Warriors ⎜ John Wick

Tredecim

Her head was pounding.

Voices drifted into her awareness but the state she was in made it sound as if they were all screaming.

Jessica rolled her head forward, her neck screaming at her and cracking with each movement.

Her eyelids stung as light burned through them and painted colorful schemes on the black canvas covering her eyes.

After a moment Jessica found the strength to pry her eyes open, tearing her eyelids from the crust of sleep that had formed. 

She was sat at the head of a large dining table with enough room to seat ten people. The chair that should have been opposite her was pulled a few feet away from the other end of the table. Taking up the space where the place setting would have sat was an array of items that made Jessica's pulse quicken and her breath catch. A set a brass knuckles and an intimidatingly large knife glistened alongside a pistol and crystal decanter.

Jessica's eyes continued to travel the path they were set on and found a man slumped in the end chair. Despite the blood decorating his features and the angle at which his head was hanging, he looked familiar. When his head lolled forward as he tried to shake the shadow of unconsciousness from his mind Jessica's heart stopped.

It took a moment for him to notice her, but when he did his eyes softened. The corners of his mouth tipped up but his bottom lip quivered imperceptibly to the untrained eye as he put on a strong face for her.

"Hey, Jessie." His voice was more worn than she remembered and he sounded tired.

Jessica figured she looked like a goldfish as her mouth opened and closed while she tried to find words.

"Daddy?"

A light sparked in Marcus' eyes at the name as so many old memories that he had forced deep into a safe place and protected fiercely resurfaced.

"I'm-"

"Ah! Krasota has awoken!" An average sized man dressed in a suit with the sleeves of his dress shirt rolled up entered the room. Several other men followed behind him along with one face that Jessica was familiar with. Her lip curled up in disgust as Ms. Perkins smirked down at her and her eyes twinkled dangerously.

"I was quite worried you would not wake up." In any other situation Jessica might have found the man's accented voice soothing, but she knew that he controlled her fate. "Perhaps that would not have been so bad, after all it is my turn to take everything from John. However, that would not have sent the correct message."

Viggo. That was the only way this situation made some semblance of sense. Jessica stared at him with wide eyes, wondering how someone that looked so normal could be the mob boss who held her life in the balance.

Marcus jolted forward in his seat, the only thing holding him back being the men on each of his arms and his exhaustion. "Don't you dare touch her."

Viggo chuckled and moved to her side. He wrapped a lock of her now knotted hair around his fingers and let it slip through. Jessica was the most terrified she had ever been. She didn't dare to breath as her knuckles ached and turned white and she could feel the soft wood of the chair giving way beneath her nails.

"Why shouldn't I?" His matter of fact tone sent chills running down Jessica's spine. "After all, these past few days have been very stressful for my men. I'm sure they could use a sort of release."

Marcus seethed and struggled underneath the grip of his captors as he watched silent tears slip down his daughter's cheeks. "She has nothing to do with this." Desperation was beginning to leak into his voice and Viggo smiled.