The Wrath Walker (The Wrath Series Book 1) by Matthew Newson (moboreader txt) 📕

Memories of what happened earlier came to me as a door opened, and I heard footsteps of people as they walked down the stairs I could barely see in the left corner of the room. I pulled harder against my restraints, but all I did was cause them to dig into my skin until I felt the warm and sticky feeling of blood. Skeeter and Enzo stepped out of the darkness as I continued to fight against my bonds. Skeeter unbuttoned his jacket and sat down in the chair across from me and looked at me like a parent does when they’re disappointed in their child.

“Would you look at this, Enzo? Sleeping beauty is finally awake. You know, we were wondering if we were going to have to wake you up ourselves, so we could continue the lovely conversation we were having at your crummy apartment.” Skeeter moved around and got comfortable in the chair.

“It’s about time I’d say,” Enzo said with a look of pure joy on his face. That came from his anticipation of my torture and death at his hands.

“Where am I?” I asked as the light caused me to squint and look away from Skeeter until the throbbing in my head stopped.

“You don’t need to worry about that.” Enzo snapped back at me.

“Now Enzo, I don’t see why we can’t share that and other pieces of information with our friend here seeing he’s not leaving this place alive. I mean, who’s he going to tell? Even if he got out of here somehow, it’s not like he has any friends left to share our secrets with.”

Skeeter and Enzo shared a sadistic chuckle.

“You’re in the basement of the Black Castle, you piece of trash. This is where I conduct a lot of rather unfortunate business dealings for others,” Skeeter said and laughed.

I had been so optimistic that I had found the way to save my life from Wrath. I’d sensed a renewed lease on life. But as I sat there, I knew I was destined to die. As I began to accept what seemed like my inevitable fate, I considered there still might be a way out of it. Surely those two men were the others on Wrath’s kill list before me. If I kept Skeeter talking long enough, maybe it could buy me some time for Wrath to make an appearance and do what he did best.

“I know you think I killed Ron, Joey, and Frankie, but I had nothing to do with their deaths. I didn’t even raise a hand to them.”

“I know you didn’t, Brandon,” Skeeter said sympathetically.

“You do?”

“That’s right, I do. It was some wacko in a red suit, and let me say, I believe your story.”

“You do?” I discretely pulled against the zip-ties to see if my blood had made it so I could slip out of them, but it was no use. My wrists were firmly secured, and my movements only made them tighter.

“Of course, I do. I believe that story you keep telling just as much as I believe in Santa Claus, you freakin’ jerk.” Skeeter slapped me hard across the face to ensure that his ring dug in and tore my skin. The pain was sharp and caused my cheek bone to feel like it was on fire. Skeeter sat back in his chair and moved around until he got comfortable again. I was just thankful that his ring hadn’t broken a bone. Yet.

“You know I knew your father, right?”

“That’s funny, he never mentioned that one to me.”

“Well, I did, and he was the most honest man I have ever known, and I can tell you this,” Skeeter said as he leaned in close to me with his finger pointed in my face. “He would be ashamed of the lying, murdering, piece of scum you turned out to be.”

“Yeah, you’re one to talk, and you didn’t know my father.” Rage laced each word as I furiously pulled toward him at the mere mention of my father.

“Keep your voice down, will you? I’m sitting right here. There’s no need for yelling, so save your strength. Also, this place is soundproofed, and no one is here right now anyway, so there’s no one to hear your cries for help. No one is coming to save you, Brandon. But I did know your old man. We grew up together. We were friends in fact.”

“You’re lying.”

“I’m afraid not, my soon-to-be-dead friend. We were actually coming up together in the business that I now run. We did the petty stuff. All the grunt work the upper guys never touched after they got made, and let me tell you, your dad was a piece of work. The way he could take apart a guy in a fight with his bare hands was a thing of beauty. I learned a lot from him that I still use to this day. Things I’m going to use on you here in a few minutes in fact. I looked up to him in so many ways. Your father was a legend, a god among men if you will. He was the one everyone knew would be running things around here one day.”

“That’s not true. You just said my father was the most honest man you ever met, which he was. He wasn’t a degenerate mobster like you.”

“Oh! Easy with the name calling, and no, he was better than me, and that is why I said he was the most honest man I ever met. He was honest in his desire to take over everything, while many of us were too scared to say anything when we were coming up in the ranks for fear of being whacked or taxed at the very least by the guys above us back then. But not your old man. I swear he could stare down a bull, and it would back down from him.”

“I mean it, stop talking about my father!” I yelled through clenched teeth.

“What’s the matter