Time To Play by KA Richardson (best book club books of all time TXT) 📗

Chapter Thirteen

Unit 12b, Sunderland Enterprise Park – 8 November

D anny didn’t want to wake up. He felt consciousness try to pull at him and fought it every step of the way. But finally, his eyes cracked open a slit.

Sunlight shimmered through the crack in the rear door and for a moment he forgot where he was, staring as the light danced with the dust particles in bright rays.

Slowly though, the pain invaded his mind. He pulled his bottom lip inwards; it had felt dry and cracked, but as his tongue flicked over it he realised that something wasn’t right. It was the metallic taste and the feel that it was all rough and cut up. He felt like every limb was burning, and suddenly he remembered the rats.

Tears sprang to his eyes as he imagined them crawling all over him, biting at his flesh and eating his lip. Oh Christ, fucking hell. I’m still alive. How am I still alive? There must have been hundreds of them.

He shuddered in disgust; all he could see in his mind was dirty great rats with huge teeth baring down on him.

And then the door behind him opened.

Rocko and Gaz entered the unit, Gaz immediately coming round to face Danny.

‘He’s still alive. The rats have done a good job of munching at his face like. Looks like something out of The Walking Dead. Gross, look at his lip. It’s hanging off.’

Gaz slapped him hard across the face, and Danny groaned as his cheek started burning. He felt his lip split and blood started to drip down his chin.

‘What we gunna do with him, boss? Leave him for the rats or finish him off?’

‘What a fucking pain in the arse. Why’d you have to mess up, Danny? I had big plans for you.’ Rocko’s voice penetrated the fog of agony. He sounded disappointed, pissed off even. But Danny no longer cared. Just end it– you fucking twat, finish it. Please, God, just let me die. I can’t take any more.

‘Do you know what I do to people who screw me, Danny? And their families? I’m not going to leave you here for the rats, they get fed enough shite. You’re gunna die knowing that because of you, your little girl is gunna grow up without her daddy, your girlfriend is going to find your body and be traumatised for life, always looking over her shoulder wondering if she’s gunna be next. And eventually, when they finally feel safe, I’m gunna come for both of them. They’ll see me and realise in that moment that their lives will be over. And I’ll make sure they both understand that it’s all your fault. That if you had kept your dick in your pants and not fucked one of my girls, not helped her escape, and not been caught yourself, that their lives would have carried on as normal. And both of them will hate you for what you’ve done, in those last few minutes they’ll curse the piece of shit you are and wish to God that they’d never met you.’

Anger burnt in Danny’s stomach. No! Please no, not my family. I didn’t shag the girl. I swear I didn’t! Please don’t hurt my family.

His silent screams echoed round his mind, but he knew Rocko couldn’t hear them. He shook his head from side to side, grunting, trying to beg to tell them not to do that, to tell them the truth about the girl and what had happened.

But it was no use.

He felt the blade cut across his neck, the silky smooth feel of steel on skin almost deceptive in its intent. Blood gurgled in his throat, and he saw a red streak fly past him onto the rear door and ceiling. His last thought as he drifted off was of his daughter, and how she would grow up not knowing him, not knowing that he had died trying to do the right thing.

‘You really gunna do that to his family, boss?’ asked Gaz, once Danny’s eyes had glazed over and his chest had ceased to rise. ‘I can take care of that for you. I’ll make them both wish they’d never met this useless sack of shit.’ He kicked at Danny’s leg before turning to face Rocko, his eyes sparkling. ‘I could bring them here, boss. Make her watch while I bleed the little one dry. I could fuck her, all over. Then kill her too. I don’t mind, boss.’ Gaz was almost salivating at the thought.

‘No.’ Rocko’s voice was sharp. ‘What he did isn’t their problem. It’ll be enough that they live without him and that he died thinking they would suffer.’

‘What shall we do with the body?’

‘Untie him, wrap him in plastic. We’ll dump him after dark. Then you can come back and clean this place with a gallon of bleach.’

Marlo’s flat Sunderland – 8 November

‘God damn stupid lift, always on the blink when I have shopping to carry,’ mumbled Marlo, balancing the large box on her arms while the carrier bags dangling from her hands cut off the circulation in her fingertips. ‘Always bloody happens when I’ve got shopping. I’ll be emailing the maintenance man about this.’

Griping didn’t make her feel better, but she did reach the top in what seemed like record time. She manoeuvred herself around the door to the corridor and tried to pull the handle down with her little finger.

The door suddenly sprang towards her, hitting the fingers that held the bottom of the box and causing her to instinctively release her hold on the box. Marlo cried out, partly in pain as her fingers suddenly realised there was blood flow, and partly to warn whoever was about to barrel through the door that she was there.

Tins clanked down