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

her own judgements. And her judgement about Ali was that he was a good man. Turning back to the kitchen, she turned the CD player on and smiled as Luke Bryan’s voice came from the speakers.

 

Chapter Fourteen

Ryhope, Sunderland – 8 November

H e sighed as he unlocked the door to the room. It had been a helluva day and the last thing he wanted to do was check on the girl. He wanted to go to bed.

He was tired right through to the core of his bones, the kind of exhaustion you got from being mentally and physically challenged all day. He felt the beginnings of a migraine niggle at the side of his head.

Maybe I should just leave her today; she’ll still be here tomorrow. But he shook his head. If he didn’t do the breaks today, then his schedule would be all to pot. He already felt behind because he was more than a day late doing the breakages.

Why do I do this? I could just stop, let the girl go, and not get any more.

But he knew he wouldn’t: how would he get his teachings across if not to these girls who were so in need of guidance.

He felt his nose wrinkle as he entered; she’d soiled herself. He couldn’t expect anything else really, he supposed. He had been thoughtful, though, and given this one a bucket: better a vessel to hold the waste than finding it all over the floor again. Such a simple idea really, he didn’t know why he hadn’t thought of it before. Still, it smelt ripe.

His memory faded back to a time when he was a child. He’d been given a dog from his mum, an old dog not a puppy like he’d asked for. It had grey all round its muzzle, and she’d said he could name it himself. It only took hours to realise that the dog had a chronic wind problem, the smell so bad that he’d found himself pinching his nose and trying not to breathe. He’d quickly decided on the name Stinky, and once named, the dog and he were inseparable. At least until Stinky disappeared. He frowned as he remembered his brother had been the last to see the dog. He’d denied hurting Stinky, but he’d always wondered. It wouldn’t surprise him. His brother had always been a nasty piece of work.

His mood changed, and he found himself grinning as he closed the door behind him. He’d thought of the perfect name for the girl.

Pulling her from the cage, he said, ‘Come on now, Stinky. It’s time to play.’

Ryhope, Sunderland – 8 November

Nita was finally starting to feel more human. The shaking had stopped, the gnawing hunger was easing, and despite the fear she had for the man, it was less than she’d felt in the house. In there, she wouldn’t have managed to survive much longer, she knew that.

She hated that her body had craved the drug so much though, despised the fact that she’d felt like she needed it, and worse would have done anything to get it.

This man might keep her locked in a cage, but surely it was preferable to needing brown liquid, and accepting the things the men had done to her in that house. Nita shuddered: it didn’t even bear thinking about. All she could do now was try to get away, find out where she was, and then see what she could do about her situation.

Hoping it would work in her favour, she flashed a quick smile at the man as he opened the cage door and extended his hand to help her out.

She glanced round the room he held her in.

The wall behind the chair held tools mounted on hooks, and a workbench that was dusty but clear of debris. It wasn’t a large room; the cage, the bench and the chair in the middle pretty much filling it, though there was a gap to the right of the doorway. Something was there when I arrived–… something plastic? Where’s it gone?

The man applied the straps of the chair to her wrists and ankles, then went into the corner and turned on the video camera. Why does he video me? I don’t get what he does with it. I don’t know why I’m here. If I could understand him, maybe he would let me go.

She heard him say the words softly to her; she didn’t know what they meant, but they were the same words he spoke every time he came into the room. She felt his hand touch her cheek gently, then withdraw.

The explosion of pain she felt as his fist hit her nose was unexpected and sharp, and even as blood dripped down the back of her throat she gasped. This caused her to gag, and she coughed loudly, blood exiting her mouth at speed and landing on the man’s trousers.

Through the red haze, she heard him curse and looked up to see his anger. She pulled her hand back as he roughly bent her thumb until it cracked. Nita screamed. Why is he doing this? Please stop. It hurts.

Blood poured from her nose, she felt its warmth on her lips and her chest as she struggled to breathe. Her thumb was pulsing with pain. She didn’t even know if she could move it, but she didn’t want to.

She hadn’t even realised he’d unhooked her hand until she felt him pull her arm taut. Her mouth dropped into a wide ‘O’ as she saw him raise his other hand in the air, the hand that held a large mallet.

Blood gargled in her throat as she tried to scream and attempted to pull her arm from his grasp. But he held fast, and the mallet connected with a crack. She knew instantly the bones had shattered, feeling them crunch beneath his fingers as he