Kane(61)

I screeched when pressure suddenly gripped my leg and fresh pain shot through my body.

"Good girl, open your eyes."

I snapped my eyes open and glared at the scumbag before me. He removed  the hand that he placed on my leg and sat back in the chair.

"Tell me," Philip smiled, "what is the sex of Kane's brat?"

I placed my hands on my stomach in a protective manner.

"We don't know yet," I whispered.

Philip hummed to himself but said nothing.

"What do you want with me?" I asked, my body trembling.

Philip laughed, "It's a pity for you, but I need to hurt Kane and to do  that, I need you. You just happen to be a good woman involved with a bad  man."

That struck a nerve.

"Kane is a good man, and you won't be hurtin' him at all."

Philip snickered, "You're goin' to stop me, are you?"

You bet your arse I am.

"Does this make you feel like a man?" I asked. "Injurin' a pregnant woman."

Philip's face hardened. "I don't see gender - just a person who is my key to getting want I really want."

"Which is what exactly?" I snapped.

Philip didn't hesitate as he said, "Kane's misery."

I blinked. "Why do you want to hurt Kane?"

"Because he hurt me," Philip hissed. "I tend to level the playing field."

My eyes automatically zeroed in on the scars that covered half of his  face. Philip caught my staring and evilly grinned, "Yeah, he caused  this."

I swallowed but said nothing.

"Why would Kane do that do you?"

Philip snarled, "He did it indirectly."

I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion then groaned as a severe pain began to pulse in my leg.

"How-" I cut myself off to gather my bearings. "How could he do it indirectly?"

Philip set his jaw. "He set the fire to purposively burn someone else  and got me as well as them. He locked me in a room to burn."

I blinked. "He wouldn't do that."

Philip sat forward, reached out and smacked me across the face so hard  my head snapped to the right. I screamed and lifted my hands to my face,  shielding it.

"You don't fucking know Kane Slater like I do. I created the prick, I know exactly what he is capable of."

I uncovered my face and stared.

He created me.

My thoughts went back to a conversation I had with Kane over a week ago  when he was telling me about his past. I stared at the man before me,  annoyed with myself that it took me so long to figure it out."

"You're Big Phil," I murmured.

He laughed, "Big Phil is what my boys call me, you can stick to Philip."

"I prefer dickhead," I grunted then widened my eyes because I didn't mean to say it out loud.

Philip laughed so hard he had to wipe under his eyes. "Ah, I like you, darling."

I grunted in response.

"Can I ask you a question?"

I looked away. "I'm sure you will ask me anyway so go for it."

"Why Kane?"

That caused me to look at him.

"What?"

"Why Kane?" Philip repeated.

I blinked. "What do you mean ‘why Kane'?"

"Well," Philip began, "most people judge him based on his appearance -  like they do me. They are frightened of him, and peg him as a bad guy. I  mean, he must be bad to have so many scars, right?"

I growled, "He told me those scars are because of you and Marco."

"He forced my hand. He could have remained pretty as a flower had he done his job."

I seethed in anger.

"His life would have been a lot different. He looks big and scary now,  but he wasn't always like that," Philip mused, a grin on his ugly face.  "It's amusing to me how he got to look like a monster by trying to do  the right thing."

I hugged my body. "What do you mean?"

"He told you how he got the scars, right?"

I slowly nodded my head. "He said they were from his old job, the shit you made him do."

"That's a no then," Philip chortled. "He didn't tell you the details  because he thought you would see him as evil. Predicable Kane."

That piqued my interest.

"If you're goin' to tell me what you're talkin' about, spit it out already," I growled. "I don't have all day."

Philip cackled to himself, "Little hellcat."

I glared at him.

"Okay, little miss pushy," Philip chuckled. "Your man is the best  enforcer I've ever come across. It's like he was created to work for  Marco, just like his brothers. Alec has a knack for making people come,  Dominic has a knack for knocking people out, Ryder has a knack for  moving very fucking large shipments of product undetected, and Kane?  That boy has a knack for making people scream in a very terrifying way."

My stomach contents rolled around my stomach.

"You see," Philip smirked, "Kane is very aggressive when he is mad. He  has a tendency for blacking out during a fight. He turns into an animal  without being aware of it, and I like to take credit for it."

"How can you take credit for somethin' like that?"

"Well," he began, "it was my idea to try shock treatment after the whippings became ineffective."

Whippings? Shock treatment?

"I-I don't understand."

Philip clicked his tongue at me. "Sure you do, you're a smart woman. Think about it for a second."

I did just that.

Kane received whippings and shock treatments from Philip... but why? The  more I thought about it, the more the answer became clear to me.

"Y-you tortured him into becomin' a weapon for you?" I asked, my voice so low I didn't know if Big Phil heard me.

"Yes and no," he replied.

I looked at him. "What does that mean?"

"At first when Kane received a whipping, it was punishment, not torture."

I snarled at him. "Punishment for what?"

I didn't want to ask that question, but I had to know.

"Kane was the man to go in and hurt someone who fucked me or Marco over.  Let's say a man owed some money for product, but he didn't have any  money to pay for it. Kane wouldn't hurt him, he would hurt his loved  ones until payment was received. He only ever hurt the person in  question, sometimes killed them, if nothing would come for simply  hurting them."

I felt tears well up in my eyes.

"If he did all that, then why would he be punished?"

Philip smirked. "He didn't like hurting the kids and woman of the  scumbags he had to extract payment from. For every refusal, he received a  whipping."

"But he has hundreds of scars!" I bellowed.

Philip chuckled, "Why do you think I said we switched to shock treatment when whipping him became ineffective?"         

     



 

I wanted to vomit.

"He looks like a monster, but inside, he is actually a nice guy, which  sucks for him because no one will stay with him longer than a few hours.  He is pretty fucked up, you know?"

I spat in Philip's direction. "I'm with him. I love him."

"And he loves you," he replied rubbing his shoe against my side table to  wipe my spit off, "and that is exactly why killing you will break him."

I stopped breathing.

"You... you're goin' to kill me?"

Philip smiled at me. "Yes, I am."

"Why?" I whispered.

"Kane let my son burn to death, so I'm returning the favour."

I widened my eyes to the point of pain.

Philip's son was the person Kane locked in a room that was on fire?

I shook my head clear and focused on the main point of what he said. "What do you mean burn?" I screamed.

Philip stood up and retrieved a plastic bottle from his coat pocket-I  guessed it to be a seven hundred and fifty millilitre bottle. He  uncapped the bottle and began to squirt the liquid around the room.

I gripped my knee as Philip moved over to my storage press. He opened  the door and pulled out numerous books and boxes of blank paper. He  kicked the lids off the boxes of paper, picked up handfuls and threw  them around the room. He then squirted more of the strong smelling  liquid on the paper.

My insides churned and panic set in when he reached into his pocket and  took out a silver lighter. He swiped it against his thigh and stared at  the flame he created.

"He killed my kid," Philip said as he stared at the dancing flame then  flicked his eyes to me, "so I'm killing his and his girl. He'll know  what it feels like times two. I'm not going to kill him, but I'm going  to cause him so much hurt that he wishes he was dead."

He threw the lighter on the desk closest to mine and the desk instantly  went up in flames thanks to whatever liquid he poured on it. The flames  spread around the room. Wherever the liquid was squirted, a flame was  there.

I looked around my room and screamed. I couldn't see a thing through the flames and the growing thick black smoke.

I heard a door slam so I looked back to where Big Phil was stood seconds  ago, but he wasn't there. Through the flames I saw my classroom door  was closed so I screamed as loud as I could for him to come back for me,  but he didn't.

He left me to burn.

Tears streamed down my cheeks as I stood up off my chair and tried to  walk towards my classroom door. When I put weight on my injured leg, I  instantly fell to the ground, hitting the floor hard. I screamed so loud  as the blinding pain took control of my leg. I began to cough then, and  that snapped me back to reality.