They ran as fast as silence would allow. The painkillers Lily had given Euan to dull the ache in his feet had worn off and he bore the sting willingly with every single footfall. They simply followed the screams into the innards of the building with nothing to guide them but their wits.
The plasterboard was pitted and scarred under their palms. The signs that articulated what once went on here were now useless bumps. Each marking was like brail as they followed the internal maze deeper and deeper into the blackness. His breathing was ragged, his limbs trembled, chills associated the heartbeat that rocked his ribcage. The cries for mercy became louder. They rattled around in his skull. Euan could process nothing except the distance between him and his Nick. He was close. He could feel it. He was so fucking close.
Then in the darkness, there was a light.
His eye snagged on the slither of gold under a closed doorway. Rational thought was lost to the void inside him. His primal instincts surged. When another cry was torn from the body that Euan owned through love, he lost what was left of his levelheadedness, of his humanity. He moved to charge—
An arm as thick as a tree trunk snaked its way across his chest. When the other matched it and held, Euan couldn’t move without taking the other man with him. He hissed when Knight tightened his hold.
‘Easy,’ the word was in his ear.
Glad for Knight’s support, Euan nodded and the man loosened his grip. They both flinched when a moan echoed off the walls.
‘Let me go in first.’
Euan’s reply was vehement. ‘They’ll kill you.’
Knight moved until he stood in front of him. He was a silhouette against the slither of light behind him. When his mangled lips twisted into a sinister sneer, his white teeth glinted. ‘I’d take the chance to kill him as readily as you would. But I’m sorry for what is to come next.’
Too caught up in what lay behind that door, Euan focused on the first half of the statement, he understood that. Knight and those he loved, had also been damaged, killed by Parker and his minions. ‘I say we charge.’
Knight’s grin widened even as his eyes lost their light. ‘To our deaths?’
Euan shrugged. ‘Why not?’
His good shoulder took the impact. Euan exploded into the light with his gun raised high and his eye ablaze.
When the dust cleared, it was obvious they had been expected. They were surrounded by men that wore the same clothing as Euan. There were seven in total, they were armed. Sneers of triumph cut across their faces. As Euan stepped forward, gun raised high, they parted.
It was then that Euan saw him.
Christ Almighty, no.
Euan had thought that finding Nicky hogtied on a rotting wooden floor would be the worst vision he would ever encounter. But nothing eclipsed the nightmare that was before him now.
This time, the wail of anguish that echoed down the dark hallways came from his scarred lips.
In a room that had once held meetings, Nick’s body was pulled taut on a makeshift tripod made out of pine and plastic. His hands and feet were secured to a crossbar that supported his weight. He was naked, gagged. Gashes, grazes and purple bruises marked his ankles and wrists. Bloody lacerations disfigured the skin at his hips and knees, elbows and knuckles. But it was nothing to the whip-wheels that opened the flesh at his bound legs, that curved up and around his ribcage, over his shoulders, that had eviscerated the muscle and skin from his back.
They had flogged Nick with a bullwhip, just to see how much he would bleed.
And scream.
The ringing in Euan’s ears was the only sound to signify he was human. His muscles had turned to stone. He was shocked into a stupor that ruined any advantage he had gained in surprise. There was so much blood, there was so much pain. The walls were splattered with stripes of red and brown. They had been at this for hours.
He took a step towards the man that carried his soul. Green eyes were glazed. He was unable to distinguish foe from friend through the men dressed in black. He didn’t recognise Euan until it was too late.
The click of a primer at his temple had Euan pause. There was a cold kiss where steel met skin.
‘Lower the gun.’
The sound of Knight’s voice almost killed him, the shock to his heart worse than any taser. His muscles seized purely on memory, instinct. There was a war that raged inside him. The two sides vied for victory. To save Nick, to kill Parker. But neither would see success, a usurper had overthrown the hierarchy and Euan was left with nothing. Betrayal tasted so terrible when it was fresh.
He licked his lips but couldn’t tear his gaze away from the man that was strapped naked to a pole to be flogged. His head lolled, sagged on a listless neck. His blond hair was caked in blood. Crimson seeped from the wounds of his body to dribble down his bare legs and puddle onto the floor. His features could hardly be distinguished through the dried blood and the swelling.
His Nick, his beautiful, beloved Nicky …
He lowered his gun as he turned. His voice was the epitome of anguish when he asked, ‘Why?’
From the shadows, a man emerged. Tall, blond, graceful. Lips stretched into a grin that would stop hearts. White teeth flashed in the fluorescent lighting, a dimple indented into a cheek. In his hand, he carried the whip.
Parker West.
Euan fought every instinct he had not to throw himself at him in a blaze of murder-suicide.
