River O'riley

... THE NIGHT OF THE FULL MOON ...

As Deyton and I approach the front of The Factory, a group of black-haired beauties stand out front in stockings and stilettos, smoking their cigarettes and chattering back and forth in chirpy-sweet Cantonese..

I whistle short and sharp to Deyton and nod my head in their direction, implying I've found our ticket inside.. He glares at my suggestion but shrugs in indifference to the plan, zipping up his jacket to conceal the guns beneath his hefty winter coat..

"Hiya girlies!" I lower my shoulders to appear less intimidating as I approach the talkative collection of women with a friendly smile.. They all begin to giggle, playing coy, twirling their hair around dainty fingers and making kissy faces..

"Ooh hiii, Mister Big Sexy!" Flirts one of the more confident, English speaking, Raven haired-honeys.. "You like me?"

"Yeah China-doll, I like ya.." I lean against the brick wall beside her, looking down at her neck, seeing no Triad tattoo that matches Lilly's.. This girl doesn't appear to have any ink, at least from what I can see.. Which is just about everything.. She smells like grapefruit and mint and her eyes are an almost volcanic black..
She's way too pretty to be standing out on the street..

"I like all of you.." I wink, casting a glance around at each of their cute faces, looking for the Tri-rose brand and not finding it on any one of them..

They continue to laugh and flirt, whispering to each other in their natural tongues, thinking that they're keeping secrets that really I can easily understand..

"You take us all Mister Big Sexy?" The dainty Doll challenges me with a sweet smile.. She's a damn fine saleswoman, I'll give her that..

"Awh yeah.. Every last one o'yer.." I grin at the leader of their pack and she beams with excitement.. "How's about ye' take me upstairs China-Doll?"

"What about you friend?" She points over my shoulder to Deyton who shuffles awkwardly on his feet behind me, obviously uncomfortable around beautiful women..

Fucking lunatic.

I don't know what his problem is.. I dont really fucking care, all he's got to do is stay sane for five more minutes so we can get this job done fast.. "Never mind him, Dolly.. He just likes to watch.. Dontcha, Dey?"

He sneers at me.. "Err, whatever.."

I smile at the girls.. "He's shy.."

"Oooh Mr creepy peepy!" They all giggle and make their jokes and I chuckle at their cuteness..

These girls are funny.. In between their flirting I catch some of their whispered Cantonese phrases here and there.. One of them calls me a 'delicious western beast' while another makes her bets that she can convince the 'creepy peeper' to participate..

"Come on Big Sexy and Mr Peepy, we have special plan for you!" The China-doll takes my hand while the others gather around Dey, leading us straight through the front doors of the Triad whorehouse..

The skinny guy sitting by the entry who is supposed to be watching the first floor barely looks at us in their company.. His attention is too fixed to his phone where he watches porn.. The animalistic sounds of a woman grunting drifting from the tinny speakers..

The Triad don't get a lot of trouble in their own stomping ground and I can see the effect of it in their lax security.. In the middle of the week it seems nobody is expecting anything exciting to happen.. Only a handful of men wander the area..

The air is humid inside the old factory, heavy with the scents of sex, sweat and jasmine.. We pass by silky black curtains as The China-doll leads me towards the staircase..

"You got money, Mister Sexy?"

I chuckle at my new nickname as she stops me at the bottom of the stairs.. I reach reluctantly into my back pocket, pulling out my wallet.. "How much?"

She looks over my shoulder at the four other girls, calculating her best price.. "One hundred each."

I cringe at the terribly low cost of admission that is still too rich for my blood.. They must really need the money.. "I got 350." I pull the remaining cash from my wallet, holding it up before her eyes..

She snatches it from my hand.. "Okay. I take you, but no Mr Peepy."

I look over at Dey waving an impatient hand.. "Pay the lady, Private."

"You gotta be fucking kidding me!" He grunts and I glare at him until he digs around his pocket for the remainder of their money..

When he produces it, the girls all cheer and China-Doll allows us to proceed as a group up the stairs..

Once at the top I look around to get my bearings, across the sea of lounges surrounded by a sea of silk I see the door to a back room.. "What's in there?" I point..

China-doll unzips my jacket, her hands already busy feeling me up and I have to grab her dainty wrists before she snakes her fingers around to feel the glock at my back.. "You like private room, Mister Sexy? We go upstairs."

She starts to lead me towards another staircase.. But I squeeze her hand to stop her..

"Take that cash and your girls upstairs, lock the door and stay quiet."

She puzzles.. "But Mister."

"Don't make a sound, do what you're told, Dolly, and nobody gets hurt." I pull the pistol and her sharp eyes widen in realisation and she begins to frantically nod as she pulls against me.. Anything to get away..

I let her go and she gathers up her flock, heading them upstairs in a hurry..

I whistle to Deyton and he follows me across the room, through the curtains where the ladies lay around naked and dazed out on drugs.. None of them in half a state to pay us any mind..

None of them having the observational wits to see that they should be leaving.. They remain blissfully unaware, until Deyton walks right up to the Triad guarding the back room door and socks him in the jaw so hard I can hear the sound of Triad bones breaking..

"AHHHHH!!" Some girls fall to the ground in fear while others run, screaming..

The sole of my boot collides hard against the old timber of the back room door and it splinters as it flies open..

With only a milliseconds to assess the three Triads who stand around the room, I turn my rage on the biggest, baddest looking fucker..

He looms over the foot of the bed, half undressed down to his boxers and socks.. Beneath him, Amberley shivers, nearly naked and white with shock..

Without a moment's doubt, I know that it's him.
Li Jun.
The pocked scars on his face and Mountain Masters tattoos give him away.

Lilly had described to me the slave owner during one of our late night talks, the intricacies of his ink and battle beaten mug..

Having caught him all too literally with his pants down and unarmed, I can see the gears of his mind shift as he considers his next move..

I trust that he isn't the kind of guy to go down without a fight, so I don't hesitate to train my sights on him while Deyton's shout shatters the slow motion moment as the adrenaline reaches its blinding peak inside me.. "GET DOWN BUG!"

Jun dives for his jeans and Amberley crumples to the floor as the trigger tightens against my twitchy finger..

-BANG-BANG-

Jun takes a .22 in the guts as my first two shots ring out and the other Triads react, each reaching for their weapons before Deyton mows them down in an overzealous hail of fire..

-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-

Amberley picks up Li's pistol, running back towards the door as I move in on Jun, kicking his jeans aside before laying my boot into the back of his head..

Deyton sweeps in for a dead-check.. When he aims his rifle at the unconscious, barely breathing Mountain Master, I bark a strict command of him to stop.. "No! Not him."

He hesitates.."What?!"

"Watch the door." I take the zip ties from my jacket pocket, crouching down to bind his hands behind his back and his ankles together before I hoist his dead weight up over my aching shoulders.. "I'm takin' this one."

The fucker is heavy!
Goddamn..

"You're one sick fuck, O'riley." Deyton calls over his shoulder at me as he covers the door, soon..

-TAT-TAT-TAT-BANG-BANG-TAT-TAT-TAT

Dey clears the way back out to the lounge where Amberley shivers in her tiny knickers with a heavy pistol clenched in her fist.. It's of some comfort to me that she knows how to use it because I taught her, though I'm less so confident in her current capability since she is halfway through what appears to be a panic attack.. "We gotta go, Riv.. We gotta go now!" She urges me to hurry as my focus moves past her to fall on a face that I recognise..

"Lucy?" I call to the familiar beauty, hiding behind the sofas with several other tricks.. She peeks out at me with recognition in her sad golden honey gaze.. "You remember me, sweetheart?"

Slowly, Lucy stands and nods bravely..

"Do ye' wanna come with us?" I coo softly, holding out a hand to her, balancing a fucking wilderbeast on my back..

She steps forward and the other girls gasp, trying to hold her back by the arms..

"Wǒ bù huì shānghài nǐ. Xiāngxìn wǒ.." I tell her that I won't hurt her, that she can trust me and she commits, shaking off the others and taking another step coming to join our trio, standing behind Amby..

"Okay hero, let's fucking gooo.." Dey calls and heads us out.. We make our way downstairs with the two girls between us.. The distracted dude who'd been tasked with watching the door has disappeared and not a single woman tries to intervene as we leave..

They really are the smarter sex and all the better off for it..

When we hit the street and reach the car, Amby pops the trunk and Deyton scoffs at it's contents as I dump Jun's lumping mass in there.. He leers at the reels of tape and coils of rope in the back as he helps me manoeuvre The Mountain Master into the boot of the car.. "You just drive around with an abduction kit in your trunk?"

I chuckle as the lock clicks and Jun is successfully contained.. "It iint' an abduction kit, dumbass.."