Five hours. Five hours since Rosie and I sat down in the basement and Jaime took Dreads into that backroom and I've never been more thankful for soundproofed rooms. Jamie's periodically come in and out of that room to get more..devices and every time he opened that door we heard Dreads moaning and crying.
You'd think he'd just give in and tell Jaime what he needs to know.
Finally he comes out of the room, drenched in sweat, blood and some other fluids, looking exhausted and says "Alright, both of you head up stairs and go to sleep. I'll handle everything down here. Cameras are back up and I can see everything going on in and outside the house, you're safe loves." He comes closer and kisses Rosie on the forehead and kisses my lips
I look up at him and say "Rosie's already asleep pretty much. I'm putting her in bed and coming back down, we need to talk."
*****
"Mami, is Dad okay?" Rosie asks sleepily, tucked into her bed.
"Si mija, todo esta bien. He just needed to handle some things. Bad people wanted to hurt us, but Jaime won't let them. Okay?"
"Okay."
I kiss her forehead and tuck her in tight and turn on the nightlight
"Mami, did those guys wanna hurt us because we're bad?"
"No baby, they're bad. Not us. I love you, que duermas bien."
*******
I open the door to the basement and see quite the scene
"Jesus Christ, James.." I mumble
Jaime had dragged out Dreads, still tied to the chair, on his back and presumably dead.
"Sorry, love. I know it's not a nice visual but I've got to get him out of the room and the house in general as soon as I can. I've got people coming to pick him up." He explains
"Is he, uh, dead?"
"Well if he's not, he will be soon."
He says, lightly kicking him on the shin.
Dreads looks like he was strapped to the back of a truck and dragged over chunky gravel. The underside of the chair has a hole in it and his pants are around his ankles.
Don't wanna know what that's about...
"Who's coming to get him?"
"Just my boys. They're the only people I call when I need someone to take care of things like this."
I walk over to the room and open the slightly ajar door to see what's inside and how much I'll have to clean
I gasp and say "Holy shit."
The entire floor is covered in blood, shit, vomit and who knows what else.
"Yeah, it's a lot-" Jaime starts
"A lot? How does this much come out of a single person? How is it humanly possible?" I ask, gagging.
"I know, I know. Don't worry about it, alright love? I'll get someone else to come clean it up."
"Who? The guys you're calling here are probably gonna have their hands full with the body already and it's not like you can call a cleaning service and get this taken care of."
"Ehh..I suppose they could probably do something quick."
"Something quick isn't good enough. There's every bodily fluid I can think of just on that floor, that shit needs to be taken care of now and really well."
"Urgh, you want to take care of it then? Cuz I don't want you to. It's disgusting in there, I can get someone else to handle it. I promise Lucy, now go to sleep. I'll be up there as soon as this one is out of the area." He said, kicking Dreads again.
"Are you kidding? I'm not leaving you alone down here. God fucking knows what could happen."
"Darling these are my mates, I've known them for years. Nothing will happen, please get some rest." He assures me while lifting Dreads up and dragging him to the door.
"I don't know, I have a really weird feeling in the pit of my stomach."
We hear the door opening and my stomach clenches tight. Three men walk in;
One brutish looking, dark haired one, with a beard, a man bun and about 6'1. The next a scrawny guy, with a shaved head and no shirt under his leather jacket. He's covered in what look like prison tattoos. The last one is a tall black guy, around 6'7, and I'm lowballing. He had cornrows and shoulder length braids, he was dressed in a plain white t and basket ball shorts.
"J?" The black guy asks
"In here." He calls from the basement where we were
"You left the door unlocked?!" I say
"Love, what could be outside isn't any worse than what they'd find in here." He says and smirks at me
They come down here and Jaime introduces us
"Well, I never really expected to have to introduce you lot to her but this is my girlfriend Lucy. Lucy is this Anders," he says pointing to the scrawny guy "this is Butcher" to ManBun "and this is Frankie."
I shook all of their hands but Butcher held on for a little longer and said "Well I can certainly see why you've kept this one all snug. I can't remember seeing someone who looks like this who wunt in some prissy magazine or some shit."
I giggle nervously and he let go after an uncomfortable two seconds. His cockney accent is thick. Thicker than Jamie's, when he's pissed off.
"This the package?" Frankie asks, thankfully breaking the tension. I never thought I'd wanna focus back on the dying man on our floor.
"Yeah." Jaime answers looking down at Dreads
"Did he have a name?" Anders asked, getting down and pulling the dreads off his face.
"His I.D said" he reached into his pocket and took out a wallet "Christopher Miles Davis. I don't know who the fuck does a job like his and takes their I.D with them. Unless it's a fake." He says, handing it to Anders
He examines it and I feel examined by Butcher. I remember to close my robe more tightly
"If it's a fake, it's a damn good one. Nah, I think this guy's just new. Didn't think to take this on without any way to identify him. And clearly whoever sent him in didn't care enough if he lived or died to warn him or tell him what to do." Anders said
"So this guy's the spare?" Frankie asked
"Probably. I can't imagine they would waste a good man like this. Probably figured this would be a good distraction while they do whatever it is they wanted to do."
"Did 'e tell ya what their plans were?" Butcher asked
"Took a hot minute but yeah. We can get into it after this has been discarded."
"Alright, I'll move the car closer to the door." Frankie says while heading out
"Butcher, help me move him." Butcher and Jaime lift Dreads up in the chair and take him out to the car
I take the opportunity to head to the closet and taking out bleach, a mop, paper towels and anything else you can use to clean the insane mess in the basement.
The smell is like nothing else I've ever experienced. It's bile, smells sour and bitter, with blood so it's salty and iron-y. It's shit and urine, so, it smells shit and urine.
Well, get to it Luce.
YOU ARE READING
No Spare Key
RomanceLucy has made a lot of mistakes, she doesn't regret any of them because they gave her little Rosie. That does not mean however that she would be stupid enough to repeat those mistakes. Without her god-awful ex husband, she's been able to make a go...
