Page 4 of Hiding In the Dark (The Righteous 4)
The dark reddish-colored cargo container was the only one with a giant five painted on the front in white paint like an X marks the spot. He parked his cart off to the side before making sure no one was watching, and then he opened the container. The tiny bit of light that was reflecting off of the building into the container only revealed to him a pair of booted feet tied up.
Muffled yells reached his ears, and he smiled wide as he picked out the swear words in the continuous sentence. Pulling the small flashlight out of his pocket, he clicked it on, blinding his prisoner. The man blinked and tried to turn his face away from the bright beam of light, but that didn’t hide the fact that it was the man he’d been looking for.
Clenching the little flashlight between his teeth, he turned to his cart and lifted up the few bags on top to pull out a black body bag. He gave the thing a shakeout and then unzipped the side before turning toward the man in the container.
“Oooo aaa uuu?”
“Who am I?” Kes shrugged. “Does it really matter?”
The eyes staring back didn’t seem to agree, but he asked a different question. “Wwaa aaaee ooh oooing?” Came the muffled question.
This was one of those stupid questions that he often wondered why people bothered to ask. Kes looked at the black body bag and then up again to the wide, terrified eyes.
“Well, Spike, what does it look like I’m doing?”
“Geet aaay ohm meee.” Spike tried to inchworm away, his legs pulling up and pushing against the metal.
“Keep it up.” Kes squatted down next to Spike’s body. “I like it when you struggle.” His voice was soft and soothing, but the threat echoed around the container. Spike froze, his chest rising and falling quickly, creating a soft wheezing sound around the tape over his mouth. “You have two choices. Get in willingly to go for a ride and a chat, or…I’m sure I can come up with some creative ideas for how to make you get in.
Spike swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing exaggeratedly as he did so.
“You have information that I want. So, we’re going to go for a little ride and you’re going to tell me what I want to know.”
Spike shook his head back and forth. “I noooo ooothing.”
“I think you do. Are we doing this the easy way?” Spike slowly began to nod, and Kes sighed, a little disappointed that there wasn’t going to be more of a fight.
Ten minutes later, he was pushing his cart along the wharf toward a glistening white yacht. His cargo was folded up like a book, his legs hanging over the end of the cart with more bags piled on top. Every now and then, the cart would jerk, and he smirked at the obvious discomfort as a moan or grunt reached his ears.
It was his parent’s boat. Well, more accurately, it was their company boat for private events, but his parents were still the majority shareholders. He’d purposely chosen to move the boat to this camera-less end of the marina, and so far, no one had even noticed. He had to give his heavy cart a hard run up the ramp to get over the edge of the boat. He unceremoniously dumped the contents onto the deck. The black body bag rolled around and wriggled back and forth like a large snake.
Ignoring the struggling man, he set about to prepare the boat for launch. As soon as all systems were a go, he backed the boat out of the slip to slowly cruise out of the marina, no one ever the wiser about his unhappy cargo.
The further he got, the darker the surrounding landscape became until the marina behind him was nothing more than a few glittering dots. The breeze was strong, rocking the boat just enough that it was a good thing he wasn’t prone to becoming seasick.
As he cut the engines, the yacht drifted to a stop, and he took a deep breath of the intoxicating sea air. This was why he needed to live near water. There was nothing like this feeling. Nothing so peaceful—or at least, that was until the thumping started. Rolling his eyes in annoyance, he made his way along the side of the boat and prepped the rigging for what he had planned. Now was the fun part.
* * *
Kes looked at the old-school watch on his wrist and smiled. It had only taken him twenty minutes to get his bait out on the line. That was a new personal best.
Bending over, he stared into the small bar fridge that held a wide assortment of snacks and drinks, but Kes instead grabbed a bottle of V8 juice. His stomach had growled endlessly since arriving at the marina, and he had to keep his strength up.
He dropped down onto the observation bench and kicked his booted feet up on the armrest as he took in the night sky. The stars were stunning—everything felt cleaner and blissfully void of all other humans. All humans other than the one currently dangling from his rigging, that is.
It wasn’t your standard fishing rig, mind you. Instead, he’d chosen to string up and tie his worm to the end of a chain.
“Come on, man, don’t do this,” Spike begged. The chains rattled as he pulled his feet up from the overly interested sharks that were starting to gather. He’d freed Spike’s hands once he had him strung up—it was more entertaining than watching him suffocate to death with the chain slowly tightening like a vice.
Expectedly, Spike held onto the chain above his head like he was on a zip line. All he needed was a tropical shirt and a camera around his neck to complete the image.
He stretched and slowly pushed himself up to his feet, rolling his shoulders out. Picking up another bucket of chum, he poured it over the side of the boat, the water making plopping sounds as the diced-up fish parts splashed. He used the back of his sleeve to wipe some of the concoction off of his face as the water stirred and swirled, tails and fins slicing through the dark surface.
Putting the empty bucket aside, he proceeded to lean on the railing and took in the gently swaying man. “You ready to talk?” He pulled a toothpick from his pocket and gripped it between his teeth.
“I don’t have the information you want,” he yelled, his frustration obvious. “It was true back in the container, and it is still true now. Fuck, I can’t feel my legs!” The chains rattling as he shifted position.
“All the better for you, I guess, when the sharks start biting.”
