RED REAPER - Soldiers Of Fortune [book one]

Chapter FIFTY SIX

Lucky O'Cléirigh

...two days later...

The cold seeps into my bones, so severe that my extremities have long gone numb and I fear that pieces of me might soon begin to fall off from frostbite.. My hands are stiff and frozen and my knuckles ache, while my ears and nose have both become extremely painful to the touch.. There's no telling how long I have been here, slowly freezing to death in the dark, but the long creeping hours seem to drag out second by second and feel as if they stretch on forever.. My throat is dry and parched, my stomach aches from hunger and all I can do to pass the time is whisper the Lord's prayer on repeat as a desperate plea that I am afraid only falls upon deaf ears.. "Good lord, you are my eternal salvation.. When I am lost in sin, you liberate me.. You lift me from perdition.. Please god, save my feeble soul.. I am eternally indebted to you, for you bought my freedom with blood and now my spirit can never be confined.. I will always seek you out my Lord, you are my deliverer.. Please, save me from The Devil.."

Maybe Kirby had been right to doubt the existence of a divine entity.. After all, if there is a God, why did he forsake me like this? I just can't understand what I did to warrant being treated with such malicious intent.. I don't believe any loving and mighty all-father would leave me to suffer through this slow torture for no reason..

Maybe I really do deserve it?..

"You have a deal, Donovan.. I strongly suggest you honour the termz.. My employer iz not known for hiz forgivenezz.." When my icy ears pick up the sound of an angrily murmured debate occuring on the other side of the container door, I sit up on the hard steel floor and strain my hearing to listen to the conversation..

"I don'ee give a fuck about yeh' deal, and The Devil didn'ee make no mention of another middle man taking a cut.." When the second man speaks, his familiar Cork accent sends shivers down my spine, very obviously that voice belongs to Brody.. "If yeh' want her the price is double, otherwise she goes to Carrera and the Cartel.."

My stomach drops and the slow thud of my heart begins to accelerate.. Brody has returned.. And he has brought somebody to buy me..

No, no, no.. When will this nightmare end?
I am so tired and weak that I can't fight whatever is going to walk through those doors and I am so broken that the defeat has worn away whatever courage had remained in me..

I'm so damn scared and I'm not sure how to feel about Brody coming back.. One the one hand I am terrified to leave this container, but at the same time, I am even more afraid of what will happen to me if I stay..

"I'm 'ze one he sent to collect her, if you have problem, my friend, call The Devil, azk for yourself.." A thick Russian accent rumbles in reply in a rough tone.. "You knoe I am good for 'ze money.. My employer will spare no expense to posess thiz treasure.."

I swallow the lump in my throat, sitting frozen, locked in an anticipating suspense there in the pitch black, trembling with tremors of terror..

"Oh I'mma call him alrite'- She's in 'ere for yeh' verification.." Brody snarls and the scrape of the lock grinds.. I lift my hand to shield my eyes as blinding late afternoon daylight puddles in through the open door.. Blinking furiously, my pupils slowly adjust to the brightness while three shadowy figures slip inside and the thudding sound of boots stepping onto the container have me scrambling backwards to press against the frosty far wall..

When I lift my gaze to see the man who would buy me, my mouth falls open with a shocked, breathy wheeze.. "S-S-Stori?"

The beautiful green-eyed Russian banker lifts an index finger to cross his lips, signalling me not to speak before he turns around to address Brody and another, taller man in a yellow bandana who both loom in the container door behind him.. "Did you think I will pay for a frozen corpse, Donovan? Thiz girl iz half dead! Even Carrera would not want her!"