“Why should I help you?” he asked deadpan.
“Because I hate Victor as much as you do, possibly more, and I need somewhere to stow away for a few days where I can’t be disturbed.”
“And what is in it for me? I’m not a f**king charity,” he says, his voice cold and emotionless.
“What do you want?”
“I want Brax and Shay away from Victor.” Fuck! He wants the impossible.
“The only way to do that is to turn them against the boss man. How do you expect me to do that?”
“I don’t know. I don’t really care, but I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. I’ll text you the address.”
I let out a huge sigh of relief. This plan of mine might actually work. “I’ll pay you.”
He bursts out laughing; a cold, maniacal laugh that chills my bones. “I don’t want or need your f**king money, Gibbons. But don’t worry, I’ll get what I’m owed. One way or another. Don’t you worry.” And with that, the line went dead.
That was two days ago.
Now, my GPS tells me I’m one hundred feet away from my destination. I turn into the driveway, and I’m confronted by a decrepit rundown cabin which doesn’t look big enough to swing a cat around, let alone hold two adults for a few days. It’ll be cosy, but I’m running out of options.
I bring the car to a stop around the back of the wooden building and hop out. I push a warped wooden door open and flick on a light switch. There is a rusty wooden bed in the corner of the room, with a ripped two seater couch along the front wall. There is an old wooden table along the other wall, beside a doorway presumably leading to a toilet. At the very least, I f**king hope there is a shitter in this dump.
Jamming one of the dining room chairs under the front door handle, I walk back out the back door to bring Elise inside. As much as I’d love to leave her in the trunk, I’m not an animal.
I pop the trunk open, and all I see are her wide open eyes, full of fear and the unknown.
“I’m taking you inside now. If you fight me, I’ll fight back. Understand?” I talk slow and clear to her, my voice low, almost soothing. I want to make sure there is no room for misunderstanding. “I’ll let you walk, but don’t even think of running. I have a gun and I’m not scared of using it,” I spit out, lifting my shirt and showing her the piece attached to my hip. Her eyes dart down to my gun and quickly back up to my face as she nods quickly. I can see her chest rising and falling rapidly, and she’s constantly blinking her eyes like she’s trying to hold back tears and appear tougher than she really is.
“Okay, I’ll lift you out,” I say as I lean forward and hook my arms under her torso, hoisting her out and placing her feet on the dirt ground. I let her go for a second to shut the trunk, and she makes a run for it.
I yell at her retreating back. “Fucking bitch! You’ll pay for that.” I run after her, getting angrier as I hear her loud screams for help echo through the darkness. I catch up to her, making a grab for her legs and knocking her over, flat on her face onto the gravel driveway.
Towering over her, I look down at her now bleeding head. Her face grazed, small pieces of gravel and grit sticking to the blood trickling down her cheek. “Fuck, now I’m gonna have to clean you up. Maybe next time you won’t try running, you stupid little rich girl.”
“W…w…hat do you want from me? I can get you money, however much you need. Just please don’t hurt me. I just want to go home,” she stutters and starts to cry.
“You bet your ass you will, but we’ll deal with that later. Right now you need to get inside and cleaned up,” I say, bending down and lifting her up by her bound arms. I look her over as I’m holding her. Damn, Brax got himself a nice piece of tail. No wonder he raced back to her side.
I shake my head. Eyes on the prize, Gibbons. My mind is racing a million miles an hour. She’s f**king bleeding now and looks like she’s been beaten. Fuck! If any of the boys see this, they’ll kill me first and ask questions later. God, that’ll probably happen anyway if they find me. I need to get the money and get the f**k outta dodge.
Otherwise, the only way I’ll be leaving here will be in a body bag, and there’s no coming back from that.
Two f**king hours.
She’s been gone for two hours already. All I can see when I close my eyes is her scared face, her eyes filled with terror. I’ve been going mad, trying to think of who has taken her and where they may have gone.
Thankfully, there were cameras in the restaurant’s hallway, but not in the alleyway. That was always going to be a stretch. While Shay and I were talking to the police, Devon went with one of the officer’s to view the restaurant’s security tapes. When he saw the moment that Elle was grabbed from behind, he called us in to take a look.
I knew straight away that it was Gibbons. I’d know that silhouette anywhere. The bastard was hiding in the supply closet. God knows how he knew she would be alone. He must have been watching us, biding his time. Sitting there, waiting for his opportunity. We never would have followed her to the rest room. How were we to know that she wouldn’t even be safe going to the toilet?
Watching this man, my former supervisor, viciously grab Elle has my blood boiling. I’m seeing red, and I know I need to calm down in order to think clearly, but seeing him wrap his hand around her mouth and watching her body slowly go limp shatters me.
My poor girl. She’s been through so much already, and now because of me, because of my connections to Victor Bertorelli and Gibbons, she’s been snatched and is lying somewhere scared and helpless. I know she’s strong, but she hasn’t been exposed to this dark underworld before. I’ve never wanted my past life, the one I desperately want to leave behind, to touch her.
I storm out of the office and into the alley again. I can hear Shay calling my name behind me, but I’m blocking him out. I’m trying to block everything out. I reach the brick wall lining the alley and kick it hard. The pain rushing through my foot pales in comparison to the pain ripping through my heart.
“Fuck!” I yell into the night sky. “Fuck, f**k, f**k!” I brace my arms against the wall, resting my forehead against the cold rough bricks.
“Brax, you need to calm the hell down and think. Where would he take her? Who would he know around here that would help him?” Shay says, putting his hand on my shoulder.
I spin around and look at my best friend. I know he’s struggling with this too, but at least he’s still able to think rationally.