Chapter 11
CHAPTER 11
Mia bit her lip as she tried to stop her hands from shaking. Bobby’s visit to her place earlier this morning had shaken her up more than she’d realized. Suddenly, she felt stupid for not telling Carter about the meet. She’d hired him after all, hadn’t she? He was supposed to keep her safe. How could he do that if he didn’t know where she was? She tried to do some breathing exercises to slow her heart rate down from stratospheric to merely a gallop.
Carter had just pissed her off so much with his moving in shit. Seriously. He’d just said Bobby probably wouldn’t come back for a while so why did he have to move in? Or worse, have her move out to the ranch. No way in hell that was going to fly. Then everyone would know there was a problem. The Big Island was, in fact, a very small place, and nothing circulated faster than a juicy piece of gossip. No way she could go stay at the ranch without the world knowing. They’d either assume she was in trouble, which she was, or assume she was sleeping around, which she wasn’t. But who would believe that after one look at Carter?
Not that she cared what people thought when it came to her sleeping around, but she did care when it came to her reputation. She’d built the business from scratch, and she was proud of it. The fact that her parents had been so damn proud of her because of her success meant she’d do anything to avoid doing something that might disappoint them. It didn’t matter that they were dead. She would not bring shame to her family name. They would hate the fact that she was gambling again. Absolutely hate it. But they also would understand because she was helping protect her business and she was helping a friend in need. They’d always liked Akela and thought her upbringing had been a bit tough. They would want Mia to help in any way she could.
Now that she’d justified what she was doing by blaming dead people, she needed to haul her ass out of the car. Somehow her legs just wouldn’t move. She stared out the windscreen into the darkness. The sound of waves hitting the shore filtered through, and usually she found it relaxing. Tonight, the sound was more ominous, nearly violent. The fact that Bobby wanted to meet at Honoli’i had seemed like a great idea earlier when she’d talked to him. She’d always loved this beach. It was one of her favorite surfing spots when she was a kid. This time of night, it just seemed desolate and scary.
The clouds parted and the moon shone through. The beach appeared empty and there were no other cars in the parking lot. Bobby had set this beach as their meeting place, so where the hell was he?
Over the dull roar of the crashing waves, the sound of an engine reached her, followed by a set of headlights in the rearview mirror blinded her.
Bobby’s van had entered the parking lot. As it pulled up beside her she noticed Mele, known as Mikey, in the passenger seat, and Nakoa driving. They were two of Bobby’s sidekicks from back in the day. They weren’t too swift, if she remembered correctly, but they’d always been nice to her, or at least as nice as Bobby would let them be.
She took a deep breath. Here goes nothing. Mia opened her door and got out.
The van’s side door opened. “Do you have the money?” Bobby snarled. He was sitting in the seat behind the passenger seat.
Mia was taken aback. How the hell did he know she’d made money? “Er, yes but not on me.”
“Then what the fuck are we here for? I want that money.” Bobby’s lips were curled into a snarl. Despite the van’s overhead light being dim, Mia noticed Bobby had a cut above his eye, and a thin trickle of blood dribbled down his face. So that’s why he was late . Things did not seem to be going well for him.
“I’m not giving you the money until I have all of it.”
She jumped back as Bobby shot out of the van. “That’s not how this works, bitch! You do what I say, and I say give me the fucking money you won.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” Mia stammered.
Bobby got right in her face. “You do what the fuck I say!”
She smelled sweat and bad breath and something else. The acrid tang of fear soured the air around her.
Bobby was afraid. Well, he could join the fucking club. She held up her palm in a be reasonable gesture. “I need money to gamble. If you want me to make two hundred and fifty grand in a couple of weeks, I need money to bet. I can’t earn that kind of cash betting small. Nickel and dime betting means it will take months to hit your goal. I need to keep the money I won as my stake.”
“She speaks the truth,” a voice said from the back of the van.
Mia’s head jerked up as she tried to look over Bobby’s shoulder to see who was there. Panic hit between her shoulder blades. She’d been so focused on Bobby that she hadn’t noticed anyone else in the back of the van. Shit. Big mistake . One Carter wouldn’t make.
Suddenly, a shape blocked out the van light. The man got out and came to stand beside Bobby. “Hello, Mia. How have you been?” He ran his gaze over her body and then said with a smirk, “You’re looking well.”
Donny fucking Nakamura . Bile rose and she struggled not to wretch. “Donny.” She acknowledged the other man but said no more. Donny gave her the creeps in a way Bobby never did. Bobby was a lowlife drug dealer with more issues than she could count. But Donny was an altogether different animal. He made her skin crawl, and after the look he’d given her, she wanted nothing more than to go home and take a shower. Yuck.
She turned back to Bobby. “I need money to make money. You can’t expect me to gamble with no money.”
Donny inclined his head. “She is, of course, correct, Bobby. She needs a decent amount of seed money if this little venture is to work.”
Bobby frowned at Donny. “Stay out of this,” he growled.
Donny ignored Bobby and continued, “Now, though, she knows that we know exactly how much she makes and she can start making payments at the end of the week. That will give her enough time to establish herself with Peter and use the ten grand to win bigger.”
Bobby snarled at Donny and then turned a fierce glare toward Mia. “Fine, but I want to see you back here on Sunday night,” he said and then started jabbing her in the shoulder as he continued, “and you better be bringing me a lot of fucking cash or you and your friends are dead.”
Mia’s mouth was so dry she couldn’t speak. She merely nodded her head.
“Lovely to see you,” Donny said and then disappeared into the deep recesses of the van.
Bobby poked her once more. “Sunday fucking night and you had better bring me a lot of fucking money.”
With a final glare, he climbed into the van. The driver threw the gear into reverse and was already backing up before Bobby even had the door closed. They were gone in seconds, leaving Mia to be pelted with the sand they’d stirred up.
Nearly hyperventilating, she slid down the side of her car, her head and neck jarring when her butt hit the ground. Why the fuck had she agreed to this? Carter was right; she was in way over her head. She hadn’t been this out of sorts since the first time she’d been ragdolled under a massive wave. All that water pounding over her, tossing her about, had been terrifying. Similar to what she was feeling right this minute.
Mia’s hands shook as she put them over her face. She needed a way out. She should call Emery and confess the whole story. Get Bobby and Donny arrested. If only. With the minimal information she had they weren’t going anywhere. Who knew, she might be in a worse spot if the cops wanted her to stay in. Not to mention, Akela would have to testify and there was no way she was going to do that if Kai’s life was threatened.
Going to the cops was a non-starter. She wouldn’t do that until her back was to a wall embedded with nails poking into her.
Staring out at the ocean, she realized how right Carter had been. She couldn’t handle this herself. Not with these assholes. Mia needed help.
She needed Carter.
The thought of him moving in, which had been an anathema to her twenty minutes ago, was the only thing that made her feel better after her encounter with Bobby and—she shivered—Donny. She wanted Carter with her twenty-four-seven. She was going to need his protection if she was going to make it through this. Hell, she wanted him with her at that moment, and suddenly, the shower she wanted to take didn’t seem safe unless he was going to be in the house with her.
Yeah, she was well and truly screwed. She flexed her shaking fingers and pulled her phone out of her back pocket. Time to face the music. She glanced at the screen. Carter had called three times already. She might not know the guy well, but she knew him enough to know just how pissed he was going to be when she told him what she’d done. It wasn’t going to be pretty, but his anger was nothing compared to the rampant fear the meeting with Bobby and Donny had instilled in her. She was willing to take the dressing down as long as Carter was still willing to protect her. It was suddenly crystal clear to her that the likelihood of her surviving this without his help was zero.
She hit the button on her phone screen.
“Carter?” she said when he answered.
“Mia, where are you? I thought we were going to meet at your place?”
“About that, I…” her voice gave out on her.
“Where are you? Are you okay? Tell me the address and I’ll come to you.” Concern laced his voice, and it was enough to clog her throat closed with unshed tears.
She swallowed hard and then cleared her throat. “I’m okay. I’m heading home. I’ll be there in a bit, and I’ll explain everything.” She paused then added, “You were right. I can’t do this on my own. Are you sure you still want to protect me? Because I think it’s going to be a much tougher job than maybe you first thought. Things are worse than I realized.”
“Mia, I’m in this. I promised I’d take care of you. We made a deal. I’m going to stick by it no matter what the situation is. You have my word.”
Relief bobbed through her, like sitting on a longboard in calm water. Breath came a little easier now. “I’ll be at my place in about twenty minutes. Wait, are you hungry? I can pick up something on the way.”
“Already done. Me and the food will be waiting. See you soon.”
Mia clicked off the call and stared at the phone. Damn. She was so fucking lucky that she’d met this guy right when she needed him. Maybe the universe was taking care of her, or maybe, as she preferred to believe, her parents had put him in her path. Either way, she wasn’t looking a gift horse in the mouth. She made sure to send up a prayer of thanks to both the universe and her parents and got back in her car. It was only going to get uglier from here, and she didn’t want to piss any of the gods off.
She was going to need all the help she could get.