Nate's Evil Exploits Pt. 13

"Burro, help me!" shouted Enrique.

Between them, they dragged Nate away from Gypsy.

Panting with fury, his lips flecked with spit, Nate watched as Diego knelt beside his fallen friend.

"Esé! Esé! Get up and finish him!"

Gypsy lay still.

Diego let out a moan as he noticed blood pooling under his friend's head. "No, no."

Nate watched with savage elation as the blood ran into the channels between the tiles, slowly seeping into a neatly symmetrical grid.

"He's not moving!" Diego shouted at Burro. "What do I do?"

Burro left Nate with Enrique and crouched by the fallen man. He put his fingers against Gypsy's neck and glanced back at his brother.

"Enrique, clean up the chico and take him back to his cell. I'll deal with him." He glanced back at Gypsy. "And don't tell that hijo de la puta about this. I'll tell him myself."

As Enrique shoved Nate under a stream of cold water, Burro propped Gypsy up against the wall. He patted the man's face, while Diego looked on, on the verge of tears.

Nate knew it was all for show; to give Nate precious time to get out of there before all hell broke loose.

After thirty seconds Enrique turned off the water and forced Nate, drenched and shivering, back to his cell.

* * * * *

Burro came to him an hour later with a folded orange uniform in his hands. He shut the cell door behind him and shook his head at Nate.

"Why did you go do that? I told you I wouldn't let them hurt you."

Nate sat up and Burro put the orange scrubs beside him on the bed.

He picked up the trousers and found two meal replacement bars nested on top of the shirt below. Without a word, he pushed the bars to the back of the bunk, out of the way of the camera, and turned back.

"I'm done."

He stood and pulled on his trousers, then dropped the orange shirt over his head.

"You don't have that kind of say, esé," said Burro. "You just killed a man. You know there's going to be consequences."

Nate shook his head. "I'm not getting out of here by being compliant. Colin's right, I don't have what it takes to ride it out. Twenty-eight more days of those pricks fucking my mouth? Fuck off, mate. I can't do it."

Burro said nothing.

Nate clenched his hands into fists, digging his nails into his palms. He had no idea what to do.

He looked up at Burro. "What's going to happen to me now?"

"If it was up to me, nothing. Gypsy had it coming. Even Diego knows that. But it's not up to me."

"Does Colin know?"

"I told him there was an accident. I think he believed me."

Nate bit his lip. "Let's get out of here. Come back with me, back to London. Make a new life. I can help you get set up."

"With you, chico?"

Nate realised his mistake too late.

Burro read Nate's agonised expression and his shoulders dropped. "It's okay, esé, I know I'm not your prince."

Nate bit his lip. "Two weeks ago, you might have been. But there's someone I need to get back to. Someone who needs my help."

Burro's heavy brows drew together. "This the chico on the video?"

Nate was instantly alert. "What video?"

Burro paused, and there was something in his eyes that made Nate very, very nervous.

The Latino man waved a hand. "No. No. I've done my part, I don't want nothing to do with that." He headed for the door. "I'll do my best to keep you alive, but I gotta—"

"You gotta do what you gotta do," Nate said. He sighed.

As Burro pulled the door open, Nate tried one last time. "He needs me, Burro. He doesn't have anyone else."

But the other man shook his head and pulled the door closed behind him.

* * * * *

After he'd gone, Nate ate one of the meal bars and hid the other one under his mattress, then did his best to sleep. He was guessing he was going to need energy to get through whatever came next.

He woke as Colin came into his cell holding a laptop. Enrique hovered behind him, and Nate could see the guard was nervous as hell.

Colin ran an eye over Nate. "You've caused quite the stir today, haven't you my lad?"

Nate was so weary of the man's contempt, he barely had the will to be civil; but the laptop meant Alec, and right now, Alec was everything.

Colin gestured to him. "Come on. I'm not staying in here with you; not after this morning. You can come down to the staff lounge where the other lads can keep an eye on you."

Enrique handcuffed Nate and forced him to walk in front of them, the gun trained to his back.

They reached the staff lounge, and Colin attached his laptop to the TV in the corner of the room.

Leaving Nate's hands cuffed, Enrique sat him in an armchair and stood behind him.

Dotted around the room, the Kings watched Nate like a pride of hungry lions. He could tell from their stillness that they were under instruction not to touch him. Well, for now at least.

He met Diego's eyes, and the other man's expression told him exactly what he would do to Nate when he got the chance.

Burro took a seat near Nate, tensed as if he was expecting trouble.

Jo Jo sat in a chair by himself with no visible sign of emotion, while Bulldog got himself comfortable, apparently unconcerned that Nate had just killed his friend. Maybe Gypsy wasn't his friend. Come to think of it, Nate doubted Gypsy had many friends outside of Diego.

Hancock sat in a chair by himself, flicking a switchblade out and then folding the blade away again. Out, then away again.

Colin finished tampering with his laptop and moved a video on to the TV screen. The still image showed Alec's face looking directly into a camera lens.

"What is this?" Nate asked.

"This," said Colin, "is his video diary. The home asks all the lads to record their progress."

Nate felt a twitch of disgust that Alec's privacy was about to be betrayed, but at the same time he was desperate to hear the kid's voice.

Colin started the video.

"—so it's the seventeenth today, I think." Alec checked something on his desktop. "Yeh, the seventeenth. And I'm here at the—"

His next words were muted and the image blurred, so that Nate couldn't catch where he was.

"—an' they want us to talk about how fings are going."

He paused and picked up a can of energy drink. He drank for a moment, then set it down, his eyes distant and thoughtful.

"It's confusing, 'cause like—I really thought Nate was starting to like me—like, proper like me. But in the session this morning they was saying that people like him just use guys like me till they get bored, and then move on to the next one." He sniffed. "I guess I knew that, but I thought it might be different this time."

Nate could only watch in tortured silence as Alec took another sip from his can and went on.

"Like, I know it's all manipulation and shit, what they're doing—but they was saying stuff like, how did I feel about myself, and did I love myself. And did I think anyone loved me."

Nate's throat constricted. He dug his fingers into the chair's fabric arms, his jaw clenched.

Alec took another sip.

"I was like, 'course I love myself, bruv. You can't love anyone else unless you love yourself."

Alec gazed away from the camera and put his hands into the pockets of his oversized hoodie. He thought for a moment, then looked back at the camera.

"The more they talk about what people like him do..." he paused and bit the inside of his lower lip. "Maybe they're right. That he only cares about himself. That he can't care about anyone else because he's all, like, fucked up and shit."

Tears filmed his eyes as he looked directly into the camera. "I mean, what kind of person uses roofies? Who does that?"

He looked away and a tear spilled down his cheek.

"Maybe I just go for, like, the predators because I don't think, after what I've done, I can be loved like I want."

He took his hands out of his pockets and put the backs of his hands to his eyes, wiping his tears away.

"Fuck this."

He clicked the mouse and the screen went black.

The room was silent. Nate stared into space, his knuckles white as he dug his fingers into the chair.

He knew there were thoughts in his head, but all he could hear in his mind was white noise.

He jumped as Colin snapped the laptop shut and unplugged it.

"Is it my turn now?" asked Diego.

Burro looked at Nate. There was a heaviness in his eyes.

"Yes," said Colin quietly. "Now it's your turn."