Chapter 40

Realisation 

warning: mild talk of torture

The large room with it’s two sofas, TV, coffee table and mini bar was packed, there were twenty men sitting and standing round talking in low voices.

Some of the men were still in their high vis jackets, others were in suits and some were even in exercise clothes, all manner of shoes and hard hats were stacked up by the lift door. 

As William stared at them he saw the many different tattoo’s that came out of their long sleeves, all of these men were those that were in that terrible room with him.

They had dropped everything to come and make sure he was alright, William felt his emotions swell again. 

Trying to keep his voice steady and his eyes clear William said in a cheery tone, “what brings you all here?”

There was a murmur of soft laughter, like the sea rushing in over stones. Stepping forwards William said, “thank you for your concern but I’m alright, you don’t need to worry about me, it was just me blowing what was said out of proportion... Oh Fuck! Rick’s seen the fucking video!”

Every man in the room paled, those that were standing sat heavily down where they were. Mathew grabbed Luke and managed to stop him hitting the floor hard, but both of them went down. 

The two psychos had used a old battered VHS camcorder, they had filmed all sorts of parts of the week they spent torturing William. 

They had filmed all the most horrendous bits, including when they sliced open his balls. There were multiple VHS tapes of the brutality adding up over 24 hours.

All of the Bosses were implicated on the tapes and they had each been sent a copy as a sort of Mutually Assured Destruction system. Over the years parts had surfaced and been brutally repressed by the Bosses. 

William knew that the tapes had been transferred onto hard drives and each Boss kept theirs in a safe, but he had never seen the full thing and no one had ever referenced anything on them to him before. But how else could Rick have known?

What to do? What to do? What to do? William’s mind was whirling but he had no idea what to do.

Sat on the sofa Peter asked with a shaky voice, “Boss are you sure?”

Looking at the floor and taking a deep breath William said, “He said to me, “how’s it hanging William? Free and easy? Oh no wait their back in their sack. Shall I continue?”” William’s voice was trembling with rage and shame, and his skin had lost it’s colour by the end, but he kept going, “there is no other way he could know, unless someone told him, but who would have told him? Especially those specifics.”

Every fist clenched and all of them looked pale, no one could meet William’s gaze.

William felt warmth slide round his upper waist, looking down he saw Mathew’s pale hands and he felt his body on his back silently comforting him.

The men in the room all held each other for comfort too, looking back William saw Luke hugging Mathew from behind, his eyes red with sadness and anger.

Understanding what he had just done to everyone William felt instant remorse, “I’m sorry I shouldn’t have sprung it on you all like that. I can’t believe I didn’t figure it out before.”

Every red eye turned up to William and many of the men said;

“I’m glad I know.”

“This concerns all of us.”

“I want to know.”

“What do we do?” 

Peter asked a tall dark skinned man in a suit near him, “Garry have you seen anything about the video online?”

His head and voice shaking Garry said, “there has been nothing.” 

Grabbing his lap top, that he was never far from, Garry shut out everything else and went to work, the sound of his fingers tapping was loud in the silence.  

They all waited with baited breath.

William absentmindedly covered Mathew’s hands with his own.

After 2 minutes that felt like an eternity, Garry looked up and said, “Its still clear, no signs of it anywhere, but I’ll keep searching.”

The collective sigh was like a strong autumn wind blowing out of them all.

Having regained some of his senses George said, “what do you think he is planning? Could he be doing this on behalf of Boss Leoni?”

Muffled behind William’s back Mathew said, “I know I’m not part of this and tell me if I’m over stepping, but I don’t think Boss Leoni knew. When I told him what Rick said, he was horrified and told me to take William out as quickly as possible, I’ve never seen Boss Leoni look like that.” Mathew’s voice was humble and he hugged William tighter as he said, “I’m sorry if I shouldn’t of told him. I didn’t understand what was going on, I just wanted to get you away from there, I didn’t want anything else to happen to you.”

Turning in the smaller man’s embrace and with a reassuring look to Luke above his head, William gently lifted Mathew’s chin and looking into his watery eyes said, “if it hadn’t been for you, I would have smashed Rick’s face instead of that wall and then Boss Leoni would have had no option but to retaliate against us. It is because of you that we are all currently safe.”

Tears started to run down Mathew’s cheeks, “if it wasn’t for me you never would have been put in that situation in the first place. I’m so sorry to you all, my life isn’t worth all of yours.”

Every heart in the room melted, they had all said something similar over the years and knew what William would say.

“Then you make it worth it, you do everything you can to make your life worth the sacrifices made for it, I believe in you Mathew, you have good to give this world.”

Held between William and Luke, Mathew’s tears silently ran down his face.

Strangely, encouraging Mathew made William feel better and holding the smaller man to his side, William said to the others, “that is true of all of you, even if that video gets out, we all have good we can give this world and I’m determined to do all I can, are you with me?”

The men all sat up a little straighter and said as one, as they had many times over the years, “I’m with you Boss!”