My Beautiful

by J. M. La Rocca

  Wiping the tears away from my eyes, I looked over at the food on the tray. I was starving, but how did I trust that something wasn’t done to the food? I contemplated the risk of eating, knowing he might have been lying.

  I sighed as the pounding in my head became worse. I knew I had to eat. If I didn’t take the medicine and eat, my head would only get worse.

  Placing my hand flat against the wall on either side of me, I hauled myself up and walked toward the tray. The food was covered by a tin dome and a glass of water was sitting next to it with two tablets lying next to the glass.

  Sitting down next to the tray, I picked up the two tablets and popped them into my mouth, then grabbed the glass of water and took a gulp to swallow them down. I felt dehydrated and wanted to chug the whole glass, but I didn’t want to drink all of my water since I didn’t know when I’d get it again.

  Placing the glass back down, I lifted the cover off the food. There, on a paper plate, were pancakes, bacon, sausage, and a biscuit. It must have been morning time since they were serving me breakfast, but I guessed that didn’t really mean anything either. It could have been late afternoon or dinner time for all I knew. I would never know since there were no windows and I had no idea how long I’d slept.

  I noticed there was nothing for me to eat with. I assumed they did this so I wouldn’t have anything to use as a weapon and a tin dome food cover wasn’t something I could hide discreetly.

  When the aroma of the food hit me, my stomach growled. Picking up a piece of bacon, I took a small bite and chewed slowly, trying to taste every ounce of the meat to make sure it tasted the way it was supposed to. Not finding anything wrong with it, I shoved the rest of the bacon into my mouth. It was completely unladylike, but I really didn’t give a shit. I was starving.

  Just five minutes later, I had emptied the entire plate and downed the rest of my water. My stomach was completely full and I felt drowsy again. I hoped like hell they hadn’t drugged me again and it was just tiredness from a full stomach.

  Getting up from the floor, I made my way back to the bed and realized that my head was no longer pounding. Thankful to have that pain gone, I laid down on the bed and tried to think of what the hell was going on.

  The only thing that came to mind was Kade and his uncle, but why the hell would I be locked in a room as if I were prisoner? It made no sense and I was scared out of my mind.

  As my eyes grew heavy, flashes of Kade played in my head. I wished he were with me.

  I’m not sure how long I slept, but when I woke up, I felt more myself. I stretched out my arms and legs, groaning as my bones popped from being on the uncomfortable mattress. Sitting up, I gasped, flinging myself out of the bed. My heart was beating out of my chest as I looked back up across the bed.

  I couldn’t believe my eyes. Getting off the floor, I ran over to Bryce, he was sitting in a chair in the far corner of the room. Sitting in his lap, I wrapped my arms around him burying my face in his neck and started crying. “Oh my God, are you stuck in here now too. What the hell is going on?”

  Wrapping his arms around me, he rubbed a hand up and down my back. “Shhhh, don’t cry, Scarlett. Everything is going to be okay. You won’t be here for long.”

  Pulling away, I looked at him. “How do you know? Where the hell am I and how did you get here? Do you have any idea what’s going on?” I lifted my hands to my face and wiped the tears away.

  “Yes,” he answered. He made a move to get up from his chair, so I got off his lap and went to sit on the bed. I watched him as he paced the room.

  “Look, Scarlett,” he said agitated. “Things didn’t go as planned.” He was running his hands through his hair and talking as if I knew what he was talking about.

  “What didn’t go as planned? What are you talking about?”

  “I want you to know, Scarlett, that this was my last option. I’m in some deep shit, and this was the only way out of it in order to get what I need.” He stopped pacing and stared at me. Getting a good look at him, I could tell he hadn’t been sleeping. He looked strung out.

  “Bryce, what the hell are you talking about? You aren’t making any sense. What was your only option?” My heart was racing in my chest. I had a bad feeling I already knew the answer to my own question and my stomach was wanting to throw up my previous meal.

  “You, Scarlett. You were my only option. You are my leverage in this whole fucked-up situation.” He growled and yelled as he kicked the wall. His hands were balled into fists and he looked utterly distraught.

  Tears streamed down my face at the realization that he was the reason I was taken, but I wanted to make sure. “You brought me here?”

  Turning from the wall he was abusing he looked at me with sympathy and nodded.

  “But why?” I whispered, shaking my head, trying to get the tears to stop falling.

  He let out a sigh and ran his hand through his hair again. “There’s a lot going on that you don’t know about, Scarlett. There is a war, a war in the mob world. People get shot every day in this business, but this is different. Vic wants to take over Frank’s businesses and exterminate the DiCosola line. There isn’t room for two bosses in the same city.”

  I sat there and listened to what he was saying. I just didn’t understand what it had to do with him. He was the FBI. Shouldn’t he be out there stopping it?

  “You aren’t telling me anything I understand, Bryce. What does any of this have to do with me and why are you not stopping this? How am I supposed to be your last option? What the fuck is going on?” I was pissed. How could he do this to me?

  “You don’t need to understand right now.”

  “Like hell I don’t need to understand. You fucking took me away from my home, Bryce. Does Kade know where I am?” I was trying to comprehend what was going on. Everything seemed so jumbled. Nothing was making sense. I started to feel nauseous again and wrapped my arms around my stomach.

  “You should lie down. You probably still have the drugs in your system,” he said with concern as he walked over to me. He pushed me down softly on the bed and moved the hair away from my face. I snatched my head away from him. “I’m so sorry things had to turn out this way, Scarlett, but Kade doesn’t know where you are.”

  New tears formed in my eyes. It really was a nightmare. “Where exactly am I, Bryce, and how did you get me here? I can’t remember anything.”

  He took a seat on the bed next to me and I cringed at his closeness. “Last night, after your dinner with your friends, I slipped something in your drink at your apartment. Then I carried you to my car and drove you here.”

  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “Please just get away from me.” Closing my eyes, I tried really hard to remember what happened the night before. I had gone to dinner with friends. I concentrated really hard to try and put the puzzle pieces together. I vaguely remembered Jules asking me if I wanted to go to dinner with her and Brent, but there was something else I wasn’t remembering.

  Then my eyes flew open and new tears formed in my eyes for an entirely different reason. The entire night came rushing back to me. Kade was with another woman. Tears streamed down my face again. How was I supposed to cope with all of this? It was just too much.

  Looking around, I noticed that Bryce had left. I must have been focusing so hard on trying to remember the previous night that I didn’t hear him leave. Well, good riddance. I was terrified and pissed. I didn’t understand what I was doing there. I certainly didn’t understand how I could be his leverage. He said that Vic wanted to take out the entire DiCosola line. That meant Kade too, didn’t it?

  I rubbed at my temples and willed the headache that was forming to go away.

  How is it that Bryce was involved with this Vic guy, and what are they going to use me for? Kade kept telling me that Frank or Paul would use me against him, but he was wrong. It was Bryce the whole time.

  I must have laid in that bed for hours thinking about what was going on out there. I knew Jules would be
worried out of her mind since I didn’t show up for work. She would probably call everyone looking for me, including Kade, but I didn’t know what he would do with that information. I had a really bad feeling about this whole situation.

  Hearing the click and seeing the doorknob turn, I sat up in bed and waited for my visitor to enter. Vic walked in with another tray of food. It was then I noticed the other tray had disappeared from where I had left it, and Bryce’s chair was gone.

  I watched him as he closed the door and approached me. I didn’t hear a clicking noise so I assumed the door was still unlocked. If I had a blunt object, I’d hit him over the head and make a run for it, but I still didn’t know where I was.

  “I was happy to see you ate all of your breakfast,” he smiled at me. “You look like you are feeling much better.”

  I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to answer him or not so I kept my mouth closed.

  He set the tray on the floor by my feet and looked up at me. “You missed lunch, so I brought you some dinner. When you are done, just leave it. Someone will be down later to get it.”

  He turned to leave and that’s when I decided to start asking questions.

  “Where am I exactly?”

  He stopped and turned toward me. “You are in my home.”

  “You have a cell in your house.”

  He let out a little chuckle. “Yes dear. This is my holding cell in my basement. It does come in handy when I need it to.”

  “Why am I here?” I asked sternly. “Bryce wouldn’t tell me. I think I deserve to know why I’m being held against my will. If what Bryce said was true and no harm is supposed to come to me, then just tell me.”

  He looked me over, probably contemplating what he would say next. “Ah, yes, Bryce wouldn’t say anything now would he. This is after all his mess.”

  I was confused. “What do you mean his mess? He said you were at war or something. Wouldn’t that be considered your mess?”

  He threw his head back and laughed. “Let’s just say that when I’m promised something, and I pay a hefty sum to have that promise fulfilled, I expect it to get done. Bryce knows the consequences.”

  “What does that even mean? It’s like you guys keep talking in code. I don’t understand what’s going on.” I was getting pissed that no one would giving me a straight answer, but I guessed they didn’t really think I deserved one.

  He smirked at me. “I told you before, Scarlett, all your questions will be answered in due time.” He turned and walked toward the door again, but before he walked out, I blurted one more question.

  “How long will I be here?”

  He turned and looked at me. “That, my dear, is all up to your precious Kade.” Then he walked out the door.

  I had no idea what the hell that meant, but it sure as shit didn’t sound good.

  I woke up the next morning extremely tired. Thoughts of what Scarlett must be thinking played in my head all night.

  “Fuck,” I groaned to myself as I rubbed my hands down my face. I knew I should have just gone to see her the previous night instead of letting her have time to herself. I had to figure out how to approach her about it. I didn’t want to be a dick and surprise her at work, but I didn’t want to wait until later either. I considered whether she’d actually go to lunch with me so that I could explain.

  Looking over to my side table at the clock, it read 8:11 a.m. She’d already be at work, so I needed to get up now and get ready. Throwing the covers off, I got out of the bed and made my way to the bathroom to take a shower.

  Fifteen minutes later, I was ready to go. I walked out the door bypassing my BMW and hopped onto my motorcycle. It had been awhile since I had taken her out for a ride; the journey I needed to make seemed perfect; I needed the freeing feel of the wind blowing on my face.

  I straddled my Raider S and started the engine, smiling as I revved her up. The bike wasn’t something most people would think I would ride and that was one of the reasons I bought it. The guys always said something about me getting a cheap-ass piece of metal, but I didn’t need anything fancy like Jaxon and his Ducati. I was never one to showboat and I definitely didn’t need to with this piece of equipment.

  Just as I was about to put my helmet on and kick up the kickstand, I felt my phone vibrate in my front pocket. Pulling it out I saw a number I didn’t recognize so I pressed the ignore button and put it back into my pocket.

  Grabbing my helmet that was resting on my handle bar, I slid it onto my head just as my phone starting vibrating again. Deciding to look and see who was calling me one last time, I pulled the phone out of my pocket to see the same number calling me. Thinking that maybe one of Frank’s men could be calling me, I pulled my helmet off and answered it. “Hello?”

  “Hey, Kade, is that you?”

  “Uh, who is this?”

  “It’s Jules. I hope you don’t mind, but Scarlett gave me your number.”

  Fuck me. I was sure Scarlett told her what she saw last night and she was probably calling me to bitch me out, like any good friend would do. “No, that’s fine. What’s up?” I just wanted to go ahead and get this over with.

  “I was calling to find out if you heard from Scarlett?”

  The way she was asking, didn’t sound like a pissed off friend to me. She sounded worried, which immediately got me worried. “No, I haven’t. What’s going on?”

  She sighed into the phone. “She didn’t show up for work this morning and it worried me. It’s probably nothing. She probably just slept in and has her phone on silent or something, right?” She took a deep breath. “She told me that if I ever had a bad feeling or thought something might be wrong, that I needed to call you or Bryce. And right now, I have that bad feeling. She’s never late for work, Kade, and if she is, she always calls. I tried to call her and Bryce, but no one is picking up. Then I called you and you didn’t pick up. I’m freaking out here. Thank God, I decided to try you one more time. And yes, I know you probably told her not to tell me anything about what is going on with you, but she did. She said she could be in danger, and now, I can’t reach her. I’m about to head to the apartment and see if maybe she just over slept or something,” she said breathlessly.

  I sat there on my bike in shock. This couldn’t be fucking happening. “No, Jules. Don’t go anywhere, just in case she shows up. I’ll head over there, but make sure you call me if she shows up at work.” She didn’t reply. “Jules, did you hear me?”

  “If something happened to her, I’m going to chop your balls off and stuff them up your cute ass.”

  “I know, Jules,” I said as I ended the call.

  I was frantic. I immediately tried to call Kevin. It was possible that he didn’t answer Jules’ call because he didn’t know her number, just like I didn’t. The phone rang five times before his voicemail picked up, so I tried to call one more time, just to get the same result.

  Fuck, something wasn’t right.

  Putting my helmet back on, I revved up, spun out of my driveway and headed toward her apartment. I hoped like hell nothing had happened to her, and Kevin had fallen asleep in his car.

  I weaved and sped my way through traffic, making it to her apartment in ten minutes. As I pulled up, I noticed that Kevin’s car wasn’t where it was usually parked. Asshole must have left and gone home to go to bed. I would punch that motherfucker in the face when I saw him. It would be his fault if anything happened to her, and I would make sure he knew it.

  I parked my bike next to Scarlett’s car, took off my helmet, and headed up the stairs. My heart was pounding in my chest. I really hoped she was there.

  As I approached the door, I looked for any signs of forced entry, but didn’t see any. That was a good sign. I knocked on the door and waited for her to answer, except the answer never came. I knocked again two more times, knocking harder and then lastly pounding on the door. Still nothing.

  I ran my fingers though my hair and started to pace around. “Think, think, think,” I mumbled to myself.
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br />   Pulling out my phone, I tried Kevin one last time. It rang with no answer, but this time I left a voicemail.

  “Where the fuck are you, Kevin? Call me back,” I growled and then ended the call.

  I stuffed the phone into my pocket and decided I wanted to try and break the door down, but first, I checked the doorknob. My heart sank when the knob turned with ease. This was definitely not a good sign.

  Opening the door slowly, I made my way into the apartment, making sure not to make any noise just in case someone was there. Leaving the door open, I quietly walked through the foyer into the living room and looked around to see if I noticed any disturbances.

  There was nothing. Everything looked to be in its place. This didn’t make any sense at all. What the fuck was going on?

  Striding down the hall, I opened Scarlett’s door and that’s when I felt nauseous. There were clothes scattered around everywhere. And I noticed her bed was made as if she hadn’t slept in it.

  I could only think of one person who would do this and I wasn’t sure why this would be happening since things seemed to be going so well. Unless something was going on that I didn’t know about.

  Pulling my phone out, I dialed his number.

  “To what do I owe the pleasure, Nick?”

  “Where the fuck is she, Paul?” I yelled.

  “Whoa, there buddy, what the fuck are you talking about?”

  “Scarlett, you asshole. Where the fuck is she? You guys did this shit to me last time, but this time, I don’t fucking know why. Now tell me where the fuck she is.”

  He let out a chuckle. “I’m sorry, man, but I have no idea what the fuck you are talking about.”

  “You think this is fucking funny?” I was livid. I was clenching my jaw so tightly, I thought I might break a tooth.