23. Skyler
23
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On the ride to the clubhouse, we’re both quiet. Lost in our own thoughts. I tried to loosen my hold around Ethan’s waist, but he wasn’t having it. Every time I’d drop my hold, he’d grab my hands and put them back where he wanted them. At one point he entwined our fingers, gripping me tightly so I couldn’t let go.
I tried to convince myself I hated it. I don’t want him to touch me. But the truth is, I need him to touch me. I wish I didn’t want his comfort. Wish I could push him away and move on. But I can’t. Even though I know this is only his guilt talking. It’ll all come to a crushing end. I don’t want to keep fighting it.
Like the night at the Pearl, I’m trying to convince myself to allow him to comfort me for one night.
Look at how epically that blew up in your face!
Even so, I can’t bring myself to keep fighting him. Not tonight.
When we get to the clubhouse, I’ll ask to speak with Gabe and get him to tell Ethan what he wants to know. I’ll hang out long enough for them to formulate their plan, decide what they want to do about the Devils being in their territory. As much as I don’t want them to go to war, it’s not up to me. Gabe will go to war no matter my thoughts on the situation.
The Devils crossed into Kings territory, attacked one of their members, and tried to kidnap the enforcer’s daughter and me. I’m certain they’ll want their pound of flesh for not only the disrespect, but also to send a message to anyone else who thought Oak Ridge was a place to start shit.
Leaning against Ethan’s back, I let my mind drift back to the night everything went to hell in a handbasket.
“Sky? Are you there?” Emily’s voice sounded so small and frail on the other end of the phone. I sat up in bed, looking at the clock, it was nearly midnight.
“Yeah, Em. I’m here. What’s wrong?”
“I don’t feel good. I want to go home. Can you take me home?” She sounded wasted and childlike. I didn’t know what kind of trouble she had gotten herself in, but I could imagine Chase was at fault.
I knew she had started dating him and was starting to show signs of using.
Chase’s brother, Christian was known for dealing drugs at high school parties in town. After Ethan left for his MMA camp, Emily started spiraling out of control. I tried to help her. To get her to spend more time with me, but she wanted to go out, to party. I wasn’t into the party scene. Without Ethan, I didn’t feel safe in crowds. It was odd, I know, but I started to notice guys looking at me differently after Ethan left and I didn’t like it. It made me feel dirty or something. I couldn’t explain it.
But I was perfectly content to stay home and read my romance novels or cook for Daddy and me.
“Emily? Where are you babe? Can you share your location with me, and I’ll come get you. I’ll take you home, okay?” She didn’t answer, but I could hear her breathing. “Emily!”
She whimpered. “Yeah. I-I’m here.”
“Go into your phone and share your location with me.” I heard her fumbling with her phone and a few seconds later my phone pinged with her location.
“Okay, Stay put. I’m on my way.”
“Okay. I’ll… be… right… here.” Her words were soft and slurred, ramping up my state of panic. I knew something was very wrong.
I tossed Ethan’s wrestling shirt on the bed and threw on a dress hanging on the back of my closet door and slid on my sneakers.
Once I got to my car, I put my phone on the dash and opened the text with Emily’s location and plugged it into maps. I pulled out of my driveway and took off down the road heading into town.
“Siri, text Daddy.” My phone pinged and Siri came online asking me what I wanted to text Daddy.
“I’m going to pick up Emily. She’s at a party and doesn’t feel well. If I’m not home when you get in, I’ll be right behind you. Love you, Daddy.”
Siri announced my message was sent as I sped off down the road.
I tried calling Emily’s phone, to let her know I was on my way, only six minutes from her when I noticed the map changed.
“What the hell?”
Emily was on the move. But I told her to stay put.
“Fucking great, where are you going, Em?”
Frustrated I called her phone again, but again she didn’t answer. I was starting to worry, maybe she’d gotten in her car and was trying to drive herself home. But after hearing her on the phone, I knew she was in no condition to drive.
I didn’t know for sure if she was drunk, or high, or both. But I knew enough to know she wasn’t in her right mind, at all!
I followed her signal to an empty shopping center at the far east end of town. No one ever came here. The store windows were boarded up. All but two lights in the parking lot were burnt out. The city hadn’t bothered to fix anything since the building wasn’t rented out and there were no businesses nearby.
I slowed almost to a stop when I spotted taillights turning into the alley behind the old shops. Checking my ap, it had to be Emily. So, I followed slowly behind. I wasn’t sure what she was doing. Knowing she wasn’t thinking straight, I chose not to speed up and catch her, for fear I might spook her.
I watched as her car came to a stop in the middle of the alleyway. I parked my car and started to get out, when I saw Chase exit the driver’s side door. He was looking pretty sketchy as he glanced around the alley. I closed my door quietly and watched him.
He opened the back door of Emily’s car, bending inside for something. When he came back out of the back seat he was carrying a motionless Emily. He was about to put her in the front seat of her car, when I jumped out and shouted, “Emily! What’s wrong with her, Chase? What happened?”
I took off running toward her car. Chase looked scared, scanning the parking lot for what I don’t know.
“Jesus, Skyler. What the hell are you doing here?” I ignored his grumpy ass and asked questions of my own.
“What’s wrong with Emily? She called me to come get her, said she wasn’t feeling well. Then her location changed, and I followed her here.”
“She called you?” Chase asks frustrated. “Does anyone else know you’re here? Is anyone else coming?”
“What? No, Chase. Emily! Emily!”
He set her down in the back seat, and that’s when I noticed her clothes were torn. Her body was bruised and beaten. And she wasn’t responding. I grabbed her wrist, hoping, praying I’d find a pulse, but I found nothing.
“Emily!” I screamed. “What did you do to her? What happened?” I was frantically crying, punching Chase’s chest with my fists. He grabbed my wrists tightly, too tightly.
“You shouldn’t have come. Why did you fucking come?” Chase was glaring at me. There was a fear in his eyes, but more than that there was rage. “Fuck!” He shoved me to the ground. I watched as he pulled at his hair, pacing back and forth next to Emily’s car.
“It’s not bad enough I have one dead bitch on my hands, now I’ve got to figure out what to do with your sorry ass! Why couldn’t you just leave us alone? Huh? Why’d you have to follow us here, Skyler? Fuck! He’s going to kill me!”
I wasn’t sure who ‘he’ was, but I was certain Chase was going out of his mind and if I didn’t get the hell out of there, I was going to find myself in a world of trouble.
“Chase. Listen. Let me go home and I won’t say anything to anyone. I-I-I want to go home. Okay?” Like hell I’d go home and not tell anyone. I was going straight to the fucking police if I could reason with him to let me go.
His hand came out of nowhere and punched me in the side of the head. Pain shot through my temple and the edges of my eyes grew black. I toppled to the ground and curled into a ball.
“Fuck!” I could hear Chase pacing again. I didn’t move a muscle. I didn’t black out, but I was damn close to it, and I knew if I moved or said anything, the next hit would cause me to pass out. I couldn’t let that happen. Who knows what Chase would do if I was unconscious and at his mercy.
Tears filled my eyes. My heart thundered inside my chest. My head felt like something exploded behind my eyes, Nausea was bubbling up inside me. I had to fight like hell to keep from throwing up. But I managed to do it. I kept silent while I listened to Chase make a phone call.
“Yo! We got a problem, man! A big fucking problem!” I couldn’t hear the other person on the phone, but I could tell by the way he was pacing faster, Chase was afraid of whoever it was.
“You know the Sinclair bitch? Yeah, the one Emily was always hanging out with before she started turning tricks.”
Emily did what?
“Well, apparently, Emily called her, and the bitch followed us here. No, I have a dead junkie whore and her fucking friend who saw me here with her. What do I do? I could bring her back to the house and we could turn her out, replace the bitch in the backseat who overdosed.”
He walks a few steps, taking a few deep breaths. I remain perfectly still, awaiting the opportunity to get the fuck out of here.
“Yeah. No. She’s got an uncle or some shit who’s a King. But she’s nothing to them. It’s just her and her pops living in that old house. I don’t think…” Chase stops talking. The voice on the phone is shouting at him. I can’t make out the words, but I can hear how angry the person is from all the way down here.
“All right. All right. I’ll do it. I’ll take care of her and leave her in the car with the other one.” He turns toward me, his eyes narrowed to slits. “Yeah. I heard you! I’ll take care of it!” Chase hangs up the phone and stalks his way over to me.
Grabbing me by the hair, he pulls me up to my feet. I scream as tears run down my face.
“Please. What are you doing? Chase, please let me go! I won’t say anything! Just let me go home!”
He pulls me in close to his body, his face close to mine as he licks his lips.
“I’d love to believe you, but you got ties to the Kings and if they find out the Devils were using you little friend here for profit, well, you could see what kind of trouble you could cause for me and my friends, right?”
“I-I-don’t know what you mean. But I’m not part of the Kings. I barely know them. But I’m not…”
“Shut up, bitch!” He shouts, releasing my hair and dropping me to the ground. He rubs his hand across his face. His shirt lifts and I see the glint of a gun in the front waistband of his pants.
“My brother may not want to turn you out, but I bet you’d be a sweet piece of ass.” His eyes darken and glaze over as he licks his lips. “Yeah, I think you owe me at least a little taste for my troubles. What’d you say, Skyler? You gonna be a good girl and let me fuck you before I put a bullet in your head?”
I get to my knees and try to run, but his arms clamp around my waist, pinning me to him, my back to his front.
“Now, see, that wasn’t the right answer.” He growls in my ear.
He pulls the gun from his waistband, holding to my head and I still.
“That’s more like it.” He pushes my hair away from my neck with the gun and licks behind my ear. My body convulses and I throw up all over the ground.
“What the fuck?” Chase shouts, releasing me. I get up and start to run, but Chase catches up to me, tackling me to the hard asphalt. I scream out in pain.
I land on my stomach with Chase at my back. My legs are twisted, but Chase quickly flips me over on my back, reaching for my panties with his hand, waving the gun with his other. I don’t think, I react.
Reaching for the gun, I grab his wrist with both hands. Chase slaps my face, but I don’t let go. I pull his arm down toward my chest. He’s got both hands trying to pull me off, but I’m determined to get out of this. I have too much to look forward to. I can’t let this be the end.
Chase moves the gun down between us and a sense of panic wells up inside me.
Not my stomach. I plead silently to whatever entity would listen.
“You stupid fucking cunt!” Chase shouts in my face. His pupils are dilated. His eyes bloodshot. I know he’s high. His movements are becoming jerkier less controlled which only causes me even more panic.
He’s wrestling my clothes with one hand while keeping a strong hold on the gun with the other, laughing maniacally causing spittle to land on my face. In a last stitch effort, I wrangle his wrist closer, and with a strength I didn’t know I had, I lean up and bite through his wrist with everything I’ve got. Breaking skin and causing him to scream, out in pain. He loosens his grip on the gun, and I pull it away from him, turning it in my hand and pointing it right at him. Chase laughs, reaching for the gun and I pull the trigger.
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