Chapter Three
Aiden came to with a pounding headache, but no other injuries that he could tell. He was seated in an old wooden chair, his wrists zip-tied to the arms. Looking at the arms of the chair, he noted scratches along the ends from the desperate fingernails of former occupants. It was clearly not the first time someone had been tied to it.
Stretching a neck sore from supporting a limp head for so long, Aiden looked around the room. He seemed to be in a basement. Probably the basement of the Merlaut; at least, that would have made the most sense. The room was dark with most of the light centered on Aiden, leaving the edges of the room in deep shadow.
Seeing that Aiden had awoken, a man stepped out of the darkness. It was the man in charge from upstairs. A crew of three men followed suit, spanning out around Aiden. The leader ambled toward Aiden, a smug expression on his face.
"Looks like Sleeping Beauty has finally woken up. But there ain't gonna be no happy ending for you." He stopped a few feet in front of Aiden. "See, here's the thing. I would happily pop a few rounds in your ass and call it a day. But Lucky's got other plans. He sees the big picture. He doesn't want your little buddies stirring up trouble. Even if we took you out, they're bound to cost Lucky more money, and Lucky don't like that idea. So I'm gonna ask you real nice where they are and you're going to tell me. Cause if you don't, my friends here are gonna ask the same question and they tend to be a little hot-tempered."
"Go to hell," responded Aiden with a confident smirk. He was goading the man. He needed him to come closer because they had made a fatal mistake—they hadn't bound Aiden's feet. And he was going to make them pay for their imprudence. He didn't know how he was going to get out of his current predicament, but he wasn't going to go down without a fight.
Obligingly, the man stepped closer, placing his face inches from Aiden's. His tone grew serious. "I'm going to let that little comment slide because I'm in somewhat of a hurry. Now, tell me whe—"
Not waiting for the man to finish, Aiden kicked him square in the groin, causing the man to double over. Aiden then stood, having to stay somewhat crouched because of the chair still strapped to him. He spun swiftly, turning a neat circle to smash the leg of the chair into the man's pained face. A tooth clattered against the far wall and blood splattered across the floor.
Aiden heard his yelp, but had already moved on to his next target. Extending his spin, Aiden slammed the second man against the wall with the legs of the chair. When the man fell, Aiden sat the chair down on top of him, pinning him to the ground as a third guard charged at him from the front. Aiden kicked him with both legs, causing the man to stumble backwards. He rose to his feet to go after the man.
Had Aiden been able to break free from the chair, he could have easily taken everyone down without breaking a sweat. So encumbered, he stumbled as he charged his next opponent. Agile as he was, he was able to salvage the fall and turn it into a tackle, but that ended up being his undoing. He fell face-down on top of the man and couldn't right himself before the rest of the gang was on him.
They flipped him over onto his back and pummeled him ceaselessly. Aiden managed only to land a few kicks until a lucky hit to his temple sent him into unconsciousness once more.
He awoke for a second time, but this time bloodied and bruised. It reminded Aiden of the first time he met Raymond Kenney. They had drunk themselves into a stupor then crashed through a window and commenced a bare-knuckled brawl. Aiden had roused the next morning with a massive hangover and generally worse for wear. But Aiden was unlikely to make allies of his current company like he had then.
While Aiden was unconscious, the Club members had taken the liberty to switch out the wooden chair for a metal one to which both Aiden's arms and legs were strapped. For extra measure, the chair had been bolted to the ground. Aiden couldn't fault them for not learning from their mistakes, much to his chagrin. Contrary to his initial intentions, he was now rightly and truly screwed.
As Aiden straightened in his chair, the twinge in his side betrayed a few broken ribs. With a groan, he looked up to see the leader of the gang, livid. His face was just as bloodied and swollen as Aiden's. When their eyes met, the man let loose a snarl and stalked toward Aiden.
"You're gonna pay for that, mother fucker." His words were slightly skewed by his fat lip, but no less threatening because of it. He strode right up to Aiden and landed a kick on the inside of his knee.
The damage might not have been so devastating if Aiden's ankle weren't tied to the chair. As it was, his ankle caught on the zip-tie and his upper leg stopped against the arm of the chair, forcing his knee outward, unnaturally moving free of its usual connections.
Aiden howled in a torrent of pain as he felt tendons and ligaments stretch to their limits. It was amazing his knee didn't dislocate, but Aiden was sure there had to have been a few tears at the least.
The man stepped back a pace, grinning at the pain he had wrought. Aiden's leg hung lifeless at an awkward angle and he hissed heaving grunts through his clenched teeth as the agony slowly abated.
"Now, where are they?!" the man shouted angrily.
Aiden had to take a moment to steady himself. The pain in his knee was still agonizing, but he shot through panted breaths, "Fuck you."
"There's no way out of here except to tell me where they are. And don't count on your little friends coming to save you either. We took the battery out of your phone so there's no tracking you. They have no idea where you are," he smiled.
Aiden furrowed his brow in confusion at the last statement. He had firmly believed he was still in the Merlaut. Not that he expected T-Bone to come save him, but the thought still threw him off balance. Was the man bluffing? Aiden couldn't tell. And he was usually good at reading people. He couldn't let it get to him.
When Aiden offered no response, the man motioned to his cronies. One carried a car battery forward and placed it on a table next to Aiden. Two cables hung down from its connections. Aiden didn't need to be told what they were for. He had lived a long time in the seedy underworld of Chicago and seen many things he would have gladly forgotten. He'd even performed some of those unspeakable acts.
None of it made what was coming any easier. Aiden steeled himself for the inevitable.
He watched helplessly as they tore open his jacket and cut through his shirt. One man came in front of Aiden holding the wires in his hands. With a toothy grin, he experimentally touched the ends of the wires together, sending a shower of sparks flying accompanied by the static-filled hiss of electricity. Then he turned to Aiden.
As soon as the live wire touched Aiden's bare chest, his jaw clenched in protest, mirroring every other muscle in his body. Adding to the misery were Aiden's broken ribs which were violently wrenched by his spasming muscles. His knee betrayed him as well, jerking and twisting with his leg. Eventually, Aiden's scream overpowered his clenched teeth, forcing them open. The resulting sound echoed through the chamber.
When the man finally let off, Aiden was panting heavily and his fingers retained a slight twitch. It was the most pain he had ever been in, by far. And there was no end in sight. One thing he would never do was betray his friends though. It was a line he simply couldn't cross, no matter what. They had risked their necks for him just by helping him. It would be a poor repayment to sell them out. He would endure whatever came—for their sakes.
There was little pause before the gripping pain racked his body once more. And in that manner, the torture continued. In between each shock, they would ask where his partners were. At first, he continued spitting insults and denials at them. It wasn't long, however, before a faint "No" was all he could muster.
The world faded in and out of focus. His captors were too enraged to realize how close to death he truly was. Ironically, it was the man that had sent him there that saved his life.
Through a dense fog, Aiden heard Lucky Quinn enter the room and start arguing with the man in charge. He could only catch snippets of the conversation.
"…no use to us dead. I told you I wanted this whole matter tied up in a neat little bow. But apparently that was too much for your thick skull to comprehend."
Aiden's concentration was waning despite his effort. The conversation started to make less and less sense as his attentiveness failed him.
"I don't care what he did…need to control yourselves…don't forget you are very easily replaced."
Aiden held on as long as he could, straining to hear what they were saying. He only managed to catch four words before darkness took him:
"Use him as bait."