Blood Money

26

Danielle wakes up chained to the ceiling. They removed her jewelry and clothes, but not her wig. Her ankle is throbbing like a bitch. She adjusts her weight so the other foot takes the majority of it. 

Danielle catches hold of the chain and pulls herself up. The hair ornaments are gone, but they missed the other things in her hair. She pulls out the incredibly thin wire and manipulates it to the shape she needs. She locates the locking mechanism for her manacles. She's sweating by the time she's done.

She carefully drops back down to the floor. If she was planning on living past this day she would make a note to work on her upper body strength.

She makes her way over to the door. She notices the camera in the room, but there's nothing she can do about that. Once she's out of here then she can become almost invisible.

The thought of finally getting revenge on her aunt helps to make the pain acceptable to her.

She silently works the lock in the door. She hears footsteps and pauses. "She awake yet?"

Chet's voice makes her angry. "I haven't heard a thing from in there. Want me to open up and look?"

"Yeah, why don't you open it for me? I'm sure that Danielle would like to have a chat with me right about now." The amusement in Chet's voice makes it so Danielle can hardly see straight. "Why don't you take yourself off for a bit while I'm in there?"

The guard laughs and agrees.

The guard unlocks the door, "Take at least fifteen minutes. Not more than thirty."

"Thanks boss, enjoy." 

Chet comes in after the guard leaves and shuts the door behind him. Danielle takes the only chance she's going to get and knocks him hard into the wall. While he's still out of it from the hit she gets the wire around his throat and starts pulling.

"Danielle, I'm not your enemy here." Chet tries to speak loud enough to be heard.

"You have one chance to explain." Danielle loosens the wire sufficiently that he can breath, but makes sure that he knows she'll kill him if he tries anything.

"Kim is psychotic. I'm trapped with her, but I know she needs to die. You are the best chance of killing her. She often mumbles about how many times you've managed to avoid being killed. She calls you cockroach."

"Yeah, well she would. She was there when my parents gave me my handle." It was shortly after that, that her parents supposedly killed her.

"What?" Chet says wanting to look at her but not able to move. Danielle had tightened the wire again.

"That's my handle. Shortly after that she was supposedly killed. Now, speak, you haven't given me a good enough reason to not kill you yet."

"I have to work with her Danielle. I gave you the files hoping that you could find a way to kill her. I have this camera on  loop. I have to say you did a lovely job at the club last night."

"Not good enough obviously."

"Did you mean to only wound Trevor?"

"I missed, how does that sound? Still haven't given me a reason to not kill you."

"As long as you take her down as well, it will be worth it." Chet careful puts his hand under his shirt and pauses as Danielle tightens the garrote.

"It's clothes for you, please?" Danielle lets him pull out what he went for. Danielle lets the garrote relax and places it around her wrist for easy access. She takes the body suit. She deftly removes the weapons that he is wearing about his person and has him go over to the manacles. There she has him chain himself up.

"I don't think it will take too long for you to be found. Nighty night." Danielle knocks him out with one blow from his gun butt.

She then swiftly gets dressed and leaves the cell without looking back at the man she's still not sure of his loyalties.

She goes throughout the warehouse looking for her aunt. 

"Well, well, well if it isn't the little cockroach. Your parents choose your handle well, Danielle. I never thought it would be so hard to fucking kill you."

"I never did anything to you aunt, so why the hell have you been after me?"

"Sins of the fathers and all that. Your father always was sloppy. If he'd of come after me and made sure of the kill then all of this would never have happened. Instead he left to take care of your mother. Didn't matter much anyway. Once the time was right I took care of both of them. It was supposed to take care of you too."

"You know, Kim, you lost what few brains you had years ago. You should have been satisfied with killing my parents and your parents. Instead you had to come after me and my husband. I thought you were dead, it would have been better had you remained dead."

Kim laughs, there is an edge of crazy to it that sends a ripple of fear up her spine. "You really think that you are leaving here alive?"

"No, I have no intentions of leaving here alive." Danielle's words make Kim stop her insane laughter abruptly. Now it's her turn to look scared.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, when you killed Max Williams you took away every reason I had for living. Even if you don't manage to kill me, Trevor will. He holds me responsible for his father's death. And as long as you're dead I'll let him kill me." Danielle states it as fact.

Kim turns whiter with every word Danielle says.

"You can't mean that?" Kim demands screeching at the top of her lungs. She knows that someone that doesn't have a reason for living will go to great lengths to do whatever is necessary.

"Oh, I mean each and every word." While Danielle has been talking to Kim she's been working her garrote wire into a different shape. 

She lunges forward and thrusts the wire into Kim's heart. Kim stares at her even as blood comes out of her mouth and her knees collapse.

Danielle collapses too. "It's over Max. You've been avenged."

Danielle hears someone clapping and takes all her strength to look up. "Jeremiah. Ah, so you are with her?"

"No, but I will take the two million reward for killing the Cockroach." Jeremiah raises his gun.

Two gunshots go off so close together that it sounds like one. 

Danielle smiles even as she welcomes the dark for one last time.