TIGERLILLY- THE BRAVO BOYS [book two]

Chapter SIXTY THREE

Frankie Xiao

.... THE DOLLHOUSE ....

Setting foot back inside the house where I had been imprisoned for so long goes against every natural instinct inside me.. I want to run.. To scream and fight, but I learned long ago that wouldn't do me any good.. No, I need to be smart.. To play the role of the fox, just like Father Fei had taught me..

"This place is a fucking dump!" Exclaims Johnny with a low whistle, looking around at the smoke stained walls and dusty carpets of Jun's two-story, split-level Chinatown house.. All the locks in the doors have been broken and the place overturned.. "This is where you've been living? Shit- no wonder River was a better option to you, Cutie! Hell would seem like a five star resort compared to this shit-hole!"

I twist my hands together, avoiding looking directly into his murky and unsympathetic eyes, instead casting my gaze anywhere else.. "The safe is in the basement.."

"Then let's go down there.." He tucks his gun into the back of his jeans before reaching out to grab me by the arm, pushing me further into the house ahead of him.. The smell of cigarettes, licorice and dong quai hang in the musty air and the floorboards groan beneath our weight as we move through the living room..

Johnny's grip on my arm is so tight and harsh that it hurts and I whimper a little when he shoves and yanks at me, nearly dislocating my shoulder to maneuver me around furniture towards the hallway.. "Owwh.. Please-You are hurting me.."

"Nawwh.." He taunts as he stops, stepping in close to me and caging me up against the wall where he leans one arm over my head and cranes his neck down.. Framed in thick black lashes his eyes are the lightest brown and dotted with small flecks of bronze.. His hair is coloured much the same and his nose has a crooked notch in the middle as if maybe it had been broken there in the past..

A strong musky scent of earth and ginger lingers around him.. Johnny is not an unattractive man, but for the coldness of his demeanour and the overpowering smell of his cologne he is hideous to me.. "I forget my own strength sometimes.. I don't mean to hurt you, Cutie.. You're just so little.." He brushes the back of his hand over my cheek and down the side of my neck to make my skin crawl.. "So delicate.. So helpless.."

I nod, pathetic and meek, becoming soft to his harshness, the same way I had been when Li Jun would become enraged with me.. "I am little, Mr Johnny.. Please.. I do not want to make you angry.. I'm not going to run.. You don't have to use so much force.. I will do as you ask.. Please, show mercy.."

He licks his cracked lips with a crooked grin, leaning closer.. "I can't believe River was going to keep you to himself.. Selfish Mickey prick.. You're too beautiful to belong to that useless excuse of a guy.."

Without warning his gruff, unwelcome mouth mashes against mine at a harsh pressure and he wraps one hand around the back of my neck, forcing me and fixing me in place.. I tremble so violently my knees knock together, too afraid to push him away and too repulsed to escape into some far off corner of my mind.. Instead, I am stuck.. Paralysed by fear while he probes my mouth with his pointed tongue..

Why does every man want to own me?
Why am I seen as this commodity instead of the human being I really am?
What makes a man like Johnny think himself so above me?
Every man has designed to control me.. All of them, except River.. He had been willing to allow me to own him..

Oh.. My sweet, beautiful River..
My mind drifts backwards and my consciousness floats away from my body to set me free from the sickening violation as I pretend I am back at home with my Tiger, safe in his arms..

"Goddamn.." Johnny growls, lusty and low, shaking me from my fantasy. "You are something sweet.. Too bad about our deal.. I'd be half tempted to keep you all for myself.."

He presses in closer, the length of his body and weight of him pinning me to the wall while his hands wander all over me like slithering snakes..

"The money is this way, Mr Johnny.." I push against him and when I get a break in his persistence I duck under his arm to continue to the basement and he follows closely behind me..

"Little fucking tease." Johnny groans in frustration under his breath..

Slowly, I descend into the darkness of the basement, my reluctant feet taking the stairs one by one..

"Shit-Is there a fucking lightswitch down here?" He mutters, placing one hand on the wall to keep himself from falling..

"No.." I shake my head and he pulls out his phone illuminating the basement so that all the terror of this place comes flooding back to me..

"Where is this safe then?" He grunts, flicking the torchlight around and seeing nothing but the cot that I used to call my bed and the hole in the wall from when I exploded the boiler and escaped..

I point to the separate closet room beneath the stairs to which the door is always locked and Johnny paces over to it.. With a heavy boot, he kicks the door in and to my shock he whoops loudly when he sees the black and silver vault box sitting on the floor.. "Well, well well.. Looks like you were telling the truth! Huh, good thing, Cutie.. Cus' I was gonna have to shoot you in the face if you was lyin.."

He crosses back to me and takes my arm again, pushing me into the small room with an unforgiving shove.. "Open it.."

"When I open it, you will let me go?" I whimper..

Johnny grins and I can see the lie written on his lips.. He has other plans for me and I don't want to find out what they are.. "Sure thing, Cutie."

I crouch down on the floor to type in the pin code.. Remembering the uncomplicated combination of digits from each and every time I had seen Li Jun open the locked box..

Only, it wasn't a box that ever contained money..

My fingers wrap around the cool steel enclosed within and I remember everything River had said to me at the carnival game in an instant as I rise to my feet, turning around with outstretched hands.. With my elbows relaxed and my shoulders down I keep both eyes open as I look down the line of the sight..
Keeping my grip firm without choking the pistol, I point it straight and shoot. I squeeze the trigger and I don't stop squeezing until the gun jams up and clicks..

BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG-
BANG-BANG- BANG-CLICK-CLICK-CLICK-CLICK

Johnny writhes and gargles on the floor for a few seconds before there is nothing left.. He is motionless and quiet.. It's all over..

Oh fuck!
Oh wow!
I did it.. I really did it..

I killed him..

The sound of boots thudding above me barely register as I stand there with the gun in my shaking hands.. Everything after the shooting moves in slow motion and I don't even recognize the man who takes the pistol from my fingers as he shakes me and tries to bring me back to earth..

"Frankie?! Frankie, baby, are ye' alrite'?" His deep and melodic voice is familiar but his face is blurred to me..

"N-no.." I manage to stutter out before my focus begins to return and I see him standing before me, covered in blood.. "R-River? I--Is that y-you?"

"Aye..It's--" He squeezes my shoulders on a sharp gasp before the colour leaves his face entirely and his eyes go dim.. "--me.."

On a soft exhale, The Tiger collapses like a ragdoll to land in a heap at my feet and the shrill sound of screaming is all I hear next..

"AHHHHHHHHHHHH! NO NO NO NO NO NO!"

Only when Killian crouches down beside me and shouts something to the other men moving around the basement do I realise, the screaming is coming from me..