes. I saw the moment he realised I was going to be the last thing he saw before he died, so I smiled.”

Christ.

“Oh, my God,” I rasped. “He is dead. Oh, we’re goin’ to prison. We’re seriously goin’—”

“We’re aren’t going anywhere if you do
exactly
what I say.”

What?

“Kane?” I whispered. “I’m scared.”

He dropped to his knees next to me, and his eyes scanned over my body and grew dark when they landed on my stab wounds, spilled blood and other injuries. He carefully reached out and slipped an arm under my legs, and the other under my back.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.

Sorry?

“For wha—” I cut myself of with a moan of pain when he lifted me up into the air, and the movement caused my wounded limbs to burn in protest. He quickly moved me back to the sofa and gently lay me down.

“You have to call the cops,” he quickly said. “I’m going to leave down the back entrance when you do. There are no cameras in this building, but to make sure I’m not picked up on surrounding business’ cameras, I’ll use the back exit. You have to call them and say you’ve been kidnapped.”

I didn’t have time to argue with him even if I wanted to because he thrust the phone Big Phil used to call Kane into my face, so I grabbed it and dialled 999 before I lost my nerve. Almost instantly someone replied.

“999, what is your emergency?”

“Please help me,” I cried which was very easy to do considering everything that had happened to me. “A man has kidnapped me, I think I’m dyin’. He stabbed me twice and beat me.”

“Ma’am, slow down. This man, is he still close by?”

“Yes!” I wailed and then quickly thought of a lie. “He’s in the buildin’, he left his phone here by mistake and I grabbed it. He said he would be right back though. Please send someone.
Please
.”

“Stay on the line with me, ma’am. Where are you? Do you see anything that can give us a clue to your location?”

“Me location?” I repeated and looked at Kane with wild eyes.

He held up a matchbox that had the name of the building, but to play it dumb I said, “I’m in the new apartments across from The Plaza Hotel, I can see the buildin’!”

“Top floor,” Kane whispered.

“I think I’m on the top floor, it’s really high up!”

“Okay, ma’am we have a unit dispatched to your location. Stay on the line with me okay? What is your name?”

“Branna Murphy,” I replied. “Please, hurry. Please—”

I was cut off when Kane grabbed the phone from my hand and threw it on the floor, smashing it.

“Why?” I asked staring at the now useless device.

“You gave them your location, and a unit is on the way. They’ll get here soon.”

I nodded.

“You’re goin’ to be okay,” Kane said firmly. “I promise.”

I hoped he was right.

He stood up and said, “I have to go.”

Fear gripped me.

“Don’t leave me, Kane.” I begged and reached for him with my good arm. “Please.”

A look of anguish passed over his face.

“The cops are coming, they’ll arrest me if they catch me here.”

I still didn’t want him to leave me.

“Branna, they will call an ambulance right away. I promise.”

I tried to move, but my body was drained, and I only managed a slight twitch.

“He is dead, he can’t hurt you. I stabbed him in the chest, and I think it went straight through his heart. If the cops ask, say he came back and fought you for the phone and you were able to grab the blade and stab him when he came at you. Okay?”

I sucked in a breath.

“Okay,” I rasped. “I’ll say I killed ‘im.”

“It will be self-defence.” He said then jumped to his feet. “I’m using the back stairs and exit, don’t mention anything about me being here, can you do that?”

I nodded, and Kane looked like he had to force himself to walk away from me.

“I’ll show up at the hospital with everyone else as soon as they call your sister. I promise.”

He was gone then, and once more I was alone with Big Phil. The only thing that comforted me was this time, the piece of scum wasn’t breathing. I sat up and stared at his body, mainly at his chest, just to make sure he was faking it. I wanted to make sure he was
really
dead. I didn’t have to think twice about whether he was really gone or not when I saw the fast growing pool of blood gather around him. It was impossible to tell what colour his shirt originally was because it was soaked with dark red blood.

When I couldn’t sit up any longer, I lay back on the sofa for so long that I felt myself begin to relax to the point where I could go asleep if I wanted to, the adrenaline I was feeling earlier now completely gone. I closed my eyes and when I opened them next it was because I heard a loud bang then an awful crunching sound.