Page 94 of The Taskmaster

“Abi, I really don’t like this.”

“Either you come with me, or I’ll take an Uber on my own. But either way, I’m going.”

“I need to call it in,” my dad said, but I shook my head.

“Please. Not yet.”

I knew what I was asking was impossible for him. He did things by the book. My dad was the cleanest cop you could find in the entire police force. And here I was, begging him to break protocol.

“Let’s drive to the estate, and we’ll take it from there,” he replied.

It was the best outcome I could hope for.

Chapter Forty-Eight

ISAIAH

“My favourite game to play when I was little was Operation. You know, that board game where you have to use the tweezers to take the plastic organs out of the guy’s body without hitting the buzzer and lighting his nose up.”

Q brandished his scalpel, running the blade over my chest but not hard enough to score my skin, he barely left a scratch.

“What was yours?” He stood back, regarding me closely. “Was it guess which cock is inside me tonight? Did they blindfold you? Or were you forced to watch what they did when they took you to that basement?”

I snarled, breathing harshly through my nostrils as I let his words fall like pieces of trash to the ground. The filth coming out of his mouth would never penetrate my ears or my brain. They couldn’t hurt me anymore.

“You were actually one of the lucky ones,” he went on, and I stared right at him, wanting to show him that his words didn’t affect me. “Most of the boys who left went to much worse places. I got good money for them, too. But for some reason, the men at Clivesdon didn’t want to let you go. I think they’d grown fond of their little plaything. You should count yourself lucky.”

Deep breaths in and out.

Don’t let the words in.

Drown out the memories.

Do not let them win.

“If I’d have sold you, like I wanted to, I could’ve made upwards of fifty grand. Maybe bought the boat I’d always had my eye on.” He jabbed the scalpel in my direction. “You cost me money.”

I reared back and spat in his face, then yanked again on the chains, trying to get closer to him, wishing I could clamp my teeth into him and rip the flesh off his bones.

“Woah.” He laughed, holding his hands up and stepping away from me. “Someone’s being fucking ungrateful today.” His face darkened as the evil in his eyes shone back at me. “Would you prefer me to tell you what it was like to fuck her for the first time? To hear her scream as I pushed inside her tight little virgin pussy?”

I totally fucking lost it, screaming until my lungs were raw, fighting against the chains, not caring that my skin broke and blood oozed over my wrists and ankles.

Blind rage was all I felt.

Red mist clouded everything.

I almost didn’t hear the shot ring out as I howled and snarled, and did everything I could to break free of the chains to get to him.

He went down, falling to the floor as his knee gave way beneath him, and I knew this was when everything was going to change.

“Hands up where I can see them,” a voice hollered, and I whipped my head to the side. Rage suddenly laced with fear as I saw Abigail standing in the warehouse. Her father, Officer Dan, stood next to her, holding his gun, and aiming it at Charles Quinn.

How much had they heard?

“Get her out of here!” I shouted, but she shook her head.

“I’m going nowhere.”