“What’s wrong? Is it Aiden, Elsie? What is it, baby? I’m here for you.”
“Oh God, Cobus, a bill came today. Something from that special surgeon. It’s for twenty thousand dollars.”
“Oh my, that is a lot of money.”
“Where did it come from? I thought you paid everything and that I only owed five thousand more.”
“I paid the bills that were present at the time. It isn’t uncommon for others to slowly show up months, even over a year later,” he said to her.
“I can’t pay this. I don’t know what to do.”
“Let’s meet and talk about it. I’m in Closter, not too far from Benter. Meet me and we’ll talk. Bring the bill with you.”
“I don’t know if I can.”
“If you want to handle this, then we need to meet and discuss things. I’d hate for a collection agency to come after you, and start taking things from you. They can empty your account and your savings,” he said to her.
“Oh God. Okay, what time?”
“Come as soon as you can. I’m staying at the Windsor. Just call me from the lobby. You know I’ll help you, C.C. You can count on me.”
She agreed to meet him, and then he ended the call. He didn’t quite smile though. He now had to worry about four large soldiers that would stand in the way, especially if they had already slept with her.
“Clyde, get me what you can on the men. Some pictures where they are, where I could take them out if need be.”
“What? You want to kill people?”
“No, I just want to threaten to kill people to get her to cooperate, to break things off with them and obey my command. Do it.”
C.C. was so distraught that she headed right for the hotel. She texted the guys that something had come up but that she would see them later. She didn’t bother to answer the phone, and an hour later she was at the hotel. She got to the front desk and asked for them to ring Cobus’s room, but then they were escorting her to the elevator and she was on her way up. She had an uneasy feeling in her gut. It had been months since she’d seen Cobus, and she really didn’t want to ask him for help with this bill, but where else could she get twenty thousand dollars? She couldn’t ask Conan and the guys. She would never do that to them. It would make things awkward between them, and that wasn’t fair. She should have realized that things were going too well to last.
As she got to the room, the penthouse of course, there was a man there to greet her. “Miss Myer,” he said. She walked into the huge suite, and the man guided her into an area that was as large as a living room. This place was three times the size of her entire cottage. She swallowed hard.
“Mr. Conseco is on the other line. Can I get you something to drink while you wait?” the man asked.
“No thank you.” She held her purse in her hand and waited there.
“C.C.” She heard Cobus’s voice, and when she turned around he stood there in business attire and smiled wide as he looked her over. She was glad she had dressed in the skirt and blouse, and looked good and up to his standards. After all the man was wealthy and used to dealing with professional people. She felt like a loser. Like she would never be able to obtain the lifestyle, the financial freedom she always worked so hard to get. She was in a constant rut, a negative state of mind, and it was hard to even focus. “Oh, sweetie,” he said and pulled her into his arms. She hadn’t even realized she was in such a daze.
She closed her eyes, and the tears flowed. “I can’t believe this is happening to us. I was going to send you the last five thousand. I wrote out the check, the envelope,” she said, and he caressed her back, inhaled against her hair. She tightened up, feeling an odd sensation. She pulled back and wiped her eyes.
“God, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize how freaked out I was.” She saw that her tears were on his suit blazer, and she reached out and brushed them away as he gave her a sympathetic smile.
He took her hand and held it. “Come on, come sit and have a drink,” he said, and she walked over to the couch. The man who let her in poured them some kind of brandy or something. She was shaking.
“Take a sip,” he said, and she didn’t want to.
“No, I need to drive back home.”
“No need to rush. We have things to discuss.” He looked her over. When he trailed his palm along her knee she knew something was up.
“Before I forget.” she said and reached into her purse, scooted a little to the left, and took out the check.
“This is the five thousand I owe you.”
“Hmm.” He took it then lifted it toward the man who took it from his hands and then walked out of the room.
Cobus stared at her. “Twenty thousand dollars is a lot of money,” he said to her.
She nodded. She took out the bill and showed it to him. “I don’t understand why it came this far after.”
“Maybe they couldn’t find your new address? You did move out of the area rather quickly.”
“I needed to get away from there, and so did Elsie.”
“Well, what’s done is done.” He looked at the bill.
“I can make this disappear, C.C., but it will cost ya,” he said to her, and she squinted at him.
“Cost me?”
“I will pay this debt, but then you must pay me back.”
“Oh,” she said and released a sigh. “I plan on doing that. Just like I paid the other bills to you. I’ve been working very hard and—”
He reached out and cupped her cheek.
“Not in quite the same way. You see, I need you close by. An amount of money like this entails a contract and trust between us. You would work at my estate, and at the club.”
“What? No, no, I can’t do that. I have jobs in Cherry Hill, and one I’m working on that could lead to better pay and something consistent and professional,” she said to him.
“Oh, you mean for Morgan Chase? Yes, I heard about that. Could make for a nice salary. However, that’s not what I want.”
“What do you mean what you want? How do you know about Chase? About—”
“I know everything that’s going on in your life, C.C., including about the men you’re fucking,” he said, shocking her. She went to stand up, and he gripped her wrist and pulled her back down. She gasped, and he clenched his teeth.
“I’m going to explain how this is going to work. You will listen and comply, or there’ll be consequences.” The tears hit her eyes, the sick feeling that she had been tricked and that all this time Cobus was just like his son. A monster.
“You will work for me, spread these thighs for me and only me.” He slid his palm between her legs. She closed them and pulled back, and he yanked her underneath him. Cobus was a big man and a capable one. “You don’t comply and Aiden and Elsie will have another terrible accident and will die. Those boyfriends of yours will wind up dead, too.”
“No, no, Cobus.” She shook her head.
“Clyde,” he called to the man, and the guy walked out with an iPad. “Show her those men,” he said, and the man Clyde showed her a picture of Freddie and Birdie in town.
“I can kill them in a second. Make an accident happen. I have the ability to do that, just as I had the ability to make Dylan believe that his woman betrayed him, and even spread her legs for other men, had Aiden calling them Daddy, and that you were part of it. I got him the drugs, and put the ideas in his head. I can do the same thing again. I own you, C.C.” He licked his lips and then cupped her breast.
She grabbed his hand. “Why are you doing this? You’re sick. I was involved with your son,” she yelled at him and cried.
“And he screwed things up with you by trying to share you. I won’t screw things up when you’re in my bed underneath me. Your new life, and new debt starts now.” He pressed all his weight over her so she couldn’t move, and he kissed her, moved his mouth along her neck and her breast as he pressed his hand between her legs.
“Just a little introduction as you learn obedience.”
Elsie
knew something was terribly wrong when C.C arrived back home. She didn’t say a word and went right to her room. Thank God Aiden was napping.
“C.C. what’s wrong? What’s going on?” she asked as C.C. undressed. Immediately Elsie saw the scratches on her back.
“Oh my God!” She said.
“Don’t,” C.C. barked and walked to the bathroom to turn on the shower.
“Who hurt you? Was it Conan and them?”
C.C. shot a look at her.
“Who?” she pushed.
Tears flowed from C.C.’s eyes. “It doesn’t matter. Nothing matters anymore. Not working hard, not fighting, not surviving. I should have known that happiness wasn’t in the cards for me, for us. Please, I need to shower and change.”
Elsie walked out of the room and saw the purse on the bed. She walked over and saw the envelope. She opened it up, and the sight hit her hard. A bill for twenty thousand dollars? Elsie sat there, her heart racing, and a thousand questions went through her head. When C.C emerged in the towel, eyes red and shaking, she demanded to know what happened and where the bill came from.
“It doesn’t matter anymore. I have to pay it back.”
“Pay who and with what?”
“Pay Cobus, Elsie, and by working for him and being…accessible to him, okay? Get it now?”
“Oh Jesus. He hurt you? C.C., did he rape you?”
C.C. began to sob as she shook her head. “No, but he will. He knows about Axel, Conan, Freddie, and Birdie. He threatened to hurt them, and he has someone watching them. He has someone watching me. He’s hurt you and Aiden, Elsie. I have to go work for him.” She got dressed, and Elsie was in shock.
“No, he’ll rape you. He can’t get away with this. You need to tell your men, to tell Cherise and her men.”
“No. No, I can’t tell them. I have no choice or all of you will suffer. It was inevitable. All the fighting, the struggling was for nothing,” C.C. cried.
“There has to be something we can do.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know but something. You’re the one who talks about this town, these people. That they are capable of so much. Confide in someone. Don’t stop fighting now,” Elsie said, and then C.C.’s cell phone buzzed.
She reached for it and more tears fell. She read the text aloud. What is this? How could you do this to us? What the fuck?
“Oh God.” C.C. turned the cell phone to Elsie, and Elsie was shocked to see the pictures. It looked like Cobus was having sex with her on a couch. Her top was undone, his mouth on her neck, and his body wedged between her legs, her skirt to her waist. “He sent those to Birdie and the guys. Now they think I cheated on them.”
“You’ll tell them the truth. You’ll get help from Cherise, from the sheriff.” Elsie cried now, too, and C.C. sobbed.
“It’s over, Elsie. There’ll always be men like Cobus to manipulate and take what they want from people like us. People struggling to be free, to have a better life. He’s destroying everything. He’ll hurt you and Aiden, and I can’t let that happen.”
C.C. was so tired, her eyes swollen, her stomach hollow. She didn’t even look to see what time it was as she got out of bed, went to the bathroom, saw how crappy she looked, and then headed to the kitchen. She glanced into Aiden’s room, her head pounding when she noticed his bear sitting on the floor and his bed unmade. When she got to the living room and kitchen she didn’t see him, but she saw the open door. “Aiden! Aiden,” she called out and ran to the door, opened it, and looked outside. She ran back inside and to her cousin’s room, and Elsie awoke from C.C. screaming, “He’s gone. Aiden is gone.”
C.C. ran for her phone when she heard Aiden call out to her. “C.C., I’m here. I’m with your friend,” he said, and she ran back to the living room and stopped short. There stood Cobus holding Aiden’s hand with Clyde and another guy right beside him. Cobus smiled and looked her over.
“Change of plans. You’re coming with me.”
Aiden ran toward Elsie and C.C. “He said he’s taking C.C. to a party and that she’ll bring back some candy for me. That she’ll be gone for the week working. I was sad, but he said that she would be back and that she was working hard so C.C. could buy me something special,” Aiden said and then hugged C.C.
“I will miss you, but you’ll have fun. Mommy can tell Birdie, Conan, Freddie, and Axel that you had a party to go to.”
“Oh no need to worry about them, Aiden. C.C. will be very busy with me. Freshen up. It’s a bit of a ride to where we’re headed,” Cobus said, and then Clyde ruffled Aiden’s hair and held C.C.’s gaze.
“Cute kid,” he said in warning.
C.C. looked at Elsie. “I’ll be right back.” She placed her cell phone down and then hurried to the room to change. She couldn’t let Aiden see her scared. Cobus had just made sure that she knew what he was capable of. She had no choice here. Cobus ruined everything for her with Birdie, Freddie, Conan, and Axel. She had to go with Cobus in order to protect them all. She had no choice.
As she put on her skirt and reached back for the zipper she jumped as Cobus entered the room. She stared at him through the reflection in the mirror.
“I hope you realize the power I have, and the capabilities here,” he said and reached for her skirt to zip it up, but not before he stroked the thong panties and along her skin. She shivered, and tears filled her eyes.
“No tears. You cooperate and I’ll be a gentle lover, even though it’s obvious you’re into the kinky stuff.” He kissed her neck, zipped the skirt, then slid his arm around her waist to cup a breast. “I couldn’t wait until Wednesday evening. I want to get things started right away. Tonight will be our first night together, the first…payment to that debt.” He suckled against her neck, and she tried breathing through her nostrils. “Let’s go,” he said and took her hand and led her out of the bedroom, past Elsie who was about to cry, and Aiden who hadn’t a clue as to what was really happening.
“Wait. Let me say good-bye to Elsie,” she said, and Cobus released her hand. She hugged her cousin and whispered into her ear.
“The money in the safe. Take it and the gun and run. Hide and don’t ever try to find me or look back. I need to know that you’re both safe.” She squeezed her, and Elsie gulped as C.C. gave Aiden a hug told him to be good and left with Cobus.
“What? Wait, slow down please. I can’t understand you,” Cherise said into the cell phone.
“Where do you live? What is the address? I’m C.C.’s cousin Elsie and she’s in trouble. Please.”
Cherise could hardly understand what was happening as she gave the address then ran to tell her men. Birdie, Freddie, Conan, Axel and Seager, Law, Caldron, and Zinc were there, too.
“Cherise? What’s wrong?” Rome asked, and Eric, Landon, and Kenny narrowed their eyes and got to her.
“C.C.’s cousin Elsie just called and is on her way here. I don’t know how either because of her injuries, but she says that C.C. is in trouble. That she needs help.”
“What?” Conan asked.
They all headed toward the front of the house, and a few minutes later C.C.’s car pulled up, driving unsteadily, and then came to a stop. They hurried to the car door.
Elsie was crying, Aiden was too as Birdie opened the door and pulled him up into his arms. Kenny and Seager helped her from the car, and she cried and moaned.
Some Kind of Wonderful Page 14
