TIGERLILLY- THE BRAVO BOYS [book two]

Chapter TWO

Frankie Xiao

"We gotta go! Do the job you were hired to do, O'Riley.. Kill the Yellow bitch! She's seen your face, she fucking killed Johnny!" Shouts the dark haired man who had tried my hands together and taped my mouth shut.. Spouting his filthy lies.. 

I didn't kill anybody, he did!! 
Why is he doing this to me? 
I don't even know him! 

I shake my head, desperate to defend myself, to plead for mercy, just like I have been my entire life in captivity, begging for a chance to live.. "Mmnmmh.." 

I want to tell them I am just a slave. I want them to know how insignificant I am to whatever is going on here and that I was only hiding in the Chi-Town back alley because I am running from a monster far more terrifying than themselves. 

"SHUT YA DAMN DICK-TRAP, BECKETT, IM THINKIN’! FUCK!" The one called 'O'riley' shouts in frustration over the roar of the AC units that service the surrounding restaurants and apartments.. Nobody can hear us.. And even if they could, people downtown know better than to involve themselves in street crime..

His hesitation is apparent as he mutters angrily in a slanted Irish accent that slides smoothly from his tongue.. He prowls back and forth, scrubbing a hand through his short strawberry-blonde hair, pacing in front of me like an agitated tiger..

His gemstone jade-green eyes assessing me with irritated regard.. Like I am a fly in his ointment.. 

I should be used to this feeling of insignificant inconvenience, but it never gets any easier to take.. I am worth so little, I could die tonight and nobody would come looking for me.. 

I cower on my knees, this is not what was supposed to happen to me.. I was so close to freedom I could taste it.. I thought I had escaped, I was finally going to be myself again.. 

Now I have fallen right back into captivity.. 

The dark haired one called 'Beckett' grows louder and angrier with his buddy..."FUCK THINKING!! FUCKING SHOOT HER!!.. SHOOT HER, O'RILEY, OR I'LL SHOOT HER FOR YOU!" 

The clover-eyed Irish tiger grimaces and raises the gun, pointing it right at me as he utters a quiet calm apology.. "Sorry sweetheart." 

He is something terrifying.. Hardened and harsh, as though he has done this before, many times..

My eyes squeeze shut.. 
I don't want to die.. I haven't even lived! 
No.. No.. No.. 

-BANG-

….

.. earlier that afternoon ..

Ten minutes.. That is all the time I have before the basement boiler will make that infuriating clicking sound that it makes every hour as it reignites.

I know that Master Li Jun has left the house for the evening, because he only ever locks me down in the basement when he leaves the house.

With frantic pace and puffing breath, I use the blunt butter-knife I had stolen from the kitchen to desperately saw at the carved groove in the gasline pipe..
I have been whittling away at the steel, bit by bit for the last month, at every opportunity I've had.. Today is the day I finally break through.

This plan has to work.. It just has to..
Because if not, I’m afraid I will die here in this house of horrors, where every door is locked and every window barred.. I am afraid Master Li Jun will never let me leave. I am afraid his expectations will grow and his beatings will worsen, until one day I won’t wake up covered in blood and bruises.. Because I won't wake up at all..

I had been important once.. Privileged and placed on a pedestal by all those who fear and worship my father, Fei Xiao.. 

The Red Dragon..

I know what everybody says about Fei Xiao, that he is evil, cruel and corrupted.. And maybe that is true.. Still, I miss him. I have missed him everyday for the last ten years, ever since Li Jun picked me up from school on my sixteenth birthday and instead of bringing me home, he brought me here.. To this prison. 

I have barely been outside the walls of this three bedroom house in all that time, and when I do, it is only under Master Li Jun’s supervision.. His constant, overbearing, frightinging supervision..

Master Li says that he does all this to protect me.. He says that there are many bad men who would do terrible things to me, even more terrible than those things he does himself..
Sometimes I believe him.. Sometimes I am sure he must be lying..
But after ten years, the only thing I know is that father Fei Xiao must not miss me half as much as I miss him.. Otherwise he would have found me by now..

Wouldn’t he?

-CLUNK-

The pipe splits and the gas begins to leak out into the small basement..

As quickly as I can, I take the detached washing machine hose that is duct taped to the boiler and fit it over the end of the pipe, binding it as best I can in less than thirty seconds.. 

With the pieces in place, I jump to my feet and race back to the far wall, pulling open the dryer and ducking inside..

Curled up inside the steel drum, I wait.. And I wait..
Seconds stretch into endless minutes and begin to wonder if I miscounted.. But soon the water heater begins to hum, preparing to do the one thing it does..

-TICK - TICK - TICK --- CLICK-

When the boiler ignites, the gas goes up with it in an echoing explosion and I feel the shock of it shakes through my bones and makes me sick to my stomach..

-BANG-