My jaw twitched. Roger waved the gun in the air, then pointed it at me. He winked at me and cocked it, pushing it close to my face. I shivered. Another chill of fear went through my body. I wasn’t sure whether or not he would do it; he said that he needed me, but I didn’t doubt that he could be prone to reckless behavior if provoked. “Fine,” I said. I tried to smile at him. My whole body was shaking with fear. “What is it I can do for you, Roger?”
“That’s better, baby,” Roger said. He dropped the gun in his lap and clapped his hands together in enthusiasm. “You’re gonna help me pick out some jewelry,” he said in the same enthusiastic tone. “Now you should be real good at this, from all the practice you had before.”
I shook my head. “I’m not doing it,” I said flatly. “I’m not getting arrested. You and your demands can go fuck yourself!”
Roger slapped me across the face so quickly I didn’t even have time to see his hand flying towards me. I reeled back on the couch, folding at the waist. Tears came to my eyes and I blinked them away. Roger’s hand made hard contact with my cheekbone and I could already feel a bruise welling under the surface of my skin.
“You’re gonna do exactly what I want you to do, baby,” he said smoothly. “Or else your boyfriend is gonna die.”
“Bullshit,” I said, glaring at him. “I just left Blake’s. You couldn’t have gotten to him if you were waiting for me.”
Roger smiled. “I knew you’d say that,” he countered. “But you don’t think I’m as stupid as you are, do you?” My stomach tied itself into knots as Roger reached in his pocket. I didn’t want to see what he’d come up with, and I was almost relieved when I saw that it was a phone. “Have a look at this,” Roger said in the same calm tone. “Tell me if that’s what little boyfriend wasn’t wearing earlier today.”
Roger slid the phone across the couch to me. There was a photo of Blake pulled up on the screen and enlarged. He was wearing the same thing that he’d been wearing earlier in the evening, before we’d had sex. I shivered as I remembered the way he’d pulled his shirt over his head once we were in bed.
“That could have been another day,” I said. “You’re bullshitting me, Roger.”
Roger shook his head. He pointed to a timestamp in the corner of the picture. “Nope, it’s from about an hour ago,” he said. “Your little boyfriend has a nasty habit of going outside to smoke.”
I bit my lip. “You’re still lying,” I said. But when Roger looked at me and smiled, I knew that he wasn’t. “What do you want? Just let him go, please.”
“Oh, is princess in a position to make deals now?” Roger laughed. “I don’t think that’s true, baby. I don’t think you really have any idea what’s going on,” he added. “And don’t try to fool me into thinking otherwise.”
I shook my head. “Just stop with the bullshit,” I pleaded. “Please. Please let him go, Roger.”
“I don’t think a man that dangerous should be allowed outside,” Roger said. He lifted a hand to his chin and rubbed it with two fingers. “You saw the work he did to my face,” Roger added. “I was out for days after that happened. And you just watched him do it!” He tutted. “Shame, Sarah. I would have thought you would have been a little more grateful to the man who saved your ass.”
“You didn’t save shit,” I mumbled. “I hate you, you fuck.”
Roger slapped me again, so hard this time that I saw stars. The tears that had welled up in my eyes sprang free and rolled down my cheeks. When I opened my eyes and looked at him, his eyes were glowing with rage. “You don’t get to talk to me like that, sweetheart,” he said in a cold voice. “I get to make the rules around here. You get that?” He waved the gun in my face and jammed it into my chest, right above my breasts. I was heaving with every breath and feeling the cold metal press into my skin was terrifying in a whole new way. “You listen to me,” he repeated. “You do exactly what I tell you to do. And then I might, I might let him go. You understand?”
I bit my lip. When I didn’t answer, Roger lifted his arm and I braced myself for the inevitable slap. Instead, he laughed. “See, now I can make you do exactly what I want,” he said. “I guess training you wasn’t nearly as difficult as I thought.” He kept the gun pointed into my chest and I resisted the urge to push it away. “Now you’re gonna do exactly what Roger tells you to do.”
“Fine,” I said, trying to keep the fear out of my voice. “I’ll do what you want. I promise.”
Roger grinned. “That’s a good little pussy,” he said. “Or else your new boyfriend is gonna die, Sarah.” He drew a line across his throat with his pointer finger. “And you wouldn’t want that on your conscience, baby. Trust me, it ain’t no fun.”
I swallowed hard. “I’ll do it,” I repeated. “Just keep away from him. Let him go. Please, Roger. Please.” I opened my eyes wide and made a pouting face at him. Roger leaned closer and closer until our noses were inches apart. I could smell the reek of his breath wafting into my face and it took all my energy not to screw my eyes shut.
“That’s right,” he said softly. “Meet me tomorrow. I’ll pick you up here, and we’ll go on a little shopping trip together.” He dragged the edge of the gun across my chest, poking me in each breast. I shivered and bit my lip so I wouldn’t cry out in pain; he was pressing hard, and it hurt. “Dress nicely, honey. I’m gonna have a fun little time looking you over before we go. If you don’t look good, maybe we’ll take a few more pictures as some incentive.”
My stomach heaved and I thought I was going to be sick. Just the mention of Roger inspecting me was enough to make me want to puke. I hated him. I hated him more than I’d ever hated anyone, and having to sit still while he poked a gun into my tits was absolute torture.
“Promise you’ll let him go,” I said finally. “Promise you’ll let him go if I do it.”
Roger leaned back on the couch. He dropped the gun and I sucked in a huge breath in relief. Keeping his eyes trained on me, Roger licked his lip. “What was that, baby? You better ask again, real nice this time.”
Hot tears squeezed out of my eyes and dripped down my cheeks. “Please,” I begged, closing my eyes tight and balling my hands into fists in my lap. “Please, please let him go. Please promise me that. Please, Roger.” I looked at him to see an amused look on his face. “Please,” I repeated. “Please promise me that you’ll let him go.”
Roger smiled. “I don’t know,” he said. “It depends on my mood. I’ll have to see how I’m feeling tomorrow, baby. How do you feel about that?” He started laughing as if whatever he’d said was the funniest remark in the world. “Sometimes I’m feeling awfully generous,” he added, laughing even harder.
As Roger laughed, I sobbed harder and harder. Something horrible was going to happen to Blake, and it was all my fault. I had to help him, even if it meant going to jail myself.
Chapter Twenty Four
Blake
“Christ,” I muttered. “My head is fucking killing me.” When I reached out for my phone, my hand hit cold stone instead. “Shit!” I cried out, shaking my injured hand in the air. It was dark and no matter how I groped for the lamp, I couldn’t see a goddamn thing.
When I reached for the switch on the wall, my hand groped air. The more I moved, the more pain shot through me. Suddenly, I realized I wasn’t at home.
“Fuck!” I cursed loudly, swinging my hand in the air. It connected with concrete and pain bloomed in my arm. When I tried to stand up, I realized that my legs were tied together and I was fastened to the wall behind me. As my eyes adjusted, I could barely make out a few shapes. Given how dark the room was, I decided that it must be at night. What happened? I wondered, shaking my head. Sweat was beading on my forehead and dripping down. It itched like mad, but I couldn’t reach that far. There was a rope around my chest tying my arms down; I had useless, T-Rex little stubs. Think, Blake, think, I ordered myself. What happened?
I closed my eyes and desperately tried to remember the night before. There was Sarah, ly
ing next to me in bed and looking horrified. I remembered fighting. For a moment, I forgot why. When I remembered, I felt blacker than ever. She hates me, I thought. She’s never going to talk to me again after that. I remembered that I’d made my way through a six pack of beer before unsteadily leaving the apartment for the dive bar down the street. I’d been so drunk that I was staggering on my walk there. Then, things started to get fuzzy. As I tried to remember, pain flashed through my head. It was more than the normal hangover pain; judging from my complete lack of memory about the night before, I was starting to feel as though I’d been drugged.
I again tried to recall what had happened. I’d started slamming whiskey at the bar, until someone asked me for a cigarette. I’d gone outside, lit up…then what? With a sinking feeling, I realized that someone must have drugged me, then lured me outdoors and beaten me to a pulp. I winced as I tried to run my hands over each other; I could feel that they were bruised and swollen. My head felt like someone had hit me with an anvil.
I knew I had to get out of here. I didn’t know who attacked me, but I could have made a guess: Roger. That fuck waited until Sarah had left, then waited for me. I shuddered as I imagined what he was doing with Sarah. Even though she’d left me and told me she never wanted to see me again, I still felt responsible for her well-being. I couldn’t stand the thought of that monster hurting her and making her feel unsafe. I’m coming, Sarah, I thought as I twisted against the ropes that held me. I promise I’m coming.
I strained and twisted at my bonds until I was sweating all over. My body ached—I could tell that whoever attacked me had taken a few blows at my chest and my few—and my mouth was uncomfortably dry. Closing my lips, I worked my tongue against my mouth until it was wet with saliva. I closed my eyes in frustration and tried to move in a rhythm that strained at the ropes. But ten minutes later, I wasn’t any looser or freer than I had been when I’d first woken up.
“Damnit!” I yelled loudly, trying to move my legs. Something clattered on the floor and hope rose in my chest. If I leaned over and stuck my arm down, my fingertips could graze the floor. I did it again and again, searching for anything that I could use to free myself. There was nothing there, and I cursed out loud as my feet kicked at the empty air. The room was starting to feel airless and hot and I was sweating so much that the ropes were clinging to my damp body. I knew that in order to get out, I’d need to find something to free myself. Only problem was that the room was incredibly dark.
I thumped my head against the wall in frustration. It hurt but the pain almost felt good, it felt like something to keep me tied to reality. I hated myself for having been cocky before. I clearly hadn’t won. Roger was up to no good, and he needed to keep me out of the way. That automatically made me think that he was planning something nefarious. If he didn’t need me out of the way, why would he have gone to such trouble? Shaking my head, I realized that he probably wouldn’t have even needed to hurt me if he’d known that Sarah and I had fought. She’d probably go off with him willingly. She’d probably do whatever he wanted.
Stop, I ordered myself. She wouldn’t do that. She’s not like that. She’s Sarah, remember? I did remember. I remembered all too well. It was tempting to think that she would have gone along with Roger to spite me, but if I knew Sarah at all, I knew she was probably shaking in her shoes. Roger terrified her. Even if the pictures didn’t matter, he could find some new way to exploit her fear. I wasn’t worried about myself, but I didn’t want her thinking that I was in danger. Sarah, if you can hear me, just know that I’m okay, I thought. Please listen to your gut. Trust that I’ll be fine.
I kept struggling against my bonds, knowing that it was likely futile. But any kind of resistance made me feel like I was doing something. Anger and rage flowed through my body; this was one of the few times in my life I’d felt truly powerless. I desperately wished that I’d called Jimmy or Red before going out now. Even with the tension brewing, I knew that my guys would have had my back. Fucking ego, I cursed. If it wasn’t for my fucking ego, I wouldn’t be here right now. Sarah would still be in my bed, we’d be waking up and enjoying a little sexy time together. Thinking about waking up to Sarah was enough to turn me on a little bit. I felt my cock chafe against my leg as the image of her sensual nude body broadcasted itself over my brain. Fucking hell, I thought. Shit had gone from bad to worse in only a few hours. What the fuck was going to happen now?
The longer I was awake, the harder I tried to listen. I couldn’t tell where I was; there was no road noise coming from outside, nor was there noise upstairs. I wondered if my captors had simply bagged me, beaten me, tied me up, then gone to nap. It wasn’t implausible. And if they were working for Roger, I had a feeling they were just as lazy and stupid as he was. I couldn’t imagine that he’d grabbed any kind of criminal mastermind to nab me from a bar. He was probably just feeling threatened because of what had happened before.
When I remembered confronting him, it was pretty anticlimactic. I’d slipped into his car in the parking lot of Tinder’s. Roger had been expecting Sarah, and while he was surprised, he didn’t show it.
“She’s got you protecting her now, huh?” Roger laughed. “That little pussy needs to realize she can take care of herself.”
I growled at his slur. “You scared the shit out of her,” I told him gruffly. “And if you don’t knock it off right now, I’ll make you regret it.”
I pulled out my gun and showed it to Roger. “This is going to go off in your brain if you don’t listen to me,” I growled. “You destroy those photos and leave her alone. I have enough on you to have you arrested for conspiracy if you don’t listen to me.”
Roger looked at me with a sideways grin. “That’s what you think,” he said carefully. I watched as he pulled an envelope from his pocket and began to tear it to shreds. “Here are the photos,” he said, after he was done. He handed me scraps of paper and film. “But I’m gonna need a little pay out to make sure I keep my mouth shut.”
I rolled my eyes. “You fucking petty criminals, all you can think about is money,” I sneered. “Didn’t it ever occur to you that you might be going to jail for a long time anyway? I have enough to call the cops and tell them that you’re trying to frame her.”
Roger laughed. “What about that pay?” His eyes gleamed with greed. “I’m thinking a few thousand should shut me up for a couple of days. If you want me to stay gone longer than that, I’m gonna need a lot more.”
“You’ll take what I give you, fucker,” I spat. Pulling my wallet out of my pocket, I handed him about five thousand in cash. “This should be more than you need,” I said smoothly. “Don’t ever, ever think about messing with Sarah again.”
As I turned to get out of the car, Roger looked at me. “You’re gonna need to pay me off a little better,” he said in that same infuriating sing-song voice. “This is only good until next week, brother.”
“Don’t call me brother. I’m part of a real brotherhood, not some cog in your fucked up scheme.”
Roger laughed. “We’re all brothers when it comes to money. You think that you’re better than me, that you somehow don’t need more cash? I know your type. Your kind, you showoff assholes. You have to have the nicest bikes and pussy and drugs that money can buy. I know that little security guard job you have is only a front. I know you’re just as thirsty as I am for the finer things in life.”
I shook my head. He was close to the truth, but I couldn’t let him know. “Fuck off,” I spat. “And don’t think about getting any more money outta me,” I added. “That’s way more than enough for you to disappear forever.”
Roger snarled in my face. “If you think I can be bought that easily, you’re even dumber than she is. I’ll be back, asshole. Trust me, this won’t keep me away forever.”
“You won’t think about coming back,” I growled. I shoved my gun against Roger’s neck. “If you do, I’ll lodge so many of these bullets in your skull, they won’t even be able to identify you from your den
tal records,” I threatened. “So stay the fuck away from her, you got that?”
Roger’s expression shrank in fear and I felt triumphant for finally having gotten through to him. And it didn’t cost me any more than five thousand! Smirking, I climbed out of Roger’s car.
Sticking my head through the window, I asked, “So tell me, what are you going to do in the future?”
He scowled. “Leave her alone,” he repeated. “You got it.”
“Right,” I said, pulling away and slamming my hand on the roof of the car. Roger jumped, then fumbled with the keys.
When I walked away across the parking lot, I felt smugger than I had in years. I was pleased with myself for getting rid of the problem. It had been much easier than I’d expected. Now all there was to do was tell Sarah, and let her thank me, in all the right ways.
Now, I cursed myself. I couldn’t believe that I’d been so stupid. Of course Roger wasn’t going to listen to a man threatening him with a gun. He was insane; he had absolutely no reason to trust in anyone. I shook my head. This meant war. If I saw that little ratfaced fuck again, I would shoot him without even a second though.
Thief: Devil's Own MC Page 17
