by Zoey Parker
“Have a good lunch,” Lucas said. He smirked and slipped a hand down my back, squeezing my ass. I tensed up, but I was also getting used to his invasive touching. We watched as the girl walked to the back of the store and collected her things. She repeated our words to the male employee and then stuck out her tongue at him. On her way out of the store, she waved at Lucas and grinned cheerily.
“That cunt thinks I’m actually going to give her a commission,” Lucas spat. “Now, act fast.” He watched until she’d left the parking lot. When she was gone, I drifted to the other side of the store and pretended to look at some jeweled broaches under a glass case. The other person in the store checked his watch and sighed before walking out. In a matter of minutes, Lucas and I were left alone with the male associate.
Lucas pulled the gun out of his waistband and waved it around in the air. “Hey, you!” he called to the male associate. “Hurry up. Come on!”
The kid looked up from the screen of his smartphone. He had a finger in his nose and his eyes bulged out when they saw Lucas. “Oh my god,” he said in a panicky, breathy voice. “Oh my god! What do I do?” I saw his eyes flickering downwards but Lucas pointed the gun at the wall behind him and fired. Glass shattered and the kid dropped to his hands and knees, wailing loudly.
“Come the fuck on,” Lucas said. “Get the fuck up. Come on!” He walked behind the counter and picked up the kid by the scruff of his neck, dragging him to his feet. The kid had his eyes screwed shut and he was whimpering loudly. The scene was surreal; I pinched myself on the arm to make sure I was really there. I felt sick to my stomach but my heart was pounding. In a way, it was actually kind of exciting. I shuddered as Lucas got closer. I could tell the kid was really scared, and there was a strong scent of urine in the air.
“What do you want?” the kid wailed in a shaky voice. He collapsed to the ground and Lucas reached down to grab him again. “Ouch!” the kid cried as Lucas pulled his earlobe. “Let me go!”
“No,” Lucas hissed. “Not until you help us. We want all the money in the safe in the back of the store and all of the most expensive jewelry.” He looked at me. “Go get those trays,” he said, pointing towards the back of the store. The expensive three karat trays gleamed unattended. “Bring them back!” he barked when I didn’t move as quickly as he wanted. “Now!”
His last command startled me into action. Quickly, I walked to the back of the store and grabbed the trays of jewelry. They were astoundingly beautiful, and I could only think about how I’d never see anything that lovely again. By the time I was back at Lucas’s side, the kid was on his feet and shaking.
“Quick,” Lucas ordered. The kid scrambled away and came back with a key. Lucas jerked his head to the side, indicating for me to follow him, and we trailed the kid to the back of the store. He pushed a painting to the side and stuck the key in the lock, working it furiously.
“I can’t,” the kid whined. “It’s stuck!”
“You’re gonna be stuck if you don’t hurry the fuck up,” Lucas hissed. “Come on!”
The kid trembled and pushed at the key in the lock, straining with all of his might. Finally, he grunted and heaved and the safe door swung open. I expected the inside would be filled with glittering diamonds and pieces of jewelry, but it was mostly plastic envelopes and cloth bags.
“Hurry up,” Lucas ordered. He held a bag under the safe and the kid swept it from top to bottom. When the last plastic envelope had been collected, Lucas turned to me and shoved the bag in my hands. “Go to the car,” he barked. “Now!”
I stumbled out of the store, clutching the bag to my chest. No one was looking at me, and I darted through the parking lot and climbed inside the passenger seat. Lucas was right behind me, and he gunned the car out of the parking lot before I’d even had a chance to fasten my seatbelt.
I moaned and closed my eyes, leaning my head against the seat. My clothes were sticky with sweat and my damp hair was clinging to my forehead. I let out a long, low, shaky breath as Lucas floored it in the direction of my apartment. Beside me, I could feel his excited energy radiating out in waves. Lucas reached across the seat and grabbed my hand, shaking it in the air.
“We did it, baby,” he said smugly. “Can you believe we pulled that shit off?”
“I’m gonna be sick,” I said weakly, leaning against the door. The cool glass of the window felt good against my forehead. “I’m gonna die.”
I couldn’t believe that it was over, that he’d made me do it. The nausea waving through my body was only staved off by the fact that I wanted to melt into the seat. I knew that if I could have mustered the energy to look outside, I’d puke everywhere.
Never, never in my life had I been so disgusted with myself. Not when I was about to get evicted, not when Lucas first told me he had the pictures, not even when Elizabeth shamed me for being unsuccessful and lonely. Nothing compared to the feeling of knowing that I’d just thrown my life away. The store had cameras, I knew they’d find us. And furthermore, I was sure that the male associate would recognize me. After all, I’d spent almost an hour flirting with him last week, at Lucas’s behest. If he didn’t recognize me, that meant he was an idiot.
I closed my eyes and put my head against the door, imagining a life in prison. I’d be held in some drab county jail until trial, which would be a blur for me. When I’d see photos of myself in jail, I’d think that I looked drugged. I could just imagine the circles under my eyes and my pale face as the judge read out my crimes. I knew that the court-appointed lawyer wouldn’t give a fuck about me, and she wouldn’t care that I looked like shit in court. When I looked out over the imaginary courtroom, I saw Elizabeth crying and shaking her head. No, I wanted to tell her. No, it wasn’t me. I’m not like that!
I knew that I’d be sentenced and then be transferred to prison. I imagined orange jumpsuits, women with tangled hair staring at me and licking their lips. I shuddered when I imagined living in a concrete box with no freedom to go outside, no freedom to do as I pleased. No good food. Not even good-bad food, like cheeseburgers.
And no Carson. The last realization made me want to cry harder than ever. I couldn’t imagine being without him, being without his touch, his love, those heart-melting smiles. I shivered as I thought about his hands caressing me and running over my body, tugging at my nipples and making every nerve sing with pleasure. I loved the way he held me, loved the way he made me feel like I was the only woman in the world. Thinking that I’d never get to do that again was the worst thought that I’d ever had.
It suddenly occurred to me that I’d be totally okay, even if I lost everything, as long as I still had Carson. But I wouldn’t still have him. Not a snowball’s chance in hell. I knew that if the cops even caught wind of Carson’s involvement, he’d be going to prison, too. Maybe for even longer than I was going. I knew that Lucas would greedily give the cops as much intel on Carson as he could; I knew he wanted to punish Carson for holding him back.
Carson. I couldn’t get my mind away from him. As I closed my eyes tightly against the sun of the real world, I imagined Carson picking me up and carrying me to bed. I knew how tight his muscles would be as he held me in the air, teasing me with the joke of dropping me to the floor. But I knew he wouldn’t drop me, he’d set me down gently and spread my legs with his rough fingers. My lower belly tingled as I imagined him leaning over me and trailing his mouth wetly down my body.
Panic and desire mingled together inside of me to create a powerfully arousing feeling; it was the hottest and most desperate I’d ever felt in my life. But I knew that I wouldn’t be sated with ordinary sex, or making love. No, Carson would have to fuck me until I was raw and crying. I wanted to be soaked in sweat—a mixture of mine and his—and begging for him to come so it would be over. Afterwards, I knew that he’d help me shower and take me back to bed to fall asleep. It would be perfect.
Then I remembered our fight, and the tears came back. We hadn’t parted on good terms. I’d basically decided never t
o speak with him again. It was more than I thought I could handle, and it was more than I thought he could give me. But funnily enough, now I didn’t even care. I didn’t care how many fights he’d been in, or how many times he’d gone to prison. All I wanted was him and his love, forever and ever. I wished so deeply that I could tell him how I felt, that I could reveal how sorry I was. I hated that I’d acted so arrogant and high and mighty. If I could take the whole thing back, I would in an instant.
And then maybe you wouldn’t be here, I realized. Slinking down far into the seat, I realized that if I hadn’t stormed out of Carson’s in a fit of rage, I wouldn’t have been around for Lucas to nab me. Instead, he would have had to go through my big tough boyfriend. Boyfriend. Just thinking about Carson as my boyfriend, my protector, felt good. If I concentrated on it for long enough, I was almost able to forget how fucking miserable the rest of me felt. But in truth, that was how I’d thought of him all along. That was why I’d been so upset when he told me that he’d had fun beating people up. It was like I was holding him to such a high standard, that I wasn’t even allowing myself to accept how much I liked him. But obviously I did. And now that was over. There was no more “me and Carson.” There was only me, in prison, and Carson, probably in prison.
Suddenly I prayed for him to be gone. I wanted him to go away and save himself. If he couldn’t save me, at least he could do that. The last thing I wanted was to ruin his life. If he went away, it would be for a long time. He’d lose his place in the MC, he’d lose his job, and he’d lose all semblance of autonomy and freedom. I prayed that he’d be smart enough to save his own skin, no matter what he felt for me. I won’t be mad at you, I thought. Just be smart enough to help yourself out of this jam!
“Baby, ain’t you excited?” Lucas turned to me and grinned. “Ain’t you pleased! Look at that bag back there! You’re gonna be getting some of that,” he said. I closed my eyes and looked out the window.
“Just fucking take me home, please,” I said. I could hear my voice about to break. “Please, Lucas. Please take me home.”
“Oh, no,” Lucas said. He wagged a finger in front of my face. “We ain’t done, yet,” he said. “There’s one other thing I have to take care of first.”
I glared at him. “What’s that?”
Lucas threw his head back and laughed. “Oh, you’ll see,” he said, snickering. “You’ll see, baby.”
Chapter Twenty Seven
Carson
My phone was buzzing in my pocket and I pulled my bike over to the side of the road. It was Tinder’s. A bad feeling flashed through my stomach but I answered anyway.
“Hello?” It was hard to hear with all of the highway noise in the background. “Hello?”
“Hey, Carson,” I heard the other security guard say. “Hey, man, there’s been a robbery.”
My heart sank. Caroline. I’m sorry. I was too late. “Okay,” I said. “What do you need? Do you need me to come in?”
“Yeah, do you mind?”
“I’ll be there soon,” I said shortly. Getting back on my bike, I pointed it towards Tinder’s and sped as fast as I could. All I could think about was Caroline. Why had she done it? Why hadn’t she just fucking called me? A horrible thought ran through my head: what if Lucas was keeping her prisoner so she couldn’t reach out to anyone? The idea was too horrible to comprehend. Gritting my teeth, I pushed my bike faster and faster until the shopping center came into sight. It was partially a relief and partially something I was dreading. I didn’t want to be confronted with evidence about Caroline, but it was about to happen anyway.
Fuck, I thought. Why do things like this always have to happen?
The security guard wasn’t happy to see me. “Hey,” he said shortly. “Thanks for coming out. Do you want to see the footage?”
I nodded. “I’d better,” I told him. “Thanks, man.”
“No problem,” the guard said. “I don’t know how they managed to do it. I was outside the whole time, and I didn’t see anything.”
I rolled my eyes. “I should have come in today,” I said after a beat. “I knew something bad was going to happen.”
The other guard looked at me with his eyes narrowed. “Wait, you knew? How come you didn’t say anything?”
“It was an expression,” I said gruffly. “I was joking.”
The guard led me wordlessly inside the store. The place was crawling with cops. Aside from a case being opened towards the back of the store, I couldn’t see that anything was missing.
“Sir, were you present at the time of the robbery?” One of the cops walked up to me and took out his notepad. “Can I collect a statement from you?”
“I just work here,” I told him. “I had nothing to do with it. I got a call telling me there had been a robbery, and I wanted to come down here to check it out.”
The cop nodded, as if I’d just given him something valuable. He scribbled something down on the notepad and nodded again. “Thanks,” he said. “Can I get your name?”
“Uh, yeah, it’s Carson Dover,” I said, glancing around. “Do you know how bad the robbery is? It doesn’t look like they took very much.”
“The safe is cleaned out,” the cop said. He gave a low whistle through his teeth. “I know, I couldn’t believe it either,” he said. “But I guess they worked pretty fast.”
In the back of the store, one of the sales associates was crying. She was a cute girl, young, with red hair that made me think of Caroline. She looked up at me and burst into a new wave of fresh sobs.
“It’s all my fault,” she cried. “I was helping them! Then Will told me that I had to go take my lunch break! I was mad because I thought they were going to get an engagement ring, and I really wanted the commission!”
“Oh, fuck,” I said. “Do you have the security tapes? Can I watch?”
The girl stood up and scurried off to a cabinet. She returned with a tape. “There’s a TV in the break room,” she said. “Come with me.”
Some of the cops were sitting in front of the television, smoking cigarettes. When they saw the girl was carrying the tape, they tried to shoo me out of the room.
“No, guys, I work here,” I explained. “I’m a security guard. I was off today, but I got a call informing me of the robbery.”
The cops shot suspicious looks at each other. “Fine, stay,” one of them said after a beat. “Anything you can share with us, the better,” he told me. “So pay close attention.”
I closed my eyes and thought briefly. I knew that I had to help Caroline, but that it would probably wind up risking my own safety, especially if I got in a fight with Lucas. And after finding out all that he was capable of, I wasn’t sure that I’d be ready to let him go down without a fight. Plus, he was obviously insane. I couldn’t believe that he’d be willing to just let everything go. After all, he’d tricked Caroline into helping him somehow. I still couldn’t believe that she’d done it! I was angry with her for not calling me and reaching out; it was as if our fight from the other night had vanished. Angrily, I balled my hands into fists at my sides.
“Go ahead and play the tape,” I said.
The girl wiped tears away from her eyes and stuck the tape into the VCR. It whirred for a minute, making the cops look anxious, but eventually a grainy black-and-white window showed up. There were four cameras in the store, each pointed in a different direction. In one camera, I watched as the girl sped up the tape to just before noon.
“They came in around eleven thirty,” she said softly. “I always go to lunch at noon, but it was such a slow day that I figured I could help them.”
“It’s fine,” one of the officers said gruffly. “Keep playing the tape.”
The girl hit play and I leaned in close. Caroline, looking fabulous and a little nervous, walked into the store with Lucas. He reached out and took her hand just as they opened the door. The security guard didn’t even look twice. With fury, I watched as Lucas slid his hand down Caroline’s back and groped her ass. Rage f
illed me and my fists got tighter at my sides.
“They’re really enjoying themselves,” one of the cops said. He snickered. “Maybe this is how they like to role-play.”
“Shut up,” one of the other cops muttered. “This guy’s a sick fuck. He looks like someone who’s been wanted for over a year now.”
I rolled my eyes. “And you couldn’t keep a closer eye on him than that?”
“It doesn’t work like that,” one of the cops said snidely. “Shut up so I can pay attention.”
The video didn’t have sound, but we all watched as Lucas kissed Caroline, shoving his tongue into her mouth. I could tell by the way her body was tense and nervous that she wasn’t enjoying it, and I burned with hot rage. I’d wanted to hurt Lucas before, but now I wanted to tear him limb from limb. Watching him exploit Caroline in the grossest manner possible brought an animalistic side out of me that I hadn’t felt in months. This was war.
“That little couple’s really being hot with each other,” the cop said. “This is a pretty fuckin’ unusual case.” The rest of them snickered and I had to shut my eyes to avoid looking. I knew that if I had to watch Lucas molest my Caroline for another second, I’d fly into a rage and break everything—and everyone—in the room. Finally, I opened my eyes and watched Lucas and Caroline chatting with the female associate. She pulled out a tray of rings from the shelf, and Caroline tried on one.
