Don't Scream (Complete)

Chapter 31

Eli Bensworth

"You may not know this, Mr Bensworth," the woman continued, circling Eli as she twirled her knife nonchalantly. "But there's someone out there in the Chinese underworld who's paid a huge price for your head. As well as the pretty head of your female partner."

"What?" Eli muttered, unable to take it in. "You mean someone's put a price on me and Rhonda? Who?"

"An old friend," came the woman's response. "He wants you dead. Dragon was just a decoy. The Scorpions have been paid by someone to capture you and Miss Rhonda Willis and the trap we laid out was simple."

The woman knelt in front of Eli and that was when he noticed the Scorpion tattoo on the woman's neck.

"You see, we needed to lure you and Miss Willis to us. It was fairly simple. We killed off a prominent member of our rival gang, Tai Fung. This, of course, brought you to us. It was a simple matter of prompting a gang war with our oblivious rivals, then setting about capturing the two of you."

"You mean all this, the fight between Scorpion and Typhoon...it's all a trick? Just to get me and Rhonda?" Eli couldn't believe it. How many members of Typhoon had died for a false caue? How many Scorpions who hadn't been in on this plan had died for this?

"Yep. You wouldn't believe how much your friend's offering just to get his hands on you and your partner. Oh I can only imagine your head must be swimming with the suspense of it all, huh, Eli?" the woman taunted.

"Well then who are you?" Eli asked.

"My name doesn't matter. I'm the leader of Scorpion, that's all you need to know," the woman said.

"You're pathetic. You set up a gang war in the streets just to generate enough chaos to draw me and Rhonda to you? I expected better from the infamous leader of the Scorpions," Eli taunted.

"You can try all you want to make me mad, I'm not going to blow my top," the woman said, almost bored.

She drew up a second chair from the shadows of the room and sat in front of Eli. "Now all we do now is wait, Mr Bensworth, until my fellow Scorpions locate and capture your partner-"

Right on cue, the door slammed open and Rhonda was thrusted into the room. A large heavy-set man, also with a Scorpion on his neck, stood behind her, looking menacing in the dim light.

"Ah, good work, Bronco. Speak of the devil, she's right on time!" the woman said, kicking Rhonda with the tip of her boot in amusement.

Rhonda didn't stir. She'd been knocked out pretty good.

"Well then, who's this friend we keep mentioning?" Eli asked, raising his eyebrows, all the while trying to formulate a proper escape plan. "Seems to me he's offering up a hefty sum for the pair of us yet he's nowhere to be found."

"Are you sure about that, Detective?"

Bronco stepped aside as another man stepped inside the room. He was dressed in an immaculate black three-piece suit, complete with a white open-collared shirt. The man was taller than Eli by a couple inches, with an average but muscular build. He had a cold, harsh look in his grey eyes that seemed to Eli, strangely and disturbingly familiar.

"And who are you?" Eli asked, looking up at the newcomer. "Is this the man who you claim has been offering up cash for our heads?"

"Maybe," the woman said. "Bronco, leave us." 

Bronco bowed his large head, then set off down the hallway, closing the door behind him, leaving the four of them trapped in the room. 

"So, Detective," the man said, sighing, looking at Eli in disgust. "Finally, we meet, face to face. All those years I spent tailing you, researching up on you, thinking about this day. It's finally arrived." 

"Who are you?" Eli asked, hardly daring to breathe as he stared at the man standing in front of him in suspicion. In the back of his mind, he thought he knew this guy from somewhere. But the memory was maddeningly fuzzy. 

"Don't worry. We'll get to my identity later on. For now, how about we have a little chat?" the man suggested, sitting in the chair that the woman had sat down in previously. "I've waited years for this one moment and I won't let anything ruin it." 

"First off, let me start by telling you how hard life's been for me these past 10 years or so," the man began. "It wasn't easy, coping with everything after what you and your partner did to me. I started slow. I was sent for therapy. A psychologist by the name of Dr. Isaiah Morton was treating me. I wasn't happy. Dr. Isaiah didn't understand me. Sure, he tried to help me cope with the trauma of what happened. He told me it wasn't my fault. He tried to get me to forget about what happened. But I didn't forget. I couldn't. I wouldn't. How could I be so cold-blooded as to forget that one turning event in my life?" 

"I asked myself why things had turned out the way it did that one fateful day. If it hadn't been for me, he would still be alive, to care for me and to love me. But no. I was disobedient. I made noises and protested at the wrong times in the wrong situations. And then, you took him away from my life. I was devastated. I was traumatized. I was scarred for life, seeing him die before my very eyes! Did either of you have any concern over what kind of horrible effect that would have on me? Did you?" 

Eli licked his lips. The puzzle was beginning to piece itself together in his mind. Rhonda was awake now. She was lying on her back on the floor, looking up at the man and listening as well as Eli. The man rocked back and forth in his chair, looking slightly deranged, spittle flying from his mouth. The woman - leader of the Scorpions - stood behind him, looking at the back of the man's head in worry at his outburst. 

"After what happened, I vowed revenge," the man continued. "It sounds silly, I know, something a villain in a cartoon would say. But I meant it. I was so young at that age and yet so filled with hatred that if I could, I would have worked to find a way to kill you. To kill you both. To make you both pay for the damage you did to me. To make you both suffer the way I did. To snuff out your insignificant lives the way you did to him! Tell me something, did you feel any remorse? Any at all, when you killed him? Did you?" 

"I know you," Eli blurted out, the horrible truth dawning on him as he sat there, all feeling leaving his numb legs and hands. 

The man smiled, resting his hands on the armrests of his chair. "Good. But don't interrupt. After what happened, eventually, I ditched therapy. I told my mother that I didn't need to visit Dr. Isaiah anymore. Coincidentally, that was just before Dr. Isaiah was found dead in his office. Poor man was stabbed in the heart by a letter opener. Maybe he should have been careful with his words, hm? Anyway, eventually, I left my mother too. I ran away and worked my way up, earning money by completing jobs as a mercenary. I was still young at the time, though I was a teenager. There was plenty of jobs for a guy like me to do. I went overseas for a while and that was when I met Patricia, over here." 

The man reached over and tickled the woman's cheek lightly. Patricia - as it seemed her name was - forced a smile. 

The man turned back to Eli and Rhonda. "Well, I learned that Patricia was the leader of an international Chinese empire. One of the branches under her command was the local Scorpion gang, which operated in downtown San Francisco, coincidentally in your jurisdiction. This worked well to my advantage, so later on, after I'd earned enough money, I put a bounty on your heads, Detectives. Now you're here. Under my power. Let me tell you something, Detectives. Revenge is going to be sweet." 

"Xavier," Eli muttered under his breath, loud enough for the man to hear. "You're Xavier Greene. We killed your father, Alex, 9 years ago." 

Xavier leaned in closer to Eli, looking him dead in the eyes. Eli looked into Xavier's eyes. He remembered looking into Xavier's eyes 9 years ago. Back then, his eyes, no matter how young, were full of hate. Today was no different. 

"You're going to die here, Detective," Xavier smiled. "And no one's going to hear either of you scream."