Reckless Regrets
Chapter 53

Tyson

Watching the entire scene unfold was surreal and one of the most entertaining things I’d ever witnessed. Whalen and his guards completely forgot all about me as they charged the guy. I was pretty sure I heard someone call him Oscar.

He was thrown face down to the ground, and I couldn’t help but wince at the pain I’m sure he felt in his still hard d**k as it was smashed between his body and the ugly brown linoleum.

“I trusted you, I’ve never once doubted anything you said, and this is what you’ve been doing? And somehow, the f*****g prisoners know about it?!” Whalen screamed at Matilda.

She was still on her knees, drenched in Oscar’s piss, and who knew what else, with very little to say. She’d been caught outright, and it would take an act of god to get her out of this. I made myself comfortable against the wall and watched everything take place.

“I won’t ask for an explanation, there is no way you can explain this sick s**t, but I want to know why you would betray me,” Whalen stated.

Matilda pushed herself off the floor then walked to a counter where she grabbed a towel and wiped off her face and chest. This woman had no shame and didn’t care one bit that four men, besides her husband, could clearly see her bare breasts. I guess we were a little too late for tact and decorum at this point.

“Are you really that surprised? We haven’t touched each other in months, and your weird aversion to skin-to-skin contact is a huge turn-off. Who wants to f**k through a sheet, Whalen?”

Damn, that’s way more information than I ever wanted to know about this couple.

“You could have said something! Now you are impure and will need to be cleansed. I won’t stand for this, Matilda. You will repent and ask for forgiveness before you will ever be welcome back into our marital bed,” he commanded.

Huh, so he was a religious freak? I can’t say I expected that, but this guy had been weird from the beginning, so I wasn’t surprised.

“I’m not repenting for anything, and the only cleansing I’ll be doing is a quick shower before I make my rounds. You don’t own me, and you can’t tell me s**t!”

She looked him right in the eyes and showed no fear. I could tell by both by the way he was shaking with fury and the look on the guard’s faces that no one spoke to Whalen this way.

He took a moment to compose himself, then smiled.

“Guards, take Oscar for an acid bath, level three.”

Oscar began to scream and thrash on the ground, and Matilda took a step towards him before she was roughly snatched back by her husband. She shook it off, or at least she tried.

“Level three? Is that necessary? All the guy did was pee on me,” she casually stated.

“Level three. And you will repent and be cleansed, or it will be level four,” Whalen responded.

“No! Get the hell off of me; I just did what she asked me to do! You can’t do this to me,” Oscar screamed out.

What in God’s name was an acid bath? Well, I could guess from the name, but level three and four? What was that all about?

“Level one, and I’ll do your f*****g cleansing,” Matilda bargained.

“Please; level one barely scrapes the surface. It’s three, and if you keep testing my patience, it’s four for the both of you,” he replied.

“I’ve got dragon burns, remember? Your acid is nothing compared to what I suffer every day. And besides that, you’d never give me a bath, don’t fool yourself,” she scoffed.

Whalen stepped forward and slapped Matilda as hard as he could across the face before he clamped his hand onto her neck and squeezed. My first instinct was to stop him, but the voice in my head stopped me.

“Just wait. We want them to blow up on each other, remember? I know it may be hard to do, but just let it play out a little bit,” Xander said.

I cleared my throat and continued to watch.

“This is the problem, you underestimate me, and you always have. Take him; level four,” Whalen looked to the guards and ordered.

Oscar begged and pleaded, but there was nothing that he could do. He was dragged naked through the halls to wherever his torture awaited him. I saw a few tears drop from Matilda’s eyes and watched her face begin to turn red from the grip her husband had on her neck.

“You, my dear wife, will pay for this. Do you think you know pain? These burns are nothing compared to what’s coming to you.”

He then proceeded to drag her out of the room and down the same hall we’d just walked.

“Get back to your god damned cell, now! Full lockdown!” he yelled as he went.

He relayed the lockdown into his walkie talkie before turning the corner and continued to pull his wife behind him.

“We can’t do anything about them right now, Tyson. If you try and save Matilda, which I know you’re thinking of doing, we lose our window to get the girls out. It’s her or them,” Xander warned.

f**k! I hated this. On the one hand, Matilda was a nasty piece of work who deserved everything she got. But she was also a woman who was in grave danger of being hurt by her husband. Could I ever forgive myself for leaving her behind? Could Taylor ever forgive me? I had to do something; I had to at least try. I took a few steps towards the door, then was stopped in my tracks.

“Tyson? Baby, stick to the plan. I know it’s hard to do, and you hate to see a woman hurt, but you’ve got to get Marisol and Gabriella out. Otherwise, all of this would have been for nothing,” Taylor’s sweet voice said.

I looked around and saw that I was still alone.

“Are you okay, Sunshine? I know it was probably hard for you to watch. I’m sorry you ever had to see something like that again.”

“I’m okay. I didn’t see much; Xander just asked me to come talk to you. It will be alright, just get the girls out,” she told me.

“I was one second away from chasing Whalen down and beating the hell out of him,” I replied.

“I know you were. Even when you’re playing a bad guy, you’re still good. You’ve gotten this far, just a little further to go. Do what you need to do and come home,” she said.

“Yes, Ma’am. I love you.”

“I love you too, and be careful. I’ll see you soon.”

Before I could reply, a team of guards stormed the hall and pinned me against the wall.

“Full lockdown means back to your cell. Not even you get a pass,” one said as I was shackled behind my back.

“Yeah, yeah. Help a guy out and expose his whoring wife, and this is the treatment I get?” I asked.

“You’re lucky you didn’t get an acid bath along with Oscar. Now move.”

Oscar. That poor soul was going to suffer unimaginable pain, and I’d bet my entire bank account that it was probably Matilda who initiated all this shit. She wasn’t the most attractive woman, even without the burns, she was the spawn of Satan, and she was the boss’s wife. Three strikes; no man in his right mind would see her and think of starting up an affair.

But he’d agreed to it and was caught pissing on her. I think walking in on them having s*x would have been less of a blow to Whalen and probably less of a punishment for Oscar, but that was only speculation at this point. Walking back into the common area, there was a ton of noise from everyone voicing their displeasure with being locked down for something they had nothing to do with.

Banging, cursing, screaming, and yelling, it was a raucous blend of sounds that immediately made my head throb.

“We shouldn’t hear too much commotion out of you, or will we? Since you’ve got two ladies in your cell, I’m sure you’ll have a much happier lockdown than the rest of these animals.”

After I was unshackled, I was pushed into my open door before it was slammed shut and locked behind me.

“I f*****g hate these guards. I’d knock their teeth in if it wouldn’t derail the plan,” I said while walking further into the room.

“How did it go? It was quiet, then all of a sudden, guards were everywhere, and it was complete chaos. I’m guessing that was your doing,” Marisol said.

“I’d love to take credit, but that has to go to Matilda. I’ve got two words for you: Golden Shower.”

Marisol looked disgusted, but Gabby just looked innocent and confused.

“Golden shower? What is that?” Gabby asked.

“Oh, girl! You don’t want to know, but I’m going to tell you anyway,” Marisol began.

I took my seat in the corner and stretched out listening to the girls talk, prisoners protest, and the Blue Moon team plan our escape. As soon as the sun went down, it would be time to bust out of here.

***

With the noise, the smell, and the anticipation, it seemed that this day dragged on, but eventually, the sun sunk below the horizon, and it was time to move. The 3-D map showed that the shower wasn’t the only benefit to this room.

There was a pitiful excuse for air conditioning that had abnormally large air return ducts.

The ladies would fit comfortably, with no problems, but I would have to work to get through. Who knew what kind of dust, dirt, and other bullshit I’d be covered in when I got out, but it was the only option.

The noise from the lockdown continued, so it made for the perfect cover for what I needed to do.

“Three feet from the window, to the right,” Kade said in my ear.

I walked along the wall, slowly allowing my tracker to show my location on the map so the guys could get the exact spot I needed.

“Right there! The duct is behind the wall and runs down to the basement. The girls are going to need to use some serious Spider-Man moves to hold on to the sides and keep from having a three-story drop and shattering their feet and legs, but I know you can figure it out,” he said.

“Alright, ladies. Go wash your hands and make sure they are as dry as possible; and lose the shoes. You’re going to need to be able to grip,” I turned around and said.

They got up without a word and walked to the bathroom while I examined the wall. I’d have to punch through it and was not looking forward to it.

“How thick are these damn cinderblocks?” I asked.

“Uhh, it looks like about six inches. Just get one lose, then you can pull them out,” came the reply.

“I can do that.”

I wrapped a thin shirt around my hand and drove my fist into the wall as hard as I could and waited. The noise of the riot never let up, and it seemed that the sound I would be making would easily be drowned out, so I continued.

It only took a few hits before I got through one block and began to pull them from the wall. The fact that maintenance meant nothing to Whalen and Matilda made my job much more manageable. By the time the ladies were back, I’d managed to make a hole about five square feet and exposed the rusty old duct.

I pulled out the tools Ronnie’d given me and took the small hand saw, which easily cut through the damaged sheet metal with no problem. Ten minutes from start to finish, and we were ready to go.

I poked my head in and found the space way too tight for my liking and just as dirty as I’d expected. But it was better than swimming through s**t in the sewers, so I wouldn’t complain.

“I had this in my cleaning stuff. I figured it could help,” Gabby said as she passed me a small can of cornstarch.

I’d only used it for cooking and had no idea how it could be a cleaning supply.

“Mix it with water, and it’s a great glass cleaner,” she offered.

“Huh. I never knew that.”

I poured some into my hands and made sure they were coated entirely, then tossed the can to the bed. The girls had already covered their hands, so we were ready to go.

“I’m going to go first just to make sure the basement is clear. I know it’s loud, but I need you to listen for my signal. When you hear the rhythmic tapping in the duct, whichever one of you is coming first can make your way down. Hold on to the sides as best you can, but I’ll be at the bottom to catch you if you happen to lose your grip. I know you’ll want to rush, but go slow. We don’t want anyone getting hurt,” I instructed.

“Okay. Gabby can go first, and I’ll go last. If anyone happens to come to the door, I’ll just tell them that you’re in the shower or something and that Gabby is with you. I doubt anyone would ask questions,” Marisol stated.

“That works. You ladies keep watch, pay attention to everything until you both make it down to the basement with me.”

Once I was confident that they would be okay, I entered the hole feet first and began to wiggle my way down. It was a tight squeeze, but the thinness and degraded state of the metal made it much more comfortable than I’d expected. It took about fifteen minutes for me to make it to the bottom since I didn’t want to make any more noise than necessary, and when I reached to vent, I didn’t hear or see any movement below me.

I took a deep breath and kicked downward, sending the metal grate crashing to the floor. Again I waited for any sounds and heard none, so I allowed myself to drop to the ground. Once I’d landed, I quickly began dusting off and stretching. I wasn’t claustrophobic, but being so enclosed made my heart rate speed up just a little bit.

I was happy to be out.

When I was ready for the girls to come down, I grabbed a broom leaning on a nearby wall and prepared to tap the “go” signal.

“I figured this was your doing. We haven’t had a full lockdown in over a year, but as soon as Hades showed up, here we are. I didn’t think you’d actually do it, but I guess that’s what made you the best in the world, you’ve got balls,” came a voice from the shadows.

The southern drawl gave it away instantly. It was Blaze.

“Blaze? What the hell are you doing here?” I whispered.

“What you think I’m doing? I’m coming with you. I changed my mind about hanging out; I’m going to go get Fiona and get these eggs to safety,” he replied.

“I don’t have the bandwidth for another person; it’s impossible,” I argued.

“Well, make it possible, Big Boy. Either all four of us leave this place tonight, or none of us. Your choice.”