Russian Roulette: Family secrets [2021 version]

Ch. 58: Of course, I enjoyed it

Pain.

So much pain.

Agonizing pain.

Excruciating and mind-numbing pain.

Though it was not mind-numbing. His mind registered everything.

It was more of a movement-numbing pain. One that locked his entire body into one position, and he could not move for the life of him.

It did not matter how much morphine and whatever painkiller concoction John, Aidan, had filled him with. The pain never eased up.

It coursed through him if he just tried to blink. Each breath felt like death, though each ragged breath reminded him he was not dead.

Yet.

It had come as no real surprise to Gareth that Grychenko had had another torture session for him. The timing had thrown him off, though. He had figured it would come after the party Grychenko had talked about.

A sort of party showstopper.

Locked in there, Gareth had little sense of time, but he had known it was barely around dinner time from what his body's needs told him. Which was why Grychenko's appearance in his cell, followed by a sour-looking Aidan, had surprised him.

Both wore tuxedos, a rather peculiar look on Aidan if Gareth had to be honest.

Happily, Grychenko had flung himself on the couch, puffing on a cigar, and waited for Aidan to set up.

Gareth had known he was in for it. There would be no delay. And he knew from the last session it would only get worse. They had reached the second to last session before his death. Naturally, the torture would escalate from bad to worse.

Aiden had whispered apologies and told him he thought it would have been after the party, and that Grychenko had sprung it on him while he got ready for the party. Aiden had updated him on the plan for the guys to come save both him and Mackenzie later, and it hurt him what he had to do, but Grychenko had refused to postpone.

Grychenko expected violence in line with what trademarked The Extractor. There were only two stages of torture left Aidan could provide.

Bones and flesh.

Cheating had not been an option anymore.

Nothing was Aidan's fault, and though he could have just killed Grychenko when they were only the three of them in the cell, neither Aidan nor Gareth would make it out alive if he did. There were too many men for Aidan to take on alone, because Gareth could barely keep himself upright without help.

Gareth had assured Aidan he had his full support in doing whatever he needed to do. Knowing the guys would come to save Mackenzie put Gareth at ease. He had already accepted his own demise.

He did not have to like it.

He had accepted it, however.

Hers, he had needed to be assured, would not come.

If Aidan said the guys would come, they would. That had allowed Gareth to relax into his fate.

Like the other times, Aidan had pumped him full of drugs.

The power of which had overwhelmed him; his head had swum from the rush when he got morphined into a world of rainbows and disco balls. In his drug-induced haze, Aidan had looked like a unicorn, and Gareth had heard psychedelic music ringing in his ears, to begin with.

Though Aidan had warned him and apologized before commencing, nothing had prepared Gareth for the pain of his bones and joints breaking. Aidan had promised him that because he knew the human body so well, he was the only man to harm him in the right way for him to heal later. There might be some stiffness of joints, but he would heal.