Hey guys, another quick update. I had actually written this with Chapter 14 as one big chapter but i decided to split it up because of the seriousness of this, i wanted it to stand out all it's own. With that being said, i'll warn you, this chapter is graffic and has violence and adult language. you're warned! but shout out to Firerosedreamer67 for the lovely reviews time after time, thanks to all reviews! i'll be sure to add more shoutouts! Enjoy
15: Plastic
"Where is she?"
The voice was low and quiet, saturated and oozing with a lethality that made Carter's guts churn with unease. His eyes were closed and he felt a dull thud of pain pulse through his head with every beat of his heart. Carter reached up and pressed his palm to his temple. He didn't register the sticky tackiness that was coated onto his skin. He didn't smell the coppery tang of it either.
"Wake up, Carter." The voice demanded again.
"Hmmm?" the man mumbled in response.
"Wake up!" there was a sharp slap against his cheek and the man grunted, his head tossed to the side. Now he tasted the blood in his mouth. His eyes flew open and he looked back up. He couldn't see past the bare lightbulb that shone down on him. He was sitting in a cheap folding chair, unrestrained.
"What the Fuck?! Who are you? Who the fuck do you think you are?"
"Where is she!" The voice roared from the darkness. Carter leaned back in his chair. The animalistic growl in the other person's voice scared him. "Don't you dare play with me Carter."
Something registered in Carter's mind.
"Raymond?"
Reddington walked into the light and Carter stared at him, he was wearing dark slacks and a white dress shirt, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. No tie. A cigar was smoking as it was held between his lips.
"What are you doing? What is this?" Carter asked, leaning forward and pressing his palm to his head again. He took it away and looked at the blood that was stained across his hand. "What the hell?"
"Where is she, Carter?" Reddington murmured, his eyes dark and his mouth settled in a hard jagged line. A snarl.
"Who? My head's all fuzzy. What am I-"
"I told you not to play games with me!" Reddington roared again, stepping forward and punching Carter right in the jaw. He felt the satisfying crack of bone and teeth across his knuckles and felt the sting of pain on his hand. He withdrew, his knuckles cut and bleeding from Carter's teeth, but he barely felt it. Rage and adrenaline was coursing through his blood and made everything he saw red. With his good hand, he held on to the stogie and took a long drag, exhaling the smoke slowly.
Carter slumped forward, blood dribbling out of his mouth and onto his shirt. His breathing was ragged and he started gagging, spitting as much of it out as he could. A few teeth glinted white on the ground. Cracking his eyes open, Carter noticed that his chair was sitting on a massive, plastic tarp. The feeling of dread was so heavy it made him retch again.
"Elizabeth Keen, " Red stated, his damaged hand clenched in a fist. "Where did they take her."
"What are you going to do?"
"You are going to tell me where she is and I won't destroy your entire empire, your wife, your mistresses, your family."
"What?"
"You have a nice dog, Carter. German Shepherd, good bloodline, good stature, beautiful dog. Must've cost you a pretty penny. He's on the list too."
"My family? My empire?"
"For fuck's sake, Carter," Reddington exclaimed, reaching into the back of his pants and drawing out a black pistol. He cocked it and aimed it at carter's head.
The man was too terrified to move, even though he was unrestrained.
"Where is Elizabeth Keen!"
"The zip file, it was a trap," Carter quickly explained. His words were thick and slurred and he spit again, trying to clear his mouth. "The first time you brought her to my rooftop party, I recognized her. Knapp had been after her for a while and he worked with the guy she married, Tom Keen. I'd seen her pictures a dozen times before and then you brought her to my place."
Red's gun was steady as the barrel was pointed in between his eyes.
"I told Knapp she was there, and he told me to invite you two back again to my next event. He gave me the flash drive because he knew you were working with the FBI, Tom had told him. The address would be an easy place for his men to ambush the FBI's team and take Keen right there without issue."
Red was quiet. The gun lowered down to his side slowly and he took a few steps back. Carter's head slumped forward in relief, spitting again and trying to breathe. Reddington's head spun and his injured hand throbbed in pain. He had insisted Elizabeth come to those gatherings with him, insisted she dress up and look beautiful, draw attention to herself. His mind shot to the short kiss they had shared only days earlier and suddenly anger bloomed inside of him.
He had told Ressler not to go. Carter had told Knapp everything. Tom knew Red was working with the FBI and had become a snitch. Raymond was now surrounded by people that couldn't keep Elizabeth safe.
And it was time to get rid of one.
"Dembe," he said, motioning towards Carter with his injured hand, ignoring the throbbing.
Carter's eyes were closed so he did not see Reddington's bodyguard come out of the shadows and over to him. However, he did feel the sharp needle stab into his upper shoulder and a fire followed it.
"What the hell was that? Haven't you done enough?" Carter screamed, trying to pull away from Dembe, but he was already finished and retreating back to his seat in the shadows. Carter was frantic and off balance. He toppled off the chair onto the clear plastic beneath him.
"Red, please, stop. I told you what happened."
"Get back on the chair, Carter," Red demanded evenly. He took another puff off of his cigar.
The man got up, but his legs gave out beneath him and he tumbled back to the plastic. He grabbed onto the chair and tried to lift himself, his eyes wide in his bruised face. "What's happening? What did you do?" He couldn't lift himself, his arms were trembling before they too gave out and he dropped back to the ground. He felt the wetness of his bloody spit stain his clothes as he was laying in the plastic.
"I picked up this neat little cocktail from the Stewmaker a little while ago," Red said, musing on how Carter's nice white teeth weren't so nice or white anymore. "It's a paralyzer. It'll keep you alert and conscious…you just won't be able to move from the neck down. It's really a nasty little injection." Another drag on the cigar. This time he really took the time to taste the smoke before releasing it out in a lazy curl. "Dembe, pick him up."
Carter was staring at Reddington with horror and disbelief. He was trying to find the bluff in Red's eyes, but, sure enough, he found that he couldn't move at all. His limbs were frozen.
"You're a monster," Carter whispered, tears starting to form in the grown man's eyes. Scared little tears that dribbled down his blood stained face.
"You used to be a good man, Carter," Red said, sticking his cigar back between his lips and reaching up to unbutton his shirt. He barely acknowledged Carter's words. "I liked you, we'd done business together, but now…the snitch of a terrorist. That girl had done nothing to you, Carter. In fact, she'd let you flirt with her all night. And then you sell her to a real monster, one that will cut her up without second thought. I'm not monster compared to Knapp. But you didn't know that because you're an idiot and you've never been able to know who you work with."
Red's words were spoken around the thick cigar. He took off his shirt as he watched as Dembe picked up the battered man and sat him back in the chair. Dembe came over, quiet and stone-faced, and took the shirt from Raymond, folding it up neatly and taking it away. Red was standing in his undershirt and slacks, seeming much larger and frightening than he actually was. He tapped the ash off his cigar. His pistol was still in his other hand. His knuckles ached as his grip tightened on the gun.
"He said he would pay me!"
"Avarice in its purest form. Greed is one of the seven deadly sins, Carter. You have your own special ring in Dante's hell. How many people have you killed?"
"None."
"That is a lie."
"I swear, I've always had contracted killers. I myself never hurt anyone!"
"Now you're just picking and choosing, Carter. Where is Elizabeth Keen?"
"I don't know."
The rage exploded behind Red's eyes and he placed the gun back into his waistband. He lunged forward and grabbed Carters jaw, feeling the crepitus of the broken bones move beneath his fingers. Carter gave a muffled scream and more tears fell from his eyes.
"You knew they were going to take her and you stood there and lied to my face, you little piece of shit!"
Dembe sat and watched quietly. He had never seen Raymond lose his cool like this before. He had rarely seen him in such a rage.
He took his cigar from his mouth and tapped off the gray ash so the end glowed red hot. With his other hand, he squeezed Carter's jaw until his tongue was exposed.
"Tell me where she is," Reddington asked again, the glowing hot end of his cigar only centimeters from Carter's tongue. He could feel the heat from it and tried to squirm away, but his body was completely paralyzed.
"I dunno!" he muffled.
"You're lying to me Carter." Red tapped his finger against the cigar and hot ash sprinkled down onto the man's exposed tongue. He whimper- screamed and began to cry.
"I'll tell you," he mumbled, "I'll tell you where she is!"
Red let go of his face and leaned forward, his ear inches from Carter's mouth. Dembe leaned forward in his chair, trying to catch the battered man's words, but he couldn't. However, Reddington nodded in agreement and stepped away.
"There, I told you what you wanted to know, Red. Let me go."
"You can't move, Carter," Red remarked, smoking his cigar and turning his back on the man with the broken jaw and bruised face. Carter's eyes locked on the black pistol that was nestled in the small of Reddington's back.
"When will this stuff wear off?" Carter asked, trying not to sound as frantic as he felt. His heart was racing and the pain in his jaw and broken teeth was so blinding he could hardly stay conscious.
"I'm afraid that you won't get to find out."
"W-What?" The fear and the pain made Carter choke on his words. It became so overwhelming that he actually turned his head as best as he could and vomited. He wished he could move, wished and willed so strongly that he could just wiggle his fingers.
"I'm going to kill you," Red stated calmly, turning and taking the gun out once more. "I'm going to shoot you and then my associates are going to wrap you up in this nice plastic and get you out of here."
Carter desperately shook his head.
"Then, if anything has happened to Elizabeth Keen, if one hair on her head is out of place, I'm going to ruin your empire. Brick by brick, until it is dust."
"Please, please don't kill me…"
"You did this to yourself. You crossed me and it's no mystery how I handle getting made a fool of. On top of this, you took someone that was very important to me, " Red scoffed and shook his head, "What a stupid mistake, Carter. What an unbelievably stupid mistake."
"Please Red…I didn't know she was so important to you. I swear, I was just doing what I was told."
"You know, I was going to let you live," Red said, completely ignoring Carter's pleas. "I was going to severely burn your tongue to show you what rats deserve, and then let you go a few days later as a warning sign. A martyr if you choose to think of it that way."
"Burn me, cut out my tongue if you have to, I just want to live, Red."
"But," Raymond continued, looking over his gun and making sure it was loaded. "I had to ask you multiple times where she was and you continued to lie to me like an idiot. You wasted my time, Carter. Valuable time that I would love to get back, but sadly I can't." Reddington moved towards Carter, holding the cigar in his hand, the end a red hot circle. When Red spoke again his voice was so low and growling, Carter barely registered it as a human sound.
"There are two things you never want to do...take what's mine, and, most importantly," the cigar hovered over the paralyzed man's face and he could feel the heat of it, smell the heaviness of the burning tobacco. "You never want to waste my time, Carter..."
Without hesitating, Raymond Reddington punctuated the severity of his words by gouging the hot cigar between Carter's eyes, directly in the middle of his face. It hissed and burned and the man screamed, desperately trying to get away fruitlessly while his body was frozen. When the criminal withdrew his cigar, he tossed it on the ground and smothered it with his heel. He regarded his handiwork, a red, ugly circle marred on Carter's face.
"One more thing," Raymond murmured once the man in front of him managed to stop whimpering.
He raised the gun up between Carter's eyes.
"Even in death, it would be in your best interest that Elizabeth Keen is alive and well."
The gun resonated through the area where they stood and Red heard ringing in his ears. Carter's body slumped to the floor and Raymond was glad they had laid down the plastic with all the mess he had made.
