Relapse to Instinct

Chapter 24

Smack.

Thwack.

Kieran had been punching him for... a whilenow. That was the best John's hazed mind could come up with.

He'd never been in so much pain, when Kieran had dragged his unconscious body out of the basement, he'd sat him in a metal chair in one of the 'rooms' and proceeded to tie his arms behind it.

This action was enough to wake John with ascream.

His broken arm protested the misuse, and his ribs were screaming with each punch that connected.

Kieran wasn't stupid, he could see the bruises on John's chest that signified the damaged ribs, and was 'trying' to avoid them. He could also (unfortunately) tell thatJohn was hovering on the edge of fainting again, and his head had been ignored, to thedisgruntlement of his stomach and shins.

He had no idea why Kieran was using him as a punching bag; it wasn't like the gruff man was demanding answers from him, and John hadn't thought it was in Kieran's style to beat a man while he was down, but apparently he'd been wrong.

Smack.

The breath he'd managed to hang onto left his body in a rush then, and John hung his head, trying to curl his body protectively, but to no avail. The curling only put more strain on his arm, and forced him to sit backup, gasping and trying to ignore Kieran's disturbing laughter.

"What's wrong? Can the little rich boy not handle an ickle bit of pain?" More cackling,"Nah, the girl was a slut and she couldn't cope, but what can you expect from a woman?"

Kieran brought back his leg, kicking John hard in the knee.

John threw his head backwards, staring at the ceiling and swallowing the gasp in his throat. The words Kieran had said were lostto his mind, and he couldn't understand any of it, especially with the annoying voice calling his name in the back of his head.

' Wait. Voice in my - Jazz!'

' John? Are you alright? You took a while to answer, where are you?'

But the words were a jumble to John as Kieran sliced his nails across John's exposed neck.

' Chris! Jazz, she's dead.'

There was no answering thought for a minute or two, John's only company being Kieran's fist to his gut.

This time, John couldn't help the cry of pain.

Jazz must have caught it too, as he was back quickly.

' What happened? Where are you?'

' I'm in the old warehouse in town.' John ignored the 'are you alright' question, and heassumed Jazz would be able to put two and two together and work out that nothing in this whole situation was 'alright'.

' I'm five minutes out, can you hold on until Iget there?'

' I think that's the issue. Kieran doesn't seemto want to let me go anywhere.'

The answering growl was the last he got from Jazz, as all went quiet again.

This time, when Kieran kicked his shin, John answered the pain with a grin.

Laughing, he choked out, "He's coming, you bastard. He's coming."

Unfortunately, Kieran seemed overjoyed by this news, leaving John with one final smack .

If John's brain had been working at that point, he would have worked out before that it was a trap, and warned Jazz, but his mind was foggy, and thinking in general was difficult.