by Jordan Marie
I’m at the flower shop giving approval to the bouquets and tying up last minute details. Dragon sent Bull along to watch over me. I’m glad he’s here, he’s probably one of the brother’s I’m closest to, but since the accident, he has changed. I’m not sure how to help him, but I understand it. Totally.
“Going outside, Nic, I got to make a call. Don’t leave the store till I come back,” he grumbles, and I strain to hear him. He doesn’t talk loud these days; it pains him. He’s got a nasty scar along the side of his neck, and I know it bothers him.
“Okay, Bull.” I nod, looking at the beautiful pink roses the florist has put together with baby’s breath and wishing Dani could see them. I hear the bell sound as the store’s door opens, signaling Bull’s departure.
“These are beautiful, Trish. I love them,” I say honestly and hope she doesn’t detect the sadness in my voice.
I hear her gasp and look up. The man who delivered the note from Michael is standing beside her with a gun pointed to Trish’s temple.
“Ms. Wentworth, I’ll need you to follow me quietly through the back without making a scene.”
“Like hell I will,” I’m not going a damn place with him. If I do, it’d be like signing my death warrant.
“You will, or your friend here dies. It’s your choice.”
My eyes lock on Trish’s. She’s crying and the sobs shake through her body. The man has his gloved hand over her mouth to prevent her from screaming. I look over my shoulder, trying to spot Bull through the shop’s main window. His back is turned to me as he talks on the phone. There’s no way to get his attention, and I’m not even sure what he could do if I did. I turn back to look at the man.
“She’s innocent,” I try to stress.
I listen to the sound of the hammer cocking on the gun. It seems extraordinarily loud.
“Stop! I’ll go. Just don’t hurt her!”
He takes the butt of the gun and slams it on top of Trish’s head. Her eyes roll backwards and she slumps against her captor, unconscious. He reaches out and grabs my arm before I can run.
“Don’t make a sound. I can still kill your friend and you before anyone can make it to you. You do have a child to worry about, do you not, Ms. Wentworth?”
I nod stiffly once, then allow him to pull me and my child into the back room. I hope Bull finds us missing quickly. It’s not much, but that hope is all I’ve got right now.
We’re in a limo. The creep (my name for him) and I are riding in the back, and someone else is up front driving. I can’t see because the screen is up. We’ve been riding for a while, but I have no idea for how long. I can’t think past this giant lump of fear in my throat. Eventually we stop. I look around, it’s an abandoned grade school that the county shut down a few years back. The weeds have grown up around it, the windows have been shattered here and there, and the brick is faded with cracks in some of them. I’ve passed it before, but until this moment, I never realized how evil it looked.
When the vehicle stops, creepy guy grabs me by the arm roughly and pulls me out. I’m not the most graceful person right now, so I fall to the ground. I wince as gravel digs against my ass upon impact.
Shit, that’s going to leave a mark.
“Get up.”
Gee, not so cordial now.
I have to angle myself to the side to get up, but eventually do. He grabs my arm roughly again and pulls me along to the front entrance. If Dragon was here he’d feed this man his entrails. I decide that if the baby and I survive, I’ll tell him all about the guy, so he will.
He pushes me inside, ahead of him, and it takes everything I have not to fall again. I look up when I finally come to a stop, but immediately wish I didn’t. Standing in front of me is the devil himself. Michael Kavanagh. Realistically, I knew it would be him, since it was his henchman and all that kidnapped me, but I just didn’t want to see the asshole again.
“Hello, Nicole.”
“Asshole.”
His face tightens in irritation. I know it’s not smart to upset him, but I can’t keep from doing it, to be honest.
“I see you are the reason for the decline in Melinda’s manners.”
“That probably has more to do with the fact you’re a butt munch,” I say back to him, and I really wish I could control my mouth sometimes, because I know that is going too far. I should be more cautious, because it’s not just me now, it’s the baby.
He slaps me hard with the back of his hand. I stumble backwards, holding the side of my face.
“I would watch my mouth, Ms. Wentworth.”
I really want to say more, but I bite my tongue hard to keep from doing so. The coppery taste of blood enters my mouth.
“You do know that Dragon’s man has already discovered I’m missing and they will be on your ass any minute.”
“I do know they’ll be here soon, but it won’t matter. By the time those imbeciles arrive, we will have already made our deal.”
“I’m not entering into any kind of deal with you.”
“Oh, but you are, Ms. Wentworth.”
“No, I’m really not.”
He motions over to creepy dude. The guy nods and walks towards a set of double doors. It looks like it used to be a gymnasium for the school. Michael puts his hand on my lower back to steer me towards the room. My skin crawls at the feel of his touch, and I jerk away, giving him a scathing look. I walk in front of him though, because I know arguing will only get me or my child hurt. The fact that I’m pregnant won’t bother Michael at all. I’m sure of that much.
As we enter the room it’s dark and musty. A small amount of light is filtered inside by tiny rectangular windows that line the top of the large, main area. Most of them are taped up or covered somehow on the outside, so you can’t really see anything inside. I blink my eyes, trying to focus. That’s when I see a small movement in the corner. I freeze, afraid they are walking me into a trap. It’s a stupid reaction really, because come on, what could I do if he was marching me to my death? Still, it’s there. Michael pushes me from behind to walk farther, and I stumble trying to resist. Once we make it about half-way through to the room, creepy dude breaks away. I see him walking to a small doorway. It’s close to where I had seen the movement before. I lose sight of him after that, and I look back over my shoulder at Michael. He looks so smug and condescending all at once. How can one man be so cold and bone-deep ugly?
“Dragon will find you. There’s no place you can hide.”
“Oh Nicole, how you do warm my heart being so naïve. I’m not going to need to hide from Mr. West at all.”
“Yes you…”
“No. I. Won’t,” he says, pausing with each word, and saying it in such a way the certainty of it chills me.
“I…”
“You’re going to do exactly what I tell you and once you do…? That in and of itself will do away with Mr. West.”
“It won’t happen…” I hear the sound of switches being flipped and a second later light from overhead comes on. It’s still dim. Only about one out of every four lights work, but still it shows the shaded, barren room pretty well. There’s cracked concrete flooring underneath an old worn-out gym floor in a faded burnt orange coloring. It has cement block structured walls that have been painted a white color and you can tell there used to be cartoon figures here and there drawn on them. I think one was Bugs Bunny, because you can see the outline of his gray ears.
I can’t take in the room any farther though, because I hear a dull moan to my right. I turn back around to face the direction the sound is coming from, and that’s when I see her.
Dani.
I gasp and pull, trying to get to her, but Michael clamps hard on my arm and refuses to let me go to her. I twist and turn, trying to get free. He adds his free hand and grabs hold of each of my arms and holds me against him. My stomach sours when I feel he has a hard erection rubbing against my ass. Somehow, I think it’s because he’s enjoying the situation and his power, more than having me in hi
s arms.
I can’t stop the tears that fall when I see her. She’s curled up in a ball, her dark sweater is torn, her white pants are caked with dirt, and the majority of it is in the shape of a boot print. She’s looking in my direction. Still, I know she can’t see me because her eyes are puffy and swollen shut. Her mouth has been bleeding, her nose still is. There’s an ugly purple-black bruise running down her jawline and under her eyes which have the same horrific color. Her beautiful dark hair is caked in mud and maybe, blood. She’s far enough away it’s hard to tell. One of her hands is lying awkward against her side, and the fingers on her other hand seem to be at weird angles. She’s breathing hard, labored even, and shallow. The sad wheezing sound penetrates my ears and though it’s quiet, it seems to be screaming at me now.
“You fucking son of a bitch! How could you? What kind of sick fucking freak would do this to a woman? You…”
That’s when he stops my tirade by shoving me and slamming me into the cement-blocked wall. I turn to the side before the immediate impact and try to wrap my arms around my stomach. It causes my head to snap back against the blocks, and pain shoots through my skull. I can feel the cement scratch against the skin on my hands. The force of impact sends pain to the side of my stomach and into my back where my kidney is.
Fear swamps me. Did it hurt the baby? I try to take deep breaths and hold myself completely still, hoping against hope that I’ll be able to feel the baby move. I need that reassurance. I don’t get it. I hold my stomach harder, rubbing my hand where the brunt of the impact was.
“Listen well, Ms. Wentworth. You will do as I say because if you don’t, then you’ll find my lovely wife here in pieces. I’ll mail one to you a day for the rest of your life. That is if I let you live. Or maybe I should take from you what you helped take from me? After all, I have eyes on your fiancé even now. I could take anyone I want—at any time I want.”
Dani moans. I can’t tell if it’s because of what Michael said or from pain. I think she is mostly unconscious.
“What do you want from me?” I ask, my eyes are glued to Dani. In my head, there are visions of Dragon and his brothers, of my child. I do my best to fight down the panic inside of me, but I can’t, not completely.
“I thought you would see to reason. I’ll tell you what, Ms. Wentworth, because you’re being so intelligent in your decisions, I shall only demand things that will be easy for you to do. First, you and Melinda will be coming back to New York with me.”
My hand goes to my stomach, rubbing where the pain still lingers. I can feel movement and it helps me breathe easier. I’m fucking scared. I have no idea how to proceed. If I can just get through all of this till I can get back to Dragon, he can fix this. He has to fix this.
“I…Dragon will never allow that.”
“Oh, but he will. You will make him believe that you don’t want this life for your child. You will not go through with the wedding. Once Mr. West is convinced, he’ll turn his back on you. It should be easy enough, I hear he has his own stable of women available. I can almost admire him for that. It somewhat makes up for him having no breeding or class.”
I let the insults to Dragon roll off my back, if I don’t…it will get me killed. It’s not easy and had I not been pregnant, it wouldn’t have stopped me. I just keep repeating, ‘there’s more than me to worry about, there’s more than me to worry about’. As mantras go, it kind of sucks.
“If I don’t do as you ask?”
“We’ve gone through this. Maybe I should show you that I mean business? Would you like a piece of Melinda early? Small though, I still have plans for her, so marring her beauty is not an option just yet. A finger perhaps? Or toe? Though, I did love when she would wear those stilettos. Donald? Take off one of Mrs. Kavanagh’s fingers. It doesn’t matter which really, except for the ring finger. I want her to have my ring on her finger, and this time, I will decide when it comes off.”
‘Donald’ (though creepy guy really fits him much better) kicks Dani hard in the stomach. She weakly cries out as her body curls from the pain. He bends over and roughly grabs her hand, yanking it towards him. He takes out a wicked looking hunting knife and hits a button so it unfolds.
“Stop!”
He doesn’t, so I turn to the pig behind me.
“Make him stop! Don’t hurt her anymore! I’ll do it!”
He raises his hand, and I look quickly over to see Donald has stopped, though I can see that there is blood dripping from Dani’s finger.
“I’ll do it! Just please don’t hurt her anymore.”
“You fell into line so easily, Ms. Wentworth. Should I take you on your word, you think?”
“I said, I’ll do it. You’re not leaving me with much choice.”
“Well, yes, this is true. Still, I think you capitulated a little too easy.”
“Just stop!” I cry, and the tears have been flowing steady from me since I got here, but now the panic is all the way into my soul. I can’t see a way out of this, and I know even if I give the madman what he wants, he’ll eventually kill Dani, me, my baby, and maybe even Dragon, and the rest of the crew. I’m not naïve enough to even make myself believe that I am preventing anything by giving into him. No, I’m merely buying time.
“For now, I will take you at your word.”
I try and breathe slower, before I pass out. I’m wringing my hands at this point to try and keep the shaking under control.
I’m going to start carrying a gun.
The thought rings in my head. If I had a gun, I’d shoot the bastard between the eyes, and this mess would be over with. This makes twice now that life has exploded, and I was defenseless both times. This shit has to end.
“Rest assured, Ms. Wentworth, if you do not adhere to the bargain we have made, I will make sure you and everyone you care about regret it.”
“I understand.”
“Donald will return you back to town. I’ll expect to hear that you’ve broken off your engagement. If I don’t there will be repercussions.”
“I can’t just break it off without reason, Dragon will be suspicious!”
“That is not my problem, Ms. Wentworth, it is yours. I just warn you, do not push me. You will not like how I push back. You helped Melinda leave me five years ago. You were not so concerned with the problems that brought into my life, or the consequences of your actions then. I suggest you do not get distracted by them now.”
I don’t answer. It doesn’t matter. Nothing matters at this point. I let Donald lead me back outside to the waiting limo. Michael doesn’t follow, and it makes me sick to leave Dani with him. Again, I have no choice.
It’s late by the time Donald drives me back into town. He keeps stopping other places and purposely delaying my return. I don’t know why, and I don’t ask. In fact, I don’t say two words on the way back. There’s nothing to say, and besides, my mind is full. I’m trying to think of a way to get out of this mess. I’m wondering what would happen if I go to Dragon and confess everything. My first instinct is to do what I’m ordered to do, but keeping secrets from Dragon has already turned out bad. Plus, I know that even getting what he wants, Michael will enjoy hurting anyone I care about. So, Dragon has to know. It’s time I start trying to rely on my man and give him what I expect from him—complete honesty and faith. He deserves that.
I’m feeling better with my decision. I’ll get back and have Dragon and his men go search the school for Dani. There’s nothing that Dragon and I can’t handle together.
14
Dragon
“What the fuck do you mean she’s missing?”
“I told her not to leave the shop while I went outside to take a call from an Army buddy. I wasn’t gone over five minutes Drag, I swear. I go back in and she’s gone. I was watching the entrance the entire time.”
I grab the first thing I can find, which happens to be the whiskey bottle I was about to have a drink out of. Just try and relax around this damned place. The bottle explodes against the w
all, and it does not do one damn thing to make me feel better.
“You were supposed to be watching her motherfucker, not the fucking door. If all I wanted was the fucking door watched I would have sent a son-of-a-bitching prospect! Of which your ass might be again by the end of the fucking day!”
“Drag, man, I’m telling you my eyes never left that…”
“But it did motherfucker, because you left my woman alone and the backdoor unguarded, and I know this because her damned cell phone was found crushed by the door!”
Bull doesn’t respond, but then there’s nothing else for him to say at this point. Fuck, when did my club become such a damned mess? Did we have it easy for so damned long that my men got soft? This was a juvenile, stupid-ass, mistake and if my woman gets hurt because of it, I will gut Bull, friend or no friend.
“Drag, Nicole just called in. Frog went to pick her up.”
I don’t know if the sigh of relief in the room was from me or Bull. I just know those are the best words I’ve ever heard.
“Call the rest of the men off the search.”
“Already done,” Freak says, heading back towards my office where he’s been working, going over the tapes of the flower shop. The man who has been sneaking around my club is the one who took Nicole—a Donald Tover. He has ties to Michael Kavanagh and that in and of itself signed his death warrant. I will end him. I just have to plot how I’m going to do it. A man with that much power and money can’t disappear easily. Worse, he’ll be harder to trap.
“You, get out of my sight for now, go find Crusher and drag his ass back here!” I order Bull. It’s harsh, but motherfucker, it feels like I can trust my prospects more than the original patched in members!
He gives me a look of disgust and leaves the room. It’s another twenty-minute wait and three shots of whiskey to calm my nerves before my woman walks through the front door. I’m practically on her before she takes one step in.
