Love & death: Feel it all

Cold metal

Toms pov:

The place looks exactly the same as I remember. It brings back memories I'd rather forget. The sand flies up from the ground around my car before I stop. The house looks more like a warehouse than a place where someone lives. It's dark and made of metal. It's almost just like a big box. But I know what waits inside.

I step out of the car, my heart pounding out of my chest. I swore I'd never see those people again, but now I have to. For Scarlett and Cat.

The metal garage door starts moving upwards the moment I've closed the car door behind me, and I watch as three familiar faces step out of the darkness inside and into the moonlight. The man in the middle spreads his arms.

"Tommy! My boy! Come over here and give me a hug!" Nick shouts from the open hole in the building. I take slow careful steps over. Hugging him is the last thing I want right now, but I can't show him that. He's manipulative and dangerous, but I can manipulate too.

I put on a big fake smile like a mask and take fast sure steps towards him, showing him my confidence. I let him wrap his weirdly strong arms around me and I pat him on the back. He pulls away.

"My god, you've grown up. And you are in love. I can see it. There's a reason why your here of course. If I should guess... it's that girl you love. Tell me her name." Nick says, sliding his hand around my body and to my back, pushing me alongside him into the warehouse.
My mind is screaming at me to run the other way and not tell him anything, but I can't. I know I can't.

"Scarlett. She's gorgeous. And she makes the most beautiful babies I've ever seen." I say, pretending like Scarlett is a meaningless whore who accidently gave me a baby. Pretending to be Nick.
He gives me a strong pat on the back, almost knocking me over as we walk into the darkness. In front of us is more empty space than actual furniture, but in the far end there are couches and worktables. Tools and sharp white lights. A metal table in the middle that I know is cold. I've been on it before.
The straps on the sides of the metal table are bloody, still, from their last poor victim.

"Lucky man, lucky man... how does she look? Is she that blonde young model type you've always dreamed of?" Nick asks, sounding more excited than I thought he would. He's not gonna let this Scarlett talk go just yet.

"No... but close. She has the softest most beautiful curly brown hair. The sweetest blue eyes and the cutest face you could imagine. She could have been a model... but Bill found her on the street freshly dumped by her boyfriend." I say. It feels weird to be talking so casually about something that's none of his business.

"Is the boyfriend dead? Please tell me he is." Nick asks, faking passion about my life's story after I left him.

"He is. Bill killed him through a door almost right after we took her in. She's stayed with us since." I say, lying just a little bit. She stayed with Bill, not us.

Now we've reached the "living room" and I can't take my eyes off the bloody metal table. Memories are flashing before my eyes. Things I'd forgotten long ago. Or tried to forget. Bill never had it as hard as I did here. Nick always went easy on him and blamed everything on me.
I started this whole thing. I ran away from our uncle and accidently stumbled over Nick and his men. That was my biggest mistake in my whole life. Accepting the beer that Nick offered me and getting drunk enough to agree to things I should have never agreed on.

"Well... if she's still with you, then why are you here? I can kill her for you if that's what you want." Nick says, standing in front of me with each hand on my shoulders. I feel like a little child. I might be tall, but Nick is taller. Stronger. Bigger. So is Hank and Bruce behind me. One wrong step, and I'm dust.

"My daughter. I'm here because of my daughter, Catherine. We were in Germany and held a party. Cat was up in her room and we had locked the door so no one would get in. But we didn't get her with us back here. My men couldn't find her in her room." I start out with. Nick looks at me worried, but I know he's just set on killing. Killing the one who took my daughter, or killing me. It's hard to tell.

"The other day, some teenager went up to me and told me that she's here in Tokyo. I had men look for her in Germany, but I think that boy was telling the truth. I just have to find her." I tell Nick, barely looking into his eyes.

"Hmm... and you haven't considered that the man you sent up to find her in her room took her? It would be perfect. He goes up and takes her and tells you that she isn't there. Sounds like something I could do." Nick says, enjoying himself. He's smirking as if this baby doesn't mean the world to me.
And I think he might be right. Brad went up to find her and told me she wasn't there. Now that I'm really thinking about it, he came with us to Tokyo only a day after we left. He could have easily taken Cat with him and kept her here while we were focussed on the other men looking in Germany.

"How did I not think of that before? Brad! He must have take her. But why would he take her? I've given him everything." I say, more to myself than to Nick, but he's the one answering.

"Could be two things in my opinion: one, revenge. You did something to him or someone he loves without realising. Two, he has an accomplice who promised him a lot more money than you give him, and in exchange he kidnaps Cat for them." Nick says. Neither of them make sense.
I've never hurt Brad one day in my life. I pay him more than any of my men. His whole family and all of his friends were dead when I took him in. He asked me to be a part of my group. Not the other way around. It has to be the second option.

"You're right. Now I just have to find out who he's working with." I mumble to myself, completely lost in my own thoughts. I don't even notice how close I'm getting to the metal table before I feel the cold against my hand.

I look up at Nick who looks very sure of himself and satisfied. I'm still lost.

"To me... it sounds like a woman." He says. Something hard hits the back of my head and my eyes go black but I can still hear.

"Goodnight." Hank mocks and then every one of my senses has turned off.

***