Lost in the darkness, Redman wasn’t sure how long had passed. Time became an abstract concept until eventually the rumbling all around him stopped and the roar of the engine went silent.
He waited, senseless, for almost a minute before the boot of the vehicle opened. In that long moment, all he could feel was the rope bound tightly around his wrists and ankles. Hands grabbed Redman and hauled him out of the vehicle, tossing him harshly to the ground. He hit the dirt hard, the air viciously sucked from his lungs.
Now in the light of the Mornington Peninsula bubble, Redman saw Jesse standing above him. The young man grinned and ripped the duct tape from his captive’s mouth.
Giving Redman a swift kick in the ribs, Jesse said, “Remember, don’t say a thing, or else our window tinting experts will come for you. They’ll show you just how efficient they can be when it comes to handling glass.”
“I got it,” Redman said, wishing he could rub his upper lip, now flaring with pain. “I won’t say a thing about how I was taken by a commercial window tinting business from Melbourne that believed I was here to do some tinting for Gideon. Don’t worry, I’ll keep my lips shut.”
“Great,” said Jesse, walking back to his car. “Then our business here is done. Good riddance.”
“Yeah, I’ll see you in hell, buddy.”
Jesse got back into the vehicle and started the engine up, then drove off, leaving Redman in front of the mansion he was supposed to meet Gideon at earlier that day. Redman wasn’t really sure what they expected him to do now, given he was a little tied up.
It wasn’t long, however, before the automatic gates of the mansion began to retract, and a man in a red robe approached. From his angle on the ground, Redman could just see the man’s face tattoos.
Lorenzo had come for him.